Big business has already sterilized most of the country's suburban public space; let us keep our invigoratingly broad and brilliantly clunky street-level environments.

To be sure, even without the national chains, rents in suburban commercial space have been climbing steadily.

There were no suburban open spaces to soften our togetherness.

"The attraction for the suburban space, it's an incredible attraction, and it's undeniable."

The Brooklyn of his childhood, he said, was "kind of an ugly place," and he never stopped pining for the suburban spaces he left behind.

On the other hand, some analysts say owners of suburban space can maintain competiveness by making further rent concessions.

"The last thing we want to do," he said, "is create a suburban, corridor-ridden space."

But here, far from legislating from the bench, the court made a commonplace observation about the way people shop, hang out and use suburban and urban spaces.

Mr. Hines: Large space users will move some back-office functions from costly urban space to less expensive suburban space.

Most published work looks at the origins, growth, diverse typologies, culture, and politics of suburbs, as well as to the gendered and family-oriented nature of suburban space.