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National
''Sprawl Kills'' Author Describes Power of the Sprawl Lobby
It is time ''to recognize the politics of suburban sprawl'' and ''the
power of the sprawl lobby,'' because with the population ''lunging
toward 400 million'' by mid-century, ''it will be too late to save so
much of what so many Americans value, including public greenspaces,
rural lifestyles, farmland and social capital,'' warns former
National Governors' Association official, independent consultant
Joel Hirschorn on the commondreams.org web page, outlining the main
message of his forthcoming book ''Sprawl Kills -- Better Living in
Healthy Places.'' Holding ''the sprawl sedentary lifestyle'' liable
for some 300,000 premature deaths a year, the writer refutes the
sprawl industry's claim that it simply responds to the public
demand. ''The housing market is remarkable because supply influences
demand much more than demand influences supply,'' he writes,
pointing out that ''well over one-third of home seekers want an
alternative to suburban sprawl un-places,'' but the supply ''is over
500 to 1 against them.'' The reason is the sprawl industry -- ''land
developers, home and commercial builders, real estate agents, land
use attorneys, banking and finance institutions, road builders, and
planning professionals,'' along with their allies from ''the fast
food, automobile, petroleum, and pharmaceutical industries'' --
which ''maintains its grip on the housing market ... through its
sprawl lobby.'' With ''enormous sums of money, both legal and illegal
... provided by sprawl industry groups to politicians, local
government officials and state legislators,'' virtually wherever
''there is government planning and zoning, it is either illegal or
extremely difficult and expensive to build true alternatives to
sprawl.'' Nevertheless, the number of ''true smart growth and New
Urbanism communities and neighborhoods'' built nationwide has
reached about 200 and is rising ''as innovative and courageous
developers'' defy all obstacles and achieve ''considerable financial
success'' thanks to ''actual and latent consumer demand.'' And since
''most of these smart growth type projects are in suburbia,'' the
writer concludes in a surprising turn of thought that ''there is no
longer any reason to equate suburbia with sprawl.''
11/19/2003
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