“Building Cities Shouldn’t Be a Partisan Issue”

Over the weekend, we came across an article from the Isthmus of Madison, Wisconsin, reporting on a conservative scaremongering campaign against a commuter rail proposal.

It quotes a leader in the Wisconsin Republican Party painting transit-oriented development as a red menace: “This has been done before,” Dane County Republican Party spokesman Bill Richardson said on a Madison radio show. “The Soviet Union and in East Berlin and all
those places. They built these … very ugly high-rise apartments, and
they jammed people into these.”

We were happy to see that Streetsblog Network member The Overhead Wire posted a quick response to this nonsense:

What kind of development is really being forced on Americans? (Photo: co-plex via Flickr)

[E]veryone who reads here knows the histories and the market
distortions of sprawl, which has absolutely dominated the market over
the last 60 years. If anything, it’s they who are forcing everyone to
live their lifestyle, a sick distortion of the actual desires of at
least some Americans, such as myself, who want to live in an urban
walkable environment. By not providing a choice in living, or
transportation, the opponents of livable communities are telling us
that the actual market doesn’t matter and that they know what is best…

We know that not all in their circle believe this way, and ultimately building cities shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
The road towards transit and walkability is a sustainable one from a
fiscal and environmental standpoint. I think many times we overlook the
power of fiscal arguments for the movement at our own peril. The research on sprawl is not good, and people are starting to get it, a bit late, but at least they are starting to see how value is created by cities and urbanism is a fiscally responsible choice.

It will be interesting to see how the division over transportation policy among conservatives develops in the next few months. Will the ideology of fear trump more evidence-based economic analysis? What do you think?

More from around the network: Hugeass City wanted a coffee, but needed to be in a car to get served at one Seattle Starbucks. Copenhagenize reports on bicycle theft and insurance profiteering in the Danish cycling paradise. And Tucson Bike Lawyer has a dispatch on biking in Bogotá.