Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta

by Robert D. Bullard (Editor), Glenn S. Johnson (Editor), Angel O. Torres

A serious but often overlooked impact of the random, unplanned growth commonly known as sprawl is its effect on economic and racial polarization. Sprawl-fueled growth pushes people further apart geographically, politically, economically, and socially. Atlanta, Georgia, one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, offers a striking example of sprawl-induced stratification."Sprawl City" uses a multi-disciplinary approach to analyze and critique the emerging crisis resulting from urban sprawl in the ten-county Atlanta metropolitan region. Local experts including sociologists, lawyers, urban planners, economists, educators, and health care professionals consider sprawl-related concerns as core environmental justice and civil rights issues.Contributors focus on institutional constraints that are embedded in urban sprawl, considering how government housing, education, and transportation policies have aided and in some cases subsidized separate but unequal economic development and segregated neighborhoods. They offer analysis of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl, and outline policy recommendations and an action agenda for coping with sprawl-related problems, both in Atlanta and around the country.Contributors are Natalie Brown, Robert D. Bullard, William W. Buzbee, James Chapman, Dennis Creech, Russell W. Irvine, Charles Jaret, Chad G. Johnson, Glenn S. Johnson, Kurt Phillips, Elizabeth P. Ruddiman, and Angel O. Torres.The book illuminates the rising class and racial divisions underlying uneven growth and development, and provides a timely source of information for anyone concerned with those issues, including the growing environmental justice movement as well as planners, policyanalysts, public officials, community leaders, and students of public policy, geography, or planning.

Genres: History, Environment

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool but outdated (written in 2000) and a bit repetitive. Love randomly stumbling upon a book in the library about one of my niche interests though!

[cynical vault · Rating 5 out of 5]

I strongly recommend that everybody read Sprawl City (2000) edited by @DrBobBullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres. The book was published back in more than 15 years ago but reads like it was printed yesterday. Unfortunately, many of the warnings it raised were ignored and are represented in a host of challenges those living in the ATL metro face today. We need to really engage the role of sprawl in our looming environmental and racial crises.