Sugrue: Charles Tilley, one of the great sociologists of our time, coined a term: “opportunity hoarding.” His notion was that certain groups can accumulate all sorts of advantages that reinforce their political power or socioeconomic advantages. The post-WWII American suburb was a place where whites could “opportunity hoard” — particularly by getting access to a well-funded, first-rate public education — and during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, civil rights activists made the case that the way to move toward racial equality was by opening up housing opportunities in places that were exclusive. During the late ’60s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development — a Cabinet-level agency created by President Lyndon Johnson — made it its task to build affordable housing in suburban places. Interestingly, it was Republican President Richard Nixon and his HUD Secretary, George Romney, who pushed aggressively to open suburban places to affordable housing. But that was extraordinarily controversial politically, and over the course of his first term, Nixon increasingly marginalized both HUD and Romney because of the high political costs of attempting to open up suburban places. We live in a world that hasn’t changed [that policy] too much since Nixon began to withdraw HUD from the construction of affordable housing in suburbs. The federal government has put less and less energy over the last 40–50 years in diversifying housing stock and opening up predominately suburban places, particularly white and well-off places, to low-income housing. There’s very little political will for it.
And this gets to another critical dimension of suburban history: The federal government played a major role in creating suburbia. It provided subsidies to homeowners through programs like the Veterans Administration, the Federal Housing Administration and its predecessor, the Homeowner’s Loan Corporation, which made possible the dramatic expansion of single-family housing. When you drive through new suburban housing developments, you don’t see a sign that says, you know, “Whispering Forest: Brought to you by the federal government.” The federal role is largely invisible. But the federal government underwrote suburbia by providing significant funding for highway construction. It played a critical role in changing suburban economics by providing tax breaks — particularly in the form of tax appreciation — for new commercial developments in suburban places. It encouraged the decentralization of industry, particularly the defense industry, which was a boon for suburbia in places like Orange County, California; Suffolk County, Long Island; and suburban Phoenix.