[miaht82]

By "many of you," I'm sure you mean me, and by "radical change," I'm sure you mean common sense.

I never thought that the suburbs would decline, I just know that common sense will kick in at some point and people (some not all) will choose to live closer to their work or in a better neighborhood.
I also never even thought that the inner city could outpace growth in the suburbs, especially in the last 10 years (it is geographically impossible based on land availability,) but neither you or I can predict the future. Couple of questions though; as the suburban fringe continues to expand further out, does that give different meaning to "inner city?" at what point do we expand the "inner city" boundaries?

Of course North and West "grew" faster; its easy to grow when your baseline is 0 and the growth comes in the form of new construction. It isn't proving anything, just stating the obvious; because we waste land building suburban pods and parking lots, we need to go farther out to clear land to build more homes and parking lots..... and so on.... 10-20 years ago the areas outside 410 and inside 1604 outpaced everywhere else, are they still "booming?" Do you think that Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch or areas around Encino Park will be dark blue shades in 2020 or 2030?

In places that were some of the densest (look up the Census Block Stats) in SA, it is easy to "decline;" all that has to happen is a few people move away and population automatically "declines."

Using that same logic however, the inner city will grow "faster" than the suburbs for the few months when people move into 1221, Cevallos Lofts and the Pearl apartments; does that mean the suburbs are done for?

With gas prices going up (again) and people spending more and more time in their cars, it shouldn't take a "radical" change to make people want to find alternate means of moving and living; but common sense doesn't always come easy for most people.

I get why you like the suburbs; it's new, its clean, and its whats available to you in this city 98% of the time. I like them too. I don't have a problem with single family homes on 1/8 or 1/4 acre lots if walkability and transit were taken into account when designing the neighborhood and builidings around them. Its not about location, it's about design. I just want better (smarter) design and better planning for the burbs. It doesn't make sense to build an environment primarily for cars (which costs money) when we (humans, with a naturally free mode of transportation,) are the primary users.