I'm Glad Tim liked the book. For those with a more political point of view than me, try "The United States of Suburbia: how the suburbs took control of America and what they plan to do with it", available in the Saint Paul and Washington County libraries, as well as the Bethel College library. It points out how Clinton/Gore played to the suburbs because they knew they had to in order to win, while stringing the loyal city dwellers along. Tim makes good points on housing. I recently read a research piece by Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution where he tried to find empirical evidence for his "belief that sprawl had contributed to concentrated poverty, and therefore to urban decline". His basic conclusion is that "there is no meaningful and significant statistical relationship between any of the specific traits of sprawl - or a sprawl index - and either measure of urban decline". (www.anthonydowns.com/sprawlrealities.PDF). I recommend it, even though I don't agree with all of his points. He does point to rapid growth as a contributor, but points out "However, a fundamental reality about life in America is hat no metropolitan area's existing residents can effectively control the total amount of population growth their region will experience in the future, no matter what policies they adopt". Corollaries to that fact: "First, each locality's success at reducing future growth within its own boundaries merely shifts that growth to some other part of the region." " second corollary is that the more localities within a region adopt policies that reduce their own future population growth, the more likely that growth will shift outward towards the edge of the region - thus, the greater the degree of future sprawl there." He points out policies that lead toward concentrated core-area poverty. "... requiring all new housing to meet very high quality standards -- standards too costly for most poor households to occupy." "... the United States has chosen not to subsidize housing for many poor people in suburban areas." "... fragmented control over land-uses in many small outlying municipalities, and their adoption of exclusionary zoning and other policies." "... tying the fiscal support of local governments to the wealth of their own residents as expressed in property values and ales taxes." "... racial segregation in housing markets." Downs later says "However, sprawl probably does help cause many of the directly- growth-related problems associated with it, such as traffic congestion and large-scale absorption of open space. But most of these problems produce costs borne mainly by the people who also benefit from sprawl, because sprawl surely has many significant benefits." Another on his web page (www.anthonydowns.com/newart.htm) is "Suburban Sprawl, Urban Decline, and Smart Growth" is probably a later expansion of this topic. Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Somebody on this list recommended the book, 'American > Dreamscape', by Tom Martinson. Whoever it was I thank > you. > > It is relevant in light of the goings on at the State > Legislature vis a vis the predominately DFl city of > Minneapolis and the primarily Republican suburbs. > > None of this is new. This is a evolving situation over > the past twenty years and anybody who hasn't seen it > coming needs glasses. > > What concerns me most about the tax "reform" that came > out of the Capitol is not any supposed spitefulness > toward Minneapolis, as what I see as total lack of > compassion. > > Items like lowering property tax rates on cabins while > poor people got so little relief from the tax bill > really 'toast my grits' as Wizard might say. > > When you look at the charts, uppper income people did > best in property tax rate cuts, middle-income did next > best, outstate did better than non urban metro and > metro did worst of all. > > Apartment building owners received a 25% tax decrease > and there are some incentives for new construction but > none specifically for low cost housing. > > Most apartment housing developers prefer building > higher end and luxury rental units for two primary > reasons: 1) greater profit margins and 2)less hassle. > > Low cost housing is seen as a lot of hassle for less > return and is therefore less likely to be the first to > be built. > > With the Federal govevernment not likely to step in > with any new housing funds, we will continue to see a > terrible housing crisis in the city. > > Im sorry to have so little sympathy for the middle > class homeowners of the city but the fact is that the > city lost over 12,500 rental housing units over the > past ten to twelve years, and we did very little with > the large sums of money available to us through NRP to > alleviate that situation. 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