Sprawl in Bowling Green, KY over the Past Fifty Years
Between 1982 and 1997, Kentucky has had the second-highest growth rate in the country. This trend shows no sign of slowing in the near future. In Kentucky, the speed of land development is rising faster than the population growth. The new population is taking up more space per person than ever before with the development of new subdivisions. Each house is estimated to be using approximately one acre in the new suburbs. This blatant waste of land is taking away not only tax dollars, but also valuable farmlands that Kentucky is known for. Soon, sprawl will engulf our countryside if it is not controlled.
Sprawl is a term used to describe the expansion of the population out of the cities and into the surrounding urban areas. There can be many different reasons given to explain this phenomenon, but to understand the main causes of sprawl, one must go back to post-World War I 1930s.
In order to stabilize and expand home ownership, The Federal Government created the National Housing Act of 1934. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was assigned to provide low-cost home mortgages to middle-income households. The middle-income households usually included predominantly white single-family homes in the new outlying suburbs, while the older city households had higher proportions of rental housing at a higher price.
After World War II, the “GI Bill” accelerated sprawl further into outer urban areas when the Veterans Administration financed homeownership for 14 million war veterans into the new suburbs. Both the FHA and VA made it possible, and more affordable for veterans, to live in a new home in the suburbs, rather than renting in older cities with higher housing payments. This sprawl caused the money from taxes that would support the inner city to move to the outlying areas of the suburbs. Government support of suburban-oriented, middle-income households over that of city-based, lower-income rental households of around forty times as much, would become the main cause of urban sprawl and inner-city deterioration for the times after both World Wars to the present.
After World War II, President Eisenhower formed the National Interstate and Defense Highway System Act of 1956 in order to transport the nation’s military sources in the event of a nuclear threat during the cold war, as well as allow quicker evacuations of America’s cities during such an attack. This action allowed city residents to flee their residential neighborhoods to the outer urban areas while still being able to keep their city jobs by commuting. In a failed effort to keep residents within the city neighborhoods, the Urban Mass Transit Act of 1964 called for Federal Aid for public bus systems; this new system made the severity of sprawl even worse. Instead of channeling the suburbanite’s money into the cities, it pushed it even further out. The development of new suburban communities took money away from inner city renewal plans, and instead went to building new roads for the sprawling suburban citizens.
With the main form of transportation being fueled by gasoline, one would think that a way to limit sprawl would be to place high taxes on the base prices of gas. However, in the mid 1990s, the price of gas had fallen to an all-time low, which not only led to increased numbers of cars on the road, but also increased pollution. With cars come traffic and the urge to sprawl further out into newer, less crowded urban areas. This sprawl brought along with it the need for more public roads and sewer systems paid for by the government.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 was put in place in order to rid the country’s lakes, rivers, and streams of pollution. Residential water was also included in the Act. About one third of the money that was set up to purify the country’s water was spent on the new suburb’s sewers.
The social, financial, and environmental effects of sprawl are not immediately apparent; however, the negative effects over time are appaling. Socially, sprawl has caused a form of segregation between income levels. As the lower income level families are forced to live within deteriorating cities, the middle to upper class income levels are sprawling further and further away and taking the jobs and money with them. The majority of the isolated lower-class citizens happen to be African American as shown in a 2000 census track that compares the 1980, 1990, and 2000 census. The comparison over the past twenty years shows that sprawl has worsened the resegregation phenomenon of the 21st century.
Another social cause and effect of sprawl is the stereotypes that have been placed on racial groups. Lower income classes are those that are considered to be in poverty. The effects of poverty are usually crime and violence. This threat has instilled not only fear of being harmed but also a fear of a racial group usually associated with poverty. Out of this fear comes a cycle of sprawl and isolation.
Financially, sprawl has taken the tax money out of the cities and into the suburbs. Along with the tax money, the jobs and businesses have left the cities and have followed the consumers. The tax base for a city only includes citizens that are within the city limits. With the loss of a tax base, it is clear why the roads, schools, and public services deteriorate within the inner cities--the tax money leaves with the citizens.
Environmentally, sprawl contributes to the causes of the greenhouse effect. Our air and waters are being polluted more every day. The more roads that are built, the more trees, fields, and habitats for our wildlife are destroyed. Along with the addition of new roads come more cars. Cars not only use a natural resource from the earth that is already limited, but cars also expel carbon monoxide into the air, causing smog and poor air qualities. Only about a fraction of the money funding the Clean Water Act of 1972 actually was spent on cleaning America’s water supplies. The remainder of the funding was instead spent on sewer systems for the new developments caused by sprawl.
With each citizen that a city loses, tax money that could have gone to supporting all aspects of the city is lost. It is clear that the population is going to grow and keep growing, but there is a way to allow growth and still maintain the needs of all citizens. Through annexation, a city is able to maintain its tax base by growing itself. By widening the city’s limits, the city will be able to capture the sprawl and become more elastic. Elasticity is a measurement of the capability of a city to capture its population growth as it changes. This means that as the population density changes, the city is able to maintain it. An inelastic city is one that is unable to grow with the sprawling suburbanites, and are usually the cities that are in the worst shape both financially and socially.
A way to measure whether a city is elastic or not is to examine the census city and county data books. Data is kept on cities of 25,000 or more. From this massive book of numbers, one can assess the square mileage, population, and density of a given city. From the square mileage, one can determine whether a city has grown over time. From the population change, one can see if that city has been able to capture sprawl. Density determines whether the city is elastic or not by noticing if it has risen, lowered, or remained relatively constant. The density factors in both the population and the square mileage in one figure.
Table 1.
1950 / 1960 / 1970 / 1980 / 1990 / 2000Bowling Green / Population / 18,347 / 28,338 / 36,253 / 40,450 / 42,017 / 49,296
Mile² / *_ / 7.0 / 16.2 / 26.1 / 29 / 35.4
Density / *_ / 4,048 / 2,266 / 1,550 / 1,449 / 1,392.5
Warren County / Population / 42,758 / 45,491 / 57,432 / 71,828 / 78,933 / 92,522
Mile² / 546 / 546 / 546 / 548 / 545 / 545
Density / 78 / 83 / 105 / 131.2 / 145 / 169.7
*NOTE: the square mileage and density could not be found due to the County and City Data books did not include that information unless the population was over 25,000.
From Table 1, it is clear that the population of Bowling Green, Kentucky is growing. It is also clear that the city itself is growing with the sprawl that is occurring. It went from the size of 7 square miles in 1960 to 35.4 in 2000, an increase of 28 square miles in a forty–year period. There is both good and bad news associated with these figures. The good news is that it shows Bowling Green’s elasticity. The bad news of this measurement is that it shows the extent of sprawl out of the city. The density over the past fifty years also shows the effects of sprawl. Some may argue that higher densities are undesirable in that it brings crime, poverty, and higher living costs. Well-regulated population densities with regard to city planning and affordable housing can solve these problems.
Annexation is the method for land growth within a city’s limits. Annexation is the act of incorporating territory into the domain of a state or city. For example, the city of Bowling Green annexed the following: Plum Springs City, Parts of Gasper River, Goshen, Bristow, and Woodburn division in 1993. Through many annexations, the city of Bowling Green has grown in square miles, but is it necessarily an elastic city?
From the data collected above, it is clear that Bowling Green has increased its city limits in order to capture the growth caused by sprawl, but is it enough to support the growing size of Bowling Green for the future? It is unclear what the true effects sprawl will have on the city, Kentucky, or the nation, but this should be a wake up call for our government to install new smart growth plans everywhere.
Redevelopment strategies for the inner city, not only as historic districts, but as residential districts, are important for controlling sprawl. De-concentration of lower-class citizens and minorities is achievable with the incorporation of affordable housing in mixed income level neighborhoods.
Transportation should be subordinate to land use, and not the other way around. The smart growth plan should call for strong state laws for anti-sprawl standards, and require that local governments work together in a multi-county way. A coalition needs to be formed in order to play out the plans agendas, and see that all parties involved are performing the job effectively.
Bowling Green, Kentucky is statistically considered an elastic city, but how far can it be stretched before it finally breaks? Sprawl is a force that needs to be placed under control, not adapted to.
Works cited
Rusk, David. Inside Game Outside Game; Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America. Washington DC: The Century Foundation, 1999. (Pg.1-100)
County and City Data Book, US Census Bureau, 1952-1993.