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Illustration by Josh Hagler

Monday September 24, 2001

The United States has long offered the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of a big house with a white-picket fence and a dog running around in the yard. All citizens of our country are granted the inherent privilege to work hard to obtain the American Dream. And our human rights should be protected at all costs.

But the right to endless urban sprawl cannot be tolerated.

At the close of the second World War, our nation's supply of housing could not satisfy the demand kindled by economic growth, the baby boom and affordable automobiles. By the pen of President Dwight Eisenhower, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 catapulted the beginning of a 41,000-mile interstate highway system. Los Angeles was now connected to New York City, weaving thousands of small towns into a national spider web.

As one historian defined it, Americans sought "to withdraw from the great world and begin a new life in a fresh, green landscape." The pastoral Jeffersonian ideal mixed with Thoreau's Walden Pond lured people from the dirty and tired city centers. And suddenly, suburbia was born.

Since my sophomore year at Flagstaff High School, I began to notice a steady change on the north side of Phoenix. First an outlet mall shot up in the middle of the desert on I-17, about 30 miles outside of Phoenix. At the time, I didn't understand how building a capitalistic palace in the middle of the desert would be a good plan. Yet, in many respects it was an ingenious idea - buy some cheap land, and wait for the people to come to you.

And it didn't take long. Now, the desert around the mall is likened to a development Armageddon. In my book, pure evil has taken on a new name. They call it Anthem, one of the new sprawlvillas of Arizona. Within a few years, developers have suddenly built a small city - snap your fingers and get 40,000 new homes. It is like building a Flagstaff in the middle of the desert.

I hate it. I flip it off every time I drive home.

Urban sprawl in the United States is dramatically affecting landscape around huge cities across the nation. The demand for an unnecessarily huge home away from the "ick" of the city center (with a good view and close proximity to the Wal-Mart) has manipulated the American Dream. This "right" is responsible for the devouring of farmland and natural landscape. The dream has led to a nightmare of traffic congestion, air, light and sound pollution. It is responsible for rash construction of neighborhoods of non-unique characteristics. It is turning cities across the country into Anytown, U.S.A.

In the last 20 years, the ideology has been changing. Rash growth is now being curbed by the idea of "smart growth." In November, legislation authorizing bonds or tax increases to fund land conservation, mass transit systems and neighborhood redevelopment passed overwhelmingly. Americans are incorporating environmental ethics into their lives. This is great, but we need to do more.

We need to amend the American Dream.

Everyone owning or building his or her own huge house with a double garage is not OK. If we give a damn about saving our natural places in this country, we cannot rely on the other person taking action.

The developers are winning the urban growth war. Environmentalists such as the radical Earth Liberation Front are on the front lines of the battle. A communiquŽ from the group says, "The Earth isn't dying, it is being killed. And those killing it have names and addresses."

National urban growth can only be fought on local levels. It is time for the people in Arizona to amend the American Dream. It is ridiculous that there is even talk about permitting a development remotely near Kartchner Caverns. It is insane to let construction continue any higher up into the canyons in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is tragic to let another mall be built at Campbell Avenue and Speedway Boulevard.

It is up to the locals to not sell out to developers and set the growth boundaries.