ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. — The “Downtown” that Petula Clark evoked inher 1964 pop song of that name {where “you can forget all yourtroubles, forget all your cares”} never made much sense to anyone whoworked or lived in an actual downtown. It was a song for people who didnot. So, blaring from the public address speakers to open arecent meeting here, Ms. Clark’s hit was probably the perfect score fora conference of suburban officials and planners promoting the idea thatCreating Cool Downtowns, the conference title, was the future of thesuburbs of New York.“Young people are moving to Manhattan. They are moving to Brooklyn,” said Thomas R. Suozzi,the Nassau County executive and organizer of the conference, which washeld on Friday in the parish center of St. Agnes Cathedral. “Why aren’t they moving here?” he asked.Whyyoung people flee the suburbs was the underlying question of the day.But there has never been much mystery about it: There is nowhere tolive; not enough to do; and not enough young adults around to improvisethe kind of neighborhood scene born every few years in the big city.Plannershave been promoting the idea of suburban downtown life for decades, notjust for the young, but also for retirees and workers of all ages.Corporate employers in the suburbs have long lamented the scarcity ofaffordable rental housing for workers. The environmental advantages ofliving and working in the same zip code are obvious. But recent shocks over gas prices, global warmingand the tenuous hold many people have on their mortgaged homes seem tohave brought new urgency to the idea — at least among professionalworriers about the suburbs. Though there was nothinggroundbreaking about Friday’s meeting in Nassau County — no programsunveiled, no new money dedicated — it seemed to reflect what BruceKatz, vice president and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program atthe Brookings Institution, called an emerging consensus among planners about how the suburban landscape needs to change.“Suburbanites need to understand that if they want their adult childrento live nearby, if they want tax relief, environmental sustainability,there has to be a different approach,” he said. With apolitical future to consider, Mr. Suozzi voiced many of the sameconvictions, but with a different emphasis on the pre-eminent suburbanpolitical issue, which is taxes. By building apartments near commuterrail lines and attracting young people to suburban downtowns with“fantastic restaurants and small shops,” he said at the conference,“our major purpose is to expand our tax base and lower taxes.”
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