Open thread #3: We know the bad stuff about the 'burbs . . . but what's good about them?

No time just now to write a legitimate post on this, but I wanted to bring it to your attention:

Via Streetsblog comes this post from the new-to-me Oklahoma blog imagiNATIVEamerica that asks a simple but genuine question: is there a sympathetic non-fiction treatment of suburban life? Another way of asking--in a non-mocking way, I assure you: What, if anything, about the suburbs is worth fostering and/or preserving as cities begin to re-imagine themselves and adopt land-use and infrastructures better suited to a future landscape less oil-centric in nature?

Comment away.

UPDATE: The comments over there are quite good--if the questions I ask in this post are of any interest to you, go visit 'em.

UPDATE II (July 2): Some background reading, also via imagiNATIVEamerica: This brief Atlantic article on the career of Robert Moses, the "father of the postmodern American landscape."