Suburban Sprawl

What is A Bigger Threat than Urban Sprawl? Suburban Sprawl
Allison Willman
March 16, 2011
Since the aftermath of World War 2, a new phenomenon has taken over the United States that is unlike any other thing in the history of the movement of humanity and that is the development of the suburbs. Fueled by the post-war American optimism, these beehive-like structures have come to dominate the landscape that surrounds major cities. Their development was based off the fact that rapidly increasing numbers of people in the country owned cars. Thus, a big part of the suburban layout was and very much still is designed around the car.
Many feel that to live in the suburbs is to embody the American dream. All one needs to do is buy a cookie-cutter house, have a family, a dog named Spot, two cars, and a nice white picket fence surrounding it all. However, the reality of these developments is not so nice as Leave it to Beaver may make it seem. The early 2000’s in America experienced a housing boom that saw the expansion of new sprawling housing developments in the suburbs. The whole design of these housing developments consisted of tan colored houses row after row with yards barely large enough to call green space. Along with the houses sprouted retail chain stores on their outskirts promptly placed for the new tenants to buy supplies.
In order to build these sprawls, land had to come from somewhere and it wasn’t going to come from demolishing pre-existing structures. Oftentimes, agricultural land and natural areas are build over instead. By continuing to build over these open spaces, were are diminishing the amount of land we can grow food on and contributing to the loss of biodiversity. This down the road will most definitely lead to higher food prices and a loss of valuable natural areas.
There is nothing efficient at all about the design of suburbs. Because they are built around the car, they have a sprawling stature so the car can drive on them. Also, if people want to go out and run errands, they cannot walk or bike to the store because it would be inconvenient to do so even if the store is in a short distance. Instead, they have to drive their car and park in a parking lot that is too big most of the year for the people that shop. The whole layout creates a disconnect among people and nature. Everything people do and how they react is determined by machines and manmade structures. People may call me naïve whenever I rant about the suburbs and say that I may live in one someday but with the world’s oil supply running out, reliance on cars for transportation will not be as convenient as it used to be. Eventually, people will have to live closer to work and closer to where they shop because traveling there will be so expensive by car. Hopefully, suburban sprawl will decline for the sake of not only our open lands but for our own experiences with each other.