[Andy from Beaverton]

One thing they leave out is how these policies hurt property owners outside of the urban growth boundries. In my town on one side of the line it could be worth up to $200,000 per acres and on the other side just $20,000 an acre. Hundreds of lifetime farmers have had their property devalued by these policies without any compensation from the government.

[goldstategop]

Who cares about people, huh? As long as one green tree remains standing to be hugged, its not a question of homelessness. And besides those driven out by liberal policies can always blame the eeeevil Republicans for their plight.

[NYpeanut]

In my area of NY, the Smart Growth proponents are also the clinton voters. I have long suspected that they are socialist elitists, since the last things on their list of "smart" plans are low income housing and discount department stores.

They espouse city living, but none of them are selling their cushy suburban houses to move back to the city and let someone else have a shot at their personal utopias.

The latest term, and by far the most frightening I've heard them promote, is "view shed" meaning that they want to control not only how land they do not own is disposed, but how it looks.

[madfly]

Smart Growth ping

[Godel]

One thing I HATE about headlines like this is: If minorities are being hurt, its a damned tragedy. But if it was just white people being hurt, well hell they deserve to suffer because of the color of their skin. Seriously I see so many statistics, like even traffic accidents or AIDS infections crying because minorities are affected. Yes those are bad things but shouldnt it be bad that anyone is hurt not what color skin they have? I mean by this logic, if you just infected more white people with AIDS, then at least it would equal, if more white people stopped putting on seat belts, well that would equalize things and solve the problem. If white people were hurt more by "smart growth" then it wouldn't be a problem. Does anyone realize how sickeningly racist this is? It's like saying that not only is white peoples suffering worthless, but they actually need to be hurt more. I just find it extremely wrong.

[Iowa Granny]

Is this the article you sent me?

[Ben Ficklin]

The Public Purpose provides the hard statistics to shoot down smart growth. There is much info here but notice the comparison of Portland to both Seattle and Atlanta. The sister site, Demographia, is the best compilation of population data on the web.

[TonyWojo]

Breckenridge Colorado, award winner. Such a fine example of a sprawling metropolis. Stupid growrth is serving as the catalyst of socialism.

Unfortunately here in Florida Jeb Bush is a proponent of the GREENIES. and is currently on track for destroying the American Dream of home ownership. Eminent domaine is eminent. The enviro nuts make most land decisions in South Florida.

Sit back and watch coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

"It's saying we will decide in advance, 10 years, 20 years in advance, where you can live ... Nobody, no movement, is smart enough to decide where people live and how people should live their lives better than the people themselves,"
--------------------------

Guys, The "we" in the above statement being all powerful godgov, somebody tell me again that Charlotte Iserbyt's writing that was pulled yesterday was "tin foil" material. She was RIGHT ON about the United States of America moving inexorably toward "communism" through education of the young, laws, regulation and policy from on high. Though actually it is the SOCIALISM called "communism" that was Plato's "Republic" writ large in what was once called the Union of Soviet Socialist "Republics".

But then again, as I wrote in a reply to the Iserbyt writing yesterday, "Maybe Bush and the Republicans don't know. Maybe their "experts" aren't telling them. Maybe?? But NOT likely!! Peace and love, George.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Smart growth is just a smart sounding way to justify letting those with the right political connections artificially increase the value of their property and developments.

[justshutupandtakeit]

This article was singularly uninformative. It needs to point out HOW this policy negatively affects people and give examples like you did in your comment. Maybe even explain a little about what the policy entails.

[farmfriend]

A new report says environmentally driven smart growth policies designed to combat urban sprawl are disproportionately hurting minorities and low-income residents and creating economic "segregation." The study also claims the policies are not having the desired traffic or environmental benefits.

That just about sums it up. Don't have to read any farther.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Smart growth" ALWAYS results in a dramatically higher cost of living wherever it is imposed, denying home ownership to lower income families.

[FBD]

Smart Growth Policies 'Hurt Poor and Minorities,' Report Alleges

If the world ended tomorrow, the news story would read,
"World Ends Tommorrow; Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit"

(SIGH) - off to the salt mines...Thanks for the post.

[HamiltonJay]

"By and large [minorities] will not be able to pursue America's best and biggest asset, which is home ownership," he said.

This is absolute hogwash. Homes are easier to buy today then they ever have been... their prices are higher, but other than some very insane markets, Cali, North East, etc... homes are easy to find and to purchase with little money, if you have decent credit. Segregation occurs because of income, not because of color in most market.. lets face it, if the median house price in a neighborhood is 300k, you aren't going to find too many people earning 30k a year living there.

I personally don't have any issues with the smart growth concept, its implimentation by various legislations is comical, but the concept is fine. England has been using this model for centuries and it works fine. London for example has nearly 8 Million people living there, yet has a distinctive city limit, and when the city stops, the farms begin... not stip malls and fast food joints or outlets etc... The city just ENDS and the Country begins.. and it is a very compfortable city... I think NYC which is far larger geographically feels far far more crowded than London.

The problem is that most of US policies are written by or driven environmental nutballs who are not really interested in saving the environment or even smart growth, but are driven by undermining the capitalist system... they aren't written with responsible growth in mind, but with stopping enterprise all together.

[tubebender]

All of these feel good endeavors add tremendous costs to builders up front expense pricing homes out of the reach of many people who would like to move up. This keeps starter homes off the market for first time buyers.

Here in Humboldt County the Planning Commission just turned down a 50 unit subdivision because it didn't include enough "affordable housing".Of course this just continues the housing shortage that is driving prices out of sight for thousands state wide. These people must be running on the theory that the population is stagnant while nationwide it approaches 300 million.

[Edmund Burke]

Get rid of zoning and the private development industry will construct the higher density communities that the smart growth types are looking for. It is zoning that has created the sprawled development patterns since WWII. Zoning is the problem, not the solution to the problem.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Thanks for the flag, Andy.
Of course you're right up there at the Mecca of "smart growth", and the gentrification, the trolleys, all of that.

I have followed the topic for a number of years as it's constantly discussed on the or.politics usenet group, sometimes a fun group, other times a low signal:noise ratio.

We get some of that in Eugene too. The big push the last few years has been that whole socialized transportation thing. Of course we're not big enough for trains, so this thing called "bus rapid transit" is about to launch here. If you don't know what that's all about, you ought to look it up. There's a lot not to like about it, but my comments would get long winded and too far off topic.

Ah, the urban growth boundary, it's been used to do many things hereabouts, none of them good. If your land lies within, you can get permission to develop. If you're just on the other side of it, the best you can hope for is to keep up the tax payments in anticipation of inclusion sometime before you die. More typically, some local baron will swindle you you out of it while you are on your deathbed, and they'll get the gravy. Seen it happen a hundred times around here.

Dave in eugene

[meadsjn]

Democrat policies, in general, are designed to keep people ignorant, poor, and dependent on their betters for their daily bread. Advanced Democrat policy-making is geared toward forcing more and more people into their traps.

LBJ was quoted by a senator as saying, after signing the War on Poverty Act in 1964, "We'll have the Negroes eating out of our hand and voting Democrat for the next 200 years."