Next American City: Key Magazine: Unlocking urban realities?

In Next American City, Diana Lind takes issue with a piece written for the New York Times' Key Magazine, saying that it "smacks of disdain for the exurban population".

The piece in question was written by Samantha Shapiro, who rented a four-bedroom house in the "new" boomtown of Maricopa, Arizona.

Shapiro marvelled at features she could never find in a New York apartment - like great rooms and media rooms - but, at sundown, the street became dark and there was nowhere to go.

Lind says that Shapiro's piece doesn't address the fact that many people don't have to opportunity to live in a one-bedroom in Brooklyn, or in any other city.

The reality is that people with families need space, and, though these types of communities aren't most peoples' top choice, they are the best way of making do.

What both writers fail to address is that, if one looks hard enough, a happy medium can be found between hardcore city life and sundown in the suburbs.