Recently, however, this trend has switched drastically. Instead of growing up, cities are growing out. While it used to be desirable for people to live within a city, now families generally want to move to the suburbs. With the advent of more efficient forms of transportation that can link workers to inner city jobs from miles away, the ideal of the typical American family home has changed. Instead of a desire for an inner-city home in a good location and with a great view, families have become more partial to the suburban ideal of a home with a deep backyard and a sidewalk, offset from any busy streets.

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This building out, also known as urban sprawl, does not come without necessary costs. To begin with, it is creating a much higher demand for land, an incredibly limited resource. While the human population had once been growing in cities, able to sustain itself, now the sudden spreading of people is usurping land once used for other purposes, including parks and farm land. Secondly, the amount of energy and resources consumed in transportation has skyrocketed. Inside of cities, cars were impractical, and residents would tend to walk or ride public transportation for their daily activities. Now, it is significantly more common for individuals to drive to their occupations, often without carpooling, causing congestion as well as using more limited resources. Finally, the issue of people moving from the inner city to the suburbs creates issue  not only in the land they take, but also the homes left behind. Urban sprawl has created what was nicknamed the "donut effect," when a city becomes much like a donut, with all activity on the outside and the inner city abandoned. This has issues both culturally and economically. It creates dismal, abandoned spaces in a city, which can destroy its previous charm, making it less appealing to possible future inhabitants and other visitors alike. It also hurts property values within the city, which has a negative effect on city governments who often depend on property taxes, and making it incredibly difficult to enliven the city once again. Urban sprawl needs to be slowed or stopped for the benefit of not only our cities, but also the nation as a whole.
 

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