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The virtues of sprawl

Sprawl isn't what it used to be, some experts contend. Is it time we stopped worrying and learned to love the subdivision?

NEW SPRAWL. A development in Riverside County (left), part of Southern California's Inland Empire, shown in 2002. OLD SPRAWL. In 1950, the Lakewood Building Project in Los Angeles County (right) was called the largest planned housing development in history. A community of 17,150 homes, it would include parks, playgrounds, schools, churches and a major shopping center with everything from supermarkets to department stores.
NEW SPRAWL. A development in Riverside County (left), part of Southern California's Inland Empire, shown in 2002. OLD SPRAWL. In 1950, the Lakewood Building Project in Los Angeles County (right) was called the largest planned housing development in history. A community of 17,150 homes, it would include parks, playgrounds, schools, churches and a major shopping center with everything from supermarkets to department stores. (AP Photo; Bettmann/Corbis) AP Photo; Bettmann/Corbis
By Anthony Flint
October 2, 2005

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FROM PASCO COUNTY outside Tampa to the ranchland north of Dallas to Phoenix and Las Vegas and Boise, the freshly built subdivision miles from anywhere has become the official choice for millions of Americans. Demographers today use the term ''exurban" to describe this kind of location, on open land outside the farthest fringes of existing suburban development and completely lacking ... (Full article: 1252 words)

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