Gans thoroughly devotes himself to answering these questions, with seven chapters devoted to the first, four to the second and third, and four to the fourth. The reader gains a very clear understanding of life in Levittown through the professional observation made by Gans as well as the surveys that he commissioned during and after his time there (the surveys were sent from the University of Pennsylvania and not by Gans but he was up front and honest with his neighbors about his purpose in Levittown as a researcher.)
Gans defends Levittown to the critics of suburbia...
"The critics have argued that long commutation by the father is helping to create a suburban matriarchy with deleterious effects on the children, and that homogeneity, social hyperactivity, and the absence of urban stimuli create depression, boredom, loneliness, and ultimately mental illness. The findings from Levittown suggest just the opposite - that suburban life has produced more family cohesion and a significant boost in morale through the reduction of boredom and loneliness." (220)
and
"They also look at suburbia as outsiders, who approach the community with a 'tourist' perspective. The tourist wants visual interest, cultural diversity, entertainment, esthetic pleasure, variety (preferably exotic), and emotional stimulation. The resident, on the other hand, wants a comfortable, convenient, and socially satisfying place to live..." (186)
and
"The disappearance of farmland near the big cities is irrelevant now that food is produced on huge industrialized farms, and the destruction of raw land and private upper class golf courses seems a small price to pay for extending the benefits of suburban life to more people." (423)
I asked Gans, who, in 2000, was the Robert Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University about his thoughts on the New Urbanism and suburbia in regard to planners like Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk today and he said, "If people want to live that way, fine, thought it is not new urbanism as much as 19th century small town nostalgia. More important Seaside and Celebration [Florida] are not tests of whether it works; both are for affluent people only, and Seaside is a timesharing resort. Ask again in 25 years."
Sources:
Gans, Herbert, The Levittowners: Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. 1967.
Jackson, Kenneth T., Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. 1985.
