The negative consequences of unbalanced growth affect all of the region's residents, no matter where they live. The north-south divide in the Atlanta region means that the wealthier parts of the region have become more congested, more sprawling, and less livable as more people are drawn in by better job opportunities, better schools, and better housing. The pressures of growth in the northern parts of the region greatly diminish its environ-mental resources. As a result, the Atlanta region is rapidly losing its forests and farmland to parking lots and low- density residential and commercial development. Its rivers and other waterways have become more polluted.
Roads become more crowded, commutes become longer.
People are cut off from educational and employment opportunities because they happen to live in one part of the region, rather than another. The quality of life in the region is not what it used to be, nor what it can be for all its residents.