Up Above: The Geography of Suburban Sprawl in Southern California’s Antelope Valley

Matt Jalbert

Conclusion

ANY SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM TO SHAPE HOW CITES GROW will have to be founded on a consortium of lenders, builders, consumers, and the government. No segment working alone can successfully effect the scale of change needed. The most potent incentives will be codified in law and mutually reinforced by economics. No amount of proselytizing by city planners or environmentalists will convince people that sprawl must be capped and new forms of growth implemented; only a concerted, multi-interest effort can do this.

Many people are opposed to changing suburban growth patterns—especially those who have generated profit or otherwise benefitted from developments like the Antelope Valley. The cultural ideal of a single-family home is deeply embedded in the national psyche and will be difficult to dislodge, even by the most well-meaning critics. The promoters of sprawl have already spoken against changes: for instance, in the Building Industry Association’s outraged reaction to the Beyond Sprawl report, or the auto industry’s reactions to gas taxes and zero-emissions vehicle requirements. And, as long as the system is structured in a way which effectively provides massive subsidies to people buying far-off suburban homes, we should not expect consumers to change their home preferences. In many ways, the dilemma of suburban sprawl reiterates Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons:” the benefits to the direct participants in suburban growth are tangible and whole; however, the maladies—that is, the true social costs—are usually dispersed across society. Only rarely do the tolls of sprawl subtract directly from investors in a way commensurate with the wider damages generated.

Ultimately, the unmitigated spread of the single-family home will have to stop; neither ecosystems, natural resources, economies, nor societal cohesion can tolerate continued assaults on the urban fringe. The challenge to us now is to initiate equitable, rational, and sustainable patterns of growth in a way that does not merely leave development to the vagaries of the market. The Antelope Valley should stand as the final—not merely the latest—example of unguided sprawl and all its deleterious consequences.

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© Matt Jalbert 1995–2002