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BofA joins battle' <br />on suburban sprawl <br />Engine that once <br />drove Califom14 . <br />economy may be <br />running in reverse <br />By Gary Delsohn <br />MCCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE <br />SACRAMENTO — Suburban <br />sprawl is like the weather. Practi- <br />cally everyone complains about it <br />but no one ever does anything. <br />That's not completely true, of <br />course. There are alternatives to <br />endless miles of look -alike subur- <br />ban subdivisions, but they seem <br />somehow alien, as if challenging <br />the predominant American devel- <br />opment pattern is, well, un-Ameri- <br />can. <br />Now, however, a singularly <br />American institution, the powerful <br />Bank of America, the biggest in the <br />state of California and one of the <br />most pervasive underwriters of our <br />suburban development patterns, <br />has added its resonant voice to the <br />chorus. <br />In addition to all the other more <br />obvious reasons sprawl is harmful, <br />it now is seen, after decades of <br />being the state's economic engine, <br />as an economic drain on a Califor- <br />nia struggling to rebound from a <br />deep recession. <br />Simply put, we can't continue <br />doing things the way we have the <br />past 50 years; it's costing us jobs, <br />quality of life and new economic <br />growth. <br />That simple reversal alone is <br />significant news, but it's far more <br />important because of who said it. <br />"Beyond Sprawl: New Patterns <br />of Growth to Fit the New Califor- <br />nia," is one of those documents <br />that could and should alter the'"all- <br />important debate over how, Cali- <br />fornia develops. <br />Much of the die has already <br />been cast. California is ;now the <br />nation's most urbanized state, and <br />much of that urbanization has <br />been suburban sprawl that is t'oul <br />ing our air, congesting our roads, <br />costing us untold tens of millions of <br />dollars in wasteful infrastructure <br />and helping to destroy whatever, <br />fragile sense of physical communi- <br />ty we have left. It also means we <br />have very little to invest in our <br />inner cities or in people who need <br />help the most. <br />With the state continuing to add <br />some 500,000 new people a year, <br />the equivalent of another Oakland <br />or Fresno every 365 days, there <br />remain many profound land -use <br />decisions to be made. Business as <br />usual will simply destroy Califor- <br />nia, says the report. <br />It doesn't matter much if Bank <br />of America had to be dragged into. <br />[ See DESIGN, D-T 0 <br />( S�N fiYw cl s" "AM l `ZS <br />CD CUR- <br />