Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Bigger the Better?
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 8:30 AM
This week, in our regularly scheduled print edition, I wrote about Memphis' new outer loop, I-269.
Though the highway is not yet completed, it will eventually connect Paul Barret Parkway near Arlington, travel south along the Shelby/Fayette county line, and link with the Bill Morris Parkway in the south, before heading across the state line to Marshall and DeSoto counties and Mississippi Highway 304.
Local proponents argue that it will relieve congestion and improve area air quality.
Community advocates, however, are concerned that the interstate will drive area residents and development further east, exacerbating Memphis' sprawl and costing taxpayers more money in new infrastructure, schools, and service.
As part of the story, I have a lot of interesting maps and graphics — most of which did not make it into the story b/c of how much space we needed for the words.
For the next few days, I will be posting these maps. Some of them illuminate the city's situation, wherein the actual population is not growing (except with the shoring up of annexation) but getting more and more spread out.
Or, as I like to call it, sprawly.
Others show the effects of the sprawl on our lives in say, commute times or concentrations of poverty.
In 1960, most of the people in the county lived within the area that is currently the 240 loop. The theory in the '50s was that perimeter highways would create a growth boundary for development and route traffic around a city. But the opposite happened: instead of highways circling around a community, the community circled around the highways.
The following were created by Dane Forlines at the University of Memphis. Each dot on the maps represents 300 residents.
Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
I am a real estate agent and while finishing the loop will be good for me in terms of showing houses to prospective buyers, I think it will stimulate growth within the loop. An example: People who work at FedEx in Collierville are reluctant to buy homes in Arlington/Lakeland/Bartlett because there is no convenient way to get to Collerville from those areas except across Canada/Houston Levee. While Houston Levee is being widened in some places, it will still be 2 lanes in others. Anything we can do to make to easier for commuters to get from Point A to Point B will help sell a lot of those empty houses out there. This will be good not only for buyers, but for those trying to sell their homes as well. It should also cut some of the traffic on the I240 loop during rush hours.
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I want to live in Jackson. Is there a road we can build so I can get to FedEx in 15 minutes from there?
By all means. Make sure the suburbanites get better access to their strip malls and soccer fields. More asphalt please. Don't build the road, and pay for some healthcare! dooo da da....and they put up a parking lot.
Portland is a great example of a city that set it's boundaries to force redevelopment within the city. Calgary has a similar plan as well. Both of these cities are thriving, with a much lower crime rate, good public education, and excellent amenities for their citizens. Sprawl is not good for anyone. You would think that people would learn from the "too big to fail" philosophy failing.
i agree, this is really bad for the city itself. I've been shocked at how much things have already moved out from where they were when I was in Memphis in the late 80s. The future might not look so bad if Memphis were a fast-growing area, but the reality is it's not and likely never will be. Best-case is probably growth that mirrors the growth in the nation as a whole, leaving a center that will end up looking pretty bad.
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