Description
Book SynopsisSuburban sprawl has been the prevailing feature—and double-edged sword—of metropolitan America''s growth and development since 1945. The construction of homes, businesses, and highways that were signs of the nation''s economic prosperity also eroded the presence of agriculture and polluted the environment. This in turn provoked fierce activism from an array of local, state, and national environmental groups seeking to influence planning and policy. Many places can lay claim to these twin legacies of sprawl and the attendant efforts to curb its impact, but, according to John H. Spiers, metropolitan Washington, D.C., in particular, laid the foundations for a smart growth movement that blossomed in the late twentieth century.
In Smarter Growth, Spiers argues that civic and social activists played a key role in pushing state and local officials to address the environmental and fiscal costs of growth. Drawing on case studies including the Potomac River''s cleanup,
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. A River Revived
Chapter 2. Where Have All the Forests Gone?
Chapter 3. Desperate for Growth
Chapter 4. The Road to Sprawl
Chapter 5. A Master Plan for Agriculture
Chapter 6. Saving Farms from Development
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Sources
Index
Acknowledgments
