Essay High Cost of Urban Sprawl

The third listing for the definition of sprawl in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is as follows: “to spread or develop irregularly”. Unfortunately, this is the pattern, or lack thereof, with which America’s development is following. Every single day the world population rises, and these new babies have to live somewhere. Due to the fact that the birth rate is larger than that of the death rate in America (http://www.bartleby.com/151/a24.html), new homes and communities must be developed to accommodate all of the incoming people. This fundamental concept is coupled by another very powerful driving force prompting people to live in the suburbs of America, and that is greed. The economy makes

There are many who suggest the solution to the decline of the suburbs is to urbanize the area by densifying and overall making the suburbs more similar to a city. Laura Vaughan argues that the development of a spatial layout similar to that of a city would help the suburbs to become more efficient socially and economically. However, this approach directly contrasts the purpose of the suburbs, which was originally meant to provide a private, quiet environment for single family homes away from loud and busy city life. In his book, “Sprawl: A Compact History,” Robert Bruegmann explains that suburbia is not a bad thing but possesses “benefits that urban planners fail to recognize” and is a natural process of the growth of urbanism. While the suburban landscape does possess much potential, those who support the continued existence of the suburbs as they exist are naive and fail to recognize the environmental, social, and economical impact that the suburbs impose. The suburbs possess many social and political issues that need to be addressed. There is no doubt that there is massive potential in the suburban

Urban sprawl was a major problem and had many negative effects. "Suburban sprawl, “called urban sprawl was a result of overpopulation. Sprawl occurred when cities spread outward. Forests and farmland were being destroyed to create new housing subdivisions, shopping centers, offices, parking areas, civic institutions and roadways. State governments built highways and roads to serve all the new commuters moving in and out of the city. Developers chose to build on less expensive land farther away from the urban core. Land prices were lower and housing in these developments was more affordable. Some people chose a longer commute in exchange for more comfortable, low-priced housing. The sprawl was a chronological process that devastated the land and life of the American people. This problem described here continues to be a problem. And many people are unaware that urban sprawl continues to be a problem. Friendly neighborhoods, traditional pedestrian have fallen victim to this problem. Environmental activists claimed that urban sprawl, was a substantial environmental threat. But activists concerned about sprawl should concentrate on existing government policies that encourage suburban development and prevent greater redevelopment of urban areas.

Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.

“gentrification has been and still continues to be a critical task when it comes to urban geography of cities, such as New York City and cities around the world as well” (Smith, pg.129).

In Robert Bruegmann article “How Sprawl Got a Bad Name,” he is the odd man out and is for sprawling. One of his reasons throughout is that all the architectures plan for preventing the problem has failed. Bruegmann shows his argument that the economy has these set of expectations for today’s society. The citizens are not really thinking realistically when it comes to those modern expectations. He backs up his point by stating a big crisis of traffic in Los Angeles and how it is not the congestion it is that the programs sit in place are outdated. One of the more convincing reasons of why Bruegmann is supporting sprawl is “that growing numbers of people have discovered that it is the surest way to obtain the rich, satisfying

With this suburban expansion, there is a lack of agricultural land, because the available land that was normally used to farm is being bought up by developers to create new housing and communities.

This paper is a review of past and current research based on the cause and effect of urban sprawl in the United States with a case analysis of Fairfax County, Virginia. The motivation for this review is to shed light on issues that surround urban sprawl in large metropolitan areas and to discuss recommendations for research and ways to improve various effects of sprawl. The second motivation for this research is to show that there needs to be uniformity among researchers and urban planners, better data and analysis should be done to combat sprawl. My goal with this literature review is to define urban sprawl, define classic patterns in the United States, how we measure sprawl, the cause and effect of sprawl in the United States, give detailed background information on Fairfax County, future trends and implications of sprawl in Fairfax County, how to combat sprawl in the United States as well as in Fairfax County and key priorities in future research.

According to Statistics Canada (2011), there are five cities that are considered to be the largest metropolitan areas in Canada. However, of the five Toronto is one of them that has a population of over 1,000,000 people. In total, Ontario is home to 7 of the largest cities in Canada. With this note, we realize that Ontario is familiar with rapid urbanization which is also called urban sprawl. Also, although urban sprawl can seem extremely positive in terms of population growth and a rapidly growing economy. It can also have quite a negative effect on the environment and the biodiversity of an area. Moreover, pollution is another negative aspect of urban sprawl since countless commuters live in the rural areas around our urban centers

Pamela Blais’s book called Perverse Cities is based on the drawbacks of urban sprawl within a city. The book focuses on multiple cities within North American (Canada and USA) and discusses the factors that make the notion of sprawl the least sustainable and livable for several reasons. For example, the increased use of transit causes pollution and effects the influence on public health, affordability and its relation to subsidized planning services. “Urban sprawl – low-density subdivisions and business parks, big box stores and mega malls [to maximize space] have increasingly come to define city growth despite decades of planning and policy,” Blais argues that multiple things affect sprawl in cities and could be beneficial through cost from

Urban sprawl is a phenomenon in growing cities typified by continual growth of the urban area in a radial pattern, with the development of low density housing typically on agricultural or environmentally sensitive lands. Urban sprawl typically provides the quarter acre block or detached housing. However, this type of development tends to impact on food basins

Savitch outlines ways that sprawl can be harmful to the health and wellbeing of individuals living in these areas. The United States is vast and versatile, allowing for its inhabitants to move around and live in different climates or social environments. But, this freedom leads to the abandonment of neighborhoods and cities. Government resources such as building highways are put into developing cities but “Americans are incline to abandon industrial neighborhoods, sometimes leaving whole cities in favor of sprawl residential tracts, edge cities, and strip-zoned highways” (Savitch 2013:591). Those who can afford to move into suburbs leaves those of a lower socioeconomic status with less resources. “When people and jobs evaporate, so too does

According to Coughlin (1980), “The annual loss of prime agricultural land due to urbanization is between 390,000 acres and 760,000 acres” (p. 1). Many companies, business, and homes are being built in areas that were being used for agriculture. Many of the urban farmers don’t have a saying on what is being done by the government. In some cases, with the low economy, many urban farmers decide to sell their land to get the money they need to

New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,

An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of