suburbia

The biggest waste of land on Earth. Low density residential areas, zoned so that the only way you can get to a commercial area is by motor vehicle. Also zoned so that the only direction the house can be added onto is towards the back (never mind the fact that most suburban houses sit far from the street.) The back yard is often devoted to a swimming pool, dog run, deck, patio, football field, baseball diamond, or other means of degrading the land's productivity. Usually covered in ranch houses, many built on concrete slabs (permanently rendering the land they sit on useless) and almost always landscaped using the builder's special, the adjoining wooded areas have often been removed after bored teenagers get caught going there to drink beer and smoke pot. Strip malls are the most common commercial establishments, followed by big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and then mega malls. Suburbia can be located within a central city (depending on what is encompased within it's boundaries) or some other part of a metropolitan area.