Sprawl Kills

A respectable case can be made that suburban sprawl is hazardous to your health: It leads to more high-speed traffic accidents that result in injuries, and, by promoting an autocentric society at the expense of walking and biking, it contributes to the decline of daily exercise and the raise in obesity.

Now comes Douglas E. Morris, author of "Its a Sprawl World After All," who writes in the Gainesville Times to link the rise of sprawl with the increasing number of serial killers in the United States. The connection: By increasing the physical separation between people, sprawl-like development contributes to the social separation of people, leading to more isolation and aberrant behavior.

Morris' theory is a stretch -- wasn't the Son of Sam from New York City? -- but it makes for an interesting read.