From the Economist: Where the Grass Is Greener

[Guy Berger]

California

Where the grass is greener

Aug 16th 2007 | CERRITOS

From The Economist print edition

What one hugely successful city reveals about America

DRIVING along South Street, where the Los Angeles sprawl meets sprawling Orange County, you enter and leave Cerritos three times. Although the city is confusingly shaped, it is easy to tell where it begins. Overhead power cables abruptly disappear and run underground. The grass, watered by innumerable sprinklers, is a brighter shade of green. Indeed, a blind man could tell where the boundary lies. Crossing into Artesia there is a bump, followed by a series of clumsily patched potholes; a few hundred yards later you re-enter Cerritos and the road is smooth again.

Cerritos cannot boast a glorious history, old money or natural beauty. Fifty years ago it was a flat area of farmland known as Dairy Valley. These days, “it's a terribly unremarkable place on the way to Disneyland,” says Tom Irish, a property developer. Yet this small suburban city of some 55,000 people has become remarkable thanks to superb management and geographical good fortune. It reveals much about why America's suburbs are so appealing, and how they are changing.

Like an increasing number of suburbs, Cerritos is both a bedroom community and an economic engine. It began to prosper in the early 1970s when it encouraged car dealers to cluster near the motorway that clips its western edge. Fully 27 outfits now trade there, making it the largest such centre in a car-obsessed state. Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a “towne center”, otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents. Last year the city collected $483 in sales taxes per person—more than the glitzy city of Santa Monica. And it has leased, not sold, its land, so a future stream of money is guaranteed.

What goes on inside the offices seems less important to locals than what they look like. The city has municipal codes to rival those of notoriously staid Irvine, a planned city in Orange County: don't even think about installing a rotating, blinking or oscillating sign. Sculptures adorn car dealers' forecourts. Cerritos's busy library is covered with titanium; its Wal-Mart is clad in granite. It has an opulent performing arts centre that will host some 140 impeccably populist acts this year.

Building work is underway on the local jail, known for good reason as the “sheriff's hotel”. Although Cerritos has a contract with Los Angeles's county sheriff for its policing, it pays for the building and the officers. They have some of the easiest jobs in California. So far this year 53 serious assaults have been recorded, a bit less than one per cop. The city is so peaceful, says Daryl Evans, the police captain, that gang members from nearby cities occasionally meet there to play basketball, knowing they will not be attacked by rivals.

Of course, many American cities have built parks, performing-arts centres and fancy libraries while struggling financially. The key to Cerritos's success may be the timing of its investments. Cities such as Cleveland and Baltimore poured money into museums and other grand projects in the vain hope that they would lure businesses and young, creative folk. Cerritos began by building pipelines and roads, then moved on to business parks, policing and schools (including California's best high school). Only when it was rolling in money did it break out the titanium.

Local officials attribute the city's success to fiscal discipline and the ability to follow a long-term plan. That, in turn, is the result of its political culture. Cerritos has a tradition of powerful, long-serving city managers, to whom local politicians frequently defer. As Laura Lee, the mayor, explains, “There are many things we, as elected officials, do not understand.” Voters, it seems, like this arrangement greatly. In a 2002 poll, an astonishing 96% of residents said they were satisfied with the provision of public services.

Such single-mindedness is particularly striking given the city's diversity. In 1980 whites comprised more than half of the population. These days Asians do (and a very diverse lot they are, too—see chart). Striving immigrants are cause and consequence of the city's excellent schools: in Cerritos High School, pupils who speak inadequate English score better in mathematics tests than those who speak English fluently. Yet the newcomers have not formed ghettos. The last census showed that whites and Asians were more intermixed in Cerritos than in all but 16 other American cities. Whites were even more mixed-up with blacks and Hispanics.

In this, too, Cerritos is not unusual. James Allen, who follows the movement of ethnic groups at the University of Southern California, points out that middle-class suburbs are now the most diverse places in the region. Rich coastal enclaves remain mostly white. Poor areas, which are mostly Hispanic, are no more diverse. It is in dull, sprawling places with good schools, of the sort ridiculed by Hollywood and detested by urban planners, that America comes together.

These days Cerritos faces strong competition. Its car mall has inspired imitators; as a result, the value of sales has flattened while the number of vehicles sold seems to be falling. As the city ages, public services will come under increasing strain. Drastic decline is unlikely, but the city may be overtaken—though it is almost certain that the places doing the overtaking will be bland, car-oriented and suburban.

[Joe G]

Three cheers for the 'burbs, aye? I don't know... a Walmart covered in granite is still a Walmart. Can't polish a turd. What happens to car obsessed/dependent suburbs like this one when the car is no longer a viable transportation option for most? No mention in that article about how easy it is to walk or bike in Cerritos, or the state of it's public transportation, which I would guess is just as unworkable as in comparable places across the nation.

It's not just "Hollywood and urban planners" that see major problems within suburbia - lots of us normal folk who live in it do, too.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

You may be right, Joe. And, not really wishing to defend Cerritos, but this point is rather unusual.

Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a “towne center”, otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents.

The general point about suburbs, since their beginnings in the 1930s, has been their dormitory status. Town planners seem to have this idea that you should section cities off into residential, shopping, factory and office areas. This has always seemed silly to me; chaos has always seemed a better option as far as I could see. So you allow people to build for whatever kind of use they see the need for, wherever they think they see the need. In this framework, town planning becomes more an aesthetic issue than an organisational issue; and this seems to be what Cerritos has gone for. And there's no doubt that aesthetics do influence property prices.

Whether it works or not, of course you can't tell unless you live there.

MG

[Hoppy T. Frog]

You may be right, Joe. And, not really wishing to defend Cerritos, but this point is rather unusual.

Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a “towne center”, otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents.

The general point about suburbs, since their beginnings in the 1930s, has been their dormitory status. Town planners seem to have this idea that you should section cities off into residential, shopping, factory and office areas. This has always seemed silly to me; chaos has always seemed a better option as far as I could see. So you allow people to build for whatever kind of use they see the need for, wherever they think they see the need. In this framework, town planning becomes more an aesthetic issue than an organisational issue; and this seems to be what Cerritos has gone for. And there's no doubt that aesthetics do influence property prices.

Whether it works or not, of course you can't tell unless you live there.

MG

Well, once upon a time, separating at least industrial uses from residential made a good amount of sense in preserving residential property values and mitigating the negative environmental and health impacts of traditional industry. Now that the West is in a post-industrial age that really isn't necessary anymore, and among US planners the concept that uses must be segregated is rapidly ending. California urban planners are the US leaders in "mixed-use" planning and, as you guessed, treating zoning and planning as more aesthetic tools.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

You may be right, Joe. And, not really wishing to defend Cerritos, but this point is rather unusual.

Cerritos also has a shopping mall and a “towne center”, otherwise known as an office park. As a result, it has far more jobs than working residents.

The general point about suburbs, since their beginnings in the 1930s, has been their dormitory status. Town planners seem to have this idea that you should section cities off into residential, shopping, factory and office areas. This has always seemed silly to me; chaos has always seemed a better option as far as I could see. So you allow people to build for whatever kind of use they see the need for, wherever they think they see the need. In this framework, town planning becomes more an aesthetic issue than an organisational issue; and this seems to be what Cerritos has gone for. And there's no doubt that aesthetics do influence property prices.

Whether it works or not, of course you can't tell unless you live there.

MG

Well, once upon a time, separating at least industrial uses from residential made a good amount of sense in preserving residential property values and mitigating the negative environmental and health impacts of traditional industry.

Well, only insofar as the middle/upper classes and their property values and health were (to some extent) protected. The workers were housed near the pollution.

Now that the West is in a post-industrial age that really isn't necessary anymore, and among US planners the concept that uses must be segregated is rapidly ending. California urban planners are the US leaders in "mixed-use" planning and, as you guessed, treating zoning and planning as more aesthetic tools.

In Britain, I see no signs of this development, I'm afraid.

MG