A reader comments: "This concept fits perfectly with increasing the population density. If we have people in more dense areas near rail stations then they are more likely to use the rail; it's the European concept and why rail does better there. "
I don't know if he realized how right he was.
The concept of a transit-oriented-development, high-density, planned communities connected to others by rail and roadway was first conceived as a Utopian, idealized city in The United Kingdom in 1898 by Ebenezer Howard and called the Garden City plan.
Wikipedia: Garden City Movement. "Howard published his book To-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reformin 1898 (which was reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow). His idealised garden city would house 32,000 people on a site of 6,000 acres (2,400 ha), planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks and six radial boulevards, 120 ft (37 m) wide, extending from the centre. The garden city would be self-sufficient and when it reached full population, another garden city would be developed nearby. Howard envisaged a cluster of several garden cities as satellitesof a central city of 50,000 people, linked by road and rail.[1]"
"Letchworth slowly attracted more residents because it was able to attract manufacturers through low taxes, low rents and more space.[10] Despite Howard’s best efforts, the home prices in this garden city could not remain affordable for blue-collar workers to live in."
That last quote seems awfully familiar. Today's Utopian Central Planners are creating TODs and planned Town Centers where high density housing will occur by offering streetcars as a development tool, and giving developers TIF funds to make sure the developments happen in the way they want. Taxpayers are subsidizing the transformation of the cities and suburbs into Garden Cities and Transit Oriented Developments.
The problem is that in Ebenezer's time, Letchworth was funded entirely by investors who bought the land and subsidized the initial development hoping to make money on the sale of lots and homes. This was the market approach to social change - where individuals were allowed to make a free choice about how they wanted to live and what they would support with their money.
Today, these same social schemes are being enforced by the power of the government and its taxing authority and police powers AND without a vote of the public. This is a huge difference! It is everything when contemplating what a free society, property rights, the power and authority of governments and individual liberties are. Freedom of choice and a free market are one and the same. But Milton Freedman already said that.
The question for Americans (and Lake Oswegans) today is, what kind of government do you want and what kind of liberty will it enable us to enjoy?
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