East-side to the west-side

Perhaps it's because I've hardly been to the east coast and have not truly experienced it at all, but from aloft I didn't get much of a different picture of the suburbs than the orange county suburbs described in the article. I personally cannot sense much of a difference based on geography.
The difference that I did get was mostly based on the disparity between the generations. The orange county suburbs that Walt Disney adored so much were created to give its residents a feeling of security, predictability, and convenience. Built next to the new freeway, residents could enjoy isolation from rougher urban envoronments, and yet could still get around enough to work in the city or go shopping. This instinct was generated from out of the unpredictability and turmoil of WWII and then the cold war. Facing a theoretical nueclear threat, and the potential threat of communists that could be anywhere -- anyone you know -- and having these fears come after the biggest and bloodiest war in history, the American people wanted predictability and comfort. Disneyland reflected this perfectly, especially inn their Tommorowland attractions. Corperations started to advertise more to the families -- products were inceasingly marketed towards elements of the private sector. People wanted a return to good old fashioned American values...and for people like Walt Disney and many of the Orange County settlers, this meant a return to the nueclear family with tradional gender roles and racial hierarchies.
To me, Hank Battle is the remnant from this generation. He often vocalizes his affinity for the old fashioned gender and race roles. (Look at Mrs. Battle) He has always had that drive to work hard and provide for his family. He represents the sentiments that Walt Disney utilized in disigning disneyland.
Jerry Battle represents the slightly displaced generation. Having been too young to really remember and experience the cold war fears and anxieties -- his life was largely lived in the convenience and simpler routines of the suburbs. His livelihood was handed down to him from his father. His existence and his worldview were simpler, but being raised int he suburbs after their creation, his life embodied a type of displacement. Since he didn't know the cold war turmoil which his parents' generation worked against, he has a harder type finding meaning in it all.
His children, plus the person who wrote the disneyland article, plus all of us, represents the next generation. We saw the creation of the suburbs and the displacement, blandness, and viodness of culture and diversity that the suburbs bred, and we make attempts through academics and historical research to make sense of it all.
Historical writing is interesting because you can see all the elements that put into place what I grew up in today. Reading fiction is like hearing my dad or someone speak about the past. I can piece together how things came to be in a skewed way, but the historical writing is refreshing because I see where the suburbs came from as far as the corperations who shaped the suburb specific identity constructions, the people who planned and built them, and the the political sentiments that dreamed them