Atlantic Monthly: The Next Slum?

Fundamental changes in American life may turn today's McMansions into tomorrow's tenements.

Or so says Christopher Leinberger in the March issue of Atlantic Monthly, who points out that "signs of physical and social disorder are spreading" in our suburban culs-de-sac.

Foreclosures have led to a high rate of vacancies in these subdivisions, leading to gang activity, vandalism, copper theft, and the tenanting of houses to people of dubious character.

But Leinberger says that it's not due to the foreclosure crisis alone - the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and the effect on suburbs will be profound.