Sprawl is Holding the Recovery Back

Angie Schmidt of Streetsblog summarizes the report, and what others are saying:

"Relief won't come, they say, until America begins confronting the systemic problems that produced the meltdown, including inefficient and unsustainable public infrastructure investments and housing development."

The report calls the suburban form of development a Ponzi scheme, and proposes that the only way to fix the economy is to change development patterns:

"The answer is not to continue to pour America's remaining wealth into suburban development which is not financially sustainable. The answer is another spatial shift; a change in the pattern of development moving away from mass-suburbanization and towards an arrangement with a higher public return on investment."