Libertarianism and Urban Planning

The Battle Front?

2008-06-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

The so-called 'libertarian' groups are at the forefront in maintaining the expansionist economic paradigm, which is driving our planet's unsustainability. How do they ignore the ecological realities which face our planet?

The Cato Institute frequently publishes 'papers' by Randal O'Toole - the self proclaimed AntiPlanner - http://ti.org/antiplanner/

O'toole also leads a little group that has suburb and car adulation rallies once a year - http://americandreamcoalition.org/index.html

Where is the consideration of ecological realities? Do they have any proof that global consumption of resources has decreased over the years. Not likely, but these groups prefer to cherry pick by using minor details and ignore the larger realities of the situation. The libertarians and antiplanners love to focus on predictions made about the depletion of individual resources. But, for example, the fact that Ehrlich's predictions were off, does not prove anything, except that Ehrilch may not in fact be a fortune teller.

Either way you cut it, we are depleting our natural capital and at some point in the not too distant future we will face serious ecological collapse, at which point the ecological economists will be irrefutably vindicated, but it will be a little too late.

Conference and Convention Centres - Boon or Boondoggle?

2008-05-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

Coming soon...I will be writing a long post (with hopefully more literature than just Heywood Saunders, including some international and particularly Canadian information and literature) outlining why conference and convention centres are economic white elephants and that their economic might is in most part a myth.

Jane Jacobs a Libertarian?

2008-01-20T17:56:00.000-08:00

Was Jane Jacobs a libertarian? Some libertarian groups say she was and that Jacobs staunch supporters on the left have ignored, what was supposedly her central message: planning ruins cities, and cannot succeed. Or are libertarians confusing her ideas, which fall closer into the realm of syndicalism or rationalist libertarian socialism (was she familiar with chomsky in the latter part of her life?). This would explain Jacob's distaste for big government control and abuse of cities, particularly her dislike of state and/or regional planning and economic development. These characteristics are strongly shown in her first three books: The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations.

2008-01-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome to a my blog on libertarianism and urban planning.