Protecting Open Spaces: Who's Liberal, Who's Conservative, and How Many Highways Should There Be?

Hit this link and read the post.

Seriously. Get through the brief intro about Andrew Sullivan and... wow. There is a lot to think about here.

Are people who want to protect open spaces liberal or conservative? Do organizations like southeastern Pennsylvania's Brandywine Conservancy (and other environmental groups) operate as preservationists or as elitists protecting their own privilege? Do people who oppose a highway through Amish Country deserve praise for their community-minded activism, or barbs for their upper-class, anti-proletariat NIMBY-ism?

I don't have a whole lot of answers. But man.

Just go. If you are interested at all in urban planning or conservation or elitism or politics... Go.

Comments

[Keith]

In my opinion, the best person to read on these things is Ed Glaeser, an urban and housing economist at Harvard. His stuff is exceptional.

These are his papers:

http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/glaeser/papers.html

Scroll down to

Urban Growth and Housing Supply (January 2005) Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko and Raven E. Saks

and

Why Have Housing Prices Gone Up? (December 2004) Edward L. Glaeser, Joseph Gyourko and Raven E. Saks

and

The Impact of Zoning on Housing Affordability (February 2002) Edward L. Glaeser and Joseph Gyourko

for some interesting studies on zoning laws and housing prices.

While you're on that page, you should also see some very interesting work on cities and politics and paternalism, which this blog is all about.

[Keith]

http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/glaeser/papers.html

Oh, and don't forget to read this book review by Glaeser, it's very smart and pretty hilarious.

Book Review of Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class" (May 2004) Edward L. Glaeser

[sean mcdaniel]

who knows, the brandywine group might just be thinking they are doing the right thing...and actually could be. but everyone's motives are so suspect these days.

ted kennedy and other liberal types don't want power generating windmills within view of their nantucket or martha's vineyard homes. and george bush or dick cheney don't exactly live next to oil wells or defense contractor plants.

in the end, it's the rich, of any political stripe, wanting to keep their distance from the not so rich. ask teresa heinz if she'd rather have dick scaife as her next door neighbor (albeit from 14 acres away) or a random resident from sharpsburg 20 feet away. and you could work that question the other way too. the answer would most likely be the same.

it's not politics...it's the money that matters. if it didn't, there wouldn't be gated communities or places like sewickley heights.

on a more real world level...the initial plans for I-279 called for a path that would have gone through a north hills country club and its golf course. seems the members didn't like that direction and lobbied for a new path, which wiped out a small enclave of homes owned by black residents. maybe it was a coincidence. maybe. but you have to wonder.

you have to admit...those amish are just too damn quaint...compared to african americans. my bet is that if you didn't have those buggy riding plain people weren't living in the area, that road would already be wider.

[Amos the Poker Cat]

Concidering that Bush lived in Midland, TX, and Cheney lived in Cheyenne, WY, they lived a heck of a lot closer to an oil well than 90% of the population.

The Brandywine Conservancy is mainly in Chester County, the 5th fast growing county in PA for 1990-2000, 15.17%, not Lancaster County, #9, 11.31%.

Old data, but the best I could find, 1990 PA County Church Membership, Lancaster County has 44% of the Amish in PA, 13.5K out of 33.5K. Chester County has only 750 Amish, about 2% of the statewide total. Heck, we have more Amish far to the north of PIT in Lawrence County, about 6%, or about 2K. Of course, since the average Amish family has 7 children, these numbers must have grown.

So, Chester ain't so quaint. Although, I think you might be able to find a good bialy there, instead of a funnel cake.

[Sam M]

I think the people dealing with the highway through Amish country are separate form the Brandywine Conservancy. It says so in the link, I think, but my apologies for not being more clear about it.

The anti-highway group is called S.A.V.E. They are at:

http://www.save41.org/

By the way, the acronym stands for Safety, Agriculture, Villages and Environment, Inc.

[sean mcdaniel]

damn it sam, i was really trying to be a careful reader...and you screwed me over.

and amos, i really don't think that bush and cheney are within view of anything unpleasant...other than cindy sheehan or reporters asking pesky questions about the war.

[Amos The Poker Cat]

and amos, i really don't think ...

You have never spoken truer words.

I have driven through Cheyenne a number of times, oil rigs are just about everywhere there. Since I doubt you have been there even once, I wanted to point that out, but forming an opinion in the absense of facts seems to be a hobby of yours.