The Impact of Urban Sprawl on the Inner City
...e example of this type of segregation is sprawl’s discriminatory impact on the Buffalo Urban Sprawl 3 Metropolitan area. As Buffalo’s suburbs have grown, Buffalo has become more and more racially segregated – creating the 4th most segregated metropolitan area in the country. As of the1990 US Census, 85% of minorities (92% of Blacks) and 71% of low-income families in Erie County resided in the city (Wright). Sprawl can lead to the erosion of a cities tax base and down commerce as well as the increased concentration of poverty and unemployment in a city. Because suburban survival necessitates the ownership of a car, the poor are often denied the opportunity to move into the suburbs, there for the average income of the city decreases. Low-income city residents witness deteriorating housing in the communities and a severe shortage of affordable housing opportunities for families in the suburbs and more affluent neighborhoods. When urban sprawl is discussed racial segregation is not one of the main concerns that people have or speak about. Racial segregation is an issue that needs to be at the four fronts of urban sprawl issues. If it is not addressed, we will be inevitably setting our self back in time. Development has become a very rare thing in inner cities. As newer communities are being developed in the suburbs, housing and business developments consume landscapes while inner city areas become increasingly neglected. While young middle and upper class families seek homes in the suburbs older schools close in inner cities and buildings remain vacant. Sprawl has drained the life out of thousands of traditional downtowns and inner city neighborhoods, and we learned that we can’t hope to revitalize these communities without doing something to control sprawl that keeps pushing further and further out from the center of cities (Moe). Not only has development in our inner cities gone down, but also the preservation of our historical neighborhoods and Urban Sprawl 4 businesses has been depleting rapidly. Preservation is in the business of saving special places and the quality of life they support, and sprawl destroys both. While development in the inner cities continues to decrease, so does the value of property in the inner cities. Property value of closer suburbs has declined as wealthier residents move further away from older developments. As home ownership declines and property values in urban areas and inner suburbs diminish. Property tax revenues, which are collected for local uses such as school funding, are depleted. This then leads to the raising of property taxes to counteract the reduction in government revenue. For example, in the 10 fastest-growing towns in southern Maine, property taxes increased an average of 43% between 1990 and 1995, compared with 27% for the 10 slowest growing towns (Issues & Controversies). This rising of tax rates in older cities further pushes middle-class families into less taxed outlying areas, and the cycle of sprawl continues. In conclusion, urban sprawl has had a tremendous effect on our inner...