Urban Sprawl: U.S. Can Learn From Germany

University of Maryland professor Roger Lewis discusses Germany's smart growth strategies and compares the results with urban sprawl in the U.S.

1 minute read

July 30, 2001, 6:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


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

Saturday, July 28, 2001 in The Washington Post

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