In a typical year, about 300,00 to 350,000 new multifamily units are built in the US. Hence, we get mass-produced, cookie-cutter apartments, too.
American consumers spent $369.9 billion just in December. Total retail sales for all of 2006 came to $4.4 trillion, up 6% from 2005. In comparison, the size of the entire economy of Japan is a little over $4 trillion. No wonder we see so much of this.
The Chrysler assembly plant in Fenton. In 2005, the US produced 4,321,272 cars and 7,202,978 light trucks.
In 2005, suburban markets added 12.4 million square feet of new office space.
The top 130 US metros contain 12.7 billion square feet of industrial space.
A record total of 76,043,902 fans attended Major League Baseball games in the 2006 regular season, representing a 1.5 percent increase over the previous record set in 2005. The Cardinals sold out every game, with 3,407,104 attending the new Busch stadium.
For the 2005-2006 season, a record 17,340,879 people attended regular-season NFL games, for an average of more than 67,000 fans per game.
I tried to find out how many residential demolition permits were issued nationwide in any recent year but couldn't find anything. It's fairly easy to find it for states, cities and metro areas, but I had no luck nationally.
I also tried to find out how many miles of new freeway were constructed in any recent year, but had no luck there, either.
In 2005, airlines carried 660,480,345 domestic passengers on 10,090,274 flights.
Well those are the basic stats, on with the rest of the pics . . .
New and old sprawl.
This looked kinda interesting. Couldn't figure out what those green terrace things were.
More cookie-cutter apartments . . .
. . . followed by more cookie-cutter houses.
Close-up of the cookie-cutter houses.
And some cookie-cutter trailers, too.
Getting a site ready for more.
South and west of the city there were lots of hills with subdivisions platted on the crest of the hills but with the valleys in-between left intact.
Another one of that type.
Another close-up.
The obligatory mall. This one with an office attached.
And yet another mall. This is where some of that $4.4 trillion went last year.
Yuck.
Close-up of some of those cookie-cutter apartments.
Respite from the sprawl. Nice.
I think this is a high school.
Another respite from the sprawl.
I suppose I should have looked up how many acres of farmland were lost to residential development in any recent year, but I got lazy.
McHouses and McMansions.
Another one of those developments-on-the-ridge in the southwest metro. You can't really tell from these particular shots that there's a little valley or gully in-between the streets, but if you look at the aerial you can tell this is the case.
At least the streets are straight.
These townhouse thingys look OK.
