Urban sprawl is a well established phenomena in America. As one group of analysts has characterized it:
"Sprawl is random unplanned growth characterized by inadequate accessibility to essential land uses such as housing, jobs, and public services that include schools, parks, green space, and public transportation. Suburban sprawl is not new. It is an extension of long-established patterns of suburbanization, decentralization, and low-density development. Sprawl-driven development has 'literally sucked population, jobs, investment capital and tax base from the urban core'" (Anthony, 1998). [Bullard, Johnson, and Torres, 2000].