LOCAL GOVERNMENT
COUNTIES, TOWNSHIPS, BOROUGHS,
AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS
NAME ALL OF THE LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES (TOWNSHIPS AND
BOROUGHS) THAT LIE WITHIN NPSD:
NAME_________________________
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MR. HALEY
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
Pennsylvania School Districts
I. INTRODUCTION
School districts are units of local government created by the state of Pennsylvania in order to
provide education services to the children of each community. Their duties include:
 Managing instruction, curriculum, and other school programs
 Deciding on school facilities
 Hiring school staff – including teachers and administrators
 Making decisions about the school budget and school funding and taxes
 Deciding on the yearly school calendar
 Making other decisions about how the schools should be run
There are currently 501 school districts in Pennsylvania. There used to be over 2600 school
systems statewide before CONSOLIDATION – the process of combining school systems into
larger school districts to make them more economical and more efficient.
What districts would you consolidate today in Montgomery County to save costs?
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II. What is a School Board?
A school board is a legislative body of citizens called school directors, who are elected locally by
their fellow citizens and who serve as agents of the state legislature. By state law, school
directors cannot be paid for their work. It is a voluntary position. School directors, although
locally elected, are really state officials, co-partners with the legislature. They are designated by
school law to administer the school system in each district.
Elections and term of office
Each board consists of nine members who serve four-year terms of office. Elections are held
every two years for half of the board members. Thus, at one election four of the nine seats will
be up for election. Two years later, five of the nine will be up for election. And then two years
later, the original four seats will be up for election once again. (This is to prevent sudden drastic
changes in school leadership and a loss of experienced school directors.) Elections are held
during odd numbered years (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, etc.)
Legal requirements to be eligible to serve on a school board:
There are five limitations to determine whether you can serve on a school board in Pennsylvania.
To serve, you must:
 be at least 18 years of age,
 be a citizen of Pennsylvania,
 have resided for at least one year in the school district you’re seeking to serve,
 have good moral character, and
 you cannot be a teacher within that same school district that you’re seeking to serve
(but you can be a teacher in any other school district).
Board organization
Officers of a school board include a president, a vice president, a treasurer and a secretary. The
board may employ a lawyer, and establish responsibilities and the salary for that lawyer. This
practice is universal, because competent advice on school law is imperative if the board is to
operate effectively.
The school fiscal calendar for the majority of public school districts begins July 1 and continues
until June 30 of the following year. A few operate their budgets on a calendar year.
Constitutional mandate
Public education is fundamentally a state responsibility. A system of free public education is
mandated under the state constitution which states in Article II B, Section 14: “The [Pennsylvania]
General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient
system of public education.” To carry out this mandate, the General Assembly created school
districts and boards. It conferred broad legal powers local boards, making them autonomous in
many of their operations. Therefore, the school board is a political subdivision of the state for the
purpose of convenient administration of the schools.
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Legislative Authority
School districts and school boards were created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to carry
out the constitutional mandates of a “thorough and efficient” system of public education. In
addition, the legislature has created the State Board of Education, the Department of Education,
and other state agencies. These agencies administer the state laws that control the state’s public
education system. There are, therefore, several governing influences upon a board of school
directors. In Pennsylvania:
 Public schools are a creature of the state constitution and are not generally controlled by
the U.S. Constitution.
 Public schools are a responsibility of the General Assembly -- the legislative branch of
Pennsylvania state government.
 School boards, created by the General Assembly, serve as local legislative bodies for the
public schools within the framework of state laws.
Responsibilities
Effective school boards concentrate their time and energy on determining what it is the schools
should accomplish and developing policies to carry out these goals. In essence, school boards
have three functions: planning, setting policy, and evaluating results.
Planning — Boards are required to engage in long-range planning by regulations of the State
Board of Education. Appropriate reports of the results of such planning must be filed with the
Department of Education. Among long-range planning activities are such responsibilities as:
enrollment projections, staffing needs, building usage, budget requirements.
Setting policy — The central responsibility of a board, both in theory and in law is to be the
policy-forming body. The idea of local control of education means the policies governing the
operation of schools are to be formed in response to local needs and desires. Policy means
actions of the board that set written goals and objectives for the school. A process of systematic
policy review contributes significantly to the smooth operation of a school district.
Evaluating results — The board’s third and final responsibility is to evaluate the results of
planning. Evaluation “completes the loop” and, in fact, leads inevitably to more planning.
Evaluation occurs all the time, both formally and informally. Many districts set aside a weekend
every year to review the results of the previous year and to plan additional short-term goals and
long-term objectives. In a less formal way, board members receive information orally, at
meetings, and in writing, between meetings, to constantly keep them up-to-date on a broad range
of activities that are in progress regarding board policy proclamations.
As a group, the board is not an administrative body; neither should it be a “rubber stamp” for
the professional educators working in the district. The selection of competent administrators who
understand that their role is to carry out public policies established by the board, is one of the
board’s most important functions. School directors represent the interest of the general public,
which includes the children in the schools. No one else is legally charged to do that. Serving on a
school board is often a thankless and difficult task. The job is unpaid, and entails both a great
deal of frustration and many hours of a board member’s personal time to fulfill this public service.
Basic characteristics of an effective school director
The ability to function as one member of a nine-member governing board of school directors is
not determined by sex, occupation, race, income or social standing. Effective school board
members, however, are characterized by the following:
 A deep desire to serve children,
 The ability to work as a team, to engage in open give-and-take and to support the
decisions of group consensus.
 Recognition that the school district is probably one of the largest businesses and
employers in the community. As a board member, to accept the responsibility for
overseeing that the enterprise is well-managed.
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III. School Superintendents
Every school district is required by the state's school code to have a superintendent. He or she is
hired by a majority vote of the district's school board members. The term of office is between 3
and 5 years. There are no term limits for superintendents, contracts can be renewed repeatedly if
the board is satisfied with the performance of their superintendent. The superintendent is the
chief administrator of a school district. While his or her exact list of responsibilities are set by the
school board, he or she generally has the following responsibilities:
1. Improve educational opportunities.
2. Locating, hiring, and developing personnel.
3. Maintaining effective relations with the community.
4. Providing and maintaining funds and facilities.
Overall Job Summary
In short, the superintendent must be an expert educator; an effective personnel manager who
understands staffing needs and the needs of employees; an articulate person with the written and
spoken word -- able to motivate people; and lastly, an effective business administrator who can
run a MAJOR operation -- probably one of the largest employers in his/her community.
Relationship with the School Board
For all of the above powers, the superintendent may make some of these decisions on their own,
as part of their daily job. But for the final decision on most major issues, the superintendent will
need to go before the school board to get the board’s approval. The superintendent will make
recommendations but the school board gets to decide.
Superintendents and Student Discipline
One last area for which the school superintendent has responsibilities is student discipline. In
many cases, discipline matters for disobedience or misconduct can be handled by a principal or
the teaching staff. In all cases however, a superintendent also has the power to temporarily
suspend any student and has the power to override a disciplinary act by a principal. In more
extreme cases, the superintendent can recommend expulsion of a student, but only the school
board can make that decision. The superintendent can also recommend, WITH THE APPROVAL
OF THE SCHOOL BOARD, that a student be committed to a delinquent detention center or
reform school, but only the court system can actually commit a student to one of those two
facilities.
Pennsylvania’s Legal Requirements to be Eligible for School Superintendent




6 years of successful teaching experience
Bachelor’s degree in education
Masters education credits in school administration
Good moral character
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New York Times October 12, 2009
It’s a Fork, It’s a Spoon, It’s a ...
Weapon?
By IAN URBINA
NEWARK, Del. — Finding character witnesses when you are 6 years old is not easy. But there was
Zachary Christie last week at a school disciplinary committee hearing with his karate instructor and his
mother’s fiancé by his side to vouch for him.
Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so
excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded
that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary now faces 45 days in the district’s
reform school.
“It just seems unfair,” Zachary said, pausing as he practiced writing lower-case letters with his mother, who
is home-schooling him while the family tries to overturn his punishment.
Spurred in part by the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, many school districts around the country
adopted zero-tolerance policies on the possession of weapons on school grounds. More recently, there has
been growing debate over whether the policies have gone too far.
But, based on the code of conduct for the Christina School District, where Zachary is a first grader, school
officials had no choice. They had to suspend him because, “regardless of possessor’s intent,” knives are
banned.
But the question on the minds of residents here is: Why do school officials not have more discretion in such
cases?
“Zachary wears a suit and tie some days to school by his own choice because he takes school so seriously,”
said Debbie Christie, Zachary’s mother, who started a Web site, helpzachary.com, in hopes of recruiting
supporters to pressure the local school board at its next open meeting on Tuesday. “He is not some sort of
threat to his classmates.”
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Still, some school administrators argue that it is difficult to distinguish innocent pranks and mistakes from
more serious threats, and that the policies must be strict to protect students.
“There is no parent who wants to get a phone call where they hear that their child no longer has two good
seeing eyes because there was a scuffle and someone pulled out a knife,” said George Evans, the president
of the Christina district’s school board. He defended the decision, but added that the board might adjust the
rules when it comes to younger children like Zachary.
Critics contend that zero-tolerance policies like those in the Christina district have led to sharp increases in
suspensions and expulsions, often putting children on the streets or in other places where their behavior
only worsens, and that the policies undermine the ability of school officials to use common sense in
handling minor infractions.
For Delaware, Zachary’s case is especially frustrating because last year state lawmakers tried to make
disciplinary rules more flexible by giving local boards authority to, “on a case-by-case basis, modify the
terms of the expulsion.”
The law was introduced after a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a
birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it. The teacher called the principal — but not before using
the knife to cut and serve the cake.
In Zachary’s case, the state’s new law did not help because it mentions only expulsion and does not
explicitly address suspensions. A revised law is being drafted to include suspensions.
“We didn’t want our son becoming the poster child for this,” Ms. Christie said, “but this is out of control.”
In a letter to the district’s disciplinary committee, State Representative Teresa L. Schooley, Democrat of
Newark, wrote, “I am asking each of you to consider the situation, get all the facts, find out about Zach and
his family and then act with common sense for the well-being of this child.”
Education experts say that zero-tolerance policies initially allowed authorities more leeway in punishing
students, but were applied in a discriminatory fashion. Many studies indicate that African-Americans were
several times more likely to be suspended or expelled than other students for the same offenses.
“The result of those studies is that more school districts have removed discretion in applying the
disciplinary policies to avoid criticism of being biased,” said Ronnie Casella, an associate professor of
education at Central Connecticut State University who has written about school violence. He added that
there is no evidence that zero-tolerance policies make schools safer.
Other school districts are also trying to address problems they say have stemmed in part from overly strict
zero-tolerance policies.
In Baltimore, around 10,000 students, about 12 percent of the city’s enrollment, were suspended during the
2006-7 school year, mostly for disruption and insubordination, according to a report by the Open Society
Institute-Baltimore. School officials there are rewriting the disciplinary code, to route students to
counseling rather than suspension.
In Milwaukee, where school officials reported that 40 percent of ninth graders had been suspended at least
once in the 2006-7 school year, the superintendent has encouraged teachers not to overreact to student
misconduct.
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“Something has to change,” said Dodi Herbert, whose 13-year old son, Kyle, was suspended in May and
ordered to attend the Christina district’s reform school for 45 days after another student dropped a pocket
knife in his lap. School officials declined to comment on the case for reasons of privacy.
Ms. Herbert, who said her son was a straight-A student, has since been home-schooling him instead of
sending him to the reform school.
The Christina school district attracted similar controversy in 2007 when it expelled a seventh-grade girl
who had used a utility knife to cut windows out of a paper house for a class project.
Charles P. Ewing, a professor of law and psychology at the University at Buffalo Law School who has
written about school safety issues, said he favored a strict zero-tolerance approach.
“There are still serious threats every day in schools,” Dr. Ewing said, adding that giving school officials
discretion holds the potential for discrimination and requires the kind of threat assessments that only law
enforcement is equipped to make.
In the 2005-6 school year, 86 percent of public schools reported at least one violent crime, theft or other
crime, according to the most recent federal survey.
And yet, federal studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and another by the Department
of Justice show that the rate of school-related homicides and nonfatal violence has fallen over most of the
past decade.
Educational experts say the decline is less a result of zero-tolerance policies than of other programs like
peer mediation, student support groups and adult mentorships, as well as an overall decrease in all forms of
crime.
For Zachary, it is not school violence that has left him reluctant to return to classes.
“I just think the other kids may tease me for being in trouble,” he said, pausing before adding, “but I think
the rules are what is wrong, not me.”
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PENNSYLVANIA MAP - COUNTIES
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT
I. ORGANIZATION OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT
1.
What is a COUNTY? It is the intermediate form of government between the local municipality
and the state.
-It is both a geographic area and a political unit.
-It is the largest political subdivision of a state
2.
How many counties are there in PA.? 67
-The 1st three counties established by William Penn were Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia.
-Montgomery County split off from Philadelphia County.
3.
T/F – Everyone in Pennsylvania lives in a county.
T/F – The power to establish and control local governments is through the state government.
4. Classification of Counties – How?
-The State Legislature classifies counties by POPULATION.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
1st Class: 1.5 million + people – Philadelphia
2nd Class: 800,00 to 1,499,999 – Allegheny (Pittsburgh)
2A Class: 500,00 to 799,999 – Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware
3rd Class: 225,000 to 499,999 – Chester and 11 others
4th Class: 150,000 to 224,999 – 6 counties
5th Class: 95,000 to 149,999 – 9 counties
6th Class: 45,000 to 94,999 – 20 counties
7th Class: 20,000 to 44,999 – 8 counties
8th Class: less than 20,000 – 8 counties
Smallest Population is Forest County
Largest in Size is Lycoming and Smallest in size is Philadelphia
5.
Organization of County Government
A. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
1.) Bipartisan – 3 Total Commissioners elected by voters of county. However, 1
of 3 has to be from a different party since voters only allowed to vote for 2
persons – Highest 3 vote totals wins
2.) Qualifications: Minimum age of 18 and a citizen of county for 1 year prior to
the election
3.) What are they? The legislative and executive branch of county
government
4.) Duties:
-Pass laws / ordinances
-Provide for assessments of property
-County Election Board
-Assess Taxes
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B. County Row Offices –Def.: They are elected officials who are independent from
Commissioners – Serve 4 year terms
1.) Sheriff: Chief law enforcement officer of the county
2.) District Attorney – Lawyer for the county – handles all criminal prosecutions
3.) Recorder of Deeds – Keeper of the land records in the county
4.) Register of Wills – Handles all matters after a person dies for their estates
5.) Clerk of Courts – Handles all of the criminal court records
6.) Coroner – Medical officer who determines cause of death
7.) Treasurer – Handles county $ and pays the county’s bills
8.) Controller – Accountant for the county – supervises all financial records
9.) Prothonotary – Handles all of the civil records of the county
10.) 2 Jury Commissioners – responsible for generating lists of people for jury
duty
6.
HOME RULE – The option under PA. State Constitution that gives local governments the power
to set up the rules for governing themselves as opposed to following the rules of the state
government.

In 1972, voters approved a home rule section of the
Commonwealth Constitution. Home Rule gives more
power to municipalities to exercise certain types of
local powers without additional laws from the General
Assembly.
7.
Services of the County: 4 categories
A. Records – real estate transactions, marriages, deaths, court cases, weights and measures
B. Elections – manage all voting registration and conduct the elections of local, county,
state and federal
C. Courts – Court of Common Pleas
D. State / Federal Services – deliver services paid for by state and/or federal government
such as health, hospitals, welfare, geriatrics, rehab., and veterans services.
8.
Draw 5 pictures of essential county services in the space below.
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II. TOWNSHIPS AND BOROUGHS – MUNICIPALITIES
1. The only legal designation for Municipalities in Pennsylvania are townships, boroughs and cities.
2.
T/F – Each county, except Philadelphia, is divided into townships and boroughs.
3.
Townships can range from as low as 25 people up to over 50,000 people, but the average falls
between 1,000 and 5,000 residents.
4.
TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT
A. Townships are classified by POPULATION
B. 1st Class Townships: there are 91 in PA. and most could be cities by population but
choose not to be.
-Upper Darby, Lower Merion, Abington, Bristol, Haverford
- Mostly in suburban areas near larger cities
Governed by a Board of Commissioners of at least 5 people OR if the Township
is divided into WARDS then 1 per ward.
-Elected for 4 year term
-They are the Legislative and Executive Branch of Township gov’t
Proposed Ordinances (LAWS) must be published in local newspaper prior to
passage
They have an elected Mayor who is weak and controlled by the
Board
C. 2nd Class Township: There are over 1450 of these townships.
 Mostly in the outer suburban and rural areas
 Governed by Board of Township Supervisors (3 to 5 people) elected fro 6
year terms
 Role is both legislative and executive
 Meet at least monthly
Elected Township Officials
1.) Auditor, Treasurer and Controller – all independently elected
2.) Zoning Board – Chairman is the appointed head of the Board
-It has the power to influence or control the way development happens in a
community through zoning law
5.
BOROUGHS
A. The governing body of the borough is a mayor and
council elected for four year terms. The council is
stronger, making all the major decisions and
appointments. In some of the boroughs, a borough
manager is appointed by the council. Where there is no
manager, members of the council work in committees to
supervise borough matters. The mayor oversees the police
department and handles ceremonial matters as needed.
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III. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
1.
Philadelphia is classified as a 1st class city under the PA. Constitution.
2.
On April 17, 1951, the voters of Philadelphia adopted the Home Rule Charter that is the basis of
the city government today.
A. A Charter is the constitution of a city.
Counties are divided into townships and boroughs. The City of Philadelphia is both a city and a
county. It is divided for political and administrative purposes into 66 WARDS.
A. Each Ward has from 11,000 to over 50,000 people. Philadelphia is like 66 cities
consolidated into one.
3.
4.
The population of Philadelphia is approximately 1.5 million. It is the fifth largest city in the
United States behind :
5.
The Government of Philadelphia
A. The Chief Executive of Philadelphia is the MAYOR.
1.) Elected for a term of 4 years – may be re-elected for 1 successive term and
can be elected for 2 additional terms after leaving office for 1 term
2.) Qualifications: 25 years of age minimum and a resident of Philadelphia for at
least 3 years
3.) The 1st in line to replace the mayor is the President of the City Council
4.) Powers:
-execute and carry out ordinances (LAWS) made by City Council
-Veto power and Line item veto power in appropriations bills
5.) Mayor’s Cabinet:
a.) Managing Director: appointed by Mayor
-2nd most powerful person in city
-in charge of fire, health, licenses and inspections, police, water and
welfare departments
b.) Director of Finance: appointed by Mayor
-chief financial, accounting and budget officer in city
c.) City Representative: director of commerce and represents Mayor at
public functions
d.) City Solicitor – head of the city legal department
6.) City School Board
-the only PA. Municipality that has a school board appointed by the Mayor –
they are responsible to the Mayor
B. The Legislative Branch – THE CITY COUNCIL
1.) Role: To Pass ordinances (LAWS)
2.) Organization: 17 citizens who are elected for a term of 4 years.
-The city has 10 council districts and 7 council members are elected at large and
represent the city as a whole
-Voters vote for their district council member and 5 other at large people so this
allows for at least 2 at large council members to be from the minority party.
3.) Qualifications: must be at least 25 years of age; and American citizen; and
live in the city for one year
4.) Philadelphia is controlled by the Democratic Party
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IV. ZONING / LAND USE PLANNING – “YOU CANNOT PUT
THAT THERE!”
1.
Zoning Defined – The division of an area into sub areas, called zones or districts.
 It is a system of land use regulation which designates the permitted uses of land based on
mapped zones, which separate one part of a community from another
2.
Authority – Who regulates and enforces the zoning Codes? The local governments, counties and
municipalities, have the authority to zone or to regulate land use. It is part of the local
government’s POLICE POWERS over real property. PP is the constitutional power of a state or
local government to regulate behavior in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare.
3.
What is the primary purpose of zoning regulation?
 To segregate uses of land that are thought to be incompatible. In reality, zoning is intended
to prevent new development from harming existing residents or businesses.
4.
What kind of land use regulations can zoning affect?
 The kinds of acceptable activities on particular lots (residential or commercial for example)
 Minimum Lot sizes
 The densities at which those activities can be performed
 The height of buildings
 The location on a lot of buildings or garages or pools or sheds (setbacks)
 The amount of impervious surface coverage allowable
 The proportions of types of space on a lot (ex: how much landscaping space and buffers)
 How much parking must be provided
5.
Are the zoning rules rigid? Yes and no – In essence, every municipality must provide a hearing
procedure before the Zoning Hearing Board for applications by landowners for VARIANCES
(exceptions to the zoning rules). The test is whether there is a perceived hardship on the
landowner due to the nature of the property in question.
a. What is meant by a NONCONFORMING USE? – A land use that is
inconsistent with the Zoning regulations but which is permitted because of
being grandfathered in or by special exception
6.
Are zoning regulations constitutional? Yes – In the 1926 case of Village of Euclid, Ohio v.
Ambler Realty Co., the Supreme Court found that the village zoning ordinance was constitutional.
 However, be careful of discriminatory spot zoning!
7.
Fun Facts
 What city was the 1st to have city-wide zoning requirements? Philadelphia
 What major US city has no zoning regulations of any kind? San Antonio, TX
8. Zoning – what is the big deal – List arguments for and against Zoning Regulations
Arguments for Zoning regulations
Arguments Against Zoning regulations
 It makes for productive uses of land
 It is unconstitutional and takes away
freedom
 It increases the value of land
 It is eminent domain without compensation
 It allows for orderly growth
 It blocks people from using their land
 It is fair and reasonable way to plan for
development
 It can be discriminatory
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9.
Today, Pennsylvania requires counties and municipalities to do a Comprehensive Plan. It is a
county wide plan as well as a township or borough wide plan to coordinate the growth of housing,
industry, commercial uses of land with the resultant impacts that growth has on issues such as
transportation, utilities, recreation, schools, fire protection, and police protection.
10. Zoning Classifications or Categories of Zoning Districts
1.) OS – Open Space – No buildings like parks and fields
RP – Resource Protection
2.) RA – Rural Agricultural – Land is used for farming with 12 home every few miles
3.) RESIDENTIAL – Based upon density
 SRL – Suburban Residential Low Density – McMansions
 SRM – Suburban Residential Medium Density – Single family homes on lots 1 acre
or less
 SRH – Suburban Residential High Density – Many homes in a small area like
apartments, condos or townhomes
4.) PC – Planned Commercial Development – Like Montco Mall
11. PI – Planned Industrial – Like Merck
12. Strategy Issues
A. Imagine that you were someone living in the township who was opposed to further
development and increases in population in your township. Into which zoning district
would you want to see undeveloped land categorized?
B. Imagine you’re a profit-conscious developer. Which type of zoning district would you
want for land you were planning to develop?
C. Imagine you are someone with negative opinions of low income families and that you
want to keep them out of your neighborhood. Which type of residential zoning district
would want to see more of in your municipality?
13. Question – Why are there so many 55+ Communities rising up in the area?
 Increases land value and allows for more property tax revenue to come in (more value for land
than RA)
 These families are older and have no school age children which would increase the burden and
costs for public schools
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Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
August 29, 2003
First comes the suburban sprawl, then the spread as study
links car dependency to a few extra pounds
Author: Lauran Neergaard ASSOCIATED PRESS
Edition: CITY-D; Section: NATIONAL; Page: A06
Sprawling suburbs where it is hard to get around without a car may make residents fatter:
Americans who live in the most sprawling counties tend to weigh six pounds more than
their counterparts in the most compact areas.
Adding to the sprawl concern: Pedestrians and bicyclists are much more likely to be
killed by passing cars in this country than in parts of Europe where cities are engineered
to encourage physical activity - and whose residents typically are skinnier and live longer
than the average American.
Those are conclusions of major new studies published yesterday that call on urban
planners and zoning commissions to consider public health in designing neighborhoods.
"How you build things influences health in a much more pervasive way than I think most
health professionals realize," said Dr. Richard Jackson of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, who helped edit the research, published in the American Journal of
Public Health and the American Journal of Health Promotion.
"Look at many new suburbs - there are not any sidewalks at all. . . . The result is we just
don't walk," said John Pucher of Rutgers University, who uncovered the U.S.-European
disparities.
There is growing recognition that ever-fatter Americans' tendency to be sedentary is at
least partially due to an environment that discourages getting off the couch and out of the
car. Do adults walk three blocks to the bus stop, or drive to work? Can children walk to
school? Is there a walking or biking path to the post office, restaurant, a friend's house?
In a sprawling community, homes are far from work, stores and schools, and safe
walking and biking are difficult. The research reported yesterday marks the first attempt
to pinpoint just how much that matters.
Rutgers University urban planner Reid Ewing rated the amount of sprawl in 448 counties
that surround metropolitan areas - counties home to two-thirds of the population - and
then tracked CDC data on the health of 200,000 area residents. All other factors being
equal, each extra degree of sprawl meant extra weight, less walking, and a little more
high blood pressure, he concluded. Someone living in the most sprawling county Geauga County outside Cleveland - would weigh 6.3 pounds more than if that same
person lived in the most compact area, Manhattan.
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The nation's most compact areas were four boroughs of New York City - Manhattan,
Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens; San Francisco County; Jersey City in Hudson County,
N.J.; Philadelphia; and Boston's Suffolk County. The most sprawling were outlying
counties of Southeast and Midwest metro areas: Cleveland's Geauga; Goochland County
outside Richmond, Va.; and Clinton County near Lansing, Mich. In the 25 most compact
counties, 22.8 percent of adults had high blood pressure and 19.2 percent were obese. In
the 25 most sprawling counties, those rates were 25.3 percent and 21.2 percent,
respectively.
Those are not huge differences, Ewing acknowledged. But the risk from sprawl equaled
certain other risk factors for obesity and hypertension, such as eating few fruits and
vegetables, he said. Far worse were Pucher's findings that per trip, American pedestrians
are roughly three times more likely to be killed by a passing car than are German
pedestrians - and more than six times more likely than Dutch pedestrians. For bicyclists,
Americans are twice as likely to be killed as Germans and more than three times as likely
as Dutch cyclists. In Europe, people make 33 percent of their trips by foot or bicycle,
compared with just 9.4 percent of Americans' trips.
Pucher said the extra activity had to be healthy, as life expectancy in the Netherlands and
Germany was about two years longer than in the United States, and obesity rates were
lower. Why can these Europeans walk and bike more, and more safely, than Americans?
It's not just travel distance - 41 percent of U.S. trips are shorter than 2 miles, yet most are
by car. Instead, Pucher cited Dutch and German policies that encourage more sidewalks
and bike paths, traffic calming, auto-free zones in cities, extensive road-sharing education
for drivers and cyclists, and pedestrian-friendly urban design.
Some groups plan to use the research to back so-called smart-growth initiatives,
including a battle in Congress next month over whether $600 million in transportation
funds should go for safer cycling and walking programs and other transit alternatives, or
for highway construction. Some U.S. cities are copying Europe's policies, said Andy
Clarke of the League of American Bicyclists. Education and urban design allowed
Portland, Ore., to increase bicycle ridership by 143 percent in the last decade without
increasing crashes, he said.
The kind of urban redesign the new research envisions will take time, the CDC's Jackson
cautioned. "It's really about the communities and environments we're going to give our
children and our grandchildren."
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