Sprawl

The authors of Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact do planners, politicians, and citizens a favor by conducting research and analyzing data that quantifies sprawl in a more comprehensive way than ever before. The four factors used to determine sprawl scores for MSAs are residential density, neighborhood mix of homes, jobs, and services, strength of activity centers and downtown, and accessibility of the street network.

It was interesting, but not necessarily shocking, to learn that many cities in the Southeast scored very low (more sprawl) because they were designed around the automobile. New York scored very high all around in all four factors, with Jersey City not far behind. It's a city I don't usually think about, but as far as sprawl goes its doing very well!

In the section of the article that discusses other sprawl studies, the authors point out that Kahn explored the potential benefit of sprawl in term of keeping housing affordable and creating greater equality of housing opportunities across racial lines. I know we discussed this a bit a long time ago in another class, but I'd forgotten about it and it's important to keep it in mind.