From Schott’s Vocab Blog - NYTimes.com:
Spurb
John F. Wasik’s term for “sprawling, unwalkable urban-suburban areas that have no connection to public transportation and central cities.”Commenting on Mr. Wasik’s book, “The Cul-De-Sac Syndrome,” in The Daily Herald, a local paper in the Chicago area, Anna Marie Kukec wrote:
Still, Wasik draws much on his suburban roots for his books and has even touched on his own neighborhood in “Cul-De-Sac.” That book examines what caused the housing meltdown, how sprawl and tax breaks contributed to unaffordable homes and what could happen next.
As part of his examination, he even coined the term, “spurb,” or the sprawling urban area that’s not conveniently located near anything, like suburbs that seemingly spring out from the middle of a corn field, he said.
Writing for the Huffington Post in June, Mr. Waskik argued:
The spurb’s time has long past. Future energy demands from the rest of the world mean higher energy prices down the road. We need homes where there are jobs, infrastructure and transportation.
Comments