Sprawl: a Compact History, Part IV -- More from the Introduction

Bruegmann:

[Sprawl foes hold suburban sprawl] responsible for the deterioration of many of the older nieghborhoods[in the NYC metropolitan area].

Okay, not proven.

but then:

Large numbers of once flourishing shops along the commercial streets of Bayonne and Jersey City disappeared when new suburban shopping centers appeared further out, they will say. In many of the tightly packed neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens, house prices stagnated or fell as affluent middle-class residents left for new and more spacious houses further out in Long Island. In some cases the result was racial turmoil, abandonment, and the concentration of poor and minority residents in the oldest, least desirable house.

So, is he saying this stuff didn't happen? He sounds so....skeptical. Argue about cause and effect if you wish, but the deterioration of the inner cities is/was a fact, not some insidious myth that needs debunking. In Cleveland, it sometimes seems foolish to even believe that the deterioriation of the inner city will ever be reversed, much less believe that it didn't really happen in the first place. 

¶ 1/19/2006 09:12:00 PM