Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development

Book Description

The environmental impacts of sprawling development have been well documented, but few comprehensive studies have examined its economic costs. In 1996, a team of experts undertook a multi-year study designed to provide quantitative measures of the costs and benefits of different forms of growth. Sprawl Costs presents a concise and readable summary of the results of that study.

The authors analyze the extent of sprawl, define an alternative, more compact form of growth, project the magnitude and location of future growth, and compare what the total costs of those two forms of growth would be if each was applied throughout the nation. They analyze the likely effects of continued sprawl, consider policy options, and discuss examples of how more compact growth would compare with sprawl in particular regions. Finally, they evaluate whether compact growth is likely to produce the benefits claimed by its advocates.

The book represents a comprehensive and objective analysis of the costs and benefits of different approaches to growth, and gives decision-makers and others concerned with planning and land use realistic and useful data on the implications of various options and policies.

Customer Reviews:

Potent ammo against unchecked growth.......2006-04-23

As a rural resident trying to help my town control predatory developers and manage issues of growth and land use, this book is a potent tool, a fact that is clearly disturbing to some who stand to profit handsomely from sprawl, like the automobile and oil companies, the large-scale construction industries, millionaire developers, automobile manufacturers, and big-box national retailers.

It's interesting that Diane Bast has written a negative review without mentioning, either here or in her Amazon.com profile, that she holds the title of Vice President of Internal Affairs for the benign-sounding (and Richard Mellon Schiafe-funded) "Heartland Institute," whose work she cites here.

She also fails to mention that her husband Joseph L. Bast is also founder, president and CEO of the Institute, whose board of directors includes representatives from General Motors, Exxon-Mobil, and Philip Morris, along with various banks and insurance companies. The Institute has also over the years received substantial funding from the tobacco industry, among other large multinational companies. Of course, none of these board members mention these affiliations on Heartland's flowers-and-little-kids adorned official website, because that would be giving the real purpose of the organization away.

I doubt that such an organization would subsidize any research which would support public transportation or de-emphasize converting far-flung farmland or open space into cookie-cutter subdivisions, so Ms. Bast's citations are unsurprising given her unmentioned affiliation to that organization.

As for Mr. Cox, a quick check of his consultancy website reveals his purpose is to denigrate comprehensive planning efforts (because they supposedly put constraints on private ownership and the so-called "free market") and to promote gasoline-powered transportation over rail, public transportation and other environmentally- friendly alternatives. (In the 1920s and 30s, a consortium of carmakers and tire manufacturers bought up and dismantled existing electric trolley systems in major cities, and Mr. Cox and his colleagues are apparently dedicated to making sure that such systems stay dead.)

In fact, despite Ms. Bast's derision of "politics" as a factor in the costs of sprawl, the Heartland Institute has been more than willing to use politics to its own corporate ends, including coordinating the blast-faxing of legislators to oppose or overturn anti-smoking, pro-environmental and health-care regulatory legislation that could cut into the profits of its benefactor companies. Despite her sprinkling her review with references to the poor and minorities, her organization believes in unfettered corporate power, first and foremost. I believe the reader should take that into account when reading her comments.

The fact remains that sprawl enriches developers, car manufacturers, oil and real estate companies much, much more than individual homeowners, who find that as gas hits $3 - $4 a gallon and above, and their property taxes jump as overburdened small towns try to cope with the sudden need to build new schools and keep formerly little-used town roads in repair, that their "affordable" homes cost them more to own than they imagined -- and that the only part of the supposed wealth they generate is when they sell them, long after the strip-mall, big-box and cookie-cutter developers have pocketed their profits and gone elsewhere.

There is a biological analog to unfettered and out of control growth. It's called "cancer." Cancer eventually kills its host. Sprawl kills community life and saps a region's vitality. This book lays out the evidence in black and white.

For more information on the Heartland Institute, go to www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute.

Will We Become a Nation of Renters?.......2005-12-13

According to an article by Wendell Cox, senior fellow for The Heartland Institute, this book rehashes the tired claims about suburbanization (pejoratively called "urban sprawl") being unnecessarily costly. In fact, however, Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development (by Robert Burchell, Anthony Downs, Barbara McCann, and Sahan Mukheri) relies on prospective data that is soundly refuted by reality.

The book is an outgrowth of a study led by Burchell, which concluded that more compact (less suburban) development could save $225,000,000,000 in government spending over 25 years. The study made the all-too-common error of concluding that many zeros after a number make it significant. They do not. It will probably take the average reader at least 225,000,000,000 nanoseconds to read this article. $225 billion over 25 years is less than $30 per capita each year. This is a pittance in comparison with overall government expenditures, which have risen more than 100 times that fast over the past 25 years after adjustment for inflation.

Aside from the shock value, the validity of the numbers is questionable. In fact, the suburbs are not more expensive. Joshua Utt and I published research analyzing Bureau of the Census data for more than 700 municipalities concluding that actual (not theoretical) per-capita public expenditures are lowest in the newer suburbs. Even sewer costs were found to be lowest in the newer suburbs. The principal reasons are that politics, congestion, and labor costs drive costs higher in more compact development.

Sprawl Costs' weakest assertion may be that more compact development would reduce the cost of an average new house $16,000, a conjecture that ignores economic reality. To accomplish the more compact development Burchell et al. would prefer requires stringent regulation, such as urban growth boundaries, greenbelts, and other limits on development. Rationing land, like anything else, results in higher prices. Edward Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko, in work published by Harvard University, reported that the principal cause of differences in housing affordability among U.S. metropolitan areas is zoning and land regulation.

The current "housing bubble" is most pronounced where there is strong land rationing-places like California, Portland, and the Northeast, from Boston to Washington's Virginia and Maryland suburbs. In the past five years actual house prices in those areas have risen $200,000 more than the average in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston, growth dynamos where there is little land rationing. In just five years, the conjectural $16,000 savings over 25 years have been consumed 12 times over by the actual excess price increases in areas that have implemented the very strategies required to compel the compact development advocated by Burchell et al.

Moreover, with minority home ownership in the U.S. a full third below the Non-Hispanic White homeownership rate, the cost-increasing effects of land rationing are today denying opportunity and blocking the ladder to the economic mainstream. Of course, the higher prices will also drive other millions out of the homeownership market.

All of this shifts wealth from young to old and poorer to richer in a perverse trickle-up economy. The American Dream is under threat. A nation of renters will be less affluent.

None of this is to suggest that suburbanization should be the favored form of urban development. Instead, people should be allowed to live and work where and how they like. Anti-suburban interests have yet to find a compelling reason why this should not be so.

Sprawl Costs misses the economic opportunities and wealth that have been created by broad home ownership, made possible by building new houses on inexpensive land in the suburbs. It is not surprising that virtually all urban growth in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has been suburban for decades. Consumers know better. What Burchell et al. perceive as costs are really benefits.

Wendell Cox (cox@heartland.org) is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, a national university in Paris.

Sprawl on our wallets.......2005-11-16

I just heard one of the authors on talk radio out here and must say that I was blown away by the amount of money sprawl costs every year. Just making a list of the items that tap into our tax dollars is staggering: schools, highways, sewers, electricity, water. And if you watch a new housing development going into the desert, this fact is so obvious---much of the bill must be paid by all the rest of us, how else could they afford all those big costs. So I know the argument for sprawl is that if we didn't have it, housing prices would go through the roof. But one sensible point this author made is that with a very limited change in the way we live, would result in a massive savings to our government spending. So I hope people will listen to this message cause it seems to make sense to me. Looking forward to reading the book, and I hope government officials will as well.

Book Description

Designer Donna Dewberry, one of the most innovative artists of home décor, creates incredibly simple one-stroke, never-take-your-brush-off-the-paper designs for beautiful painted items that will make any house a showpiece. These basic techniques, helpful worksheets, and patterns transform any object into something remarkable and decorative. Delicate ivy trim adorns a keepsake box; roses bloom on a vase; and sunflowers brighten a lamp. Paint magnificent flower-and-vine-covered stepping stones for a garden and special Christmas projects to heighten the holiday spirit. There are even complete room designs! 128 pages (all in color), 8 1/2 x 10. NEW IN PAPERBACK.

Customer Reviews:

The Ultimate Basic.......2003-03-28

Anyone interested in ONE-Stroke painting (Bless you Donna) must have this as basic reference material - a wonderful gift for any you know who have gotten into this form of painting.

My painting frenzy.......2002-06-27

I bought this book as part of my efforts to learn Dewberry's methods. It has numerous tempting projects, clearly written instructions, and an understanding of its audience's needs. Dewberry's method is the easiest I've ever tried, and the results are outstanding with just a little practice and concentration. I am very grateful to Donna for introducing the world to her painting techniques and I look forward to more books like this one. I have more projects lined up now than I'll be able to finish in a year, but I'm sure I'll complete them and be gratified with the results.

not for beginners.......2001-12-28

The book is very good but not for the beginner, it did not go in to enough detail with the strokes.

Donna Dewberry Onestroke Painting Course.......2000-06-20

this is an excellent book for absolute beginners. There are photographs of brush strokes, excellent instructions and worksheets for practicing strokes. Some of the patterns need to be enlarged. There are several projects for different surfaces including wall murals, fabric painting, benches, signs, stepping stones,pots and vases. Tons of ideas and a variety of flowers in this easy to learn technique.

Easy! Easy! Easy!.......1999-06-08

Yes, that's it....easy methods for the artistically inept person to get beautiful results. Easy to follow instructions, combined with great photos makes learning this new craft a delight.

Thanks, Ms. Dewberry!

Average customer rating:
One Stroke Painting Course.
DONNA DEWBERRY
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQRSHK

Amazon.com

Any scene shot in black and white contains a certain element of mystery and, often, nostalgia. But black and white hardly begins to describe the evocative tones of Linda Butler's work, which ranges from silvery blue to pale gold to rich velvet black. Whether a far-reaching photo of a landscape or an intimate portrait of a crypt, Butler's works are of mesmerizing composition; here a curtain moves in a gentle gust, there a cross of sunlight burns through a cathedral door, and everywhere the "presence of the past vibrates in the air." This series of landscapes and still lifes comprises an ode to Italy's ancestors. Light, shadow, and antiquity become the main characters: "No people appear in Butler's photographs, but their actuality as ghost presences who once built and tended the derelict palazzos ... can be felt on every page." Over the course of several years, Butler visited many of the regions of Italy--Umbria, Sicily, the Veneto, and Liguria to name a few--to amass this breathtaking collection, which will awe and delight photography fans and Italy aficionados alike. --Jhana Bach

Book Description

This beautifully printed collection captures the timeless spirit of Italy with haunting images of its architecture, antique objects, and evocative landscapes. Linda Butler strayed from the standard tourist path to create these subtly toned black-and-white photographs, each one a quiet meditation on Italy's past. The richly textured images are reproduced in the large-format tradition, preserving their delicate gradations in tone. This cloth-bound volume includes a text by the photographer that describes her immersion in Italy's mesmerizing history.

Customer Reviews:

Linda Butler captures the timeless spirit of Italy.......1998-12-26

As with her previous books - "The Shaker Legacy" and 'Rural Japan" Linda Butler captures the timeless spirit of Italy. Her photographs have the ability both to convey a feeling for the atmosphere of a place but also for the people who live and work in it. Her unerring photographic eye homes in on the essence of her subject matter. Her craft is impeccable. Her book most enjoyable.

Book Description

Snorlax is hungry and keeps mistaking other Pokemon for food. With Pokemon like Oddish (who looks like a vegetable) and Tangela (who looks like noodles), who can blame Snorlax?

Customer Reviews:

Good, yet very twisted.... o.O.......2000-10-13

I don't have much to say, so unlike my other reviews, this will be relatively short, but.... this is a good, yet very twisted book.

Snorlax has one of the biggest appeties in all of Pokémon-dom, so how does he satisfy such a hunger? Well, when you're surrounded by Oddish (looks like a raddish) and Tangela (oodles o' noodles), I guess you'll have to make do....

Cannibalism amoung Pokémon.... weird...

How's Snorlax to get himself out of this predicament? I guess you'll have to find out yourself, because I'm sure as not going to tell you! So :P

Amazon.com

Despite having written more than 25 books, Richard Elman never became a household name. Like the vast majority of writers, he was relegated to the literary B list, teaching in college creative writing programs and publishing his work to mostly respectful reviews but less than stratospheric sales. Elman died in 1997 at the age of 63; it only seems appropriate that his last book should be a literary memoir. Though Elman never made it to the big leagues himself, he certainly rubbed elbows with those who did; Namedropping is a collection of essays that chronicles his encounters with a number of celebrity artists, musicians, and writers, as well as lesser-known (and some completely unknown) literary figures. Elman's recollections of his friends and acquaintances are often fascinating, frequently funny--and sometimes more than you really wanted to know (Little Richard's proclivity for masturbating while being interviewed comes instantly to mind). But there's also an underlying melancholy--the regret of a man "past middle age, with so many books written ... and only a few still in print"--that permeates these pieces. Namedropping dishes some tasty gossip about the likes of Isaac Bashevis Singer, Faye Dunaway, and Richard Elman's more famous namesake, the biographer Richard Ellmann, but in the end, like all good memoirs, it's more revealing of the author than his purported subjects.

Book Description

In the course of the same old race I find myself writing about knowing some people--how fame seems to set some people apart from us, once known: I was astonished by Ernest Hemingway's small, weak handshake when we were introduced at Scribners by John Hall Wheelock and by the jolt of force with which Elie Wiesel squeezed my hand. -- from the Preface

These are Richard Elman's candid snapshots in prose of the various, mostly literary celebrities he encountered during his four decades as a working writer and journalist--among them Isaac Bashevis Singer, Tillie Olsen, Bernard Malamud, Faye Dunaway, Hunter S. Thompson, and other important artists and writers who were Elman's teachers and, occasionally, adversaries. Engagingly written and never superficial, these portraits and anecdotes in many cases strike to the center of each subject's art. To many readers, these persons are just "names"; Elman brings them to life while never simplifying or overdramatizing their work.

Book Description

The burghers here, as in other places, consist of merchants, shop-keepers, and artisans. Some of the merchants have got fortunes, by fitting out privateers during the war. A great many single ships were taken from the English, notwithstanding the good look-out of our cruisers, who were so alert, that the privateers from this coast were often taken in four hours after they sailed from the French harbour; and there is hardly a captain of an armateur in Boulogne, who has not been prisoner in England five or six times in the course of the war. They were fitted out at a very small expence, and used to run over in the night to the coast of England, where they hovered as English fishing smacks, until they kidnapped some coaster, with which they made the best of their way across the Channel.

Download Description

After the death of his daughter, Smollet set off on a two-year tour of the Continent. This is the alternately crotchety and appreciative record of his adventures.

Average customer rating:

Travels Through France and Italy
Tobias Smollett
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Travels Through France and Italy
Tobias Smollett
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Travels through France and Italy
Tobias Smollett
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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