Do Americans really want urban sprawl? | Although car-dependent suburbs continue to spread across the nation, they’re not as popular as you might assume.

2 comments

1. There’s a saying in the US .. *drive until you qualify* for a mortgage as the houses get cheaper at the periphery of a “metro area”. A big fail among US climate oriented groups is trying and mostly failing to persuade urban politicos to permit a lot of affordable housing (I’d say probably contributing to the 2024 election results).

   There’s actually a lot of economic pressure and often kickbacks to try to make urban property more expensive. What’s probably needed now is expanding mass transit options to the nether regions assuming the same trends continue in real estate (used to be through the early ‘80s, American urban areas were … unpopular). One “positive” is American cars are getting ever more expensive .. gotta roll with that (pun unintended).

2. The article attributes suburban CO₂ emissions to cars, but with EVs and solar-friendly SFHs, this argument is becoming less relevant. In fact, suburbs may soon have lower per-capita emissions than city centers.

   As for zoning, without restrictions, we get the enshittification of housing—developers continuously subdividing properties for short-term profits, leading to ever-smaller, lower-quality units. Sure, prices will seem affordable at first, but like “just add another lane,” the cycle repeats, and affordability disappears. Tokyo’s micro-apartments are a clear example of this dynamic in action.

Comments are closed.