Sprawl

Volatile Gas Prices: Public Anger, Secret Panic

Catherine Lutz | Posted 08.19.2011

Read More: Gas Prices, Sprawl, Automobiles, Oil Industry, Transit, Auto Industry, Transportation, Driving, Business News

Rich enough to buy a Bentley on a whim or poor enough to be set back by a simple traffic fine, Americans are angry about gas prices. This upsurge of emotion is about much more than money.

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EPA Announces Plan to Abandon Kansas City -- at the Cost of the City and Taxpayers

Geoffrey Anderson | Posted 06.15.2011

Read More: Epa, Smart Growth America, Environmental Protection Agency, Economic Development, Geoff Anderson, Sprawl, Smart Growth, Kansas City, Kansas, Green News

To avoid small costs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be creating big costs for everyone, including the federal government.

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Village Green: A Pedestrian Braves the Challenges of Sprawl

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbs, Sprawl, Walking, Neighborhoods, Cities, Transportation, Green News

Designer/educator Christine Franck and I travel in some of the same urbanist circles. Recently she was a visiting profess...

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In The Public Interest: Busting the 'User Fee' Highway Myth

Phineas Baxandall | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Gas Prices, Sprawl, Subsidies, U.S. PIRG, Biking, Gas Tax, Public Transportation, Transportation, Politics News

Ever wonder why the roads and highways in our cities keep getting bigger and wider while public transportation, rail, and bike paths are left behind, ...

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Rockin' The Suburbs, Memorable Mumfords, and How The West Was Won in 2010

Jon Chattman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Justin Bieber, M.I.A., Florence and the Machine, Far East Movement, The Xx, Kanye West, Taio Cruz, The Suburbs, The National, Ray Lamontagne, Sprawl, Arcade Fire, Music, Broken Bells, Mumford and Sons, Entertainment News

They don't make music like they used to.

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'Suburban Nation'

Jeff Speck | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbs, Public Schools, House, Infrastructure, Green Infrastructure, Housing Market, Suburbia, Chicago Suburbs, Housing, Suburban, National Infrastructure, Slidepollajax, Sprawl, The Suburbs, Housing Crisis, Urban Sprawl, Books News

But now, a preference has become a mandate, as sprawl has quietly been identified as a central cause behind a growing list of mounting national crises including foreign oil dependency, climate change, and the obesity epidemic.

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Village Green: Walmart Goes Urban?

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Walmart, Sustainability, Sprawl, Retail, Cities, Green News

Walmart plans to expand into urban markets with smaller stores that carry fresh food, writes Jayne O’Donnell in USA Today. O&rsquo...

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The Real Red Scare

Laura Barrett | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbs, Keith Gessen, Traffic, Sprawl, New Yorker, Public Transportation, Transportation, Politics News

Moscow stands as a warning to us. Without adequate investment in public transportation and a concerted effort to combat sprawl, our metropolitan areas face a grim future.

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Sarah McKenzie: A Nation Of Builders, And Of Artists

John Seed | Posted 04.11.2012

Read More: Suburbs, Biennial of the Americas, Lauri Lynxxe Murphy, Contemporary Art, Construction, Sprawl, Objectophilia, Development, Sarah McKenzie, Female Artists, Denver, Home News

There isn't a single human figure in any of McKenzie's works of the past five years; they aren't necessary. Construction, a metaphor for human work, desire and hope stands in for actual human presence.

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Village Green: New Program Launches to Promote Smart, Green Land Development

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green Building, Sprawl, Real Estate, Development, Neighborhoods, Leed, Smart Growth, Green News

The country’s first comprehensive system for defining, measuring, and certifying smart, green land development is now fully open for business. T...

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Village Green: New California Report Shows Dramatic Potential of Smarter Land Use

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sustainability, Sprawl, California, Land Use, Development, Smart Growth, Green News

A new state-sponsored report reveals that smart planning could bring dramatic environmental and economic benefits to California, while troub...

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The Answer to the BP Mystery: Yes, We Can Drive Less

Catherine Lutz | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Oil, Bp, Sprawl, Gasoline Consumption, Commuting, Driving, Big Oil, Gulf Oil Spill, Impact News

Post-spill, are we ready to give up driving? As a nation, we cannot use our history of sprawl and transit underfunding to justify continued car overdependence. And those who can afford to drive less, should.

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What To Do With the Suburbs?

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbanism, American Planning Association, Sprawl, Urban Planning, Urbanism, Los Angeles News

If reversing the decline of cities was the preoccupation of planners in the 20th century, then the suburbs are going to be the focus of planning for much of this one.

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An Urban or Suburban Future: A Review of Foreclosing the Dream by William H. Lucy

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Foreclosures, Suburbs, Foreclosure Crisis, Sprawl, Joel Kotkin, Urbanism, William H.Lucy, Housing Bubble, Books News

Professor William Lucy believes that America has reached a point where the long trend toward more dispersed and suburban living is turning toward a more urban future.

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Village Green: Backyard Cottages Strengthen Neighborhoods, Add Affordability

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sprawl, Seattle, Making Home Affordable, Housing, Neighborhoods, Smart Growth, Cottages, Green News

We know we need to absorb more people and homes in our existing communities in order to avoid the unacceptable environmental, economic and soc...

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Village Green: "I watched the growth - it's become 'Paradise Lost' for me"

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Towns, Suburbs, Community, Sustainability, Sprawl, Housing, Rural America, Smart Growth, Green News

Today’s title comes from Jeff Holm, chair of the Board of Supervisors for Baldwin Township, Minnesota. Baldwin is a rural community s...

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Putting Wal-Mart's Green Moves in Context

Stacy Mitchell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Driving, Environment, Green, Sustainability, Climate Change, Sprawl, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Wal-Mart, Global Warming, Big-Business, Green News

What journalists and even environmentalists so often fail to do in reporting on Wal-Mart's sustainability announcements is to provide some context. C...

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Village Green: Some Fighting Words About Suburban Sprawl

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbs, Sustainability, Sprawl, Real Estate, Development, Smart Growth, Global Warming, Cities, Green News

“The biggest fight I think we’ll see in the next ten years is the fight between people in cities who are trying to transform them ...

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Metropolitan Urbanism? A Review of Grid/Street/Place by Nathan Cherry (with Kurt Nagle)

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: American Planning Association, Convulsive Urbanism, Books News, L.A. Live, Rtkl Associates, Urban Planning, Sprawl, Los Angeles, Urbanism, Los Angeles News

Although the dynamism (and the dysfunction) of LA is characteristically expressed in small and often idiosyncratic projects spread around the grid, the book is weighted in favor of large developments.

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Living With No Regrets on Climate Change

Tom Tomich | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Copenhagen 2009, Food Miles, United Nations, Climate Change, Sprawl, Green Living, Nitrogen Fertilizer, Smart Growth, Los Angeles News

It could be a long time before we achieve consensus on global climate strategy. In the meantime, there are "no regrets" strategies we can implement to improve our lives and our future prospects.

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Half a Bridge: A Review of "The Smart Growth Manual" by Andres Duany and Jeff Speck with Mike Lydon

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sprawl, Andres Duany, New Urbanism, Urban Planning, Smart Growth, Urbanism, Urban Sprawl, Books News

If The Smart Growth Manual used images that were more urban, it would have an easier time facilitating a dialogue between the warring camps of urbanists.

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Village Green: It's Time to Update What Constitutes a 'Green Building'

F. Kaid Benfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Suburbs, Housing, Neighborhoods, Green Building, Community, Sustainability, Sprawl, Green Living, Development, Cities, Smart Growth, Green News

For most of the US Green Building Council's LEED for Homes award winners, the residences' green features will be offset by the damage caused by the sites' automobile dependence, and distance from jobs and services.

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Can Wal-Mart Think Smaller?

Al Norman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Smaller Supercenters, E.F. Schumacher, Merrill Lynch, Wal-Mart, Suburbs, Tesco, Retail, Tom Shoewe, Aldi, Green Business, Sprawl, Commercial Real Estate, Business News

Wal-Mart is hinting at smaller stores. The reality: land is not available anywhere for the classic Wal-Mart supercenter, weighing in at over 200,000 square feet.

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Stopping Ocean Sprawl

Paul McRandle | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ocean Acidification, Sprawl, Oil Rigs, Climate Change, Coastal Pollution, Shipping Lanes, Oceans, Wind Farms, Offshore Drilling, Green News

"Ocean sprawl" is a combination of offshore oil rigs, shipping lanes, wind farms and ever more ocean uses--and it puts increased pressure on ocean and coastal resources already under enormous strain.

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Searching for a Fourth Urbanism, Part 2: Wherein I Find One and Describe it

Frank Gruber | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Everyday Urbanism, Sprawl, Vancouver, Santa Monica, New Urbanism, Barcelona, Urbanism, Style News

The developments in these three cities are based on maximizing and capturing the economic value of city real estate. They all represent intensification of uses.

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