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.