One big contributor to that trend in hard-to-reach jobs also appears to be sprawl. While the number of jobs nearby fell by 7 percent for all large-metro-area residents, it fell by 14 percent for blacks and 17 percent for Hispanics, as well 17 percent for poor neighborhoods. In addition, the situation was even worse for poor and minority neighborhoods. The number of jobs within typical commuting distance to residents of major metro areas fell by 7 percent between 20, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution. Yet another study released this week suggests that jobs migrating to the suburbs keep people from working, and that the problem is especially pronounced in America's poorest neighborhoods. For his part, Litman writes that his $1 trillion figure doesn't even include cost estimates for other problems sprawl can cause - lower social mobility and more traffic accidents, for example. It's a huge cost to try to calculate, of course, and considering various cost estimates (for road costs and land values, etc.) that author Todd Litman includes, the $1 trillion figure is perhaps best seen as just one attempt at a ballpark estimate. The additional spending on road building, parking, and police and emergency services that come with a spread-out metro area really add up, they write - sprawl increases infrastructure and public services costs by 10 to 40 percent, the report says. (That's huge as context, consider that the US annual GDP is around $17 trillion.) According the London School of Economics Cities project and the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, individuals and cities in the US pay $1 trillion to $1.1 trillion in additional infrastructure, public works, driving, and health costs as a result of these massive metro areas. One new report finds that suburban sprawl in US cities costs the country more than $1 trillion a year. Not only are mammoth, spread-out metro areas economically wasteful, but they're also hurting Americans' job prospects as work disperses out into the suburbs.
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Now, a pair of studies released this week suggests that America's evolving cities are also bad for the economy.
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As the nation's metro areas grow ever larger, the sprawling suburbs can come with all sorts of problems: endless commutes, growing pollution, and unwalkable neighborhoods, to name a few.