Near-utopian future presented at smart growth workshop

The Ukiah Daily Journal (Mendicino County) ^ | January 21, 2006 | Seth Freedland

[lesser_satan]

Is this newspaper owned by a developer? I don't think there was even one dissenting view in that piece!

[sageb1]

And the smart growth vultures swarm.

[RTINSC]

"Weak or no pedestrian crossings lead to low qualities of life, Zykofsky said, with the creation of a sedentary lifestyle."

There will be mandatory walkathons every meorning at 6 AM. Be there or be square.

[LibFreeOrDie]

"...public transit..."

Sure, unionized transportation, like it works great in NYC and Boston...

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The only sane character in Lost Horizon was George Conway who wants to escape Shangri-La. He is portrayed as the madman in the movie. In reality, he knows the place is a nut house.

So the nuts are gathering again for smart growth. Look for urban planners, psychologists, sociologists, and authoritarian but weak people to fall in line for this pipe dream. It will be anything but smart.

[lesser_satan]

There will be mandatory walkathons every meorning at 6 AM. Be there or be square.

read in sinister german voice: Then you will report to the Activity Centre for a communal breakfast of gruel and ginko-biloba mush before reporting to work at the broom factory.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Utopia?

Ukiah?

I guess if you're stoned out of your mind, anywhere can be utopia.

 

[Thunder90]

Doing this would better able these cronies to get gun control, higher taxes, and a world government.

[RTINSC]

LOL...Das ist gut, Herr Kleines Satan.

[Brett66]

Candy-coated socialism, it's still socialism though...

[Intolerant in NJ]

...a lifestyle endangered by sprawl directly leads to decreased quality of life, because of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and early death, not to mention increased health care costs for individuals and the public and private sector...talk simplistic catastrophizing...I walk three to four miles a day three or four days a week in out wide-streeted, sometimes sidewalked and sometimes not, heavily and also sparsely traveled road mid-sized town with no trouble, but see very few other walkers...'most anyplace is "walkable" but you have to convince people that exercise is good for them and get them away from their TV's and fast food before that walkability does much good....

Lord save us from planners, control freaks, and utopians whether they want to save our economies or our environments......

[lesser_satan]

I'm sick of the planners and their schemes. Who in the hell made them the arbiters of what is "smart"? I hate their ugly-ass neighborhoods, where all the houses are identical, and everybody drives the same crappy minivan. The most practical and aesthetically pleasing neighborhoods are the ones that just sort of happened over the years, spontaneously, influenced only by the free market. But n-o-O-o, we can't have that! The poor benighted yokels are too ignorant to decide how they want to live! We must have a bunch of Elsworth M. Tooheys to dictate to us what is "smart".

The reason the suburbs are as user-unfriendly as they are is because of over-planning, not lack of planning.

[isthisnickcool]

The "smart growth" model.

[lesser_satan]

Disturbingly accurate.

[Vince Ferrer]

toward a near-utopian life for Ukiahans -- full of walkable communities

I distinctly remember being promised moving sidewalks, flying cars, and anti-gravity belts in my youth.

[lesser_satan]

Ja!!! You vill vear your Devo flowapot hat und ride ze commuta train to ze broom factory!

[Vince Ferrer]

In the 80s, there was a comic book series called Mister X. The interesting twist of this comic was that Mister X was not a superhero, he was an architect. He designed a perfect city, a combination of architecture and psychology, where every line and angle created good feelings and promoted mental health among its population.

The man went insane with the pressure of his job, and was committed to a hospital. By the time he was released, his city had been built, except not quite what he had designed. In the real city, every angle and line was subtly changed, and now was slowly driving its citizens into insanity, violence, and suicide.

I always think of this comic book when I see these city planners planning utopias.

[yankeedame]

"Onward to Ukiah! A planned Community!"