Free Republic

Surprise, Ariz., doesn't look very surprising. It might be anywhere in the suburban West. Home Depot and Wal-Mart rise like islands from an ocean of pavement, and late-model SUVs gleam in the midday sun. Homes with red-tiled roofs line up like stucco boxes on a giant supermarket shelf. There's little to distinguish this from the hundreds of square miles of housing developments that have sprouted around Las Vegas and San Diego. If it weren't for the palm trees, you could be in suburban Salt Lake City. But only Surprise has the Radiant Church. Inside this 55,000-square-foot behemoth, 50-inch plasma-screen televisions...

Henderson, Nevada - First came the foreclosure crisis. Next, gas prices went through the roof. Now, beleaguered Americans living on the edge of metropolitan areas face a third plague: politicians. Political campaigns call Carrie Mercherle’s sewing machine shop in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson four or five times a day, seeking her vote in the presidential election on November 4. Mercherle generally hangs up before they can start their pitch. “We’re just very tired of it,” Mercherle said. “It’s like, just get (the election) over with already.” Fast-growing “exurbs” like Henderson, commuter towns outside the traditional suburban belts surrounding...

WESLEY CHAPEL, FLA. -- The first in an occasional series. -- Cheap mortgages and cheap gas built this sprawling landscape of tan and gray stucco homes, iron gates and golf course communities. And the people who flocked here over the last decade -- upwardly mobile young families in pursuit of lower taxes and wholesome neighborhoods -- emerged as a Republican voting bloc crucial to President Bush's 2004 reelection. * Feeling the pinch Feeling the pinch But listen to Anna Rodriguez and her neighbors who gather nightly on lawn chairs to unwind, and a change comes into focus that could shift...

LEESBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Million-dollar fixer-upper for sale: five bedrooms, four baths, three-car garage, cavernous living room. Big holes above fireplace where flat-screen TV used to hang. The U.S. housing crisis has come to McMansion country. Just as the foreclosure crisis has hollowed out poorer neighborhoods, "for sale" signs are sprouting in upscale developments so new they don't show up on GPS navigation screens. Poor people weren't the only ones who took out risky, high-interest loans during the housing boom. The sharp increase in housing costs -- and the desire to live in brand-new, spacious houses with modern features --...

Hugh turnout in Loudoun county (turnout in 2004 was 70%). Loudoun is outside of D.C. just beyond the "blue" suburbs. MORE INFO at...

Once again, the fastest-growing cities in the United States are some of the far-flung exurbs in the Sun Belt and the Far West, according to fresh population estimates from the Census Bureau. The bureau's annual survey of municipalities with at least 100,000 residents shows that from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2005, four outer suburbs in California, three in Florida, two in Arizona and one in Nevada were the country's most rapidly growing. Leading the list was Elk Grove, Calif., on the Sacramento area's far southern edge, which grew nearly 12 percent in those 12 months, to 112,338. Elk...

There is overwhelming evidence that urban sprawl has been beneficial for many people. Year after year, the vast majority of Americans respond to batteries of polls by saying that they are quite happy with where they live, whether it is a city, suburb, or elsewhere. Most objective indicators about American urban life are positive. We are more affluent than ever; home ownership is up; life spans are up; pollution is down; crime in most cities has declined. Even where sprawl has created negative consequences, it has not precipitated any crisis. So what explains the power of today's anti-sprawl crusade? How...

Census: Americans Are Fleeing Big Cities By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Thu Apr 20, 12:15 AM ET WASHINGTON - Americans are leaving the nation's big cities in search of cheaper homes and open spaces farther out. Nearly every large metropolitan area had more people move out than move in from 2000 to 2004, with a few exceptions in the South and Southwest, according to a report being released Thursday by the Census Bureau. Northeasterners are moving South and West. West Coast residents are moving inland. Midwesterners are chasing better job markets. And just about everywhere, people are escaping to...

WASHINGTON -- Most of America's fastest-growing counties are well outside urban areas as more people move to the suburbs and beyond. New Census Bureau estimates show the nation's population shifting south and west, to the distant suburbs of metropolitan areas stretching from Florida to Utah. Some people are chasing jobs and, in other cases, the jobs are chasing them, said Alan Pisarski, author of "Commuting in America." "As the jobs move farther out, frequently driven there by the need to access skilled people, that frees up more people to move even farther out," Pisarski said. The estimates released Thursday are...

A well-made, raised-relief map is a beautiful thing. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? It's a map mode of molded plastic, so that mountains protrude into your personal space. This is handy when you are riding your bicycle across America. You can see where the tough climbs will be. Avoid Gunnison, Colo. My map of the 48 states is made by Kistler Graphics Inc. in Denver. Not only the texture but also the colors are delightful: a rich mix of tans, greens and blues. The artist uses one other color, yellow, to mark urban areas. I think about...

Across the United States, an unprecedented acceleration in suburban sprawl is prompting concerns about the environment, traffic, health and damage to rural communities, but opponents appear powerless to stop the process because of the economic development and profits it generates. Sprawl, defined as the unplanned, uncontrolled expansion of urban areas beyond their fringes, has greatly accelerated over the past 25 years, spurred by low mortgage interest rates and aggressive developers. According to the National Resources Inventory, about 34 million acres -- an area the size of Illinois -- were converted to developed uses between 1982 and 2001. Development in the...

In 2004, the new hotbed of Republican voters was the outer suburbs, the so-called exurbs on the distant outskirts of a central city, packed with tract housing, strip malls, chain stores, a megachurch or two, and thousands and thousands of middle class and lower middle class families. President Bush romped in the exurbs. He won 97 of the 100 fastest-growing counties in America--most of them exurbs--and piled up a 1.72 million vote advantage over John Kerry. From the governor's election in Virginia last week, there's a bit of evidence that the Republican grip on the exurbs may be loosening. Jerry...

For those who made the exodus to the rolling farmland of Loudoun County, Va., over the past decade, the trade-offs were well understood. Stake a claim to the exurban dream in newly sprouted developments with bucolic names like Farmington on the Green and Hirst Farms (going price: $600,000 and up), and you got a brand new house on a quarter acre. Excellent schools, the small-town charm of antique shops, and historic courthouses were also part of the package. And just watch your home value soar, by an average 23% in the past two years The downside? Everyone wanted to join...

The white populations of the District, Arlington and Alexandria have grown this decade even as the region's outer counties have grown more diverse, according to new census estimates to be released today that underscore how the area's soaring housing prices and job sprawl are reshaping its racial and ethnic dynamics. The city and those close-in Virginia suburbs had higher percentages of non-Hispanic white residents in 2004 than in 2000, a reversal of past trends, the estimates say. Minority groups grew more slowly than in the past, or declined. In the District, Arlington and Alexandria, whites became a larger share of...

Dawn and Marvin Hamrick's dreams came true three years ago when they finished building a two-story Colonial-style home in Spotsylvania County. But they got a shock this spring when a rotten-egg odor settled over their Catharpin Road property. Their son, J.R., first noticed it one morning while walking to the school bus stop. "He thought something had died on the side of the road," Dawn Hamrick recalled. "He thought he was going to get sick." The stench seemed to dissipate during the day, but returned one evening as the family tried to enjoy their new deck. "It was that night...

n the outer suburbs of Washington, long filled with Christian churches, new and expanding Muslim mosques are changing the religious landscape. In Woodbridge, a $1.8 million mosque built to hold 1,000 worshipers will open in January. Starting in October, Ellicott City Muslims will pray in a new $2 million mosque large enough to accommodate almost 1,000 people. Mosques from Annapolis to Manassas are growing as Muslims who have migrated to the outer suburbs seek places to worship near where they live.

Nowhere land As US towns sprawl into the countryside, creating anonymous zones dominated by soulless malls, one of Britain's leading historians asks if it could happen here Tristram Hunt Sunday February 20, 2005 Observer Take a ride along the I-10 out of Phoenix, Arizona, and witness the birth of a new civilisation. Under the arching desert sky, cotton fields are being transformed into condominiums; cactus wilderness into master-planned communities. This year some 60,000 new homes will spread out along the valley landscape. Similar developments are underway across America: in Florida, ancient citrus groves are coming down for housing lots; in...

WASHINGTON — The center of the Republican presidential coalition is moving toward the distant edges of suburbia. In last month’s election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation’s 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them ‘‘exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. Together, these fast-growing communities provided Bush a punishing 1.72 million-vote advantage over Democrat John F. Kerry, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of election results. That was almost half the president’s total margin of victory. ‘‘These exurban counties are the new Republican areas, and they will...

WASHINGTON — The center of the Republican presidential coalition is moving toward the distant edges of suburbia. In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. Together, these fast-growing communities provided Bush a punishing 1.72 million vote advantage over Democrat John F. Kerry, according to a Times analysis of election results. That was almost half the president's total margin of victory. "These exurban counties are the new Republican areas, and they will become...

Bush's huge victory in the fast-growing areas beyond the suburbs alters the political map. WASHINGTON — The center of the Republican presidential coalition is moving toward the distant edges of suburbia. In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas. Together, these fast-growing communities provided Bush a punishing 1.72 million vote advantage over Democrat John F. Kerry, according to a Times analysis of election results. That was almost half the president's total margin...