They're going to plan us to death, aren't they?
Fort Wayne residents need to keep their driving expenses in check and local government should think about mass public transportation when considering development.
This according to Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago and a consultant who Thursday presented ideas on how to integrate practices in transportation, energy efficiency and broadband technology.
“Too much money is intercepted before home ownership,” Bernstein said.
He said housing cost is low in Fort Wayne, but too much driving and transportation costs decreases possibilities for home ownership. Bernstein outlined success in cities such as Portland, Org., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Austin, Texas, that are using “transit-oriented development” with a focus on light rail or street car transportation to spur economic growth.
I don't know if he mentioned "urban sprawl" in his speech, but it sounds like that was what it was all about -- the planning community just hates that and can't accept that it's the result of people choosing how and where they want to live. They have to fix it by herding everybody back into the pen.
Comments
Mr. Morris, I've criticized you heavily in the past, and I'm sure I'll do so still more in the future. Fairness requires that I render some applause here. People in and around the Fort live, work, drive, and shop where and as they do because that's how they prefer it -- and it's gall and wormwood to the "planning" community, which includes both major-brand parties and some who bizarrely call themselves libertarians too. You have it exactly right.
I dont mind criticism, as long as it's about my arguments, which will stand or fall on their merits. I worry about where libertarianism is headed these days. The recent concept of "libertarian paternalism" that they're flirting with seems to me nothing more than acknowledging that paternalism is inevitable so the best we can do is try to moderate it a little.
you know, if I didnt have to pay so much of my pre-tax income to pay the outrageous salaries, benefits, perks, pensions, and vacations of all these government employees, who do nothing32 .5 hours a week but tell the rest of us how to live, where to live, and what to do while we're living ; while they are living well off the sweat of our collective brows;
then perhaps I might have enough extra income to actually buy a home.
cut the gas tax, and the bureaucrats, that it supports. I'll get a hummer to drive over the potholes, and anything else that gets in my way. Police? do we really need so many that one cant buy a little 9mm personal protection, and safety?
We have been told that we are so dependent on all these (what) government services that we are afraid to really seriously examine where they spend all of OUR money, and who elses pocket it goes into.
Now I dont exactly want to live out in the middle of a bare field, in a wood, and mud hut, and cook over buffalo dung, while my horse is grazing in the wind break, nor do i expect my hired help( government ) to live better than the rest of us, either. In fact, I prefer that they suffer a little misery, due to the fact that they are the ones in charge of making the laws that we live under, unfortunately. someone has to say enough is enough. case inpoint- look at the 125 to 160 milion dolars for the down town Harrison square (casino) project. thats a 35 million MILLION dollar variation.
Same with the 500 million dollar school improvement project. If the kids attending these fine high-tech, air conditioned luxury palaces of learning, but are stupid as a frickin' rock, then all the money in the world wont do them any good, that a few years of living in poverty wont motivate.
All Isee fromall these so-called ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS is 2 things- the rich getting rich, and the poor, getting poorer- reverse robin hood. Maybe if we put a moratorium on all these grandiose projects, and said enough, for a few years, and starved the rich, like they are starving the rest of us with our own money, no less, than maybe we would start to see some real progress hers in fort wayne. knock them down to our level. the rich always rebound anyway- look at all the recent white collar criminals- they do 6 months in "club fed", pay a pittance of a fine, and they are right back at it -screwing the rest of us. same with mail order preachers- Jim and tammy Faye Bakker, and the rest of them have all retired quire well thank you by fleecing their flocks from cradle to grave, while living the 3 m's- mansion, mercedes, millions.
Fort wayne is stuck in the proverbial "culture of corruption. greed. robbery by other means. If these so called leaders cant earn it, or make it on their own, they have no scruples about selling a bill of goods to the basically honest, decent but horribly stupid citizens.
the local media propaganda is repeating the big lie, over and over. the dissenting voices are either silenced, or made to be somehow "not right", or in need of "deprogramming" or further brainwashing.
I studyed totalitariam regimes, and their ways of doing business, in collegs, I graduated with an interesting insight,. My college was one where they recruited for the CIA, state dept, etc. i am a military veteran, and go exploring in government documents, and avidly watch c-span, for things the govt is doing to screw us out of our hard earned money , in the name of "civic pride. repsonisbility", etc. and then we have the brainwashed sycophants- the young urban "yuppie wannabes who think they will get a slice of the pie by parroting the party line, when what they usually get is a few years ot pad their resumes, here, and then move on, where themoney, climate, and jobs are better.
the ones who stay- The "old money"- the people who own, run and control everything for themselves, and their offspring only; well- they just dont seem to ever die, or go away. and if they do, someone else springs up to take your place in line.
So rule number one- follow the money - from your pocket to whom?
rule number 2- as in any other robbery-make them fight your for it, and take your pound of flesh with it, before you give it to them. make them justify every penny, or else they will steal you blind.
but this isnt just true with fort Wayne, Its true anywhere. So move as far away from so-called civilization as you can stand, live off the grid, as much as possible, and whenever someone comes to your door, and says " we're from the government, and we'd like your money for....; hopefully, you will know what to do. and how to dispose of the body.. with farber beans, and a fine chianti..