Correcting the Record
The Congress for the New Urbanism or CNU is a great organization promoting traditional neighborhood design (TND), smart growth and New Urbanism – all slight variations on the same theme.
I recently ran across a great report on the CNU website called, Correcting the Record (PDF), which addresses claims of sprawl happy advocates such as our own Home Builders Association of Greater St. Louis:
The most frequently quote individual behind these “Dumb Growth” efforts is Wendell Cox. In his papers, Cox attacks Portland Oregon as the epitome of Smart Growth, and uses Atlanta, Georgia as an example of the high quality of life provided by a car-dependent development.
Between the two I’ll definitely take Porland. Atlanta is a mess – you couldn’t pay me to live there. Still, organizations pay hacks to find way to say sprawl works. It is up to us to see through their lies and promote truly urban cities.
St. Louis has it’s own such pro-sprawl group – the Urban Choice Coalition. This group is a front for home builders and developers in St. Charles County wishing to protect the status quo – sprawl, sprawl and more sprawl. They want to continue the public’s “investment” in road projects but reject “subsidized” transportation. In the future I will take a closer look at their propaganda but in the meantime just take their crap with a grain of salt.
– Steve