ABSTRACT
The United States has been experiencing a phenomenon without precedent. While our cities have maintained their fiscal and political reliance on continued economic growth, the very idea of urban growth has acquired strong negative connotations in the popular imagination. Americans have come to fear the growth of their communities, and this fear has become a powerful political force. Citizens who may not take the time to vote for the next president will nevertheless turn out in large numbers to oppose a real estate development. How did it come to be that people who built the constellations of villages, towns, and cities that span the continent should have so radically changed its ethos?
