Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America

by Pietro S. Nivola

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For decades, concerns have been raised about the consequences of relentless suburban expansion in the United States. But so far, government programs to control urban sprawl have had little effect in slowing it down, much less stopping it. In this book, Pietro S. Nivola raises important questions about the continued suburbanization of Is suburban growth just the result of market forces, or have government policies helped induce greater sprawl? How much of the government intervention has been undesirable, and what has been beneficial? And, if suburban growth is to be controlled, what changes in public policies would be not only effective, but practical? Nivola addresses these questions by comparing sprawling U.S. metropolitan areas to compact development patterns in Europe. He contrasts the effects of traditional urban programs, as well as ""accidental urban policies"" that have a profound if commonly unrecognized impact on cities, including national tax systems, energy conservation efforts, agricultural supports, and protection from international commerce. Nivola also takes a hard look at the traditional solutions of U.S. urban policy agenda involving core-area reconstruction projects, mass transit investments, ""smart"" growth controls, and metropolitan organizational rearrangements, and details the reasons why they often don't work. He concludes by recommending reforms for key U.S. policies--from taxes to transportation to federal regulations--based on the successes and failures of the European experience. Brookings Metropolitan Series
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Genres: Nonfiction

143 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was initially suspicious because this book comes out of the Brookings Metro series, which tends to be dominated by "smart growth" anti-sprawlers, and I thought this might be a typical tome about how Europe's far-sighted planning laws should be implemented in the US. Thankfully, the book is balanced and informative, and it manages to cover a broad topic succinctly and cogently.

The author firsts points out some non-political reasons the US is more "sprawling" than Europe. One, population growth: from 1950 to 1996 the US has added 115 million people, a 74% growth, while countries like the UK only grew by 15%. We also have more families with young children (about 22% versus 15% in other countries), which tend to prefer larger suburban homes. Also, although both sides received some immigration (still in 2000 the US had more immigrants than all of Western Europe and Japan combined), the US had a lot more internal migration. In the 1980s 380,000 US citizens a year moved to the South, and 130,000 moved to West. Migration across the EU, with its social and language barriers, just can't compare. New housing for internal migrants everywhere tended to be built on the purlieus, we just had more internal migrants. Also, despite many peoples' obsession with the Interstate highway act, Americans had more cars than Europeans much earlier simply because they were much richer. 56% of American families had a car by the 1920s, while many European countries wouldn't reach that level until the 1960s or even 70s. Of course, we also had cheaper, home-grown energy and more land, which further encouraged "sprawl."

Given these facts, it would be shocking if America wasn't much less dense than Europe (our cities are about 1/4 the density of Germany's). Still, Nivola goes through the usual bugaboos like the highway trust fund and gas taxes that make the US even less dense, but he is mainly agnostic as to whether these are a bad things. He seems to view sprawl as somewhat of a social bad, but he also seems to recognize that most of it comes out of free market choices, and that European anti-sprawl regulations may do more harm than good. For instance, the European farm subsidy per hectacre was over 10x that of US subsidies, and nobody defends that, but that certainly depresses sprawl. Another reason for European compactness is seriously anti-competitive retail regulations, which punish larger stores with bigger workforces and impose very limited operating hours on only large retail chains.

The author's solutions for some of America's sprawl problems are also eminently reasonable: end unfunded mandates that burden local governments, improve schools in the inner city by limiting the power of teachers' unions, reform the US litigation bonanza that burdens small businesses that are unable to defend themselves.

Overall, this is a solid discussion of a topic that tends to engender more passionate screeds than empirical reflections.

[Elke · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read this book it was already old, but it was still interesting because the trends it talked about hadn't gone away - urban sprawl, mainly. He compares American Sprawl to European development patterns. It's a short, interesting read.