Urban Sprawl: Destroying the World One McMansion at a Time

I just finished reading an article in the Toronto Star about the so called 'Ford Effect'. Apparently there are a whole lot of anti-government Conservatives in favour of urban sprawl in the GTA. I think these people for lack of a better word are stupid. Now I don't agree with the McGuinty government on everything but I do feel the Places to Grow Initiative is very important. The idea that urban sprawl and constant development further and further away from city cores is just ridiculous.

Obvliously stopping new development is impossible because development does bring money into the economy and keeps people working; but restoration of older neighbourhoods and builidng in a cities core can be way more beneficial than pure sprawl and also boost the economy.The reason growth control is needed though is to protect some of Canada's best lands in Southern Ontario because once it is developed it's never coming back, and urban sprawl just leads to more troubles in the end. Urban sprawl sucks in so many ways, below are a few reasons;

1) Subdivisions:

The joys of subdivisions.

While the so called American dream is to have the perfect house with the white picket fence, 2.5 kids, beautiful wife and family dog is nice, it is just not feasible with the amount of people and population explosion in the last 40-60 years. Sadly this is still the dream home to many...where can they find this house? A subdivision of course! Subdivisions began to gain popularity in the 50's with Levittown, (an early planned community) after war veterans began to settle down and start families away from the hustle and bustle of the city but still close enough to the daily commute. Unfortunately as more subdivisions popped up they began to get further away from the city, and they went from the welcoming picket fence and smiling family to the generic house, the uninviting privacy fence, and of course the McMansion. Today a subdivision is just a generic neighbourhood, houses that look the same, people that are too busy working to realize they have their heads to far up their ass to enjoy the simple pleasures of life because they are either commuting to work, working, or staying holed up in their house avoiding human contact with their equal private fearful of the world neighbours. Yes in their subdivisions and maybe even gated ones they are shielded from the inner city crime, minorities, human interaction, and a soul. Subdivisions are one of the main things wrong with society today; keeping everyone gated in their little property is not the way humans should be by nature.

2) The Paving of Paradise/the Rise of Big Box Stores:
"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Joni Mitchell was right on, with urban sprawl and just outside subdivisions these new bedroom communities could flourish. Now that people lived in the suburbs they did not need to support their local retailer in the downtown core. No, now the stores came to them, massive paved wastelands begun to be built over once fertile farmland and beautiful woods to make way for the Wal-Mart's of the world along with other major chains. These chain stores have led to shopping cores losing their atmosphere and magic; if I’ve been to one Sport Check/Chapters/HMV I’ve been to them all, they all hire mediocre staff with little knowledge or care because they are paid a minimum wage salary to push goods for a mega chain that does not care about them. These stores can never provide the service and knowledge an independent shop with people who care can. So bad enough that massive parking lots are now everywhere but these mega stores are now places where people are forced to work because they’re the only spots in town to buy everything and the only places to shop because they ran everybody else out of town.

3) Killing the World One Car at a Time:

A typical trip through Toronto.

Naturally with folks living farther away from work in the sprawling bedroom communities they needed transportation. Of course in your average sprawling community this was not planned out to well, as most sprawl along major roads, ex 401, traffic moves slowly and you idle. Basically you better have a car or you are screwed, but hey even if you do you can still comfort in the fact during the four our drive to work you can read a book, do your hair, and maybe even brush your teeth. Unfortunately cars make pollution and with extra cars on the road taking longer to get to work from Sprawl Ville congestion builds, cars idle, and pollution is everywhere. Fortunatley if your city has money, they'll build more lanes! More lanes equal more lanes to idle in and more people can live in the community to fill them! It's really a perfect system...not!

4) Didn't we Just See that Same House/Store/Restaurant &The McMansion

A McMansion

Finally urban sprawl has led to generic communities with no sense of identity. A perfect example of this is Mississauga Ontario; a city I feel has done everything wrong all in the name of getting bigger to develop a bigger tax base to build more shit. My first and only time in the newer part of Mississauga was awful, you can drive miles and miles and see maybe three different models of houses, all with two cars, one tree, and absolutely no soul what so ever...it's the same with all the giant big box stores and chain restaurants. What set's this mess of cars and ugly buildings apart from any other sprawling community? Nothing I suppose but yet people continue to move there and seem to enjoy it. The generic neighbourhood also breeds urban sprawl the McMansion, a McMansion is the giant home with more rooms then any upper middle class-to so called 'high society' family needs. These houses are architectural monstrosities, some with so many garage doors they begin to look warehouses. The other problems with these homes is that they are usually built on small lots so you get a  nice small yard so the family never needs to go outside and see the light of day and can become the typical fat and lazy Western family the rest of the world perceives us as, but that's a whole other issue.

As I am trying to get across in this blog, urban sprawl sucks, everything about is mostly bad. Instead of expanding cities far and wide, let’s move back to the core, build vibrant downtowns, and build up, the sky is the limit. It's really the only smart way to build cities as the population explosion continues and hopefully people will begin to realize how much sprawl really sucks!