Urban Criminals

Have you noticed that traffic congestion in your city always seems to get worse and worse, year after year?  Have you also noticed that local governments rarely, if ever, do anything about it?  Or that the things that they do actually make it worse?  If you have noticed these things and assumed that it is yet another example of the inherent ineptness of your typical bungling bureaucrats you may be dead wrong.

The latest trend in “urban planning” is to intentionally make traffic congestion as bad as possible.  The main proponents of this scheme are: 1) environmentalist extremists who hate and despise cars and the freedom they afford their fellow citizens; and 2) local politicians who want to corral as many people as possible in high-density condos and apartments in their cities where they can be easily taxed.  They call it “smart growth.”  It is a classic “bootleggers and Baptist” coalition, so named by economist Bruce Yandle.  Professor Yandle discussed this in the context of the proponents of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s – bootleggers who were in favor of prohibition for purely financial reasons, and Baptists who supported prohibition for religious reasons.  An odd political coalition, indeed.  Today’s environmentalist “urban planners” are the “religious” fanatics here, worshipping at the altar of environmentalism, while tax-hungry urban politicians and bureaucrats are the “bootleggers.”

The “bootlegger” perspective is given in the Sun-Sentinel article by one Dick Blatner, the chair of the Broward County, Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization (how Politburo-ish sounding!) who also “serves” on the Broward Planning Council (so much planning, so little time):  “Cities must court high-density developments to avoid unpopular tax increases . . . .  They want development for the property taxes and to increase property values.”

In other words, these self-described public servants are all about the money and perks that will come to them with increased property tax revenues.  They want more taxpaying chickens to pluck, so to speak, and are willing to inflict “suffering” (their word) on their fellow citizens in order to guarantee their increased salaries, perks, and scandalously-large public employee pensions.  They make no mention at all of the quality of life in their cities other than to say that they want it to sharply decline so that they can haul in more tax loot for themselves.  Like all government “planners,” their plans are designed to benefit themselves, first and foremost, the public be damned.

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