The City Reader - Suburban Sprawl

Sarah wrote an article about my hometown, St. Simons Island. I'm going to focus writing on Brunswick, the constantly expanding city that connects St. Simons to the mainland. Before taking this class I was completely unaware of what suburban sprawl does to a community, actually I was completely unaware of suburban sprawl altogether. Living on an island there is only so much land neighborhoods and businesses can sprawl out to. However Brunswick has a surplus of land and is constantly expanding and growing bigger. Since Brunswick is growing larger it is falling victim to suburban sprawl. There are many new neighborhoods and subdivisions being developed on the outskirts of Brunswick near the interstates. I have actually been to one of these neighborhoods myself while taking my younger brother to a friends house and witnessed the suburban sprawl taking place first hand. Of course more neighborhoods means more people living in the area, and more people living in the area means an influx of new shopping centers. Within the last 5 years a huge shopping center was developed complete with a Target, OfficeMax, Circuit City, Verizon Wireless Store, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, H&H, Old Navy, Long Horns, Lowes, and the list goes on. I remember about 10 years ago or so when the shopping area was occupied by a lonely Food Lion grocery store. Brunswick is experiencing rapid growth and with it suburban sprawl. This could have something to do with the fact that living is much cheaper in Brunswick than such locations as St. Simons Island, Sea Island, and Jekyll Island, and all of the afforementioned locations are but a 10 - 20 minute drive from any location in Brunswick. Brunswick and the Golden Isles are fantastic places to live, hopefully sprawl will not change that.
- Blake Bauer