Effects of sprawl

Is it the beginning of the effect of sprawl?
In the past centuries, living in a sprawl was a dream for the American people. People loved to stay in the sprawl. As a result, a massive mass of people lived in the sprawl because it had freedom, affordability, family life, and upward mobility. Suburban way of life was embedded in the American consciousness. But in the 21 centaury, suburban project has become less sustainable. It says that suburban dream does not have a future due to oil depletion.

-PrIyAnK sHaH

Feature: Urban Sprawl - a new epidemic in Accra

Clearly, sprawl is not a phenomenon restricted to the US. Indeed, it has even breached continents. This article tells of sprawl in Accra, which is the capital of Ghana. The sprawl is growing faster than can sustaining infrastructure, and taking a quote from the article: "Urban Sprawl is the new epidemic destroying our city."

The article details all the hallmark effects of sprawl, such as pollution and heavy traffic congestion. In Africa, more occurs, such as the endangering of wildlife, and loss of arable land. In addition to the latter, it also causes movement of farming into the outskirts of the city, leading into a increased reliance on automobiles, producing further pollution. The residential area that springs up are also out of the affordability range of many, thus they move into the outskirts. The general pattern is that they congregate into specific areas, creating slums that attract more poverty.

We hear about sprawl so much but not so about solutions. This article does explain to approaches. One of them is called the "Compact City Model" which capitalizes on existing land, pedestrian convenience, and affordable housing for all. The other, called "Green Belt Strategy" which aims to contain a city in a ring of land that is reserved by official authority. I think both of these are fine ideas and there are reported success in other areas.

In conclusion, in order to obtain a better quality of life we should go back into simpler times, where planning is done for the public interest. To take another quote from the article, "Anti-sprawl is not anti-growth."

Peihsun (Ben) Yeh

Video: An Urban Sprawl By The Sea

The video above analyzes the results of urbanization because of a university that has just been given degree-awarding powers in the town Falmouth on the south coast of the English county of Cornwall. The university, University College Falmouth (primarily a traditional and performing arts school), has recently brought an influx of students from not only England but all around the world to this relatively small town. Above all, the narrator dissects the culture changes this arrival has installed in Falmouth through a series of interviews with students, business owners, and local residents. Specifically, he characterizes the recent display of skateboarding culture and graffiti.

-Oliver

Do Something

The video is reasonably similar to the effects taking place in the Suburban sprawl. Firstly, it tells us about the ever-increasing crises of the oil. Since many places are distant from the houses, we cannot move to that place without the car. Due to this, there are more toxic gases emitted in the atmospheres. Under such circumstances of the deadly pollution, Nature is revealing its fury. There are some consequences which will ultimately lead to the extinction of the Human as well as animal cycles or may be the entire world. It adds on by saying that “it is continuing with Floods, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Sicknesses”. For example, the recent disastrous floods in Atlanta had led to deaths of people and animals. So, the Video (it’s the people saying) states that we all need to do something rather than just “closing our eyes”. We should eradicate pollution. From my point of view, this can be done by eradicating Cul-de-sacs as it shown in “Rajeev’s blog” (group c3).
-PrIyAnK ShAh

Terminal station

Terminal Station is a blog about Atlanta real estate. The author also blogs about other topics such as politics and economics, and to my amusement, "stupid ideas".

The most recent blog begins by citing a poll by the ABC, stating that Atlanta is, according to the poll, the 13th most desirable place to live in. Whereas most people would be glad to think that Atlanta beat out the thousands of other cities in the US, and that 13 is relatively high on the ranks, the author thinks we can do better as a city. Environmental wise, the author exclaims that Atlanta should be higher up on the list, as Atlanta has an abundance of natural resources, and a "very vibrant outdoor community." (http://terminal-station.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-dont-really-think-13th-counts.html) The only reason that Atlanta lost it's spot to other cities is due to the inept leadership that the city has had over the last two decades, whose ignorance met the growing community with a lack of walkable neighborhoods and more means of alternative transportation. Clearly the author does not think Atlanta constitutes a "fine" community.

The author also occasionally employs a sarcastic tone to make a point. A previous post, titled "College Football Hall of Fame to ATL. Yawn" shows this. This post is also one such post that the author uses different means of communication in, for example, a map of the location of the HOF. Another post uses a slideshow and a table of stats to back up his report about larceny.

- Peihsun (Ben) Yeh

Gadget's Description

Hi everyone this is Priyank. Actually, one of my gadgets has been erased. But, I don’t know how it happened. So, I am giving a brief description of my gadget that I was supposed to enter in my blog for my neighborhood. First, I signed as my user name, group 8 in the Google so that I can save the map on my account and can add it to my blog. Second, I added the name of the landmark as I was unaware of the address and the also, the street name. Third, I saved it again with the balloon and then, I created a new map. Afterwards, I saved as a blog title and gave a minute description on the left side of the page as instructed by the professor. Again, I saved the blog with my name in parenthesis with the place like Decatur (Shah, Priyank). Then, I clicked on Customized and then choose Layout. Following then, I clicked on to add a Gadget. I added the java script from the saved map and then, the group name and I paste the code. I saved it for the blog so that everyone can see the map of Decatur.
-PrIyAnK sHaH

Atlanta Unsheltered

Hi, I am Priyank Shah. I am writing a blog on "Atlanta Unsheltered". This blog examines about current critical situations taking place in some of the places in the city of Atlanta. People call that America is an urbanized country. Unfortunately, there are some places in America that are still not sheltered. Also, some of the places are unsheltered in Atlanta. Recently, the floods in Atlanta had made it known to the Atlantic citizens, the American citizens, and many people residing out of the country that some of the places in the city of Atlanta is not properly developed. In fact, my parents called me to confirm whether I am safe and not facing any problems on the day when there were floods in Atlanta. As per the news in India, my mother was convinced that people were facing problems. Even, many people were dead. Thanks to Georgia Tech, I was safe. Some houses in an unsheltered Atlanta area were filled with floods and victims were suffered due to the lack of management of drainage system and facilities to move out from their houses. Although Atlanta has many facilities and is one of the best places in South America to live in, Atlanta is still unsheltered.
-PrIyAnK sHaH