Focus on the inner city and on existing communities also responds to the aging of the population, which is increasingly interested in safety, services, availability of better transportation, and the lower maintenance of life as found in the inner city. Smart growth means being tough on industrial processes that pollute air, water, or land. Although Santa Monica is a relatively small city, its progress toward sustainability has been rapid. In 1994 the city council adopted a sustainable program. The city closed a major street to cars, and that street has become a mall, filled with people day and night, shopping, talking, walking, and dining.
Electric shuttles move people around the busiest parts of the city.
The new dynamics of smart growth in Atlanta were a constant undercurrent at the Town Meeting. The region has been one of the fastest growing in the nation, and in the last couple of years has begun to pay the price. Hundreds of millions of dollars intended for road and transit projects have vanished and businesses face daunting new rules for expansion. Major companies have decided not to build in the area for fear of subjecting their employees to the terrible snarl of traffic that pervades the region. But recently the state legislature gave Governor Roy Barnes unprecedented power to control transportation policy in the region, and the chamber of commerce has done a complete about-face, emerging as the local champion of Smart Growth.