Sprawl

October 2 & 4, 2006

Cartoon by Andy Singer

Introduction

Smart Growth America is the place to start.

Click on your favorite city and pay careful attention to what factors they use to measure sprawl.
Read the report called, Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl.
Look at how many square miles are expected to be developed in the top 20 fastest growing counties in the U.S. in the next 20 years.
Examine the impact of sprawl on species extinction in the U.S.

The Sierra Club has also presented a short summary of sprawl.

Here’s a great case study from the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. It’s useful not only because it’s local, but also because Pennsylvania is losing land to sprawl at an alarming rate, especially since population growth in Pennsylvania is stagnant. Click through the presentation by pressing the NEXT button and figure out the answers to the questions on the first page.

The Brookings Institute examined Pennsylvania's future given its history as one of the nation's leading states in sprawl development, in Back to Prosperity: A Competitive Agenda for Renewing Pennsylvania. Read through this seminal report's executive summary and browse through chapters 2, 3, & 4, which identify key causes of sprawl in this region. For those of you familiar with Pennsylvania, browse through the profiles of some metropolitan areas to evaluate specific cases. Think about the following questions:

1. What kinds of policies could be implemented to slow or reverse sprawl patterns of development?

2. In communities where sprawl is prevalent, what can be done to ameliorate the human and ecological consequences of sprawl development?

Take a trip through this excellent slide show prepared by the Christian Science Monitor.

Here’s a short summary of sprawl prepared by the Sierra Club.

Additional cool websites.

This website refers back to our first class. It asks what’s more important: 1,400 square feet of house in the suburbs with a long commute, or a tight community of people in the city. Sprawl Fallout: The distance between home and work continues to grow, taking its toll on commuters. Some urban developers are looking to hit the brakes.

Wal-Mart, which has often been decried as the key indicator of sprawl development and economic decline in small towns, has begun to embrace a more environmental ethic. Their CEO claims the company's goals are:

"We are focused on three top-line goals: to be supplied with 100% renewable energy, to create zero waste, and to sell products that sustain our resources and our environment. Those are ambitious goals, but we never think small at our company."

They even just had Al Gore meet with all their executives in July of 2006 to teach them more about sustainability.

3. Will the drive to be ecologically sustainable always result in financial gain?

4. How do you feel about the conflicting messages of inexpensive consumerism and corporate environmental sustainability?

The lead story of the Religious News Network on August 18, 2005 explains why Christian Leaders are in favor of New Urbanism. Churches Embrace 'New Urbanism' as Antidote to Isolation by Marshall Allan.

What you can do.

Definitely check out this website, http://www.sprawl-busters.com/ and admit to yourself the guy in the photo on the homepage is gorgeous. If only he had glasses…

Prepared by Eric Pallant and Terry Bensel 9/05; updated by Caryl Waggett 7/06.