Katz, Bruegmann Square Off On Sprawl

"Sprawl has been blamed for everything, from gobbling farmland and creating a bland and vacuous suburbia to promoting obesity and global warming. Now comes Robert Bruegman, professor of art history, architecture and urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a refreshingly contrarian view. In his new book, Sprawl: A Compact History (University of Chicago Press, 2005) Bruegman argues that the phenomenon of 'sprawl,' i.e. metropolitan decentralization, is as old as urbanization itself. In a recent event sponsored by the Progressive Policy Institute, the think tank of the middle-of-the road Democratic Leadership Council, Bruegman engaged in a spirited debate with Bruce Katz, Director of Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution."