Author D.J. Waldie on Being a 'Partisan of Suburban Places'

"Lakewood is not really a suburb anymore, it's a particular kind of urban place that looks suburban superficially but which is netted fully in an urban fabric," says author D.J. Waldie who is most famous for writing Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, set in 1950s Lakewood, California.

Waldie sat down with Reason Magazine Editor in Chief Matt Welch, who also grew up in Lakewood, to talk about city planning and the unique issues affecting suburbia in 2011. For 34 years, Waldie served as the Public Information Officer for the city of Lakewood and still lives in the house he grew up in.

The film rights to Holy Land were bought in late 2010 by actor James Franco for a possible movie.

Waldie is also the author of the book Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles, blogs at KCET.org and is a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times.

Topics include: Why contract cities pinch every penny; the effects of a recession on suburbia; and why residents are leaving California.

Aproximately 10 minutes.

Camera by Paul Detrick, Alex Manning and Tracy Oppenheimer. Edited by Detrick

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