Remaking the American Dream: The Informal and Formal Transformation of Single-Family Housing Cities

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Vinit Mukhija

Remaking the American Dream

The Informal and Formal Transformation of Single-Family Housing Cities

Vinit Mukhija

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English

MIT Press
07 February 2023

Political science & theory

Series: Urban and Industrial Environments

The redefinition of the single-family house, the urban landscape, and the American Dream.

The redefinition of the single-family house, the urban landscape, and the American Dream.

Sitting squarely at the center of the American Dream, the detached single-family home has long been the basic building block of most US cities. In Remaking the American Dream, Vinit Mukhija considers how this is changing, in both the American psyche and the urban landscape.

In defiance of long-held norms and standards, single-family housing is slowly but significantly transforming through incremental additions of second and third units. Drawing on empirical evidence of informal and formal changes, Remaking the American Dream documents homeowners' quiet unpermitted modifications, conversions, and workarounds, as well as gradual institutional alterations to once-rigid local land-use regulations. Mukhija's primary case study is Los Angeles and the role played by the State of California-findings he contrasts with the experience of other cities including Santa Cruz, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and Vancouver. In each instance, he shows how, and asks why, homeowners are adapting their homes and governments are changing the rules that regulate single-family housing to allow for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) or second units.

Key to Mukhija's research is the question of why the idea of single-family living is changing and what this means for the future of US cities. The answer, this book suggests, heralds nothing less than a redefinition of American urbanism-and the American Dream.

By: Vinit Mukhija
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262544764
ISBN 10: 0262544768
Series: Urban and Industrial Environments
Pages: 328
Publication Date: 07 February 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments ix I Single-Family Housing Cities 1 The Changing Norms and Regulations of Single-Family Housing 3 2 The Ideology of Single-Family Living 37 II Informal Second Units in Los Angeles 3 City of Dreams: Single-Family Housing and Second Units in Los Angeles 61 4 The Everyday Prevalence of Informal Second Units 93 III Formal Second Units and Institutional Changes in Single-Family Housing 5 Enforcement and Formalization of Unpermitted Second Units in Los Angeles 141 6 The Formalization of Second Units: The Role of Local Governments 179 IV The New American Dream 7 Remaking the Suburban City 235 Notes 257 References 277 Index 333

Vinit Mukhija is a professor and former chair of Urban Planning in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is coeditor of The Informal American City- Beyond Taco Trucks and Day Labor and Just Urban Design- The Struggle for the Public City, both from the MIT Press.