Urban Travesty

Big Cities have become gridlocked and too expensive. The cost of public transit is unsustainable and it doesn’t go where you need to go. Families need to live as close to work as they can and still have easy access to grocery stores, schools and other places and they use their cars to do this.

Regional Commissions impose undue government control over land use.  It is part of UN Agenda 21, the formation of megacities and the implementation of the “Wilding Project”.

Zoning codes were passed to prevent property owners from putting a pig farm or landfill next to your house. Property development was a pure private sector business. 

When “government” told us to ride bikes and take public transit and give up our cars, the battle began.  Government started subsidizing property development with tax dollars, laws, ordinances and extra costs.

Free market economics used to allow families to move from big cities to the safer, cheaper suburbs. Manufacturing used to be abundant in rural cities in rural counties.

Central planning by government doesn’t work well for property owners. The difference in developable land and restricted land can be the difference between $6000 per acre for farmland and $100,000 per acre for subdivisions.

Regional Commissions in the US are unelected, but they infringe on private property rights and unnecessarily involve government intrusion. The public input for these Regional Commissions uses the “Delphi Technique” to control the predetermined outcome the planners want.  Rather than counting on free market price control of property, Regional Commissions divert public funds and restrict road and highway expansion to subsidize urban development and public transit.

The US developed its growth based on the free market, private sector, Homeowners and companies moved away from the high cost, high crime, failing schools common in big cities.

Portland Oregon went “regional” decades ago. Those who drive cars and wanted their property rights restored passed measure 37 to reverse regionalism.  The counter attack was to propose measure 49 to reinstate regionalism, it passed. Since then, Portland has had several other “measures” and this battle seesaws back and forth.

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/09/cue_the_tumbleweeds_rural_hous.html

Atlanta Georgia rejected “regionalism” in 2012 in a T-SPLOST vote.  Regional Commissions were installed in 2008 and 2010 by the Georgia Legislature. The Atlanta Regional Commission claims oversight of 10 counties, but only 4 of these counties could be considered as relevant.  Voters in the other 6 rural counties want no part of their schemes to save Atlanta and nobody wants expand public transit to failing malls.  Atlanta’s roads and highway systems have not been expanded properly or maintained adequately to sustain any further growth.

St. Louis Missouri has the best highway and road grid systems in the country. If you change jobs, you don’t have to move. You can use the highway grid to get anywhere.

The “great recession” began in 2008 and the US economy has been in a slump due to the off-shoring of jobs that started in 1993.  Internet sales have grown and shopping malls have failed.

Going forward, we need to return to free market economics with land use and repeal all laws and ordinances that interfere with our ability to base our land use on unfettered private investment,  As manufacturing operations return to the US, we heed to allow them to return to rural cities in rural counties to restore these areas. We need to end taxpayer subsidies to private sector developments and use tax dollars for government infrastructure like highways, roads, water reservoirs, water treatment, water distribution, sewer systems and waste recycling and disposal.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader