Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
A lot of suburbanites zone their towns for low-density, single-family homes with large lots, ostensibly because this improves their homes' values. The result is cookie-cutter communities with bad traffic (a direct result of low density w/ no businesses, etc.) and no place for people like the elderly and students to live. You also have the same few stores everywhere, because there aren't enough people around to support more varied commercial uses. Oddly, when right-wingers start talking about takings and impairment of property rights, they almost never point the finger at suburban zoning laws that gives us miles of ranch homes.
eta: Indeed, David Brooks seems to think that Patio Man owes his natural habitat to this particular form of conservative-friendly government intervention in the market.
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Bullshit. I live in an older suburban community. I bought there specifically because (a) the houses were older and there were no McMansions around (which drive value down), (b) there was no room for any sort of development anywhere nearby (which means the investment is protected and will likely appreciate) and (c) because I'm close to a train and a town with an eclectic mix of restaurants, shops, etc. I have just about every low end to high end store imaginable within 4 miles of my place, and about 30 bars/restuarants in walking distance.
You must be talking about those shitty developments of new McMansions on the outskirts of the burbs. But even those folks tend to have loads of good stores around them; they just don't get very good restaurants.
If you stick the elderly/college kids/section 8 folks near me, you'll kill my property value. So the tradeoff, if its a tradeoff at all, is that I get less "diversity" and better resale? Your point, if there was one, is beyond me. I think you just want to find a way to bitch about NIMBYs. Whatever. I'm proudly one - I have a lot of cash sunk into my house. You think I want to put that in jeopardy because of some upper-middle-class horseshit guilt complex about being selfish?
You're a few zeros on your paychecks from being a limousine liberal sometimes. Everybody's a democrat when he's young; but we're all republicans when we get older and start having real expenses.
