Land use dictates the tone of a community. Good land use:

• encourages human interaction
• reduces or eliminates the need for personal internal combustion vehicles
• nurtures public institutions
• grows an educated, informed and active citizenry
• makes the best use of local resources
• protects and enhances the environment

The current pattern of land use in the United States and the "developing" world does few of these things well. What it does do includes:

• pave over and build upon acres and acres of productive farmland
• make people totally dependent upon their cars
• isolate people in cars, single-family homes and office cubes
• suck life from the inner cities
• bankrupt local governments
• make huge profits for a small group of individuals and corporations
• undermine democracy

Pave over and build upon acres and acres of productive farmland

Make people totally dependent upon their cars.

Autoculture traps people in an expensive, environmentally destructive and exasperating cycle of driving in order to meet basic needs. Stores, cafes, work places and even parks and public transportation connections are too far away to walk and are not friendly to bikes.

Isolate people in cars, single-family homes and office cubes

Americans waste some 6 billion gallons of petroleum a year just sitting in traffic. Opportunities for human interaction diminish as we shuttle from garage with automatic door opener to freeway to parking lot to cubicle and back again, growing increasingly irritated with the rudeness of drivers, co-workers and even neighbors, who somehow don't seem very human at all.

Suck life from the inner cities

The flight of the wealthy and middle class to suburbia leaves those unable to flee the city in a desperate land full of desperate people. As corporate-owned mega-stores spring up far from the city core, downtown retailers die. As jobs move to suburban office parks, cities decay further. America's big cities contain huge blighted areas, and many are virtually devoid of people at night, inviting crime and crushing property values.

Bankrupt local governments

The cost of providing basic services to sprawling suburban communities is staggering. The Los Angeles Times recently studied four rapidly-growing Central California cities and found that the cost of maintaining water lines, sewers, roads, schools, police, parks and fire protection quickly outstrips the monies provided by property taxes and development fees, leaving cities with less discretionary cash and increasingly under the influence of wealthy corporations and developers. (Witness the current trend of soft drink companies augmenting a city's recreation budgets, in exchange for exclusive rights to sell their products in parks and at local events.) Providing basic services to farmland or high-density urban developments is much more affordable.

Make huge profits for a small group of individuals and corporations

Sprawl may be bad for people and communities, but it's great for land developers, strip mall builders, oil and vehicle companies, and mass merchandisers. These businesses suck millions of dollars from communities, investing it when and where they see fit. Local merchants, who invested their earnings in the community, are displaced. Residents, driving long distances to work, simply pick up their commodities at the most convenient big box stores.

Undermines democracy

At home, alone, with our televisions, dvds, videos and stereo systems, we are unlikely to start meaningful dialogues with our neighbors about important social issues. Instead, we are spoon fed an insipid diet of sitcoms, sports, ultra-violence, voyeurism and celebrity worship. Politicians cannot easily meet residents, instead relying on television and direct mail pieces funded by land developers and wealthy stakeholders in the status quo.

There are plenty of groups out there fighting sprawl, a few are:

• Sprawl Watch
• Surface Transportation Policy Project