UPDATE: Morning Edition's Report on Houston

Thursday morning's report from Houston is even more relevant to the class--partly because Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, author of a recent study on the city, provides a more balanced presentation of the benefits of sprawl (and, in particular, life in this sprawling city). Among the benefits he enumerates: Sprawl fosters extraordinarily high quality of life that is affordable and achievable. When new development is heavily regulated, he argues, housing options are limited, and thus, become more expensive. However, the environmental costs are high.

Listen to the report here, and continue to pay attention to the map in the previous post.