Huntsville updates

[jmanhsv]

Originally Posted by Jacknah

"any urban planner would tell you that Houston is a TERRIBLE model for a city" ..LOL. What else would one expect? A urban PLANNER. Someone who supports freedom would tell you it's a great model for a city. Cities don't need need to be planned. Nothing need to be planned by a central fascist authority. Just let freedom work, and let people plan their owns lives and property.

Why should the government use force against other people to protect you from the risk (or reward) of someone building a strip club next your house? If you don't want that risk, buy a house in a private community. You're making house prices and rents more expensive for those that are willing to take a risk. What do you mean Portland is successful? It's expensive to live there and it's got high unemployment. This is all because of too much government.

Are you saying that I (and most humans with brain cells) don't support "freedom" because we want attractive cities? Seriously dude, you're making it sound like better planned cities are going to bring on an Orwellian civilization. That's probably the most idiotic (and somewhat insulting) statement I have heard in a long time. You're making Libertarians look like a couple of ignorant fools who claim that everything that involves government is "fascist." Just stop. You aren't recruiting any more by posting on this forum. We obviously hate our freedom too much...

Ok... so in order to love freedom, we must first love high crime, urban sprawl, and the complete obliteration of the ecosystem through fossil fuel consumption (all characteristics/consequences of Houston's uncontrolled, car-friendly sprawl)? Unplanned cities are a dying breed. As oil prices have increased dramatically in the past few years, cities all over the country are realizing that the car-oriented communities we have built in the past half-century can't sustain themselves much longer. Cities are being reinvented by being bike- and pedestrian-friendly, adding more transit options, creating mixed-use developments, etc. Even Houston in the past few years has been moving toward a more planned and regulated city by building light-rail transit and gentrifying many of its neighborhoods. Huntsville, however, has been slow in implementing smart growth policies and making itself less car-friendly, which I think could be a major problem for the city in the next few years if it stays that way.

The people who are most likely to have to live next to a hog farm or strip club are the ones who can't afford to move. So go ahead, tell the 85-year old handicapped man who lives in a mobile home or the single mom with three kids and two jobs to go live in a "private community." But wouldn't that would be too much government involvement?

I don't think Portland's unemployment rate has anything to do with "too much government." That's all up to the free market system. And it's expensive because the people there voted to make it that way. They made the decision decades ago that they would pay more in taxes to pay for an expansive transit system (that works), good schools, etc. And they have one regional government that controls it all. And you know, the city hasn't become a socialist police state, a la 1984, and it's actually growing! No, it's not a utopian city, but if more cities (such as Huntsville) modeled their land use and environmental policies and transit system off Portland's, we would use less [foriegn] oil, pollution and emissions would be greatly reduced, we would be less obese (therefore lowering healthcare costs)... the opportunities are endless.