Squeeze versus Sprawl
If you hadn’t heard, the U.S. is quickly gaining on the 300 million mark in population. So, with the western U.S. experiencing a high rate of inbound moves, our civic leaders have real challenges when considering growth strategies, environmental impact, and livability factors.
In a recent series on population growth, the Christian Science Monitor writes about two cities with divergent paths to handle growth: Gilbert, Arizona and Portland.
Gilbert, southeast of Phoenix, is the nation’s fastest growing city and has embraced the ’sprawl’ strategy. It’s grown from 2,000 residents in 1970 to over 180,000 today (on it’s way to 300,000). With a wealth of land (but not water), it has grown reasonably unfettered, and is attempting to establish itself as a ‘micropolitan’ city.
Portland, on the other hand, has hemmed it’s growth through self-imposed land use restraints (and it’s geographic limits, like rivers and hills). The result in Portland is urban renewal districts–areas of town redeveloped with the help of public funds and tax incentives. With an emphasis on infill and high-density development, recent examples include the Pearl District, Mississippi Ave., South Waterfront and others.
It’s an approach that flies in the face of convention, though. The article points out that many major U.S. cities are experiencing an exodus to the suburbs.
Public opinion bears this out. Just 13 percent want to live in a city, 51 percent in a suburb, 35 percent in a rural community, according to a 2004 survey by the National Association of Realtors and a group called Smart Growth America.
(By the way, the Portland metro area has plenty of thriving suburbs–Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Tualatin, Gresham, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Canby to name a few.)
Portland’s ‘new urbanism’ planning may serve as a national model, but it is not without major challenges:
Among these: economic development that creates new jobs in an era of increasing globalization; finding a financially viable way to extend public transit into more neighborhoods to reduce downtown auto traffic; and dealing with a rapidly aging infrastructure. Portland has a 600-mile backlog in street maintenance as well as many bridges needing repair.
One major challenge in the ’sprawl’ model–community identity:
“I have a theory that if they dropped you at eye level into any of these towns, you couldn’t tell the difference,” says Jay Butler, director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University. “Gilbert really is no different from [the nearby towns of] Chandler and Mesa. The homes look alike, the SUVs look alike, they all have a Costco.”
It’s an interesting article, touching on issues such as birthrate, environmental impact, and more
Side-note: If you’re thinking about buying real estate in the Phoenix area, check out fellow blogger Greg Swann at Bloodhound Realty, whose blog tipped me off to this article.
Technorati Tags: growth, U.S., cities, suburbs, population, urbanism, Portland, Oregon, Gilbert, Arizona
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1 comment October 3rd, 2006
