Subtitled “How Obama Is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities,” this book sounds like it is right up the Antiplanner’s street (since my home fortunately doesn’t have an alley). Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, argues that Obama intends to forcefully implement the smart-growth agenda in his second term, taking away people’s property rights; redistributing income; and forcing people to live in mixed-income communities.
Despite having less than 200 pages of text, the book is documented with nearly 500 endnotes. I agree with many of the arguments Kurtz makes. Yet I find myself repelled by the odor of paranoia that pervades the book. While the author documents particular reports and proposals from various planners and liberal activists, he fails to show that the ideas of people like Myron Orfield or David Rusk are central to Obama’s thinking. Instead, he relies on ad hominem attacks and guilt-by-association.
Central to the book is a group called Building One America, whose web site declares itself to favor “inclusion, sustainability, and economic growth,” and brags that it was recently “at the White House.” According to Kurtz, this group’s goals are to put urban-growth boundaries around every metropolitan area; force economic integration, that is, force all neighborhoods to accept residents of all income levels; and redistribute income from high-income neighborhoods and cities to low-income ones in the same region (p. 7).
Many of these ideas come from what Kurtz calls the “regionalist agenda” and in particular regionalists such as former Albuquerque Mayor David Rusk and former Minnesota state Senator Myron Orfield. “The regionalist program for gradually doing in the suburbs has three main components: 1) Redistribute suburban money to the cities. 2) Force middle-class suburbanites back to the city. 3) Force the urban poor out into the suburbs,” says Kurtz (p. 39). If you haven’t heard about this, it is only because Obama is waiting until his second term to force it on your city.
Although, oral jelly will work only if you are order viagra not using any other anti impotency drug. However, what we don’t realize is that the simplicity of even a basic hand tool can not be obtained by the ED patients to make order generic levitra their sex life more pleasing as compared to before. The main thing to keep in mind is that the person should not consume more than one dose or conduct overdoing viagra from uk of the product as it can lead to health hazards. Sildenafil Citrate acts by repressing a catalyst that manages blood stream in the penis. women viagra for sale I find a lot of this to be a stretch. On one hand, the Obama administration has already, in its first term, passed rules and funded state and local programs that seem to support some of these ideas, so I don’t see much evidence that they are waiting for the second term. On the other hand, I don’t see the regionalist agenda as being primarily about redistribution; instead, both it and the administration’s efforts to date focus more on quality of life and environmental issues.
Kurtz makes a few digs at Portland, often cited as a model for the regionalist agenda. But what Kurtz misses is that Portland elected officials and planners have specifically aimed to separate communities by income levels. They have promised that all high-density development, which will be inhabited by newcomers and lower-income people, will be in specific corridors, while neighborhoods of single-family homes outside those corridors will be left untouched. By driving up housing prices, Portland is explicitly increasing economic segregation, just the opposite of what Kurtz argues.
More than anything, this book seems to be a part of an anti-re-elect Obama campaign. The strong focus on Obama’s supposed hidden plans that he will implement in his second term, while ignoring much of what his administration has already done in its first term, creates an apocalyptic view: vote against Obama or else.
As a social liberal, I find Obama to be a huge disappointment. He didn’t shut down Gitmo; he didn’t let up on the war on drugs; he didn’t improve relations with Islamic nations; he has accelerated drone warfare; I hope I don’t sound too paranoid when I find reports that agencies like the Social Security Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buying tens or hundreds of thousands of hollow-point bullets to be disturbing; and why did he take so long to say he approved of gay marriage?
I also find it disturbing that Obama and others on the left have become such liberal fascists; that is, eager to force their notions of such vague ideas as “livability” and “environmental justice” down other people’s throats. At the same time, I recognize that the supporters of these ideas tend to be loose coalitions of groups that have very different motivations, and to attribute any one of those motivations to all of the supporters ignores the complexity of these movements.
Perhaps Kurtz’s book would not sell as well if he recognized this complexity. But it would have been more persuasive if he had. As it is, the book should appeal to those anti-Agenda 21 types who think the United Nations is waiting to take our national sovereignty; but it will fail to persuade anyone who is not already an ardent conservative.
Cities have plenty of money, yet they’re always strapped for cash. It’s better to say people in cities tend to have a lot of money. Money goes from the taxpayer to government workers to dues to the unions which go to the candidates that serve the interest of promising them more benefits and pay. A vicious cycle referred to as the money pump. This is how cities and states go bankrupt. Federal workers don’t have collective bargaining rights, Carter outlawed it. It’s not the pay its the pension deal. Back then it used to be “You go work for the government, the pay sucks but it’s got benefits and it’s secure, you can never get fired”. But now when you include the pension deal they earn 2-3x more than the average private sector worker. And they have grip in every city service. And those costs illustrate themselves in the city daily. Crumbling streets, rusting bridges, cracked sidewalks festered with weeds.
This is a tragedy because as some cities have shown, you can escape the money pump. Look at Sandy Springs a relatively new city in Fulton County Georgia. The city fought for the right to incorporate for decades until finally receiving permission in 2005. Fed up with paying taxes to the county most of which ended up in the Atlanta area. In the absence of an authentic government departments (utilities, waste management, etc). At first glance it looks like it’s run like other same-sized cities, with a council-manager form of government. However, it is the first city in the nation to outsource services to such an extent to a private sector company. Contracting with the company CH2M Hill, an engineering firm, they handle nearly everything from parks, landscaping, traffic management to picking up the trash in the form of subcontractors. They’ve paved 90 miles of streets and roads, paved 6 miles of new sidewalks, installed hundreds of new streetlights and fully integrated their traffic signals. And they’re budget and number of employees is half that of the city to the north of them and they have the same population.
While cities across the country are mired in debts and pension obligations and contemplating raising taxes or cutting services or contemplating bankruptcy; Sandy Springs has no long term liabilities.
I’ve been asked a few friends and colleagues (who are usually liberal in most ways) and know my feelings about Smart Growth and taxpayer-subsidized rail transit projects, why I like and respect the Antiplanner.
This posting is why.
The Antiplanner is willing and able to disagree with many who claim to be “conservative.” I really admire that, even though I don’t always agree with the Antiplanner either.
I am going to cast my vote for Obama not because I agree with his administration on transportation policy (and efforts by the federal government to influence land use policymaking at the state, county and municipal levels). I definitely do not.
But I do agree with his administration on the social side – overwhelmingly so, and that is why I support the President.
The social side? You mean like his unwavering support of gay marriage and his stance on decriminalizing marijuana or at least allowing states to decide about medical use?
Right.
Voting is a waste of time. There ain’t a bit o’ difference among republicrats.
Case in point:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/14/ryans-budget-keeps-obamas-medicare-cuts-full-stop/
I always admire CP’s level-headed take on things but I have to agree with Frank. This president and his DOJ has escalated the Drug War by leaps and bounds (raiding dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal? WTF?). And his gay marriage “evolution” was a cynically transparent ruse/PR stunt. Plus, his love affair with drone warfare and his newly minted assassination powers are not exactly encouraging developments.
Both candidates are pro-SOPA, pro-NDAA, pro-Drug War, pro-excessive spending wherever it suits their agendas. To hell with both of them.
Agreed. Soon the two parties captured by Finance and other corporate interests will be threatened by a third party. Or our decline will speed up precipitously. Our political economy is wrecked and our politics is broken. Not sustainable.
DS
Government workers only look like they are getting paid a lot in pensions because private sector workers have essentially lost all retirement benefits during the past 30 years, not because most pensions are as outrageous as the handful of sweetheart deals that really are outrageous (like Long Island Railroad’s retire at 50 with 25 years service). Compensation in the private sector has been utterly stagnant dor 30 years unless you are in the upper quintile of workers.
There are a few times a year where I find myself amazed at how much Mr. O’Toole (my favorite ideological opponent) and I think alike. Today’s post is one of these times.
We agree that Stanley Krutz is a fear mongering, hyperbolic culture warrior (it’s one unethical way to sell lots of books).
As a social liberal, I too find Obama to be a huge disappointment. My hopes is that this area is where the second term stand will be taken (I’m not holding my breath).
My only disagreement, or rather observation of short sided analysis, is in regards to “liberal fascists… eager to force their notions of such vague ideas… down other people’s throats.” Since when have presidential campaigns (republican or democrat) ever been about specifics? Believe me, conservative fascists have their vague buzz words too. So I guess I don’t disagree per se, but I would argue that I’m more egalitarian in my assessments of the douchebaggery in both parties. That is, forcing vague ideas down peoples throats is the name of the game regardless of ideological persuasion (unless you’re a fringe candidate during the primaries).
I happen to agree that the “Obama is the devil” arguments are not interesting. But I chuckle every time I hear someone saying that Gitmo should be closed when they don’t say what should be done with the prisoners.
Because what Obama learned when he became president was that however bad Gitmo is, all the alternatives are much worse. And any answers that do not know the difference between US criminal law, “international law”, and what the Geneva Convention treaties actually say, are not interesting.
People don’t realize this country is practically bankrupt on every single level now. City, municipality, county, state and federal. We don’t have any money any more. It’s gone, it’s disappeared in a fiscal black hole where it will never return. Our infrastructure is crumbling thanks to the people that promised massive bridges in Alaska and rebuilding levee’s for one city that was dumb enough to build housing for poor people below sea level. And the promises that have been made in the name of retired people, sick people, poor people are not gonna be kept. We’re gonna have to do things differently. Instead of blaming the rich for greedily hogging all the wealth for themselves (when in fact they account for most of the income taxes in this country), we’re gonna have to ask the middle class for more (the very thing we so dreaded). We’re gonna have to privatize public work, layoff public sector employees, selling off federal assets such as the remaining GM, Fannie and Freddie, selling federal lands out west, slashing bureaucratic red tape, cuts to the budget so significant you need a chain saw to make them. Restructure Social Security and Medicare or simply watch it collapse. Individuals will or must refurbish the economy, we’re gonna have to learn to make things again acquiring skills in the non-digital realm that are of use to other people. The South Koreans and Japanese already know how to make semiconductors, they don’t want ours, we need to find new things they want if were to remain a trading nation.
I originally bought the Kindle version of Kurtz’s book in order to do a long review on my website. After reading it, I found that to be not worth the effort.
In another rare case I agree about 98% with The Antiplanner about this book, the “liberal fascist” comment aside. The “paranoid style” is typical of Kurtz, reinforced by footnotes mostly documenting “so and so went to such and such conference” or “who knows who” but lacking any substantiation of his many dozens of assertions.
As noted by others here, Kurtz and his publisher are catering to the well-established “paranoid right wing” demographic, and this screed will not appeal to those not already convinced. Well, except perhaps to someone like me who thought there might be a worthy opponent with substantive arguments to dispute.
YAWN
Gosh, another attempt to scare the dumb white people into thinking The Other is going to bulldoze their neighborhood and replace it with housing for non-whites. Its the second or third this week I’ve seen. Must be election season and Rove and AFP have money to trickle around.
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
DS
Forgot there is no edit button:
Thank you Randal for seeing thru the flimflam.
DS