ANATOMY OF SPRAWL. IN SPRAWL CITY. RACE, POLITICS, AND PLANNING IN ATLANTA

Sprawl is a fact of life in urban America. Whether liked or not, it is real and must be addressed with urgency. Sprawl is defined as random unplanned growth characterized by inadequate accessibility to essential land uses such as housing, jobs, and public services such as schools, hospitals, and mass transit. Two decades of studies from all parts of the nation reveal that sprawl raises taxes. Low-density settlement sprawl increases the costs of maintaining roads, streets, sewers, water supplies, storm drains and schools. Sprawl is not new; nevertheless, suburban sprawl has been the dominant growth pattern for nearly all metropolitan areas in the United States for the past five decades. Historically, the decentralization of employment centers has had a major role in shaping metropolitan growth patterns. Sprawl has pushed housing, population, and jobs deeper into the suburbs. Today, over 60 percent of Americans live in the suburbs. Suburbs are expected to account for 80 percent of future metropolitan growth if the current trend holds. Sprawl development (highways, strip centers, giant shopping malls, subdivisions, is threatening the exurbs, rural areas, and forests. Urban sprawl is consuming land faster than population is growing in many cities across the country. In order to take advantage of new suburban housing and jobs, a person must have access to an automobile because public transit is usually inadequate or nonexistent.