Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America's Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric Review

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(More customer reviews)What do road rage, farmland loss, inner-city poverty, and air pollution have in common? They are all part of "sprawl," a thoroughly American phenomenon of poorly-planned scattershot development.
"Once There Were Greenfields" provides a comprehensive review of sprawl: its causes, its consequences, and most importantly, its solutions. If Benfield's book had been printed 50 years ago, perhaps much of the destruction of America's farms and city centers would have been avoided.
The book reviews a number of public policies that favor unlimited consumption of land and drive development out of America's cities. Benfield reminds us that while most of the policy decisions that lead to sprawl are made at the state and local level, these decisions are often based on economic incentives created by federal activity. The sad fact is that our current patterns of low-density development are the result of fifty years of government policy decisions, direct government funding, and government-influenced private finance and credit decisions. In most American cities, the mix of these policies and market forces creates a strong economic push toward an ever-expanding suburbia at the expense of our core urban and inner suburban areas.
The results of sprawl have been disastrous for environmental quality and for the economic well-being of cities. Sprawl is even costly to suburban residents that unknowingly subsidize the process, such as the paving of more than one million acres of farmland per year, through increases in their property taxes and other mechanisms.
Despite the book's detailed review of policies ranging from taxation and transportation to agriculture and water quality, it remains extremely accessible. Newcomers to the issue that Vice President Gore has termed "Livability" will find "'Greenfields" a thoughtfully balanced primer. Land use professionals will appreciate the professionalism of the research and wealth of useful citations.
This book is a must-read for policy makers and citizen activists alike that wish to improve their quality of life. If you've been looking for a single source of all the most important -- and most disturbing -- facts about sprawl, Benfield and his associates have produced it.

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Once There Were Greenfields describes the environmental, economic, and social impacts of sprawl development. It also proposes guiding principles for a new kind of "smart growth."