Two Cities Receive Bad Sprawl Listing

A new study ranks two of the region’s largest cities as being among the nation’s worst for urban sprawl. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

A new study ranks two of the region’s largest cities as being among the
nation’s worst for urban sprawl. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports.


Detroit and Chicago made the list of 13 worst sprawling cities. The Fannie
Mae foundation commissioned the study- to find out how sprawl affected
home ownership opportunities and affordability. George Galster is an urban
affairs professor at Wayne State University. He was one of the study’s lead
researchers. Galster says each city needs to identify what’s causing its
particular kind of sprawl- before it can begin to fix the problem.

“You want to identify which dimension you have in your metro
area and what particular consequences this dimension of sprawl creates for
you. Then you can direct your policy resources sensibly.”

The study found Chicago fared better than many on the list because of
compact housing clustered around the downtown. Detroit was third worst in
the nation because so much of the city’s core has been abandoned and left
vacant. For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.