Sprawl in U.S. vs. Europe

Phillip talks about sprawl in other countries, and how it compares or is in relation with the sprawl that is so common to the United States. I decided to follow in his footsteps by also going to the Georgia Tech library resources and doing research on other places other than the U.S. that are affected by sprawl. I came across an interesting and appropriate article on the comparison between the sprawl in the United States and the sprawl in Europe. The article Sprawl in Europe and America, starts of talking about the sprawl that is so commonly found in America. It then goes into the environmental approach to looking at sprawl, and then leads into the political argument of it. It then goes into its main point, which is the theory that if all other affluent countries are as sprawling as the U.S., then sprawl must be inevitable for affluent countries. Afterward, it concludes that Europe is significantly less automobile dependent than the United States, but still isn't completely rid of sprawl. The article attributes this sprawl in Europe to the pro-sprawl policies that governments have issued. There are some aspects of Europe that are key to limiting sprawl, such as the ability to use other types of transportation other than automobiles. It is the culture of Europe that causes this. It is much more commonplace to walk or take a train or bike then it is in the United States. Overall, Europe doesn't have nearly as much sprawl as the United States, and thus disproves the theory that affluent countries cannot resist or minimize sprawl.

By: Stephen Sealy

It's Called Sprawl for a Reason

Ever since we started the topic of suburban sprawl my mind has been racing about it. One of the major thoughts to pass through my mind is sprawl on a global scale. America is ‘the greatest place on earth,’ how can we not expect nations to follow her example.

Thanks to Dr Hoeffer I have been forced to use my dreaded resource. To my surprise this has turned out to be more enjoyable than torturous.

Using the library resource LexisNexis(I know this is the easy way out), I was able to easily access information about sprawl. Once I saw an article on ethiopian sprawl I was instantly pulled in. The article “Ethiopia; Sprawl Unlimited” touches on many of the disastrous dealings of sprawl.

Although the main concern people have of sprawl is the loss of quality of life and the time they spend in their car Ethiopian have more to worry about. For the very few but extraordinarily wealthy ethiopians the hillsides Entoto Mountain seem like prime residential area. Located just outside of the capital Addis Ababa
View Larger Map, residents have been sacrificing the greenery and natural life for a little breeze and a prestigious view.

This still hasn’t scratched the surface of more major problems. Fifty percent of Ethiopia’s exports come from agriculture. This also accounts for eighty five percent of its employment. Now that the nation has been introduced to sprawl, areas of prime agricultural land are being swept up for short run sub prime housing and markets. This is the small business men of ethiopian cutting the roots of the economy. Another problem associated with this form of sprawl is the eradication of virgin forests to be used as new agricultural land.

The world is being attacked by sprawl, we need to open our eyes to the future. We cannot sustain life this way. The world is building its dream on top of the foundation its destroying.

Manual Labor: Urban to Suburban

The article that I found was Life-Style Differences among Urban and Suburban Blue-Collar Families. I had searched for "suburban life", and this was one of the first article to come up that caught my eye. The first few seemed bland, and I wasn't sure if they would be simple rundowns of suburban life. This article seemed more like a specific comparison on two areas of living between a specific group of people.

Blue-collar workers and their families live in both urban and suburban areas. This article talks about the differences in lifestyles and other aspects vary. The author talks about how suburban life is consistent, and typically have the average family of young parents with a large family. It also talks about how the social class of the suburbs are also typically the same, middle-class. The close-nit social atmosphere within the suburbs is another point the author uses to compare to urban living. The terms "social intimacy" and "voluntary social participation" are used to illustrate the social bond shared within the suburbs. These points are portrayed using studies that the author talks about and elaborates on.

Most of the author's descriptions seemed to be focused on describing the bonuses of suburban life, which I felt made the article seem very lopsided. There were hardly any points that were allowing a debate, but rather a one-sided show that the author was running. Although many of the criteria used by the author seemed unique, the introduction of the article made it sound as though it would be more of a comparison than a one-sided debate. One of the criteria that caught my eye was religion, and how the church activity was higher amount blue-collar suburban families. The down side is that this criteria seems rather biased towards one religion, which makes it seem to lose credibility.

By: Stephen Sealy

Life is not so good in the suburbs

By: Lauren Young

While sitting in the library, I decided to go on the LexisNexis page to look up an article for this blog. I must say, I first just searched for "suburbs," not expecting to match many results. I was shocked to see that there were over 1,000 results for that! So then I narrowed down my search and focused on "life in the suburbs." This matched 7 results, and from there I decided to take a look.

I read the article It's worth the drive to Acton or is it? Readers respond to sprawl, life in the suburbs and Toronto Star series on lengthy commutes. This was very interesting because it was just a compiled list of opinions of life in the suburbs. All these opinions were biased since they all leaned toward the opinion of staying out of the suburbs. It was nice to see that this article was not written from one viewpoint, but from many viewpoints. Different people mainly from the Toronto area, and some not even living there, shared their comments. It was easy to read since each person just shared their opinion in a short and to the point manner.

This article connected with Suburban Nation since it claimed that the suburbs are a bad form of sprawl. I'm sure several people in Toronto love living in the suburbs, but this article only picked out the people who didn't. This article supported its claim by saying the drive was too long, bad for the environment, and that there is more convenience with living in the city. The only bad factor they shared was the amount of pollution in the city itself. This agrees with Suburban Nation since Duany, Platner-Zyberk & Co also argue that the modern sprawl and suburbs are all just cookie cutter houses that create more traffic, pollution, and more commuting to work. Both argue the convenience of living in the city.

Steven Waugh Gadgets

Lexis Nexus allows students and faculty of Georgia Tech to access newspaper or journal articles from many different sources. The database contains various amounts of topics, which improve its reliability to Georgia Tech Students. Topics, such as sprawl, are merely a click away.
In "Counties Try to Preserve Quiet Life," sprawl is shown to be invading some Southeastern States and its counties. From Nashville to Atlanta, sprawl is making a foothold. Small towns near Nashville saw Nashville become full of sprawl. The small towns quickly created historical districts to combat sprawl. Maury County Tennessee is highlighted as a town that's battling sprawl.A rural community, Maury County is starting to notice some of the preliminary effects of sprawl. Still preserving its magnificent plantation homes, the county has doctor's offices and other commercial businesses erecting buildings in the small county. Maury county is taking steps to battle suburban sprawl. City planners made urban growth restrictions in order to preserve the county's natural beauty.
The last part of the article shows that Maury County, and counties like it, are having trouble financially without sprawl. Property taxes currently are not enough to properly fund the county. Sprawl is needed to provide revenue to the county. Maury County, and others like it, fight daily to combat sprawl, while trying to resist its financial appeals.

Lauren's Map

Hey! So here is my map of all the places I've been to during my first semester at Georgia Tech!

View Lauren's Map in a larger map
View Lauren's Map in a larger map

Tuscaloosa Alabama

Tuscaloosa Alabama:

By: Lauren Young

Over the weekend I was selected to run in the Crimson Classic cross country meet in Tuscaloosa Alabama. After three hours of driving, we pulled into s Home Suite Inn, which was a very nice hotel with Kitchens in every room. That night we dinned out in the area. It withholds all your typical chain stores and modern suburbia. There are several clothing stores, restaurants, a super Target, and a mall. We selected Olive Garden for dinner. The area itself is very built up and isn’t very attractive. There are few trees and lots of concrete.

The next day we went on a run in a neighborhood nearby. The homes were on a pretty busy street with no sidewalks. The neighborhoods were not like suburbs, but rather they were streets with houses right next to them. The houses I saw did not have much yard space, and the sidewalks were kind of crappy. The houses were smaller in general. These are just my observations from the area I saw. This could be very different from other parts of Tuscaloosa.

I raced on the course owned by the University of Alabama. The course was very nice since it was an old golf course. There were a lot of wooded areas and very nice grass. There were nice paths in the woods for the public to use for exercise. I felt a sense of calm as I ran this course since it was just so pretty.

On the drive home, I asked myself, why is it that the highways here look different than Ohio? It took me awhile to pinpoint what it was, because both are just concrete and have trees on both sides. But I realized that in Ohio, the grass on the side of the roads is higher, and the trees are different. By different, I mean in Ohio the trees have several branches and fine detail, while the trees in Georgia and Alabama have less branches and less tree leaves.

My trip was mainly just focused on running, so I did not get to see much of Alabama, but this was my experience, and it was different than both Ohio and Georgia Tech.

Virginia Highlands

Virginia Highlands

By: Lauren Young

This weekend I celebrated my birthday in Virginia Highlands. It is a cute little village filled with boutiques and local restaurants. The boutiques all have cute summer dresses that you cannot find in the common malls. There is also a small town firehouse and a little church in the plaza. This is a great place to go to to hang out on the weekend since it has places to shop in the afternoon, outdoor patios to dine on, various bars and restaurants, and even an ice cream and pastry shop.

I will talk more specifically about the dinning since that's what I did for my birthday. My family and I ate at the Highland Tap. It is recognized for being voted "best burger" in Atlanta, (just like several other places probably claim...) The restaurant is built in the basement of a building and as you first enter there is a bar, and then there are a couple more rooms of seating. The walls are made of stone which gives it a cool feeling since it is a basement. It has candles at every table and some murals like Italy painted on the other walls. It is definitely a place where you do no want to underdress, but it's not a five star formal place either. It is a nice place to celebrate a special occasion though. The prices generally range around $10-30 per meal depending on what you get.

I chose to see if their claim of the Highland Tap Burger being the best of Atlanta was true. The burger was very large, (10 oz. of meat!), but it was very good. It had a grilled taste to it rather than a fast food taste. I would recommend it to anyone who loves burgers. Also, my mother tired a fish sandwich and she said it was a very excellent cut of fish. My friend had a salad with some kind of vinegar and bacon dressing and said that was also very good tasting. The proportions overall were very large and worth the value you pay. I would suggest dinning here if you ever want to have a sit down dinner in Virginia Highlands.

Overall this was a neat experience. I wrote my neighborhood essay on the Highlands from my observations of literally running through it three times. It was nice to actually walk and explore the plaza, and to take the time to sit down and eat all the food that I smell every time I run by. This was my adventure off of Tech for the Weekend.

The classic city of Savannah, a modern marvel

Landing in the middle of the forest I wondered where exactly was Savannah. There wasn’t another building in site. This was very refreshing, not to mention the crisp and clean air. Jumping into the car I am starving and am anticipating the normal traffic that I’ve encountered everywhere. With about three other cars on the highway it was relatively easy to merge. As we got closer to Savannah I could feel the history.

The buildings were out of the 19th century, with a seemingly very effective infrastructure.

The world renowned Savannah college of art and design has taken upon itself the job of refurbishing these classic buildings by integrating it into its curriculum.

The history Is well maintained and its sense of community is strikingly different to most of the american places I have been to...there is one!!

Day 2

Leaving the past behind I drove across the highway to be met by non other than SPRAWL!!!! We ended up using an entire day to pick up a few clothes and a computer..... This was absurd to me. While sitting to grab a bite in a food court the chatter of a few ladies a few tables away caught my attention. All of these ladies had infants with them and a new ‘build a bear’ wit them.... Is this what new young mothers do with their babies and time? Where was the park? Somewhere with a real environment to take these newborns....

Once back on the campus I could easily navigate through the simple grid style infrastructure. If I had any problem there was always a friendly warm face around. People actually greeted you as they walk by on the street: “hey, how are you man?” This was something I had learnt to never expect from anyone in the US.

With frequent police patrols I never felt unsafe while I walk up to City Street, a place filled with action and activities. People of all ages and all walks of life were around, adding character to the environment. Live bands and outdoor dining are all simple things to create interaction with others in a seamless fashion,

Surprisingly enough the nightlife shut down pretty early, before 12. I didn't inquire as to why but I assume due to noise regulations or something of that nature.

All in all Savannah is definitely not sprawl. It is the classic model simply being pumped with refreshing nutrients easing it into the present.

Mayfair, the Mix of Sprawl and Tradition

Mayfair is one of the many typical suburban neighborhoods around Alpharetta, GA. This neighborhood and the rest around it have an interesting blend of sprawl from Atlanta and traditional qualities of a good neighborhood. It has the walkability of being able to walk to nearby parks, grocery stores, and schools, yet it still doesn't really have any public transportation. This shows the blend of qualities between a sprawl and a traditional neighborhoods. The houses are spread which is a waste of space, since there is also a public park. These parks are frequently used as well, which means that the parks themselves are not a waste, the yards and large houses are. The neighborhood yields plenty of cultural and ethnic diversity, but has almost no economic diversity, due to all of the homes being the same amount. Mayfair also has a strong sense of community. They have policies to make sure people do yard work, which forces people to be out and about. Because people always seem to be outside, they are forced to talk when passing by and get to know each other. They also set up social events to get everyone in the community to better know each other. Mayfair walks the line between sprawl and a good traditional neighborhood, even in distance from Atlanta. It is close enough to be affected, but far away enough to maintain its good neighborhood qualities. All of the above were criteria that I had about my neighborhood review. The qualities of the neighborhood contrast each other, which makes for an interesting look on a different kind of neighborhood.

By: Stephen Sealy

Welcome to the Orange County of the South!

My neighborhood of choice is Buckhead. Located a couple exits Northbound on I-85, Buckhead is the premier area of Atlanta. Characterized by its magnificent Mansions, and wonderful shopping districts, Buckhead has something for everyone. A good neighborhood provides its residents with various forms of shopping. With over 1400 shops and stores, Buckhead is the shopping hub of the Southeast. The shopping districts provide shoppers with ample walking space. Walkability is one of the best characteristics that a neighborhood can have. The walking ability of Buckhead's shopping districts is very good. Marta and other forms of public transportation allow people to abandon their reliance on their gas guzzlers. Beautiful houses provide a sense of beauty and class to neighborhoods. Mansions, such as the illustrious Governors Mansion, line streets, such as West Paces Ferry Road, with beautiful scenery for tourists to enjoy. Other than shopping, Buckhead provides many extracurricular activities for people to enjoy. Residents and visitors of Buckhead enjoy over 40 public and privately owned parks for their enjoyment.
My criteria for a good neighborhood has not changed since I visited Buckhead. It has actually been reaffirmed. The attributes of a good neighborhood, such as walk-ability, ample shopping, magnificent houses, and recreational activities, can all been seen walking throughout Buckhead. Buckhead is the perfect example of a good mix of sprawl-like and traditional characteristics of neighborhoods.

The Blissful Glutton Blog Review- Lauren Young

I read the blog, The Blissful Glutton, which is written by Jennifer Zyman. In this blog she takes the time to dine at different restaurants in Atlanta, and writes reviews not to sell or advertise anything, but to give honest reviews to the people of atlanta. I think she is compelled to write this blog because she has a passion for food first of all, or else, why write reviews on it? I also think it is a way for her to connect with the community and to help people out. People don't choose to publish material unless they feel there is a need to share their thoughts with the world. Bottom line, I think she's writing because she wants to share what she thinks to help other people gain perspective on food in Atlanta.

In this blog she writes reviews about once every 2 weeks on a different place in atlanta. She also provides an image of the food as well to connect more with the viewers. Not only does she discuss food in atlanta though, she also has a travel page where she branches out to food all around the world. I think by writing this and providing pictures, that Jennifer hopes to influence people to try certain food or new places. I think she does this to help other people reach out of their comfort zone and to switch up where they eat. Also I think she writes this to just spread the sense of community throughout Atlanta. She shares her personal opinions, but also tries to keep her reviews not too biased so people can read them and then decide what they want to eat. Everyone eats food, and this is a great way for the people in Atlanta to share their thoughts about local food with one another.

Steven Waugh Terminal Station

Exploring the capabilities of various Atlanta Metro blogs, "Terminal Station" caught my attention. Run by a blogger known only as B King, "Terminal Station" provides insight into Atlanta real estate and politics. The blog is primarily focused on the real estate situation currently causing havoc in Atlanta. The blog goes into detail on a number of factors that affect the real estate of the area such as crime, politics, the local economy, and transportation.

A clearly informative, yet emotional, tone provides the reader of the blog to be enveloped in the topic at hand. Whether B King is infuriated over the rise in crime, or praising a politicians efforts at reform, he will always grasp your attention through emotion, yet informative, blog posts. "Terminal Station" allows B King to present his opinions, or just post a link on a current event. The blog is outfitted with links. Every post by B King is supported with multiple links in order to help verify the situation at hand. Whether its a post on new crime levels, or just a post about a rising politicians ideals, B King provides sources to reaffirm his position. Along with links, "Terminal Station" provides advertisements of local businesses, graphs supporting opinions on the blog, pictures advertising local restaurant establishments, and in depth maps of the city itself.

B King provides current, and potential, residents of Atlanta with information concerning the overall livability of the city. My personal opinion concerning why B King writes this blog is that he feels like the people deserve a different look at the city. The local news channels and newspapers all are focused on a positive outlook towards Atlanta. B King provides an unbiased (for the most part) opinion of Atlanta residential life. He shows how Atlanta crime and politics affect the quality of the homes and the quality of life for the city's residence. I believe that B King hopes to create a new level of awareness for Atlanta residents. B King hopes to provide insight on issues that should concern Atlanta residents, so that the residents can try to lobby for change.