Delaware confronts a collection of related crises: a shortage of affordable housing; a surge in unhealthy medical conditions; erosion of environmental resilience; and rising air and water pollution. While none of these have simple causes or solutions, public decisions over the past several decades have exacerbated them.
Delaware’s sprawling development patterns force us to drive — to school, to work, to the store, to the fitness center and elsewhere — and often at considerable distances. Decades of piecemeal land-use decisions have made us totally dependent on our personal motor vehicles.
That dependence has cost us a great deal. It has compromised our health, created a shortage of diverse and affordable housing, gobbled up open space, farmland, forests and wetlands, increased pollution, escalated the public costs of infrastructure and services, driven climate change and eroded the sense of place and quality of life that makes strong communities.
Consider Delaware’s elevated incidences of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, due partly to our sedentary lifestyle; the increase in pediatric asthma due partly to local air pollution; and the high cost of healthcare associated with all those conditions.