AMST 2440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Surface Runoff, Arena, Automobile Dependency
13 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
Critics sprawl = biggest threat to cities today. 1970 to 1990 - metro nyc pop. grew only 5%. 1970 to 1990 - metro cincinnati lost 25% pop. 1990 to 1996 - akron, ohio lost 37% pop. Sierra club dc = 3rd most sprawl-threatened u. s. city. Sprawl characteristics: unplanned, rapid, haphazard, low-density, automobile dependent, leapfrog development. Critics point to: environmental costs -- (ie. phoenix is insane. Golf courses in the desert?: loss of natural land: 90,000 acres of the chesapeake bay lost yearly: destruction of wetlands and floodplains. Why build a new one out in the middle of nowhere?: harm of automobile dependency, traffic, obesity epidemic, inequity. Poor, elderly -- less access to automobiles: harm to center cities, eroded tax base, declining downtown, aesthetic. Defenders of sprawl argue: sprawl is a bogus term. Give me a break: sprawl exists for one reason --- people like it. Sprawl offers 3 things: a) choice b) mobility c) privacy.
