It turns out we're only 12th on the list of sprawling cities, according to the Arizona Republic:

Metropolitan Phoenix isn't the poster child for sprawl, but it's a sibling.

A new study called "Sprawl Costs: Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development" ranked the Valley No. 12 among the nation's top 20 most sprawling areas.

Los Angeles took the top spot, and the Washington-Baltimore area was No. 2.

The study is one of the get-a-headline-by-inventing-a-big-scary-imaginary-peril variety, but it's hard to argue that the Valley is not a sprawling place.

There is a cure of course: Stop building freeways to promote development. Areas already overburdened by traffic need freeways, that's understood. But freeways like the 101, 202, 303 (and you'd better know there will be a 404) are built to create traffic problems, not solve them. When you build a freeway through empty land, it won't be empty for long. The purpose of those outlying freeways--and of all those still to come in Pinal County--is to open up land to the dreaded sprawl--to subsidize future development.