Sprawl
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Form-Based Codes Mean More Sustainable Cities
New research shows that prioritizing building "form" over their use leads to more sustainable cities.
Jack Guan
July 7, 2025
Video: Reining in the Sprawl
Some cities are shifting toward eco-friendly housing. Here are some lessons.
Matthew Sage
June 5, 2025
How America Can Reconnect Its Neighborhoods Before the Next Climate Catastrophe
America is replete with sprawling, disconnected neighborhoods that send residents out of their way by design. A new study explores just how bad it is — and what we can do about it.
January 20, 2025
President Sprawl? What’s With Pols Talking About Developing Federal Land?
The federal government's job should be "to make sure that all people have the choice of living in the community that they choose and that they’re able to afford to live there,” said one activist.
October 21, 2024
Study: We Can Build Our Way out of Climate Change
Cities can dramatically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by rezoning single-family housing areas for denser, mixed-use developments.
September 26, 2024
Should Communities That Suppress Housing Lose Their Road Funding?
A Colorado bill would require sprawling cities to take action to increase their affordable housing supply before they collect money to build more roads — and some want to take it national.
February 25, 2024
Caltrans Asphalt Addiction Continues
This time in Eastern Contra Costa, with plans to build a new highway, State Route 239.
December 8, 2022
The Urbanists’ Dilemma
Are suburbs and small towns poised to make a comeback thanks to COVID 19?
August 17, 2020
What Drives the Google Bus?
Forget measuring carbon emissions and counting blocked Muni buses. The real meaning of the Google bus is the deeper illness it reveals – a co-dependent relationship in which sprawl and gentrification reinforce each other.
April 21, 2014
Paul Krugman Links Sprawl to Persistent Social Inequality
Is sprawl holding back social mobility in America? Paul Krugman didn't mince words yesterday in a follow-up to a post he wrote soon after the Detroit bankruptcy was announced. In that initial blog post, he compared Detroit to Pittsburgh and concluded that it wasn't just the loss of manufacturing jobs that hurt Detroit -- it was also the dispersement of jobs away from the city core. Yesterday, in a column titled "Stranded by Sprawl," he took the argument further, arguing, "Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger."
July 29, 2013