Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Sprawl

The Strain of Job Sprawl on Two-Income Households

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 9, 2012 | 19 Comments

When Mark Lampert was a kid, his mom stayed home with him and his brothers. His dad was out the door by 4:30 every morning, driving to the commuter lot in their distant Houston suburb to take the bus in to the city for work. He had friends whose parents both worked, and when those […]

The Projections Fallacy

By Charles Marohn | Jul 23, 2012 | 12 Comments

Cross-posted from Streets.MN. We spend billions every year in this country on our transportation network, large percentages of it based on traffic projections. This despite the fact that we have a long record of not being able to accurately project traffic. The answer isn’t better projections but a better transportation system, one that is robust […]

$10,000 Extra? The Transportation Tab for Sprawling ‘Hoods in 20 Metros

By Angie Schmitt | Jun 6, 2012 | 1 Comment

$10,860 in New York City. $5,694 in St. Louis. $4,199 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That’s what it will cost you, on average, in additional transportation costs to live in a sprawling, car-dependent neighborhood over one that is well-connected and transit-rich. That’s according to a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, produced for Better Cities […]

In Which Chuck Marohn and I Talk to Exurban Minnesotans on the Radio

By Tanya Snyder | May 22, 2012 | No Comments

Charles Marohn — our planner/engineer friend from Baxter, Minnesota and Strong Towns — and I appeared on a Minnesota Public Radio show on Friday about “the death of the exurbs.” The starting point of the conversation was the article I wrote last month about the new census numbers and what they tell us about the shifting […]

Study Predicts “Resilient Walkable” Places Will Lead the Housing Recovery

By Tanya Snyder | May 18, 2012 | 10 Comments

This morning, a Minnesota Public Radio host asked me if the exurbs, whose growth rate flattened when the recession hit, are going to come back. Lots of people from far-distant suburbs like Blaine and Farmington called in, saying they like the way of life out there – they like having acres of trees buffering them […]

The Greenwashing of Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 11, 2012 | 13 Comments

Twenty-eight miles southeast of Cleveland, there is a development that bills itself as “Ohio’s FIRST Green Certified Residential Community.” According to the developer, The Lakes of Orange “offers a rare, one-of-kind opportunity to build and live in a green and sustainable environment.” “Reserve your place in eco-history today,” its website implores. “We are accepting lot […]

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