Growing Up and Growing Out

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

 I swear this question will become relevant in a few minutes.

My answer to this question has changed over the years.  I wanted to be a ballerina when I was little, followed by a teacher, and a CSI, and a computer person, and a journalist when I was in high school.  (I was something of a strange child.)  Somewhere in there, I decided I was interested in politics.

So out of this mess I ended up as a Political Science major as I entered college, and eventually I found myself attracted to Economics much the same way a moth is attracted to a light bulb.  And I love them both.

And while I refuse to believe that I'm actually grown up, from that I've settled on something else entirely:  urban planning.  I can now say that that is what I want to do when I 'grow up' (whatever that means). 

Now, my inner struggle of growing up isn't particularly germane to the environment, but urban planning is.

Urban Planning and Sustainability

Urban Sprawl (*insert dramatic scream*)

In a lot of modern urban planning practices, this image is tantamount to a movie poster for a horror film: 

 

 No, it's not a germ-y, bacterial blob.  Those are houses.  And this is an image of urban sprawl. 

Merrian-Webster defines urban sprawl as:

"A situation in which large stores, groups of houses, etc., are built in an area around a city that formerly had few people living in it."

 Now that sounds like the plot for a really (really) bad horror film.  But this type of building has several real consequences:

• People drive more - one direct consequence of urban sprawl is that everything is more spread out.  Grocery stores are farther away from where people live, as are jobs, schools, and everything else people need to survive.  This spatial spread between all of these things typically means that people are unable to walk or use any alternative transportation to go about their daily lives; even if they wanted to.  This necessitates that people drive.  This leads to greater use of natural resources, and greater harmful tailpipe emissions that are bad for the environment.  Basically, it sucks.
• People in the inner city have unequal access to jobs - as people move away from the inner city into sprawling suburbs and subdivisions, many of the jobs that were once located in the inner city move with the people.  This causes higher rates of unemployment among those who are unable to afford to move closer to areas of unemployment.  This distance further causes them to stay unemployed.
• Uses an unnecessary amount of land - as people move outward into less densely-populated areas, they use an unnecessarily high amount of land to live on.  Which is sort of inefficient.

These are only several of the consequences.

But in swoops an Urban Planners' modern solution to this problem:  smart growth.

Smart Growth

Smart Growth is a concept often used by modern urban planners to try to curb the dastardly villain known as urban sprawl.  It is generally described by Smart Growth America as:

"Smart growth means building urban, suburban and rural communities with housing and transportation choices near jobs, shops and schools. This approach supports local economies and protects the environment."

How Does Smart Growth Work? / Areas of Sustainability

 Generally, Smart Growth works because it focuses on three areas that comprise this behemoth idea of 'sustainability.'  These are the areas:

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is what people traditionally think of when they hear the 'sustainability' buzzword.  It is the traditional idea that all natural resources are precious and finite.  In the face of the degradation of these resources, and with increasing populations, it is the realization that we must be smarter about how we use natural resources.  It is the idea that less may need to be more.

Economic Sustainability

Economic sustainability is the concept of nurturing economies that help allocate resources among people somewhat fairly, while also doing so in a way that considers the environment and social equality.

Social Sustainability

Social sustainability is creating systems that are both environmentally and economically sustainable, while fostering culture that allows for a basic standard of living for all people.

 What Does That Mean?

It means that smart growth is using sustainable practices and land use planning to make better cities.  This approach moves away from economic rationality that pits individual freedom to own a house with a yard against the reality that all natural resources - land, clean air, and the environment in general - are finite.  It focuses more densely-populated areas, and on the placement of jobs and services near the areas where people live.  So they can walk, or take the bus, or ride a bike. 

And this access to cheaper transportation means that everyone has access to these services - not just people who can afford to have cars.

Which solves several of the problems that cause urban sprawl.

That All Sounds Nice...

...But does it really work?

And the answer is:  sort of.  This is merely a tool and concept used by urban planners to attempt to nudge cities in the right direction toward efficiency and sustainability.  But the reality of the urban planning field is that they can set the stage for all of these things to happen using both land use and zoning regulations.  But they typically aren't the one building new housing and businesses. 

Furthermore, even as the stage is set for this to occur, it takes time for the dreams of smart growth to be a reality. 

For the same reason that Rome wasn't built in a day.