University of Maryland professor Roger Lewis discusses Germany's smart growth strategies and compares the results with urban sprawl in the U.S.
Germany, in many ways a laudable model of smart growth, has well-established urbanization traditions embodied in public policies and strong land-use regulations...German cities and towns have distinct edges, unambiguous perimeter boundaries where urbanized land meets undeveloped countryside.Compare this with U.S. towns, cities and suburbs. There's no such thing as a crisply defined city edge. Our amorphous urban peripheries bleed into the landscape. Unsightly, traffic-clogged fingers of commercial development reach far out into the countryside and are replete with fast-food outlets, strip malls, gas stations, car dealers, big-box retail stores, warehouses and vast surface parking lots."
Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan
Read the full story: Urban Planning: It's Time for a Foreign Concept to Hit Home in the U.S.
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority