My current political science seminar on urban planning and politics is definitely one of my favorites over the last four years. One of the biggest reasons that I am so interested in the topic is because of its everyday real-world application. Like no other course, the things I learn in class can be immediately applied and understood in the context of development and urban planning all around us.
Especially here in the small-town of Davidson, current theories for better urban planning are being put to use through a fairly progressive local government. Just recently, Davidson deservedly won the top EPA award for "Smart Growth."
The topic of urban planning has become more and more popular over the last decade or so as city and suburban residents are beginning to realize the evils of the default sprawling development which has voraciously taken over modern American cities and their surrounding countryside. Obviously, sprawl is not a negative phenomenon for everyone in the short-run. A recent opinion by a Davidson resident in the Charlotte Observer highlights the ignorance of people (I would include myself in this group before this class) who think they can have their proverbial cake and eat it too when it comes to suburban living. As my seminar professor informed me, the writer is "a regular community columnist at the Charlotte Observer; and he is, indeed, one of Davidson's "village idiots." But without the knowledge I have gained over the past few months on this topic, I admit that I would be an "idiot" as well. A small snippet from the opinion:
"I love Davidson and am very proud to tell people that I live there... the Soda Shop, where you can get a great milkshake and fantastic egg salad; the Village Green, where formal and informal gatherings take place; the town's fierce love for all things educational; the energy that emanates from a college town. We love that Main Street Books trusts you to pay for your early morning newspaper by putting exact change through the mail slot. "
"Let me warn you, though, before you pull up stakes and move to this paradise by the lake: There is a dark side to Davidson. No, not a "Desperate Housewives" kind of dark side, but more of an "Old Europe Infects Small North Carolina Town" kind of dark side. "
This "dark side" that the writer refers to includes problems such as the fact that "all new buildings are required to hide their parking lots from the street" as well as what the writer refers to as a disrespect for property rights.
For now, I'll attribute the worthlessness of this argument to ignorance instead of blanket stupidity. The very things that the writer loves about Davidson would be entirely impossible without a local government that cared as much about pedestrians as cars. Indeed, the local Soda Shop, an establishment popular for its small-town aura, would be exposed for what it really is if the streets we're widened and parking allowed in front of buildings: a cramped eatery with moderate-tasting high-priced food. The Village Green wouldn't be a green, it would be a parking lot or perhaps a gas station--both of which would be needed to service the massive intersection that would be coursing through main street. Davidson is currently sandwiched between two highway exits that provide the sort of streets I'm talking about: 5 lane intersections with various fast food joints and big box retailers strewn along the edges, complete with their adjacent seas of asphalt to accommodate the hundreds of cars of consumers needed to maintain a typical suburban retail business.
Countering these sprawling trends takes a hefty amount of local governance these days. As the Davidson mayor responds in yesterday's Observer: "We preserve economic diversity in housing patterns. We protect water quality. We reduce automobile use and thereby reduce both air pollution and global warming. But most important, we reinforce the concept of community."
Achieving the sorts of things which the previous writer loves about Davidson requires sacrifices. Changing our expansive view of property rights is perhaps the hardest and most important thing to swallow in this effort. In order for communities, towns, and cities to plan effectively and efficiently for the future, regional rules and guides for design and development must be implemented.
This post only offers a small sampling of the urban planning discipline today. But I believe urban planning and development to be the most important route to solving this country's most pressing domestic problems. I'm not exaggerating when I say that better urban planning will bring solutions for education, poverty, foreign energy dependence, environmental concerns, and local community. Everything is linked in this way.
If you made it to the end of this post, that's impressive. Maybe I've taught you something new...or utterly confused you. As you can tell, this is a topic that has seriously caught my interest...and I can only hope that people such as myself can do a decent job teaching others not only why urban planning matters, but how it can be improved in years to come.
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