Unplanned suburbs

It is widely believed that only the growth of mass suburbs after World War II brought suburban living within reach of blue-collar workers, immigrants, and racial minorities. But in this original and intensive study of Toronto, Richard Harris shows that even prewar suburbs were socially and ethnically diverse, with a significant number of lower-income North American families making their homes on the urban fringe.

As early as 1900, Harris explains, the decentralization of blue-collar employment encouraged working-class families to leave the city, many of them taking advantage of lax enforcement of suburban regulations to build their homes themselves. In the short run, the advantages were obvious: a home of one's own, a garden, access to the surrounding countryside. But the unplanned - and therefore scattered - developments led to dramatic increases in the cost of needed services.

Inevitably, property taxes rose, in many cases beyond the ability of working-class families to pay. Harris concludes that even minimal planning might have helped retain the advantages of owner-built housing while reducing public costs, citing the success of European experiments in aided self-help for homebuilders. But in the United States and Canada, the lack of planning set the stage for a uniquely North American tragedy.