The undulating terrain mixed with a large amount of trees and elements of nature allow citizens of Peachtree City to enjoy beautiful scenery as they walk, or drive, along the city's famed golf cart paths. Cars are not a necessity on account of the eighty miles of paved golf cart paths. The paths allow residents of Peachtree City to navigate through the City's forests on their own personal golf carts. People can also walk or ride their bikes along the paths. Every family of Peachtree City owns a golf cart. The golf cart paths enable a resident to access any commercial or residential address that a car could. Senior Citizens no longer have a need for a car on account of the golf courses allowing them to ride their personal carts as they play their weekly rounds of golf.
The public transportation of Peachtree City allows the city to be compared to Portland Oregon. Portland Oregon's transportation provides an appealing look. If I had to choose between the cities portrayed in "Blueprint America," I would choose Portland. Bike paths and street cars line the streets of Portland allowing its residents to move through Portland without a heavy reliance on automobiles. The access to modes of transportation other than "gas guzzlers" directly relate Peachtree City to Portland. The heavy costs that accompany a personal car can be avoided through the various forms of public transportation. Both cities are trying to resist sprawl. Portland has anti-sprawl legislation that was passed to preserve its natural landscape.
Peachtree City also has anti-sprawl legislation. A multi-million dollar project was vetoed in the City council for a new hockey rink. The environmentalist in the city gave the council an uproar on account of the amount of trees that would be torn down. New sprawl-like housing developments were not allowed to be built because of the look that it would bring to the city. The buildings in Peachtreee City are not allowed to be more than two stories high. Houses must have a certain amount of space between them, and they all must have a certain amount of trees in their yards. Above ground pools are not allowed in Peachtree City on account of their "dirty look."
"Blueprint America" describes sprawl as an entity that destroys the natural beauty of a town, through roadways and housing projects. These housing projects are not focused on beauty, but how many houses can be built in a certain area. Peachtree City resisted this type of sprawl for years. Sprawl did make a foothold in Peachtree City for a few years though. Three new housing developments were made on the northern edge of town. These developments were made with very few trees left in their natural places. Placed close together, the houses were conventional in look, and lacked a brick face that most every house in Peachtree City has. The two state highways through the city were expanded to four lanes, and the airport runway was extended. The construction on all these projects were finished last year, but little effort will be made for those types of projects in the future. Complaints from residents created a massed hate of sprawl construction in the city. For those few years, the city was starting to look like Denver. Massive developments, like Highlands Ranch in Denver, were being planned on the Northern Edge of Peachtree City. The highway expansion in Peachtree City is similar to Denver's construction of Highway 470. The construction of both projects were to be run straight through neighborhoods and wildlife habitats. The highway expansion in Peachtree City destroyed the backyards of countless homes just like highway 470 went through the traditional poor areas near Denver.
The similarities that Peachtree City had to Denver and Portland classify Peachtree City as a mix between a sprawl city, and a city that is trying to resist sprawl. The alternative transportation in Peachtree City compares the City to Portland, which has the bike trails and street cars. The attempts of sprawl in the housing developments compares Peachtree City to Denver. Highlands Ranch can be compared to the few housing developments on the northern edge of Peachtree City. No one City is directly similar to Peachtree City. No one City is neither completely similar nor completely different. Hopefully my hometown of Peachtree City Georgia will remain, for the most part, a sprawl free community.
The town of Roswell, Georgia is not far from the city of Atlanta. It is about half an hour north of Atlanta, and is the result of sprawl. Roswell is a typical suburbial town with lots of big, spread out neighborhoods. It has quite a few local parks, and does have a few nearby miniature forests as well. It hasn't quite eaten up all of the natural surroundings yet, even though it is still constantly expanding with the use of neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteBlueprint America lists several different towns and cities that deal with sprawl in one way or another. Roswell is sprawl, but isn't very bad sprawl. Its main problem is the massive amounts of spaced out houses and neighborhoods. I think that it is most similar to the suburbs of Denver. Roswell has major traffic going into the city similar to that of the suburbs of Denver. There also isn't really any public transportation at all. The closest thing to it is carpooling.
Out of all of the towns described in Blueprint America, Denver is probably the one I can relate to and would want ot live in the most. The homes in Roswell are faily homogenous, and don't have any other uses really other than residential. The Denver suburbs seems to share this characteristic. Although, Roswell was a sprawl, it had a good bit of diversity in age, ethnicity, and income. Roswell shares so many similarities, so it is only natural to want to live in something that I happily grew up in.
By: Stephen Sealy