“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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