PO Box 757 Hyde Park, New York 12538
job centers; and makes people more and more dependent on driving in their daily lives.
Sprawl pollutes our air and water. As reliance on cars and pavement of more and more roads increases, so
does smog and pollution from water runoff. Today, more than half all Americans live in areas where the air is
unsafe to breathe. Sprawl destroys more than two million acres of parks, farms and open space each year.
Sprawl increases traffic on our neighborhood streets and highways. Sprawl lengthens trips and forces us to
drive everywhere. The average American driver currently spends the equivalent of 55 eight-hour workdays
behind the wheel every year.
Sprawl wastes tax money. It pulls economic resources away from community centers and spreads them out over
sparse developments far away from the core. Taxes subsidize millions of dollars worth of new roads, new
water and sewer lines, new schools and increased police and fire protection at the expense of the needs of the
core communities. This leads to degradation of town centers and higher taxes.
