We Want YOU to Fight Sprawl

As kind of a wrap up for my blogs for the semester, I thought I'd look into something that we can all take away from this class. In specific, I researched the ways that we as individuals can fight sprawl. A lot of Suburban Nation focused on the problems with city planners, governmental policies, and builders, but not a lot of it looked into the smaller things that Joe Everyman can do to take down Suburbia.

This article from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources gives a good list of advisable things for the individual to do to fight sprawl takeover. Things as simple as moving into a mixed use environment, living near work, and shopping downtown are not only convenient, they send a message to legislators and builders. After all, it is the choices of the individual that drive America's capitalistic society and it is therefore their choices that first created a need for sprawl. If the individual shows that he has shed his desire for sprawl, sprawl will no longer have the fuel it needs. In the same vein, we, as individuals, can speak out by sending letters to local legislators in support of building in space efficient ways, reusing existing buildings, and revising zoning. Supporting local businesses, such as local loggers and farmers can help ward off the need for franchises which breed sprawl.

Live how you want to live, and the rest will come. If the majority decides that sprawl is no longer necessary, then it will die.

Signing out,
-Andrew Van Deventer