The Observation Deck

I called up a Plain Dealer reporter and scolded him for over-quoting Dr. "Doom" Bier.

The article questioned why people don't mobilize for basic quality-of-life issues.

The Bier quote: "In America, there isn’t a strong emotional bond between people and place. In Europe, people have incredible bonds with downtowns and neighborhoods".

I had taken a bit of an offense to the notion and the quote, I retorted that in Lakewood we have and are mobilized on basic quality of life issues, and offered up the work of the Observer as evidence.

I think he agreed with my assessment, and we discussed his article a bit further.

The article goes on to suggest that it would be in our best interest to rise up against urban sprawl and push for regional government programs. I suggested to the reporter that there seems to be some well justified suspicion of regional government concepts, but he had a good point on the sprawl issue. So in the interest of finding out more, I ask the good readers of the Observer site:

1. Do you think urban sprawl negatively affects this city (and why)?
2. If so, why aren’t we doing something?

..

There was also an article in that day's paper saying "inner ring" suburbs are becoming more Democrat-voting. They credit this to Republicans moving out and Democrats staying.

I won't speculate on why these Republicans are more likely to move out. I will speculate they move further out, encouraging ever more severe amounts of sprawl. The link between economic globalism, sprawl, and our Oil wars becomes clearer....

Mark

You posed two excellent inquiries:

1. Do you think urban sprawl negatively affects this city (and why)?
2. If so, why aren’t we doing something?

I think of "Urban Sprawl" as the ripples which radiate from the entry point of the pebble....the entry point being the central city, with each ripple carrying more population outward. With that as my understanding of the term, I believe there is a substantial impact on Cleveland and Lakewood. As we lose population from the central and inner ring, we not only see wholesale redevelopment of farmlands, wetlands and woodlands (the direct environmental impact), but also ongoing increased need for expenditures to support the expanding population base (Indirect environmrntal impact) by way of increased transportation costs, increased infrastructure costs.

There is also the economic impact that declining population has on any urban center. THose who can best sfford to move out, do so, leaving an economically depressed area, which in turn, finds it increasing difficult to generate the revenues needed to maintain services, and virtually impossible to generate the revenue needed to finance improvements and/or rehabilitation of the areas left vacant. It becomes a self perpetuating and expanding negative cycle. There are the related issues of losses in the employee pool, loses in businesses and so forth.

As to what we're doing about it? Well the government is encouraging the sprawl, as it finances more highway exits additional travel lanes to make the travel to exurbia easier. Given the economic fuel of new housing (at least until the recent market stall) I doubt that anyone wants to see it stop.....

Jeff

Cities are designed around the efficient use of space. The idea is that goods, service even ideas can be supplied to a large number of people with little use of energy. Urban sprawl dissolves the efficiency by moving people farther apart.

Here’s the Wikipedia definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_sprawl

How bad is it for us?

From U.S. Census figures (I believe these to be accurate, but please stop me if I’m missing something):

1. The population of Ohio is currently static (births and immigration is about equal to deaths and out-migration).

2. The housing industry has been building approximately 40,000 new housing units in Ohio each year for the last decade or so.

From the above two factors, my understanding is that the housing industry is creating roughly 40,000 empty houses each year.

Rocky River, Westlake, Avon, Avon Lake, Bay Village could be emptied within a single year (the combined existing housing stock of these communities is roughly 40,000).

… and the roads that will empty the city will also empty the wallets..
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/BusinessPlan ... alPlan.pdf

Mark Timieski wrote:Cities are designed around the efficient use of space. The idea is that goods, service even ideas can be supplied to a

2. The housing industry has been building approximately 40,000 new housing units in Ohio each year for the last decade or so.

From the above two factors, my understanding is that the housing industry is creating roughly 40,000 empty houses each year.

Rocky River, Westlake, Avon, Avon Lake, Bay Village could be emptied within a single year (the combined existing housing stock of these communities is roughly 40,000).

… and the roads that will empty the city will also empty the wallets..
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/BusinessPlan ... alPlan.pdf

Does that include Apartment Building Complexes?

Cleveland has over 20,000 vacant housing units. I wonder what the rate of housing unit abandonment growth is.

A guy in the Plain Dealer suggested building a 4 lane highway to SouthEast Ohio to spur Development and or related economic activity. I'm not sure creating a string of Columbuses between here and Appalachia is the best way to prepare for the future.

Houses should be built to the shape and scale they were in Cleveland 80 years ago, only with thicker bricks, smaller windows, and lower ceilings.

Housing units include apartment units.

The percentage of houses for sale is actually higher in the “outer ringâ€Â￾ suburbs than in Cuyahoga.

https://www2.normls.com:442/market/pdf/ ... LS2q06.pdf

The Census keeps track of “housing startsâ€Â￾ as for the better part of the 20th century there was a significant housing shortage (few houses were built during WWI, Great Depression, and WWII). The figure was viewed as an indicator of prosperity. I have to question what the statistic means at this time of over supply.

I should also point out that some places that have seen the highest population growth in this country have seen the greatest building growth. Economists are now pointing to massive housing oversupplies in these areas as a reason that these property values are no longer increasing.