As New York's suburbs turn 50, they face increasingly difficult questions about their ability to continue, the Times Union concludes, in the first of a series studying the evolution of life in the Capital Region.The 2006 Census showed just 1 of 3 people in the Capital Region live in the older cities.

Since the 1950s, much of the area's population spread from dense cities along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers to lower-density suburbs such as Clifton Park, Guilderland and Niskayuna, enabled by cheap gas and the automobile. And as the region's population slowly grew, it flowed from Albany, Troy and Schenectady to the suburban towns that surround and link the cities.

Both critics and supporters agree that the effects of the suburbs are far-reaching. Thousands of abandoned homes and dozens of empty churches dot urban landscapes as rural family farms are replaced by newly built suburban housing developments, shopping malls and crowded roads. Fuel and energy consumption have increased, and as costs go up, suburban towns face the question of how many people can choose a decentralized lifestyle based on open space and free movement before both cease to exist.