Smart Growth: The Future of the AmericanMetropolis?

In the past few years, widespread frustration with sprawlingdevelopment patterns has precipitated an explosion in innovativethinking and action across the United States. This new thinking –generally labeled as “smart growth” – contends that the shape andquality of metropolitan growth in America are no longer desirable orsustainable. It argues that metropolitan areas could grow in radicallydifferent ways if major government policies on land use, infrastructureand taxation were overhauled.This essay discusses the current state of smart growth and metropolitanthinking in the United States. It outlines the demographic, market anddevelopment trends that are affecting metropolitan areas and theconsequences of these trends for central cities, older suburbs, newercommunities and low-income and minority families. It describes howcurrent government policies facilitate the excessive decentralization ofpeople and jobs and how smart growth reforms are being enacted,particularly at the state level, to shape new, more urban-friendly, growthpatterns. It concludes by identifying the major challenges that smartgrowth needs to address if it is going to succeed in shaping new,sustainable metropolitan communities.[...]