Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism: 2017

This book shows how suburban sprawl is at least partially a consequence of government spending and regulation, and suggests anti-sprawl policies that can make government smaller and/or less intrusive. Thus, the book responds to the widely held view that automobile-dependent suburban development (also known as "suburban sprawl") is a natural result of the free market and of affluence, and accordingly cannot be altered without massive government regulation. Michael Lewyn is Associate Professor at Touro Law Center in Central Islip, New York, where he teaches property, land use, environmental law and other courses. He has published over four dozen scholarly articles, and blogs regularly at planetizen.com and marketurbanism.com. Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl 3 Preface 6 Acknowledgments 8 Contents 10 List of Tables 11 Introduction 12 1 What Is Sprawl And Why Should We Care About It? 13 1 What Is Sprawl? 13 2 What’s Wrong With Sprawl? 15 2.1 The Environmentalist Perspective 16 2.2 The Progressive/Social Equity Perspective 21 2.3 The Public Health Perspective 26 2.3.1 Sprawl = Less Walking = Worse Health 27 2.3.2 Death by Vehicle 28 2.4 The Libertarian/Conservative Perspective 32 2.4.1 Sprawl vs. Consumer Choice 32 2.4.2 Sprawl Makes Government More Expensive 33 2 Sprawl As Where We Grow: Or, How Government Spreads Suburbia 36 1 Transportation: Sprawl-Generating Highways 38 1.1 How Highways Made Suburbs More Popular 39 1.2 Highways vs. Cities 40 1.3 Counterarguments 41 1.4 Solutions 44 2 The School Gap: Why City Schools Are Worse than Suburban Schools, And How Federal Policy Exacerbated the Problem 47 2.1 No Bad Schools, Only Bad Students 47 2.2 The Root of the Problem 51 2.3 No Perfect Solutions 58 2.3.1 Universal Vouchers 59 2.3.2 Public Schools Only 61 2.3.3 Charter Schools 63 2.3.4 Exam Schools 65 2.3.5 Equity as a Counterargument 66 2.3.6 The School Problem in Summation 69 3 Housing Policy 70 3.1 Subsidizing Suburbia 70 3.2 Sticking the Poor in Cities 73 4 Counterarguments 75 4.1 Blaming the Cities 75 4.2 The Inevitability Theory 77 3 Sprawl As Where We Grow, Part 2: How Government Prices Americans Out Of Cities 80 1 The Problem: Zoning and NIMBYism 83 2 Cause and Effect 86 3 Supply and Demand Denialism 87 3.1 Do Landlords Only Build for the Rich? 88 3.2 Unlimited Demand? 89 3.3 Induced Demand and Housing Costs 93 4 Solutions and Counterarguments 94 4.1 A Proposal 95 4.2 Counterarguments 96 4.2.1 Traffic and Infrastructure 96 4.2.2 Neighborhood Character 97 4.2.3 Property Values 98 4.2.4 Reliance 98 4.2.5 What About Local Autonomy? 99 4.3 Alternatives 101 4 Sprawl As How We Grow, Or How Government Makes Suburbia Sprawling 105 1 Zoning: The Segregation of Uses 106 1.1 The Problem 106 1.2 Solutions 108 2 Density Restrictions 110 2.1 The High Price of Low Density 111 2.2 Anti-density Counterarguments 113 2.3 Solutions 115 3 Parking and Setbacks 118 3.1 The High Cost of Government-Mandated Parking 119 3.2 Solutions 122 4 Street Design 124 4.1 Supersized Streets 124 4.2 Long Blocks 128 4.3 Cul-de-Sacs 129 5 Do Americans Really Want To Walk Anywhere? 136 5 Making Walking A Crime 139 1 Jaywalking 140 1.1 The Problem 144 1.2 But What about Safety? 144 1.3 The Solution: Legalize Jaywalking 146 2 The War on Child Pedestrians (and Their Parents) 148 2.1 The Problem 149 2.2 But What about Safety? 151 2.2.1 Minimal Risk 151 2.2.2 Countervailing Risks: Or, Why It Is Dangerous for Children NOT to Walk 152 2.2.2.1 Risks of harm to the public 152 2.2.2.2 Risks of harm to children 153 2.3 Reforming the Law 155 6 Market Urbanism: Pro-Market Solutions To Anti-Market Sprawl 158 Bibliography 161 Previously published by the Author 178 Index 179 Front Matter....Pages i-xv What Is Sprawl And Why Should We Care About It?....Pages 1-23 Sprawl As Where We Grow: Or, How Government Spreads Suburbia....Pages 25-68 Sprawl As Where We Grow, Part 2: How Government Prices Americans Out Of Cities....Pages 69-93 Sprawl As How We Grow, Or How Government Makes Suburbia Sprawling....Pages 95-128 Making Walking A Crime....Pages 129-147 Market Urbanism: Pro-Market Solutions To Anti-Market Sprawl....Pages 149-151 Back Matter....Pages 153-174 Annotation This book shows how suburban sprawl is at least partially a consequence of government spending and regulation, and suggests anti-sprawl policies that can make government smaller and/or less intrusive. Thus, the book responds to the widely held view that automobile-dependent suburban development (also known as "suburban sprawl") is a natural result of the free market and of affluence, and accordingly cannot be altered without massive government regulation