The Costs of Urban Sprawl Are Not Just Environmental: Study

Several decades ago, the communities lining the southwestern corner of Connecticut were emblematic of quintessential suburbia — low density, single-family development, the need to drive everywhere, the lack of a town center.

Nearly all of the job growth in Connecticut between 1979 and 1991 was in towns of less than 50,000 people, while anchor cities like Bridgeport and Stamford were hollowed out. In 2002, a landmark study found that the Bridgeport metropolitan area was the seventh worst region in America for so-called urban sprawl.

Today, the area still has plenty of suburbia, but it’s shed its reputation for development that sprawls ...