City Politics: Urban Sprawl

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Transportation breakthroughs of the 21st century were one of the reasons behind rapid urban growth in Europe and North America. However, urban growth trends in the Old and the New World differed: in Europe, there were fewer suburbs, and cities occupied the majority of metropolitan areas. In the United States, on the other hand, there was a trend toward metropolitan fragmentation and urban sprawl: a term coined for denoting disorganized urban growth. Judd and Hinze explain that the main characteristic of urban sprawl is the emergence of micro governments on the local level¹. The authors cite the 2012 US census that discovered more than 90 thousand local governments around the country². Judd and Hinze state that the degree of metropolitan and governmental fragmentation in the United States is quite unique as compared to other urban-industrial societies. The classic urban organization with the central city and dependent suburbs was lost: what took its place was the so-called polynucleated metropolis.

The question arises as to why urban sprawl needs to be controlled in the first place. Judd and Hinze cite many recent studies that showcase clear evidence of the negative effects of this phenomenon³. First of all, urban sprawl is taxing on the country’s economy: it is much more expensive to build and maintain infrastructure to low-density regions as compared to high-density regions. Secondly, constant commuting from the city center to suburbs and between suburbs means a higher carbon footprint and the pollution of nearby ecosystems. However, that is not the only downside of commuting: spending hours on end in traffic jams decreases people’s quality of life. They waste time and experience extreme frustration while trying to reach their desired destination.

The extreme fragmentation of US regions makes it difficult to find and implement unified solutions. One of the reasons is the detachment of local governments from regional institutions. American suburbs are largely autonomous entities that have the independence to decide on taxation, expenses, land use, and development. To tackle this problem, a complex system of divided responsibilities was created that assigned some of the duties to urban governments while others were on regional institutions. While feasible in theory, the idea proved to be faulty in practice: many special districts within metropolitan areas remained unreachable and invisible. Yet, their concealment from higher-level institutions granted them greater freedom to make decisions.

Since the 1980s, there have been many other attempts to solve the problem. Their problem was with small-scale applications that were not enough for a fundamental change. Reformers were not fighting against a few faulty organizations: they challenged deep cultural values of individualism that fueled Americans’ support for small local governments. In recent years, the Smart Growth approach has been gaining a great deal of traction. Smart Growth proponents are convinced that limiting urban growth is futile: instead, it needs to be harnessed to benefit everyone ⁴.

The new approach proposes environmental protection, careful zonation, lower energy consumption, and eco-friendly infrastructure. In other words, urban growth needs to be planned and strategic to both accommodate residents’ interests and ensure sustainability. As much as Smart Growth ideas sound optimistic, they were criticized for creating space for manipulation: for example, keeping migrants and minorities out of communities. Taking all points into consideration, it is safe to say that an optimal solution for grappling urban sprawl in the United States has yet to be found.

References

Judd, Dennis R., and Hinze, Annika M. City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2018.

Footnotes

Dennis R. Judd and Annika M. Hinze, City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2018): 8627.
Dennis R. Judd and Annika M. Hinze, City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2018): 8629.
Dennis R. Judd and Annika M. Hinze, City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2018): 8778.
Dennis R. Judd and Annika M. Hinze, City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2018): 9158.

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City Politics: Urban Sprawl

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