It was a battle that began in the 1950s and 1960s. It shaped the consumption patterns of the entire baby boom generation. The battle was waged between the claustrophobia of the Cramdens small, dark, and dingy urban tenement on the Honeymooners television show, and the open, peaceful, sunny, park-like setting of the Cleavers suburban home, in Leave it to Beaver. Suburbia won, thanks to reinforcements from Robert Young and subliminal messaging. After all, father knows best.
Young adults live social, high-energy lives.
As a result, many gravitate toward urban areas. We all know that. But then, we boomers moved out to suburbia as soon as we could, following the American Dream. I contend we did it, at least in part, because our cultural programming told us to. Like lemmings, we followed that programming, literally programming by television.