Sprawl Kills

[two lumps of shugh]

Has anyone read Joel Hirschhorn's Sprawl Kills: How the Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money?

I found this review:

"Waking Up from the American Dream: A Review of Sprawl Kills"
Joel Hirschhorn spreads the word about the dangers of sprawl and encourages people to demand healthy places to live.
By Ryan McGreal
Sep. 15, 2005
http://www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=151

"Unfortunately, as Hirschhorn notes, a huge and influential industry has been built around perpetuating sprawl development, and it uses every propaganda and lobbying resource at its disposal to ensure that zoning regulations, public infrastructure funding, and advertising continue to push sprawl at the expense of healthy places. Hirschhorn calls its agents "sprawl shills", and he's not afraid to name names or identify tactics. After years working as an advisor to the U.S. National Governors' Association, he has seen their efforts up close, and wants everyone to know what happens in back rooms to manipulate the so-called 'free market' for homebuilding."

Maybe this should all be in a thread on smart growth and new urbanism (e.g. Pearl District has at least one example)

by the same author:

"Time to Recognize the Politics of Suburban Sprawl"
by Joel Hirschhorn
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1119-13.htm

"Sprawl is not propelled simply by market forces. The land development and home building business sectors would have us believe that they are simply responding to the public demand for housing in general and suburban homes in particular. They lie. The housing market is remarkable because supply influences demand much more than demand affects supply. What this means is that although there is a huge fraction of Americans who do not want to live in suburban sprawl un-places, they have little choice in the market. These people want to live in true communities that are walkable, loaded with parks and other greenspaces near their homes, and where they can greatly reduce their car use. ...Consumers will only obtain true options in housing and transportation if they offset the political influence of the sprawl lobby. This means more opponents to sprawl running for public office, and more citizens voting their values."

The author describes his motivations for writing the book here:
http://www.newcolonist.com/sprawlkills.html

"Until I learned about Smart Growth I did not understand the importance of the built environment, land use, and suburban sprawl as root causes of what I viewed as rotten aspects of our culture and landscape. ... I never found a book that was written for a truly general audience, aimed at all people who make critical housing decisions. A book that would help consumers reject sprawl living in favor of authentic communities that were walkable, mixed-use, and not totally auto-dependent. I wanted to make the case for Smart Growth not on the basis of environmental issues or emotion, but from a market perspective, basing it on how individuals and families could best serve their self-interests through Smart Growth living."

More info: http://www.smartgrowth.org