What People Have to Say About Sprawl

"Sprawl is stories about places that used to be. Sprawl is houses and retail built on virgin land just down the road from existing communities that suffer from empty storefronts and weak investment. Sprawl is a Virginia specialty."

-- Marc Fisher, Washington Post 1/18/01

"Development has become something to be opposed instead of welcomed; people move out to the suburbs to make their lives, only to find they are playing leapfrog with bulldozers. They long for amenities that are not eyesores, just as they long to give their kids the experience of a meadow, that child's paradise, left standing at the end of a street. Many communities have no sidewalks, and nowhere to walk to, which is bad for public safety as well as for our nation's physical health. It has become impossible in such settings for neighbors to greet one another on the street, or for kids to walk to their own nearby schools. A gallon of gas can be used up just driving to get a gallon of milk. All of these add up to more stress for already overstressed family lives."

-- Former Vice President Al Gore on the impacts of sprawl

"Nobody in this town has ever said no to a developer. We spend tax dollars to encourage sprawl, and then it comes back to us as air pollution."

- Don Steuter, repairman and hiker in Phoenix, Ariz.

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