This is a good summary. To add a bit: since most suburban development doesn't generate enough in tax income to pay for its own maintenance, most places that hav

This is a good summary. To add a bit: since most suburban development doesn't generate enough in tax income to pay for its own maintenance, most places that have a steady trickle of suburban development end up in a cycle of decline as the older stuff starts to run down and the city has to use the development fees etc. from new developments to pay for maintenance on old ones, and eventually even that isn't enough, and everything starts to decline. This can turn into a much worse vicious cycle when added to other issues like pension obligations, declining schools, natural disasters, etc. You see the most of this today in inner suburban areas across the midwest, where they boomed all at one time, then ran out of land (as the wave of new suburban development moved into the next suburb's jurisdiction). Because the suburban pattern is very hard to redevelop, if an established community loses its appeal for any reason (houses have gone out of style, taxes are cheaper further out, whatever), then they tend to get into financial trouble as the maintenance obligations pile up and there's just not enough tax base to support it.