How big a problem is suburban sprawl?

Apparently, a lot:

“The newest environmental threat is suburban sprawl. Large-scale road building and other landforms designed around the automobile are said to be responsible for the American abandonment of the city. With this abandonment comes all manner of environmental degradation: air pollution from daily commutes, conversion of farmland to suburban uses, altered wildlife habitat, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and a host of associated environmental concerns.

The Sierra Club’s publication, The Dark Side of the American Dream, cites “unplanned, rapid growth and poor land-use management” as responsible for “increased traffic congestion, longer commutes, increased dependence on fossil fuels, crowded schools, worsening air and water pollution, lost open space and wetlands, increased flooding, destroyed wildlife habitat, higher taxes, and dying city centers.” These problems, in turn, are “threatening the quality of life and eroding the national progress we’ve made protecting our environment under legislation such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act.”

Source

Depends on your definition of “problem”.

As for me, I would find highly concentrated urban living to be hellish at best and am quite happy not having to live in one of those high rise monstrosities in the inner city.

I think the European model of city living is the best. I went to Rome and everything you need is in walking distance, the market, your job, your school, your church… it wasn’t necessary to drive to a strip mall or a Costco to stock up for a week. You got everything fresh every day, and it was a nice way to interact with your friends and neighbors. People are healthier, because they walk more, and eat fresh, good food, not the over-processed garbage we subsist on.

Well, @marinelife‘s quote covers a lot of it. However, it did not mention the difficulty finding friends that sprawl can produce. How, often you have to drive somewhere to have a friend. How adults do have to drive somewhere for social gatherings. How it encourages people to cut off anything that looks different. People may like these things, but they would probably be even happier in an urban environment, or at least a high density living environment.

Suburbs would be hell for me. I’d probably die if I had to live in one. I’ve been living in cities, which work for me. I grew up in the country, and perhaps I could go back to that. But suburbs would be the death of me.

I agree. I think the suburbs suck the life force out of a community. Everything looks so homogenized.

Personally, I like living in the burbs, but I understand the concern. What are the options? I would feel a bit suffocated living in a large city, and in this day and age, considering economics and such, it’s unlikely that Americans could revert to bunches of well-placed villages dotted about the landscape. I am, however, pretty ignorant on what the alternatives would be, educate me, please!

@JilltheTooth What do you mean by well-placed villages?

@wundayatta I completely disagree regarding being happier in a high density living environment. Frankly, even living in the suburbs I often fantasize about permanently moving out to “the ranch”.

Different strokes.

@Aesthetic_Mess : I mean the types of communities that were prevalent a couple of centuries ago, where each community was fairly self contained, and not a strain on resources, with connections to industrialized areas through the railroad. Sounded ideal, it wouldn’t work now. I really would love to know what alternatives there would be to the burbs, that are not denser cities.

FWIW, I totally agree with the whole small village concept. Frankly, one of the first things I believe gets lost in high density urban populations is a real sense of community. What you get instead is several disparate clicks of friends that seldom overlap and often do not share the same world view or concept of what the larger community is about.

Maybe someone could make an argument for arcologies?

As I understand it, it’s completely unsustainable in terms of resources like water. We simply don’t have the resources to let everyone have a single family home, and if we don’t make some changes we’ll run out of water in the next few decades.

@JilltheTooth What makes you believe that such communities wouldn’t work well now?

There are very many such communities located throughout the US that are doing just that. Most of the citizenry of such towns live on the small farms and/or ranches that provide food for the rest of the country, not to mention do a pretty good job of keeping the farmer’s markets in the next larger town stocked with direct from the grower produce.

I’m saying that the mind set for that is gone. It’s a shame, really.

@YoBob The village was the concept I was thinking of. The city, in some ways, is made up of many small villages. I can certainly see living in a village out in the middle of nowhere. But I grew up in the middle of nowhere without a village and I hated my childhood because I barely had any friends and those that I did have lived miles and miles away. I don’t like living in isolation, nor in anything that looks close to isolation.

@JilltheTooth Here’s arcologies: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/califia_ecocity.php