Beyond sprawl - Excerpts from Beyond Sprawl: "New patterns of Growth to Fit The New California"

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, April, 1996 by Steven Moss

Excerpts from a publication with the title above and the subtitle, "New patterns of Growth to Fit The New California" are reproduced below. They are from a paper which Steven Moss and his associates at the consulting firm of M. Cubed and William Fulton researched and drafted.

----- Even as our economy and our society are being reinvented daily, we continue to abandon people and investments in older communities as development leap-frogs out to fringe areas to accommodate low-density living.

----- Continued sprawl may seem inexpensive for a new homebuyer or a growing business on the suburban fringe, but the ultimate cost-to those homeowners, to the government, and to society at large-is potentially crippling.

----- Within the last generation, the postwar formula for success has become overwhelmed by its own consequences.

----- "California's continuing surge in population puts pressure on both existing communities and on the remaining supply of undeveloped land, making it extremely difficult for traditional suburban patterns to accommodate more people."

----- "Tomorrow's California will include-for the first time-a vast pool of people, Californians from birth, who will want education, jobs and housing.

----- Easy mobility for the middle class has caused them to abandon many older neighborhoods, disrupting social stability and increasing the economic disparity between older communities and newer suburbs.

----- Job decentralization has hit older neighborhoods hardest, because new jobs are now virtually inaccessible to the poor and the working class.

----- Sprawl is fueled by individual choices, market forces, and government policies.

----- "Housing, jobs, shopping, and other activities are scattered across a huge area and long auto trips are often required to connect them. Such a development pattern imposes a considerable cost on all who use it, though the costs are often hidden and those who pay them are not always aware of it."

----- Today, no one in California is unaffected by the cost of sprawl. Its consequences spread across all groups.

----- The commute times for residents of 10 cities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties had increased an average of 13 percent between 1980 and 1990.

----- Most new suburban homebuyers in California must pay additional taxes (usually Mello-Roos taxes) to cover the massive cost of new roads, schools, and other infrastructure required in new communities.

----- Sprawl-induced ozone pollution alone can reduce crop yields 30 percent. Pollution-induced costs to agriculture exceed $200 million per year.

----- After 50 years of sprawl, California's metropolitan areas are enormous, reaching deep into natural ecosystems thriving even a generation ago. Some 95 percent of the state's wetlands have been destroyed over the last 200 years.

----- But government policies alone will not help California move forward. Our businesses, our community groups, and our citizens must also take the initiative.

----- We must understand how sprawl affects each of us, how it impedes the state's progress, and how it could make a prosperous future more difficult.

----- The question is how to address sprawl.

----- We will have to set aside individual interests, build on the foundation laid, and work for the good of the whole. We need to fight sprawl through community action, public policy, private business practices, and individual behavior.

----- Older neighborhoods must be maintained and improved so they are again desirable places to live and work. Old Town Pasadena, the South of Market area in San Francisco, and the train depot reconstruction in Sacramento are all prime examples of successful restoration projects.

----- State and local governments should adopt land-use and transportation policies that reinforce investments in older neighborhoods. Incentives must be developed for job-creating businesses, homebuyers, and others willing to invest in older neighborhoods.

----- If we rationalize development and control the costs of sprawl, it will free up capital that can be reinvested into existing cities and suburbs.

You can obtain a copy of the publication by contacting any of the four sponsoring firms listed. Bank of America, Environmental Policies and Programs, #5800, PO Box 37000, San Francisco, CA 94137, (415) 622-8144. ----- California Resources Agency, The Resources Building, Sacramento, CA 95814, (916)653-5656. ----- Greenbelt Alliance, 116 New Montgomery, Suite 640, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415) 543-4291. ----- The Low Income Housing Fund, 605 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, (415)777-9804.