Matt Yglesias takes apart Randal O’Toole’s libertarian defense of sprawl noting the key role local zoning regulations play in preventing density. Kevin Drum demurs a bit:
So I'll stick to one main point: these regulations aren't something that's been imposed by "government." They exist because people really, really, really want them… And now for a second point, even though I said I wouldn't make one: walkability is very difficult to create… So here's a serious question: outside of a big city core, has anyone ever successfully built a walkable, high-density suburb?
Building walkable communities is difficult, but it hardly merits a ‘very’ with the italics Drum applies. I’ve seen how much work it takes because I saw a range of activists, including my father, work to rebuild my hometown as a vibrant walkable community. The good news isn’t just that it happened, but that we’ve learned a lot about the public policy techniques for doing it right and emulating the organic processes that grew walkability in older cities. [Silver Spring is] hardly even the only D.C. suburb that gets this right, heavy rail Metro Stations are the key enabler but we’ve managed to do something about sprawl in multiple locations before even getting a light rail line connecting the inner suburbs (that’s a task that merits very difficult in italics, believe you me). If Drum would like to witness this personally I’d gladly give him a tour next time he’s out east, I think in this case his experience as a Californian has caused him to miss progress we’re making in the rest of the country.
I do agree that the transition is tricky, but I think desire for sprawl misstates the problem. In essence, I think sprawl is a failure to solve a collective action problem. People hate traffic but ultimately roads can’t keep up as areas grow and prosper. Since many of these regulations are controlled at a local level, the incentives run towards cul-de-sacs and other means of minimizing local traffic while making the larger area harder to navigate. Thus, developers who open up new areas are by no means opposed to sprawl, they just create communities that impose externalities on the rest of the area and that will in turn be overrun by traffic when the next set of exurbs get built.
How do you fix this? There’s a range of solutions: mass transit, mixed use development, making it safe to walk/bike. However, neighborhoods have a hard time achieving that on their own, particularly a few decades ago when communities like Columbia Maryland were planned with noble intentions but with bad policies.
As is, in many cases [we have the worst of both worlds] when it comes to government involvement. Local regulations prevent natural development of density while state and federal governments often skew transportation dollars to highways rather than mass transit. The DC suburbs show that these problems can be addressed, but as Kevin Drum shows, it can be hard to believe it until you see it. Some come see us! We’d love to have you.
Photograph by EPA Smart Growth used under a creative commons license
[Update: A few grammatical fixes and added link to Drum’s piece]
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