[caisson71]

"Smart Growth", another dumb liberal idea doing exactly what it was intended to do.

[hedgetrimmer]

Smart Growth Isn't So Smart
By Robert "Jake" Bebber

The Soviet-style planning mechanisms that Liberals, smart growth advocates and environmentalists rely on are doomed to failure unless they plan on making their coercive rules at the point of a gun. At present, they are satisfied with urban growth boundaries and eminent domain condemnations as the means to control people, but ultimately, they will have to impose their views through more forceful means. Human nature is not so malleable as the Left would hope. Douglas Porter of the Urban Land Institute and smart growth advocate lamented:

“[There is] a gap between the daily mode of living desired by most Americans and the mode most city planners believe is most appropriate. [emphasis added] Americans generally want a house on a large lot and three cars in every garage … Yet that dream translates into low-density sprawl and dependence on roads and highways.”
Pause for a moment and consider Mr. Porter’s implications: a home, a yard, automobiles, the very things once thought to be a part of the “American Dream” are now considered inappropriate lifestyle choices. Soon, the planners and managers will have no choice but to force Americans into more “acceptable” lifestyles if they are to realize their vision.