A New Suburban Future: Adapting to a Changing World

Newton, MA voters recently endorsed Northland's plan for a walkable, higher density, park-rich suburban center to replace "Marshall's Plaza”. This plan represents a model for charting a suburban future that integrates key pandemic lessons learned (importance of healthier communities, desire for cleaner and clearer air that results from driving less—and renewed love for green places to work, need for more robust measures) with the steps we need to take to adapt to fundamental forces that continue to reshape cities and suburbs alike:
• Demographic shifts creating unprecedented demand to live and work (including “tele-workers”) in walkable downtowns and neighborhoods (particularly among better educated—and more affluent—households).
• An aging workforce and booming knowledge economy creating unprecedented competition for increasingly scarce talent—which seeks walkable downtowns and neighborhoods to live and work.
• Emerging new mobility paradigms (shared, connected, and soon autonomous mobility) will strongly favor downtowns and closer-in urban neighborhoods.