It's been heard most recently about development in northeast Tallahassee, particularly Bradfordville. Essentially, sprawl is haphazard development. As sprawl consumes the countryside, it sucks the life out of older urban and suburban cores. When Richard Moe, a highly regarded president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, visited Tall Timbers Research Station this spring, he said sprawl is best fought with a combination of sensible land-use planning and revitalization of communities. These tools create compact, viable cities.
Urban cores cope with a slew of inherited problems, which stem from poor or unregulated planning.
By many indications, Tallahassee is moving in the right direction. Look at the visitors pulled into the downtown Odyssey Science Center and Museum of Art. Nearby, consider the crowds that arrive for festivities these Saturdays at the Downtown Marketplace along Park Avenue. Downtown is alive. Development is slated to begin there on a stormwater basin, park, new homes and office buildings.