Look no further than the suburbs to see how American ideals about success are transforming.
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The American suburbs as we know them are dying
We explore the death of the American suburbs are we know them in a Business Insider series.
People in the US suburbs are changing the way they shop, where they eat, and what they want in their homes.
Malls are shutting down as e-commerce continues to take over, and the casual-dining chains that fed shoppers after a day of hoofing it through the mall are struggling to cope.
Business Insider reporters from our consumer, transportation, news, graphics, video, and innovation teams have explored this idea in a series of stories.
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We're calling it the Death of Suburbia — because if the trends that they identified continue, the many suburbs as we know them will be forever changed.
The line is blurring between city and suburb
Urban and suburban areas are becoming less distinguishable as modern populations value convenience and location over size.
The line between city and suburb has already started to blur, Fadi Masoud, an urban planning professor at the University of Toronto who contributed to a forthcoming book called "Infinite Suburbia" told Business Insider's Leanna Garfield.
"Some people still attribute the oldest part of the city, which is predominantly pedestrian-friendly and more dense as ‘urban,’ and then everything else that starts going out further in distance from the core as 'suburban.' But that definition doesn’t work as well now," he tells Business Insider. "What you would usually define as urban and suburban is eroding."
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Urban planners across America are rethinking how suburbs are designed. Towns like New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, are evolving to focus less on space and possession and more on walkability and environmental impact.
Casual dining is in crisis
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