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Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism
More than five decades have passed since Jane Jacobs wrote her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities , and since a front page headline in the New York Times read, "Cars Choking Cities as 'Urban Sprawl' Takes Over." Yet sprawl persists, and not by mistake. It happens for a reason.
As an activist and a scholar, Benjamin Ross is uniquely placed to diagnose why this is so. Dead End traces how the ideal of a safe, green, orderly retreat where hardworking members of the middle class could raise their children away from the city mutated into the McMansion and strip mall-ridden suburbs of today. Ross finds that sprawl is much more than bad architecture and sloppy planning. Its roots are historical, sociological, and economic. He uses these insights to lay out a practical strategy for change, honed by his experience leading the largest grass-roots mass transit advocacy organization in the United States. The problems of smart growth, sustainability, transportation, and affordable housing, he argues, are intertwined and must be solved as a whole. The two keys to creating better places to live are expansion of rail transit and a more genuinely democratic oversight of land use.
Dead End is, ultimately, about the places where we live our lives. Both an engaging history of suburbia and an invaluable guide for today's urbanist, it will serve as a primer for anyone interested in how Americans actually live.
As an activist and a scholar, Benjamin Ross is uniquely placed to diagnose why this is so. Dead End traces how the ideal of a safe, green, orderly retreat where hardworking members of the middle class could raise their children away from the city mutated into the McMansion and strip mall-ridden suburbs of today. Ross finds that sprawl is much more than bad architecture and sloppy planning. Its roots are historical, sociological, and economic. He uses these insights to lay out a practical strategy for change, honed by his experience leading the largest grass-roots mass transit advocacy organization in the United States. The problems of smart growth, sustainability, transportation, and affordable housing, he argues, are intertwined and must be solved as a whole. The two keys to creating better places to live are expansion of rail transit and a more genuinely democratic oversight of land use.
Dead End is, ultimately, about the places where we live our lives. Both an engaging history of suburbia and an invaluable guide for today's urbanist, it will serve as a primer for anyone interested in how Americans actually live.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 13, 2014
Like many other books, this book explains the role of government subsidies and regulating in creating automobile-dependent suburban sprawl. Nevertheless, this book is unique in a few respects:
1. Unlike other books focusing on suburbia, this book discusses NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) resistance to infill development. NIMBYism creates an artificial shortage of urban housing, thus forcing the middle class into suburbia and raising rents for the poor. Ross suggests that NIMBYism is not always motivated by purely tangible concerns such as traffic and property values. Instead, homeowners crave social status- which can be retained not only by excluding the poor, but also through a collective belief that their neighborhood has a unique "brand." So where people believe their neighborhood is unique and unconventional, they will preserve their social status by objecting to development even if it is manifestly harmless or raises property values.
2. Ross discusses the essential dishonesty of zoning law. In theory, zoning is supposed to involve neutral regulation for the public good. But in heavily regulated places, it is really "tollbooth zoning"- a developer has to pay off NIMBYs to get anything built, thus ensuring that only the deepest-pocketed landowners can build anything. Perhaps the best chapter in the book is Chapter 12, which unmasks the essential fraudulence of most public discussion of land use regulation. For example, cities claim that zoning is designed to keep out "incompatible" land uses. But as Ross points out, reliance on compatibility creates a circular argument- whatever cities keep out is by definition incompatible. NIMBYs claim to be keeping out undesirable impacts- but this word conflates "purely psychological desires, among them the wish to keep away from people with lower incomes, with physical detriments like smell and shade."
1. Unlike other books focusing on suburbia, this book discusses NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) resistance to infill development. NIMBYism creates an artificial shortage of urban housing, thus forcing the middle class into suburbia and raising rents for the poor. Ross suggests that NIMBYism is not always motivated by purely tangible concerns such as traffic and property values. Instead, homeowners crave social status- which can be retained not only by excluding the poor, but also through a collective belief that their neighborhood has a unique "brand." So where people believe their neighborhood is unique and unconventional, they will preserve their social status by objecting to development even if it is manifestly harmless or raises property values.
2. Ross discusses the essential dishonesty of zoning law. In theory, zoning is supposed to involve neutral regulation for the public good. But in heavily regulated places, it is really "tollbooth zoning"- a developer has to pay off NIMBYs to get anything built, thus ensuring that only the deepest-pocketed landowners can build anything. Perhaps the best chapter in the book is Chapter 12, which unmasks the essential fraudulence of most public discussion of land use regulation. For example, cities claim that zoning is designed to keep out "incompatible" land uses. But as Ross points out, reliance on compatibility creates a circular argument- whatever cities keep out is by definition incompatible. NIMBYs claim to be keeping out undesirable impacts- but this word conflates "purely psychological desires, among them the wish to keep away from people with lower incomes, with physical detriments like smell and shade."
March 26, 2018
I was really impressed with Dead End as a summary of the history of American suburbanization and land use, and I picked up a number of books I want to read from the citations: hopefully I will actually manage to do so soon. I'm not sure that I learned that much that I hadn't already read about in other sources--unsurprising, given how much I've read about this topic--but I felt that Ross did a very good job of organizing the information in a clear way that would make this book a great guide for beginners.
Unfortunately, while I gather the book was intended to serve an advocacy as well as an informative roll, I think it doesn't do as well in that regard. Not that it's bad at it, per se, as that it read at times as preaching to the converted that probably wouldn't be very effective for an audience not already convinced Ross's basic premises.
Unfortunately, while I gather the book was intended to serve an advocacy as well as an informative roll, I think it doesn't do as well in that regard. Not that it's bad at it, per se, as that it read at times as preaching to the converted that probably wouldn't be very effective for an audience not already convinced Ross's basic premises.
May 20, 2016
This book provides a cogent, concise, insightful history of suburban sprawl and recent trends toward the rebirth of urbanism. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in urban or transit advocacy.
While this book's weakness might be that it "preaches to the choir," it nonetheless strongly appeals to and strengthens the arguments in favor of urbanism. It is the best, most recent summary of the history of suburbanization covered in some degree elsewhere (Asphalt Nation, Suburban Nation, Sprawl Kills, The End of the Suburbs, Global City Blues) and breaks ground in the specifics of transit advocacy case studies and analysis of the language of land use. Most importantly, Ross takes an attitude, at the end, that is decidedly optimistic: he shows that, if the democratic process is tried in land use decisions, better results can be possible (see also The Wealth of Cities, Triumph of the City, and The Option of Urbanism). Ross's book uniquely identifies and discusses suburban land tenure in depth (a system of embalming suburban-style ideals in all land decisions) as a chief drag on urban development.
The direction the author advocates in the end--overturning suburban land tenure (p. 180) by introducing democratic features into decision-making about land--is promising, but might not be possible in the United States. Ross also lauds efforts of the New Urbanists for form-based codes, in which the size and placement, and shape of buildings rather than what goes inside them (p. 181) and to break up control of large chunks of land so that more complexity can develop (p. 181).
While this book's weakness might be that it "preaches to the choir," it nonetheless strongly appeals to and strengthens the arguments in favor of urbanism. It is the best, most recent summary of the history of suburbanization covered in some degree elsewhere (Asphalt Nation, Suburban Nation, Sprawl Kills, The End of the Suburbs, Global City Blues) and breaks ground in the specifics of transit advocacy case studies and analysis of the language of land use. Most importantly, Ross takes an attitude, at the end, that is decidedly optimistic: he shows that, if the democratic process is tried in land use decisions, better results can be possible (see also The Wealth of Cities, Triumph of the City, and The Option of Urbanism). Ross's book uniquely identifies and discusses suburban land tenure in depth (a system of embalming suburban-style ideals in all land decisions) as a chief drag on urban development.
The direction the author advocates in the end--overturning suburban land tenure (p. 180) by introducing democratic features into decision-making about land--is promising, but might not be possible in the United States. Ross also lauds efforts of the New Urbanists for form-based codes, in which the size and placement, and shape of buildings rather than what goes inside them (p. 181) and to break up control of large chunks of land so that more complexity can develop (p. 181).
May 19, 2015
Let's be frank, this book is terrible. This book is full of the sort of lazy, dishonest and trite nonsense that irritates even people like myself who are inclined to agree with the author's intentions.
To be clear, I share the author's antipathy toward sprawl. Suburban developement is a cáncer that is roting out America's spirit, destroying both its psyche and also its physical health. For America's fortunes to be reversed, its cities must be restored to their former heights.
That said, what we don't need are more books that preach poorly to a tiny anti-sprawl choir. Let's be clear, America loves sprawl, in both its largest blue state (California) and its largest red one (Texas) sprawl is again in 2015 tearing up the countryside with fervor as America's well-trained iConsumers continue to, like babies in need of a bottle, seek out more luxurious consumer goods. Anti-sprawl advocates are stuck in a March 2009 time capsule where sprawl has been tamed by market forces, and no one has informed them that sprawl is back and bigger than ever.
Being generally lazy, fat, and anti-social, the average American has no desire to walk, bicycle or horror or horror share transit with other people. There's a reason America has sprawled so much, and it's not because of some paranoid conspiracy between elites, conservatives, and government planning boards, as the author darkly (and evidence-lessly) hints). (I should also note that many Americans moved to the suburbs to avoid inner city crime -- a more justifiable excuse for leaving the city).
Only a small portion of Americans -- predominantly young childless folks -- are eager to live carlessly. As anti-sprawl advocates, we must convince Americans to willingly abandon their ridiculous McMansions.
The author instead baselessly makes numerous unfounded claims such as that "Americans have long since lost their love of sprawl." He has not a shred of evidence to support this claim. It's just stated as though it were self-evidently true. A cursory glance through any homebuilder's public filings shows the exact opposite however. Consumers in 2015 want 3,000 square foot boxes 30 miles out into the middle of nowhere.
The author also interesting sets up straw man views of supposed transit opponents and then attempts to demolish them. He again uses no data whatsoever, and assumes that you the reader are too lazy or stupid to go read the opponents' material in question.
He attacks libertarians as selfish stuck-up elitists, and in the next chapter goes after zoning restrictions which -- ironically enough -- these very same libertarians are the leading campaigners against. He also name drops "Smart growth" critics" such as Randal O'Toole without making any specific claims against their arguments.
O'Toole wrote an excellent -- though throughly depressing argument for the building of more suburban highways, demonstrating with seemingly airtight logic that suburban rail is prohibitively expensive and wasteful. Yet Ross, who has years of experience advocating for rail, does nothing to address O'Tooles arguments, he just makes an ad homenim attack against his charácter.
From that sort of non-argument from one of America's leading purponents of rail, we can see how truly devoid of logic the "Smart growth" movement finds itself. Devoid of any factual or statistical basis, it must resort to fantasies, wishes, and utterly empty rationalizations against its opponents.
This is a rather irritating conclusión for sprawl-haters such as myself who wish "Smart growth" had more of a leg to stand on. Alas, as long as Americans want sprawl -- which alas they do -- Ross and others factless rants likely do more harm rather than aid to their cause.
The book's utter nothingness can be shown from its various statements such as "Even if this sketch seems utopian, it has value in showing a coherent directon for change."
That's sadly where we stand. The anti-sprawl folks don't even try to present data anymore, given the utterly piss-poor economics of rail. They just present us utopías and say -- wouldn't that be nice? And yes, it would. But we live on planet Earth, where utopías aren't particularly feasible. Cool-headed rational pro-sprawl folks will dismantle the pablum presented by Ross with ease.
Book gets 2 stars instead of 1 as chapters 6 through 9 were fairly interesting and his ancedotes about his personal experience in the system in Maryland also were notable.
To be clear, I share the author's antipathy toward sprawl. Suburban developement is a cáncer that is roting out America's spirit, destroying both its psyche and also its physical health. For America's fortunes to be reversed, its cities must be restored to their former heights.
That said, what we don't need are more books that preach poorly to a tiny anti-sprawl choir. Let's be clear, America loves sprawl, in both its largest blue state (California) and its largest red one (Texas) sprawl is again in 2015 tearing up the countryside with fervor as America's well-trained iConsumers continue to, like babies in need of a bottle, seek out more luxurious consumer goods. Anti-sprawl advocates are stuck in a March 2009 time capsule where sprawl has been tamed by market forces, and no one has informed them that sprawl is back and bigger than ever.
Being generally lazy, fat, and anti-social, the average American has no desire to walk, bicycle or horror or horror share transit with other people. There's a reason America has sprawled so much, and it's not because of some paranoid conspiracy between elites, conservatives, and government planning boards, as the author darkly (and evidence-lessly) hints). (I should also note that many Americans moved to the suburbs to avoid inner city crime -- a more justifiable excuse for leaving the city).
Only a small portion of Americans -- predominantly young childless folks -- are eager to live carlessly. As anti-sprawl advocates, we must convince Americans to willingly abandon their ridiculous McMansions.
The author instead baselessly makes numerous unfounded claims such as that "Americans have long since lost their love of sprawl." He has not a shred of evidence to support this claim. It's just stated as though it were self-evidently true. A cursory glance through any homebuilder's public filings shows the exact opposite however. Consumers in 2015 want 3,000 square foot boxes 30 miles out into the middle of nowhere.
The author also interesting sets up straw man views of supposed transit opponents and then attempts to demolish them. He again uses no data whatsoever, and assumes that you the reader are too lazy or stupid to go read the opponents' material in question.
He attacks libertarians as selfish stuck-up elitists, and in the next chapter goes after zoning restrictions which -- ironically enough -- these very same libertarians are the leading campaigners against. He also name drops "Smart growth" critics" such as Randal O'Toole without making any specific claims against their arguments.
O'Toole wrote an excellent -- though throughly depressing argument for the building of more suburban highways, demonstrating with seemingly airtight logic that suburban rail is prohibitively expensive and wasteful. Yet Ross, who has years of experience advocating for rail, does nothing to address O'Tooles arguments, he just makes an ad homenim attack against his charácter.
From that sort of non-argument from one of America's leading purponents of rail, we can see how truly devoid of logic the "Smart growth" movement finds itself. Devoid of any factual or statistical basis, it must resort to fantasies, wishes, and utterly empty rationalizations against its opponents.
This is a rather irritating conclusión for sprawl-haters such as myself who wish "Smart growth" had more of a leg to stand on. Alas, as long as Americans want sprawl -- which alas they do -- Ross and others factless rants likely do more harm rather than aid to their cause.
The book's utter nothingness can be shown from its various statements such as "Even if this sketch seems utopian, it has value in showing a coherent directon for change."
That's sadly where we stand. The anti-sprawl folks don't even try to present data anymore, given the utterly piss-poor economics of rail. They just present us utopías and say -- wouldn't that be nice? And yes, it would. But we live on planet Earth, where utopías aren't particularly feasible. Cool-headed rational pro-sprawl folks will dismantle the pablum presented by Ross with ease.
Book gets 2 stars instead of 1 as chapters 6 through 9 were fairly interesting and his ancedotes about his personal experience in the system in Maryland also were notable.
July 9, 2014
Ross examines the factors that have lead to suburban sprawl and the consequences to the suburban designs that designate specific residential areas mostly created through winding roads ending in culs-de-sac. I didn't really gain a lot from reading this book as I've read a lot of the source material he refers to in the book. I guess it would be ok for someone who wants an introduction to the subject, but if it's an area of interest to you and you've already read a lot about urban design and traffic then this book probably doesn't have much to offer you.
January 19, 2015
Much of this is familiar territory if you've read Jane Jacobs and Jeff Speck, but still worth reading. Ross focuses especially on how zoning is used to keep less affluent people out of neighborhoods, and on the value of rail - the latter not surprising given Mr. Ross's leadership role in the advocacy group Action Committee for Transit, that has advocated for the Purple Line in the Maryland suburbs of the D.C. metro area.
May 12, 2014
This started out as a really interesting history of suburban development in the US, and ended up being a weird lecture on public transit. Loved the beginning, was not thrilled with the last third or so.
October 20, 2015
Timely and impassioned commentary on urban sprawl--how it happened, why it's harmful, and what is being or can be done about it. Author brings an activist's perspective, which is valuable. Suggestions are sensible but assume some prior knowledge of the controversies.
Read
July 31, 2015307.74097 R8233 2014
May 19, 2016
Stay tuned to read the full review on The Outlaw Urbanist (www.outlaw-urabnist.com).
January 12, 2016
Heavily academic.
Read
May 22, 2019Great book on urbanism.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews