When any master plan is being fashioned, some humility is in order. The past century offers numerous examples of grand visions that made things worse. Let’s visit with James C. Scott’s Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale Agrarian Studies, 1998). From the jacket copy: [Scott] argues […]
Continue reading Seeing Like a State: Planning Gone Awry in the 20th Century
CNNMoney reports on the latest new home sales data (11/29/07): The sales pace for October was well short of economists’ forecasts. The Census Bureau’s latest report also sharply cut back on its earlier estimates for sales in August and September, when a meltdown in mortgage markets kept many potential buyers from getting the financing they needed.Also […]
Wendell Cox, a critic of Smart Growth, made this presentation to the Apartment Association of Metro Denver Economic Conference on January 23, 2001. He underscores how density and traffic congestion go together, in Europe as in America: If Denver were as dense as Los Angeles it would cover a bit more than one half the area. […]
NSNA is enthusiastic about infill and urban development when it involves brownfields revitalization. There is much that government can to assist this process. Syd Gernstein explores the subject for National Policy Analysis (2002): Brownfields are abandoned commercial and industrial sites that are suspected to suffer from environmental contamination.…regulatory uncertainties made it difficult, risky and impractical for entrepreneurs to invest in […]
Continue reading Syd Gernstein: “Brownfields Revitalization Cuts Urban Blight, Suburban Sprawl”
Writing in Regulation magazine in Fall 2001, Randal O’Toole maintains that Oregon’s well-intended Smart Growth policies have had bad side effects. Mr. O’Toole is senior economist for the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute, which advocates environmental protection through incentives rather than government regulation. His analysis is available as a PDF.“The anti-sprawl movement,” O’Toole writes, “came into prominence in 1973 […]
Continue reading Randal O’Toole: “The Folly of ‘Smart Growth'”
Standard & Poor’s issued a press release today detailing a continuing nationwide erosion in home prices: Data through September 2007, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller(R) Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, shows continued negative annual returns in the U.S. National Home Price Index, the 10-City Composite and […]
In today’s Gazette, Northampton resident Stephen Dashef urges officials to obtain citizen input early in the decision-making process: Since most people are not experienced or comfortable with public speaking in front of large groups, the mode of reaching out and obtaining information could include interviews, written answers to questionnaires, e-mail, or some combination of these […]
Continue reading Gazette Guest Column: “Give residents a role in city issues”
Today’s Gazette reports on the state of the regional housing market: After years of double-digit increases, the assessed values of properties remained flat in several Hampshire County communities this year.Industry experts say it’s a sign the local housing market has cooled…‘The market is generally slow,’ said David Burgess, principal assessor in Amherst. ‘There’s very little […]
Continue reading Gazette: “Assessed property values flatten out in Valley”
Many Smart Growth advocates are motivated by a sincere desire to emulate the best of urban environments: vibrant downtowns with strong civic ties that minimize car use. However, it must be acknowledged that some proponents may have less noble motivations. Among them are some who already live in the suburbs and are eager to restrict development around […]
Continue reading Suburban ‘Raise the Drawbridge’ Sentiment Motivates Some Smart Growth Policies
One big challenge is emerging to the Smart Growth model: how to serve families with young children. In the case of Portland, high housing costs are motivating families to move to the newest edge suburbs, perpetuating sprawl. The New York Times reports (3/24/05): San Francisco, where the median house price is now about $700,000, had […]
Continue reading New York Times: “Vibrant Cities Find One Thing Missing: Children”