Provincial and municipal governments are attempting to increase density and transit use in most Canadian cities. Rather than increasing affordability and mobility, that approach is doing the opposite. The report argues that cities should embrace, rather than reject, urban dispersion.
Urbanization
High City Density, High Prices: Neglecting roads is no good for ‘smart growth’
You have to admit that whether you agree with him or not, Wendell Cox offers a fresh perspective. It’s long been de rigueur for professional urban planners and left-of-centre middle-class lay-people alike to opine on the benefits of “high density” areas: These concentrations of large groups of people are supposed to be better for the environment, better for the economy and better for society. Residents are said to use cars less, walk more and consume fewer resources. Some even claim they’ll breathe fresher air. But in a commentary released Thursday by the Macdonald-Laurier institute, Mr. Cox – an urban policy authority himself – dares to suggest just the opposite. What “radical densification” has done, he says, is drive down the quality of life for Canadians living in the country’s major cities.
New “extreme” Urbanism
I think that the City of London in the UK is taking efforts to decrease urban sprawl a bit too far. The National Post
Brookings Economist Decries Transit Subsidies, Calls For Privatization
In his new book, Last Exit: Privatization and Deregulation of the U.S. Transportation System, Brookings Institution economist Clifford Winston contends that transit subsidies are largely the result of labor productivity losses, inefficient operations and counterproductive federal regulations.
Featured News
Our Health Ministers Need to Take a Lesson from Hockey Coaches
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Zinchuk: Oilpatch Only Spending Half What It Spent in 2014
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
Smart Policy Better than “Smart Growth”
The siren song of “smart growth” advocates makes no sense in a city with very little growth.
The Parable of the Noon Gun
A planning philosophy that imposes the aesthetic preferences of a politicized and activist few on the many who just want to be left alone to live as they see fit…
Move that fire hydrant
Here are four small ways to make a city’s neighbourhood roads work better, all of them cost-effective, all of them betterments to the quality of life, none of them needing money from away.
Hollywood Wants Local Control
Hollywood’s struggle to secede from Los Angeles revisits the downside of big versus small cities
Artificial Sprawl Caused By Property Tax System
Winnipeg is a case study example of artificial urban sprawl with 500 families a year now fleeing its sky-high property tax regime.
Another Way To Fix Downtown
Suppose we broke out of the box and tried something new?
Fixing Winnipeg’s Urban Sprawl
People can escape paying their share by moving to lower-tax communities just outside the perimeter: they simply work and consume services in Winnipeg without paying for them. As the city’s population falls, capital and operating costs are spread over fewer people. Taxes must then go up, but this stimulates even more flight to the exurbs. And so on.