Exurbia, even worse than suburbia?

According to David Brooks’ editorial in yesterday’s New York Times we need to understand exurbia to understand Bush’s victory.

Now this word exurbia, I hadn’t heard or seen it before so I thought what a great word for todays podcast.

Exurbia – a residential area outside of a city and beyond suburbia

Beyond suburbia, that is far away, so far people living there have no ties to an urban center. The people who live in exurbs like Henderson, NV or Mesa, AZ work and live in their world or maybe they commute to a suburb but they don’t partake of the city life.

I haven’t read Brooks’ book, On Paradise Drive, but I think he is right these exurbanites were key in the election and their power is very underestimated. As Brooks points our there are more people living in Mesa Arizona than live in St. Louis or Minneapolis.

I wonder if the elections in 2008 will coin terms like “exurban evangelicals” or
or if suburban mega malls will lament the “exurban flight.” Remember you heard them here first.

UPDATE (8/15/05): NY Times Article:

The term “exurb” was coined in the 1950′s in “The Exurbanites” by A. C. Spectorsky, a social historian, to describe semirural areas far outside cities where wealthy people had country estates.