A Millennial’s Response to Andres Duany

Andres Duany did an interview that was published in The Atlantic, and I don’t think I would’ve read it had I not been tipped off on Twitter (Thanks, @urbanophile.) that he had some rather strong opinions about Millennials. Now, I’ve never had strong opinions of my own about New Urbanism, but I certainly knew of Andres Duany and was curious to see why he wasn’t fond of my generation.

In the article, Kevin Charles Redmon, the interviewer, asked Duany, “Last week, Brookings Institution released a report on the state of metropolitan America. Have you had a chance to read it? Apparently more and more young people are fleeing suburbia these days.” If I hadn’t already been tipped off to the nature of Duany’s reply, I would have assumed that his reply would’ve been positive. Cities and inner-ring suburbs have been suffering from depopulation for decades, and many urban areas have become racially segregated. Young people tend to bring with them energy and dynamism, two traits that cities are known for and cultivate.

Instead, he begins his reply with:

There’s this generation who grew up in the suburbs, for whom the suburbs have no magic. The mall has no magic. They’re the ones that have discovered the city.

So far so good. My generation grew up acutely aware of the monotony and homogeneity of suburbs. We also grew up learning about environmentalism and understood quickly that this lifestyle wasn’t sustainable.

Problem is, they’re also destroying the city. The teenagers and young people in Miami come in from the suburbs to the few town centers we have, and they come in like locusts. They make traffic congestion all night; they come in and take up the parking. They ruin the retail and they ruin the restaurants, because they have different habits then older folks. I have seen it. They’re basically eating up the first-rate urbanism. They have this techno music, and the food cheapens, and they run in packs, great social packs, and they take over a place and ruin it and go somewhere else.

This doesn’t sound like the kind of well-reasoned analysis that would come from someone who earlier in the article said he “really did have something that was rare: an open mind”. Instead, this comes across like a long complaint. It’s insulting to be compared to locusts, first of all. Secondly, I don’t think it should be a surprise to anyone that people from different generations have different habits. The beauty of cities is their ability to accommodate people of all lifestyles and backgrounds. Cities have always been able to be a home for young and old, and nothing is different now. Finally, his last sentence is just terrible overall. I can’t even critique it because it doesn’t make sense. Now, I know that if I was being interviewed I would say some things that weren’t articulated very well or could be misconstrued, but he continues:

I’ve known for 10 years about this destructive monoculture that’s condensed in the suburbs. These people would normally be buying real estate by now. And we designed for them. We kept saying, “Aha, these kids, between 24 and 35, will be buying real estate.” Guess what? They aren’t. Because they can’t afford it. But they’re still using the cities–they’re renting and so forth. The Gen-Xers also discovered the cities; they’re buying in a proper way. The Millennials are the ones we’re talking about. And they love cities desperately. And they’re loving them to death.

He is right that my generation increasingly can’t afford to buy a single-family home in the suburbs. Student loan debt, a terrible economy, and a workforce still light on experience tend to create a generation that prefers to rent right now. He seems to think that if you don’t buy a home, you’re not using cities properly. A mix of renters and owners is generally regarded as healthy for an urban area. Renters are good for the economy, too. Renters are more mobile and therefore more likely to move to where jobs are. I’m sure Millennials will start to buy in higher numbers as they age, but I wouldn’t necessarily call that the “proper way” to do things.

Again, he is right to say that my generation loves cities. We do. Most people would see this enthusiasm as a good thing, especially if you believe in the ability for cities to grow and change with each new generation. Cities have been doing this for thousands of years. It doesn’t sound like Andres Duany believes this, but I’m happy to have my generation prove him wrong.

Photo via: Corey Templeton.