What is smart growth?
Smart growth is an approach to community design that connects housing, transportation, and land use to create healthy, prosperous, and resilient neighborhoods.
About us
Smart Growth America cultivates vibrant, sustainable communities with diverse living and transportation options, enhancing quality of life for all.
Our work
Smart Growth America cultivates vibrant, sustainable communities with diverse living and transportation options, enhancing quality of life for all.
Impact
Smart Growth America cultivates vibrant, sustainable communities with diverse living and transportation options, enhancing quality of life for all.
Events
Throughout the year, we host a number of in-person and virtual events covering topics related to public health, social equity, and climate resilience.
News
By Alex Dodds, May 30, 2012
Leinberger’s discussion focused on how government policy over the last 60 years has encouraged suburban sprawl. The result: decline of community, urban decay, pollution, and a rise in obesity and asthma. But there’s a new approach (or perhaps it’s an old approach) in which citizens live, work, and play within easy walking distance.
Leinberger noted in particular Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, a 15-block shopping district with over 150 stores. As he explains in the speech above, Country Club Plaza “was the first regionally significant, walkable urban place built from scratch in this country. And you had to wait over 50 until the next one showed up…And it was just in a whole different specturm, a whole different universe. That was what Country Club Plaza was when it was first built.” By learning from these goals, Leinberger explains, Kansas City can join towns across the country helping their downtowns thrive.
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