Leave me alone

"Leave me alone." Isn't that what suburbs and DVDs are all about? Read this from the NY Times. I know I have lamented the death of public life many times on this blog, but it seems that every day I see more evidence of its decline. Now it seems the movie theaters, even the ugly (if only in comparison to the great movie palaces of the past) cine-plexes are losing out to the desire of Americans wanting to stay in their houses.

But I know in my heart that people do want cities. They do want to be downtown....

The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown - waiting for you tonight
Downtown - you're gonna be all right now

I think this is why the New Urbanism movement is growing. But new urbanism will not thrive until it throws off it's quasi-socialist shackles. (Was Manhattan built by socialists?)

In the southbay town of Mountain View, we can see what Conservative (conservative does not mean hyper-individualistic libertarianism) thought can do for new urbanism. In the 1970s downtown mountain view was a slum. But the people of Mountain View, and Santa Clara County began some impressive public works:

1) A new train station was built for the CalTrain that links San Jose and San Francisco.
2) City Hall and a performing arts center were rected on Castro Street, the main street of the downtown area. (Unfortunately, the city council insisted that the performing arts center not be as tall as City Hall so the big traveling shows from Broadway don't play there. The ceiling is too low for a fully staged show. Oh, well.)
3) The light rail system was built, and a staion was co-located with the Cal-train station.
4) Narrowed the useable roadway of Castro Street, provided for more curb-side parking, and widened the sidewalks. The city also planted scores of trees along the street. All of this made the street more friendly to people who want to get out of their cars and walk.

These public works, especially the transportation items, were a signal to private investors. Nothing says long term potential like train tracks. Unlike a bus route, it doesn't easly move. And that lead to one of the coolest things. The building of several hundred high-density townhouses downtown, right across the street from the trains.

In addition to these public works, the city also made a smart decision regarding the use of private property: The owners of several delapidated or vacant buildings were told to get them occupied and fixed-up or else they would be condemned. But because of the city's investments, and the incereased value of private property in downtown Mountain View, most of the owners were able to improve their property and make a profit in the process.

The end result of all of this is that downtown Mountain View is semi-thriving. I say semi because there is not a very good mix of retail shopping. There are plenty of good resaurants, two excellent coffee shops, two bookstores, and one good night club. But there is not much else. No clothing or shoe stores. No hardware stores. No electronics stores. Why? I think that part of the reason for this is because the United States Tax code has unbelieveable depreciation schedules that prop up shopping malls and choke the life out of downtowns across the country. (In case you didn't know this: I hate the income tax. I think a 5% national sales tax on all goods and services is much less likely to be manipulated for the benefit of the few and the destructin of public life.)