Dear Kirk and Richard, As I have said in so many way, I am against gastopo-styled land use planning which takes the ideas of a few and forces them on the many, stealing land or land rights in the process. That is how I perceive "SMART GROWTH." But maybe smart growth means only an ADVISORY stance? If that is the case, I am all for it. But when it is "handed down and enforced by the STATE--that is opposed by the FARM BUREAU FEDERATION and I would expect any other "property-owners" groups.
It was easy for "like minded" groups wishing to live in "social experiments" to fulfill their dreams in our Westward expansion during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Followers of Charles Fourier, a French Government clerk with social organization ideas, chartered and settled Ceresco, adjacent to Ripon. The Frenchman's ideas were interpreted through H. Greeley and Brisbane after Fourier's death and these Phalanx settlements were in a number of American and French locations, most notable was Brook Farm in Massachusettes. Utopian ideas of the few were put into practice for factory workers and others during the same historic period. But these "smart uses" were not imposed on others and did not disadvantage anybody. They did not steal the land rights of one group and "reform" land ownership at the behest of any "pressure advocacy group." Wisconsin is nearly all "inter-urban." "Suburbs without bicycle access" must account for few Wisconsin residents. I would figure that if there is not easy bicycle access that bicycle commuters would simply NOT BUY HOUSES in these areas and would rather live on a grid in the Isthmus. That is called BUYERS CHOICE. I thought that the arguments surrounding choice were fought during the life of Milton Friedman, the greatest economist of the Twentieth Century. These days the old USSR residents are experiencing "choice" and not simply "correct" goods determined by "smart" committees of commissars and sub commissars. Again, Richard has caught my main theme. That is to PROMOTE THE BICYCLE which I feel has been in the decline because of yet to be identified systemic reasons, and riders will chose politicians who understand a need for signage in the country and trails in congested areas. Eric Westhagen _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
