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

Want to read this on your NOOK? Request as NOOK Book from the publisher

Thank you for requesting this book as a NOOK book from the publisher.

More About This Book

Overview
What People Are Saying
Product Details
Read an Excerpt
Table of Contents

Advertising

Overview

Is pursuit of the American dream becoming a nightmare? Once There Were Greenfields presents the story of one of America's most challenging social problems, sprawl development. Community downtowns are being replaced with strip malls. Farmland is giving way to parking lots. Meanwhile, inner cities are losing jobs and the tax base necessary to support public schools. This book meticulously documents the consequences of sprawling growth patterns and proposes guiding principles for a new kind of "smart" growth that combines economic progress with environmental protection and social goals.

What People Are Saying

Bruce Katz

The prose is elegant, and the information is very clearly presented. Once There Were Greenfields should be a valuable addition to the literature, as something that is both fact-filled and easy to read. -- (Bruce Katz, Director, The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy)

Constance Beaumont

Once There Were Greenfields is a terrific book, and NRDC and STPP are to be commended for writing it. I think it will be extremely useful to people involved in struggles against sprawl in various communities around the country. -- (Constance Beaumont, Director for State and Local Policy, National Trust for Historic Preservation)

Susan Handy

Once There Were Greenfields provides a balanced and insightful assessment of what we know about the issue of suburban sprawl. It will be an important contribution to the search for solutions to the problems generated by sprawl. -- (Professor Susan Handy, University of Texas School of Architecture)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781893340176
Publisher: Natural Resources Defense Council, Incorporated
Publication date: 3/28/1999
Pages: 228
Product dimensions: 5.96 (w) x 9.02 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Read an Excerpt

In 1960, one of the most popular songs in America was a simple folk song by a group called The Brothers Four. Its opening lines evoked a youthful, sentimental memory of the best of the American landscape:

Once there were greenfields, kissed by the sun
Once there were valleys where rivers used to run
Once there were blue skies with white clouds high above
Once they were part of an everlasting love...1

In large part, this book is the story of what has happened to America's greenfields in the four decades since the haunting rhythms and minor chords of this song filled our nation's radio airwaves.

This is also a story about the so-called "American Dream." It is about astonishing rates of growth and about progress and prosperity, all of which are good and all of which we salute. It is about the United States of America at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and about our country's expanding population and economy.

But our story is also about the Dream's nightmarish twists. It is not so much about good, smart growth as it is about, to put it bluntly, dumb growth. It is about landscapes lost, traffic congested, air and water polluted, public health endangered, and a potential energy crisis that could make those of the 1970s look mild by comparison. It is about how nearly all of the incredible, positive strides forward that we have taken in improving our environmental quality could be overwhelmed if we do not change the way we grow.

Our story is also about economic waste, rising taxes, and unfair burdens that dumb growth places on taxpayers and governments. And it is about the consequences for those left behind as we place more and more of our investment and energy in new places-in our vanishing "greenfields"-rather than in the places where people already live.

Most of all, it is a story about our cities, the regions that surround them, and the people who live in these cities and regions. It is about Chicago and Cleveland and Fresno, and about Loudoun County in Virginia and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It is about what is happening in these places and to their inhabitants, as we expand our reach ever-outward much faster than we are growing in population. It is about our houses and our yards and our workplaces and our stores and our schools, most of which are good, and where we have been putting them, most of which is not.

Ours is not, however, a story about villains. The only perpetrators are ourselves and frankly, we have allowed this to happen only because, until now, we have known no better.

Nor is our story about nostalgia. We are twenty-first century environmentalists. We seek progress, not retreat. We seek a future for our great regions and for our children that with smarter growth will be more prosperous as well as more environmentally sustainable and socially equitable than our present blind dumb path. We believe that this brighter dream is well within our reach.

This book is organized into five principal chapters. First, we describe the basic facts and trends that constitute our current patterns of growth. Second, we discuss what these patterns have meant and threaten to continue to mean for our environmental resources including air and energy, land, and water. Our third chapter discusses the fiscal costs of inefficient development, and our fourth describes the social consequences of development patterns that ignore existing communities. Finally, we conclude on an optimistic note, presenting some examples and strategies that we believe hold promise for a more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable future.

Our narrative is intended not only to tell this story but also to constitute a reference volume, presenting interested readers with a range of collected data and information, as well as citations to a larger body of research. Our hope is that, by organizing the various findings contained in what others have written about this subject, we can help readers bridge the gap between broader books about sprawl, which make a compelling case but do not always provide detailed annotations, and academic reports and other more focused pieces of writing that detail parts of the story but do not attempt to illuminate the whole. We are not academics, and we acknowledge that we have come to this project with a point of view; but we have investigated the facts, and we are firm in our conviction that the problems we raise are real and serious.

In sum, we intend this book to present the factual case why we should care about the way we grow, along with some ways that we might do better. Now, in pursuit of a brighter American dream, we begin our story.

1 "Greenfields," words and music by Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, and Frank Mille, copyright 1956 by Blackwood Music, Inc. "Greenfields" was released on the album The Brothers Four in 1959 and reached number one on the popular music charts in 1960. It has been reissued on Greatest Hits, by The Brothers Four, Columbia Records CK-8603.

PREFACE: OF FIELDS AND DREAMS
CHAPTER 1: THE FACE OF CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 2: PAVING PARADISE: SPRAWL AND THE ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER 3: FROM GREEN TO RED: THE FISCAL IMPACTS OF SPRAWL
CHAPTER 4: THERE GO THE NEIGHBORHOODS: SPRAWL AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE
CHAPTER 5: A BETTER WAY: VISIONS OF SMART GROWTH
EPILOGUE: THE BRIGHTER DREAM

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review

( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble

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

Overview

More About This Book

Overview

Related Subjects

What People Are Saying

Bruce Katz

Constance Beaumont

Susan Handy

Product Details

Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

5 Star

4 Star

3 Star

2 Star

1 Star

Your Rating:

Your Recommendations:

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

What to exclude from your review:

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

Reminder:

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!