New Report Debunks Pro-Sprawl Claims

A new report issued by the Congress For The New Urbanism argues that an earlier pro-sprawl report authored by Wendell Cox is based on misinformation.

1 minute read

December 11, 2001, 12:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Current development practices create sprawl. For too long, our development system has produced a landscape that is dominated by the private car. Most new developmnets are not pedestrian-friendly, and difficult to serve with public transit There is wide support for changing this state of affairs. Tens of millions of Americans want to live in walkable neighborhoods served by transit. Growth advocates, sometimes called "sprawl apologists," aggressively distribute information about the benefits of growth and problems with anti-sprawl policy. In a recent, and well-publicized report, Wendell Cox attacks Portland, Oregon as the epitome of Smart Growth, and uses Atlanta, Georgia as an example of the high quality of life provided by car-dependent development. CNU has published a response to this report, charging that Portland is doing much better than Cox admits, and demonstrates that many of Cox's statistics are questionable or incorrect. Editor's note: The link below opens a PDF file.

Thanks to Andy Kunz

Tuesday, December 11, 2001 in The Congress for the New Urbanism

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