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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Is this your community?

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The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning
Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future


Is this your community?
  • A model of 21st Century planning?
  • Regional integrated land-use and transportation plans greatly reduce liveability?
  • Urban sprawl contained within an urban-growth boundary?
  • Greatly increased population density?
  • Regional transport funds being poured into light rail?
  • High-density, mixed use development being strongly promoted?
  • Costs far outweigh the actual benefits?
  • Housing totally unaffordable?
  • Multifamily housing on tiny lots?
  • Congestion at near-gridlock, trying to force people to ride on the region's expensive rail lines?
  • Billions of dollars being diverted from schools, public health, fire and police to subsidise the construction of transit and high-density housing projects?

If the above sounds like your community, you would do well to read where the residents of Portland, Oregon are at after 25 years of going down this track.

Seems a 'light-rail' Mafia was and still is well ensconced in the planning systems over there and they had manipulated the planning process to line their pockets. Really? (emphasis on light meaning moving sod all people).

Portland is now the world class yardstick for 'How NOT to plan...' Judging by the way NZ is heading the same path, particularly in the Auckland feifdoms, were are only 20 years away from where Portland is now.

Hat Tip - Cato Institute: Summary here
Full Policy Analysis here - well worth the read
* A book to be released by Randal O'Toole



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