suburban sprawl

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Making the Case for 'Sprawl'
Making the Case for 'Sprawl'
longform
Apr 13, 2025 12:25 PM CDT

Making the Case for 'Sprawl'

New York Times Magazine piece suggests efforts to curb it are a big factor in the housing crisis

(Newser) - A New York Times Magazine piece on suburban "sprawl" ticks off all the reasons the term has come to be reviled. It evokes "lollipop cul-de-sacs lined with homes so similar they can be distinguished only by the cars parked in front," writes Conor Dougherty. For decades now,...

Urban Sprawl Is Literally Stranding the Poor

Paul Krugman thinks social mobility is suffering, poor stay poor

(Newser) - Detroit spent the last decade spiraling into bankruptcy, while Atlanta spent it growing like mad. But the two cities have something in common: "Both are places where the American dream seems to be dying," writes Paul Krugman at the New York Times . Social mobility is low in both...

Tear Up Your Lawn
 Tear Up Your Lawn 
OPINION
Sep 30, 2009 6:00 PM CDT

Tear Up Your Lawn

Why do we devote so much water to a superficial end?

(Newser) - Matthew Fleischer has always hated lawns as wasteful and useless. But his hate is at a fevered pitch after reading about how the desire for lush green grass in literally draining states dry. America’s lawns and golf courses require about 200 gallons of water per citizen per day. We...

Sorry, Greenies, Americans Still Like Sprawl

(Newser) - When urban planners dream, they dream that Americans will give up on the suburbs in favor of a dense, environmentally friendly, less auto-dependent lifestyle. And it’s never going to happen, David Brooks writes in the New York Times. “Amsterdam is a wonderful city, but Americans never seem to...

Mortgage Crisis? Blame George Bailey
Mortgage Crisis? Blame George Bailey
OPINION
Oct 12, 2008 1:26 PM CDT

Mortgage Crisis? Blame George Bailey

It's A Wonderful Life hero helped poor buy unaffordable homes

(Newser) - The housing bubble that triggered the current economic crisis began with a post-Depression attitude toward owning a home presented in the classic Christmas flick It’s a Wonderful Life, writes Ross Douthat in the Washington Post. Hero banker George Bailey’s chief goal was to loan the poor enough money...

Calif. Adopts Stiff Anti-Sprawl Law

New law ties compact growth to $5B in transportation funding

(Newser) - The country's most aggressive anti-sprawl bill was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday, the Sacramento Bee reports. The "first in the nation" bill mandates regional targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and uses $5 billion in transportation funding as an incentive to stimulate denser residential development. “This...

It's the End of the World as We Know It—and He Feels Fine

Gas prices closing the open frontier, finally

(Newser) - The soaring cost of travel is forcing a fundamental change in the identity of America, writes Bill McKibben in the Washington Post: "The frontier of endless mobility that we've known our entire lives is closing." And that's not necessarily a bad thing, because sprawl has "eroded our...

The New Generational Shift: Suburban Flight

After 50 years of sprawl, suburbanites gravitate toward cities

(Newser) - Changes in lifestyles, economic conditions, and demographics are leading to a reversal in urban flight, The Wall Street Journal reports. Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline and the subprime crisis have driven many to cities from suburbs, where commutes are longer and houses have lost the most value. Boomers are simplifying their lives with...

Potential Bellwether Va. Shades From Red to Blue

Longtime GOP state among moderates flirting with Democrats

(Newser) - Virginia will have its critical primary moment tomorrow, but the state may play an even bigger role in November—that of a red state turning blue, reports the Wall Street Journal. The former Confederate seat has voted Republican in every election but one since 1952, but lately has elected two...

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