Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Urbanism does not have to be Socialist

Too often the Urbanist movement is linked to Socialism. As an Orthodox Christian, who follows Abraham in his journey toward that "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God", and who prays every day to Martyrs killed by the hands of Socialists this has always bothered me. Why would Capitalism, the most blessed and God-serving of all economic systems shun the beauty of the City for the ugliness of the Suburbs? Especially, I have been concerned that the foremost proponent of Urbanism is the pink-tinted Congress for New Urbanism. But there are Capitalist Urbanists, as only makes sense. Consider this: Suburbs only exploded and spread their miasma over the countryside when the government decided to get into the housing business. I don't know about other states but in California oppressive taxes in cities drives the middle class and businesses out of cities, as is happening in San Francisco. In San Jose, the Socialist requirement of "affordable" housing is suppressing the market demand for infill development of condos and apartments that the downtown needs, which increases unemployment and homelessness.

Recently, I came across a Capitalist Urbanist blog by the name of Market Urbanism. It is a much needed counterweight to the Socialism of many Urbanists.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link! I hope Rub-a-Dub readers enjoy reading "Market Urbanism".