Writing for Switchboard, the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kaid Benfield examines a recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland that illustrates the importance of a dense urban core.

The study reveals that cities that maintained their core densities between 1980 and 2010 -- like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago -- saw overall growth of their greater metro regions. While cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, which suffered massive urban population losses at the hands of sprawl, experienced a disproportionately greater share of regional population losses.

The conclusion is that the hollowing out of urban centers thanks to suburban sprawl does more than just simply shift population around: It harms the overall success of the greater metro region. Failure to address suburban sprawl will only exacerbate the problem.

Read the rest of the article here.

See the Cleveland Fed's study here.