Subsidized suburbanization and sprawl

I don't care too much about people's energy use, and, if people want to live in McMansions two hours from work, so be it.

However, I do object to the subsidization of urban and suburban sprawl by tax-supported highways. I also object to the public subsidization of home ownership via the mortgage tax deduction. (I am a flat-taxer.) From the Globe:

Nathaniel Baum-Snow of Brown University found that each “new highway passing through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent.’’ The home mortgage interest deduction further encouraged suburbanization, because rental units are disproportionately in cities while owner-occupied homes are disproportionately distant from city centers.

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:10 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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Don't worry. If things go well we can all live like Portland Oregon. We pushed the poor renters out into the hinterlands (suburbs) and took over the city. Commies call it "gentrification" which means "white people who want to live close to the office".

Now all the minorities can ride the bus for hours on end just to make $8/hr. cleaning our houses.

You see, either way you work it, the ride is subsidized.

#1 Phil on 2009-11-06 14:48 (Reply)

Is it subsidized? The vast bulk of the "tax" supporting highway construction and maintenance at state and federal level is tax on motor fuel, which much of the academic literature classifies with tolls as "user fees". In fact this source of funding is often raided for balancing general funds (TN) or subsidizing mass-transit systems.
Is the sprawl because of highways? Looking beyond Baum-Snow’s sample, we examine European cities that also experience significant suburbanization, and we find no evidence that a highway that pierces the central city makes any difference to central-city population change.
(Citation: Cox, Gordon, and Redfearn 2008)

#2 Douglas2 on 2009-11-06 16:54 (Reply)

Oops, everything from Looking to change was supposed to be a blockquote.

#2.1 Douglas2 on 2009-11-06 16:57 (Reply)

fix: population density is not as high in suburban/rural areas -
"... because multiple-apartment rental buildings are disproportionately distant from farmland areas."

#3 teqjack (Link) on 2009-11-07 02:22 (Reply)

So you want to force people to live where you want? I choose not to live in ghettos, which is what big cities always become. I will never send my kids to schools where they learn about getting beat up by gangs of blacks while administrators worry about "preserving diversity and tolerance". Cities always become liberal, I choose to not live there.

Anti-sprawl efforts are part of the liberal plan to force the rest of us to live their way, because in cities people are more dependent on the govt.

#4 Smarty on 2009-11-07 11:49 (Reply)

Highways are freedom. Cars are the instrumentality of that freedom.

#5 BlogDog (Link) on 2009-11-07 11:51 (Reply)

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Friday, November 6. 2009

Subsidized suburbanization and sprawl