The characteristics of Urban Sprawl tend to be on the negative side, for several reasons. In this very brief look, I will highlight one of those main concerns. Then I’ll talk about what life in the central city looks like, and what rural/suburban/exurban life looks like, then discuss some of the positive and negative implications of the sprawl.
The biggest concern is probably the negative impacts of the quality of life. There are many studies which indicate that sprawl is an indicator of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, largely due to lessened physical activity (people no longer walk to work, they drive). The long commutes and distances between home and other amenities has proven to have mental health implications, too. These long distance travels lead to significantly less leisure time with the family. The family unit at home then becomes depressed at the amount of separation time there is between those members of the family that are in the workforce (Bray, 2005). The majority of people on antidepressants live in the suburban areas. In addition, the perceived and real homogeneity of these neighborhoods has proven to be draining to people that live in these areas, which leads to the next point.
When looking at the communities that constitute suburban and exurban areas, possibly the most obvious thing that can be noticed is the homogeneity of the demographic. Upper middle class, Christian, and Caucasian families. Meanwhile, in the central city, there tends to be highly segregated areas, between the very wealthy and very poor, and between race. This can be seen even in medium sized cities, such as Omaha, Nebraska. The inner city of Omaha has about 450,000. It is divided into three main neighborhoods: South Omaha, North Omaha/Florence, and the Dundee/Regency/West Omaha areas - split respectively into the Latino lower class, the Black lower class, and the Caucasian and extremely affluent. This tends to cause racial tension, in Omaha, and in cities throughout the US and Europe.
Reference List
Berg, N. (2012, July 19). Exurbs, the Fastest Growing Areas in the US. City Lab.com. retrieved from
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2012/07/exurbs-fastest-growing-areas-us/2636/
Bray, R. and Abelsohn, A. (2005). Report on Public Health and Urban Sprawl in Ontario.
Ontario College of Family Physicians. PDF retrieved from
http://ocfp.on.ca/docs/publications/urbansprawl.pdf.
