Abstract
Suburbanization and sprawl present new issues and challenges of regional inequity and equal opportunity. As awareness of the effects of the impacts of uneven and unhealthy development patterns grow, the debate for dealing with the fallout of sprawl is being taken up and policy agenda is emerging to address smart growth. With the emergence of the region rather than the city as the dominant economic and social geographic unit and key policy changes, the article propounds that the mistakes of the past fifty years can be reversed and regional equity achieved. The article makes it clear that life changes are largely determined by where one lives. The development patterns detailed in the article directly relate to an extreme inequality for poor people of color, but new factors are emerging that create a platform for addressing the inequality. New ways of thinking and acting regionally allows for development to be addressed more broadly and equitably. This kind of regional thinking is captured in extensive community planning processes, policies such as inclusionary zoning, and jobs initiatives. Policy will continue to be the springboard for drastic change in sustainable progress and the article proposes equitable development as an action and policy agenda that can align multiple interests into a sustainable movement for positive change.
Recommended Citation
Angela Glover Blackwell,
It Takes a Region ,
31 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1303
(2003).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol31/iss5/4