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| Controlling sprawlThe Challenge: Roosevelt fellows need to work with local, state and national governments to find innovative strategies to combat suburban sprawl, and the impacts it has on the enviorment and urban infrastructure. How the proposed Challenge meets the challenge criteria: Suburban sprawl is an issues that impact every major city and most suburbs throughout the US. City residents suffer because of the continued exodus of economic drivers from downtown locations and the departure of a tax base. The need for increased transportation infrastructure to deal with sprawl, particularly exurban sprawl, places a strain on many existing suburban and rural communities. The enviromental impact of sprawl, particularly the increased use of automobiles and the destruction of natural enviroments, hurts every one of us. Sprawl must be addressed on every level. Land use policies are controlled on the local level through town and municipal governments. In turn, these rights are granted by state legistlatures, who are also the only bodies capable of promoting regional partnerships and regional planning. The Federal government needs to promote urban development and incentivize higher density growth. Without national leadership, states will be slow to act. The issues surronding sprawl encompass a range of discplines: architects, urban planner, enviromental scientists, political scientists, economics, etc. Vision or background behind the proposed Challenge: The continued expansion of suburban regions, most notoriously in cities like Phoenix, has a wide range of negative impacts on our society. In the first place, sprawl pulls affluent citizens out of cities, lowering the tax base. Sprawl forces reliance on automobiles, and leads to the destruction of forests and farmland. Sprawl also destroys commmunities, and isolates people from one another. We need to strive to increase government involvement in land planning and encourage intelligent growth. Why Roosevelt should take on this Challenge over others: This challenge is a good one for Roosevelt to take on because of its widespread applicability and the potential for locally grounded change. Because land use is a local issue, students will be able to interact with key players and generate community support. Innovative solutions will most likely be applicable across many communities. Sprawl is an issue that fails to garner much public attention, but has an enormous impact on the infrastructure of our cities and suburbs, and leads to enormous enviromental damage. We need to step up to protect our cities and the outdoors before all of America is filled with strip malls and single family homes. Commentsfantastic. Wow, this is an issue I feel that hasn't been brought up in a long time. While being pretty feasible, and important -- the more interesting aspect is its relative lack of address by policymakers. Also it can also be used to support future Roosevelt challenges. Oregon's got a thing or two to say about this... I think this is a well crafted proposal. However, just reading it, it ties into the proposal about reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and also into those about improving public schools and racially integrated neighborhoods. I think that it outdoes those in identifying one keystone problem which exacerbates all the others, but I think it would be stronger if it framed itself more comprehensively so that it was more attractive to people not used to thinking of sprawl as a political issue. I also worry that because so many interests are vested in the current model of American cities that this will be incredibly difficult to implement the types of policies that could address this. This is a good Challenges proposal, very much in the spirit of the program. I worry about taking on urban planning in the short time span we have. Since development happens over a matter of years and decades, can we have an impact if we just spend one year on it? Maybe just discussing and coming up with proposals is impact enough, but I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on that question. This is one challenge that I hope the UNLV Chapter out here will work on. Sprawl, sustainability and the impact this all leads to on the environment are all issues shaping every level of election here in Las Vegas. It might surprise many but the Las Vegas Valley is running out of land in which to build upon. We have moved into the valleys that surround our city. As well, we have been in a drought for years now with the water level of Lake Mead dropping to record numbers. I think that as Quinn said, we need to listen closer to Oregon and how they handled this issue. Meanwhile, the gentrification of our nation’s cities—-a parallel phenomenon--occurs even faster than suburban sprawl. One should be mindful as not to discourage sprawl and inadvertently encourage gentrification without thinking of its consequences for the urban poor. |
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