Why is urban sprawl currently an issue if the cost of living is higher than it's ever been?

[ksnake10]

I just read an article on CNN.com about "urban sprawl." When the economy is strong, urban sprawl is an issue, but in our current dismal recovery, I don't see how anyone is worried about urban sprawl. Even if the rich can afford to buy new homes, they can only sleep in 1 house per night. Even if the rich rent out or sell homes, they can only rent or sell at a price that "the buyer" can afford. So given that most of the world is not doing so well financially these days, how is urban sprawl an issue at this time? It takes a lot of people with a lot of money to encroach on the environment, and that doesn't exist at this time.

[Exco]

You're joking right? Almost unlimited suburban development has irreversibly destroyed entire landscapes.

And it's not even just from a hippy environmentalist point of view - to avoid the responsibility of fixing existing urban problems the rich moved to suburban areas, that drove land developers on a frenzy of real-estate boom that created an inflated housing estate bubble, which eventually broke.

AND LED TO THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.

Look at Los Angeles - its urban ghettos a picture of human dystopia, or Las Vegas, the "jewel" of the sand that is more like a parasitic vermin encroaching on the gamble addicts, the fame and the famous, and every other deplorable aspects of society that's somehow glamorised in this town.

And it's dehumanising! The urban dwellers stuck in a crime-ridden environment not of their making, but which dictates their future. The suburban "elites", despite all the comfortable facade, are reduced to mindless, identical husks living in identical houses, buy identical goods, and identically ignore those less fortunate than them, shrouded by this sad curtain that all is well, and that earning and spending money is "happiness".

You've exactly described the ignorant actions of the elite that caused the recession! Monopolising on an inflated market that once crashed, caused the landlord and renters, developers, mortgagors and buyers all bankrupt!

Have humanity not learned for these moronic, short-sighted economic practices that bring only short-term profit at the cost of long-time damage and ignoring easily treatable social problems that might one day evolve into irreversible, terminal crises?