preview

Urban Sprawl In Pennsylvania

Good Essays

Introduction Urbanization also known as urban sprawl takes place when people migrate from cities and urban areas to less populated rural areas. This sounds harmless, however urban sprawl has created detrimental environment, social, and health effects. Although this issue is prevalent everywhere in the United States, urbanization is especially common in Pennsylvania. This is a pressing public administration issue because without limitations on urban development, American’s will slowly destroy and urbanize all the available farmland. Tom Hylton, a Pottstown, Pennsylvania native and author of Save Our Land, Save Our Town and creator of the documentary, Saving Pennsylvania, dissects the effects of urban sprawl and land use in Pennsylvania. …show more content…

Some of the most notable effects of urban sprawl are loss of open space and natural habitats such as farmland, more air pollution, an increase in traffic due to longer commutes to work, and a depletion of water quality (Pope, 1999). Farmland is important to residents because it provides open space, absorbs rainwater, which improves water balance, and offers protection against flooding. Also, farmland vegetation helps air pollution by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. Aside from these benefits, nutrient farmland is vital for crop production (Frenkel, 2003). Cities such as Scranton, McKeesport, Wilkes-Barre and New Castle have lost more than a third of their residents due to urban sprawl. Pennsylvania alone has lost more than four million acres of farmland since the 1950s. The area of farmland that has been lost in Pennsylvania is equivalent to the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. One may argue that Pennsylvania had to expand our cities in order to accommodate an influx of population. However, unlike rapidly growing states such as California and Florida, Pennsylvania has only seen a 20 percent population increase in the past fifty years (Hylton, 1998, …show more content…

If smaller, more compact communities were created with homes, stores, restaurants, and workplaces intermingled, Americans could get back to a life where different socio-economic classes and races were apart of the same community. Adults could walk to work and children could walk to school. Although this idea seems far-fetched it is already working in Celebration, Florida. Walt Disney World purchased the land and came up with a way to create an area that combined the suburbs and small town living (Frantz and Collins, 1999). Although it is nearly impossible to create towns like Celebration everywhere, it is a start and provides hope for this

Get Access