The Census Bureau has released its annual estimate of county
population changes, and as they have for years, the numbers for
July 2006 to July 2007 show wild growth in Sunbelt cities in
eastern California, Nevada and Arizona.
The Census Bureau has released its annual estimate of county population changes, and as they have for years, the numbers for July 2006 to July 2007 show wild growth in Sunbelt cities in eastern California, Nevada and Arizona.
But this year they also hint that the rate of growth may be slowing, and that coastal urban and suburban areas could be gaining ground. …
These numbers hardly suggest that sprawl is dead. It’s best to view them as yet more evidence of the housing downturn. …
The census data reflect a reality that many Southern Californians have already experienced firsthand. Today, thousands of families face foreclosure. Millions more worry about the falling value of their homes and the effects of a probable recession. As the numbers show, the pain is particularly intense in our region’s far-flung, faster-growing counties. …
There is a silver lining. Slowing growth in Southern California signals that the overheated market is in fact over and that the long, difficult process of correction, in which prices return to sustainable levels, is under way. If local officials are smart, they’ll take advantage of sprawl’s apparent stall to plan more carefully for future growth. In planning terms, think of this as a strategic pause, a moment to concentrate on water supply, traffic, school construction, infrastructure – all of which tend to be brushed aside in the press of expansion but which need and deserve the long look that this moment may allow.
This editorial first appeared in the LA Times on March 24.
