From: ladasky@netcom.com (John J. Ladasky II)
Subject: Development (was Re: Greens vs. Property Rights)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 06:20:06 GMT

In article <1993Jan1.200947.18330@news.vanderbilt.edu>,
 mwmv@athena.cas.vanderbilt.edu (Michael Mogensen-Vermillion) writes:
>[stuff deleted]
>Where the hell are people supposed to live if not in houses, apartments,
>etc.?  Where the hell are those houses to be built if not on previously 
>undeveloped property?  The land already developed for residential use 
>is insufficent to continue to provide housing in a growing population,
>unless we want to start living in ever smaller and smaller homes ala the
>Japanese. I really don't think that's practical or healthy. 

	The following three paragraphs are my personal opinion, and should
not necessarily be construed as statements of the Green Party of California,
of which I am a member.

	"The land already developed for residential use" is organized
inefficiently.  There is no reason to believe that quality of life is 
inversely proportional to population density, especially when we make so
little use of available space.  By far, the bulk of residental land in
the U.S. is organized into suburbs.  I can think of several ways in which
land is used inefficiently in suburbs.  Here are a few: 1) even on streets
with minimal traffic, there are generally two wide lanes on all streets.
A one-way street would half the amount of space lost to blacktop.  A re-
organization of housing with consideration to mass transit would reduce the
need for the paving of the ground still further.  2) Yards are typically
divided into tiny lots by high fences, especially out here in California.
There is so little space that the yard often has fewer square feet than the
house.  This renders the yard space nearly useless for most people.  People
who want "a space of their own for the kids to run around" are driven out-
ward to neighborhoods the the periphery of the suburbs, where yards are
larger.  The concept of public space right outside one's front door is un-
known.  3) The rooves of suburban homes, shopping centers, and workplaces
are completely unused.  How do you use a roof?  Well, you could build a
multi-story structure - or, with adequate structural reinforcement, you
could turn the roof into somebody's yard (your own, or maybe even your
upstairs neighbor's).

	No, developers and S&L's aren't intrinsically evil, but almost none
of them would ever consider the idea of financing the construction of a
neighborhood based on the efficient use of land.  "It's too weird," they
would say.  One notable exception to this is the Cosanti Foundation, headed
by architect Paolo Soleri.  Interested readers might try to find a copy of
Soleri's "City in the Image of Man" (MIT Press), or "Arcosanti: an urban
laboratory?" (VTI Press, 2101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, Ca. 90403).  The
Cosanti Foundation is building Arcosanti, a multi-story, pueblo-like communi-
ty in the Arizona desert.  When completed, Arcosanti will house and employ
1,500 people.  The automobile is eliminated from the community plan, and
everything is within walking distance.  Apartments are about 2,000 square
feet - bigger than most suburban homes.  Acres of open space are accessible
by a quick walk.  I like a lot of Soleri's ideas, but nobody with money does.
The Cosanti foundation has relied on private contributions, and more recently,
tourism to the construction site to fund the building of Arcosanti.  Soleri
has made Arcosanti his life's work, and has spent about twenty years to
construct the foundation of the city/building, some public spaces, and
dwellings for about fifty permanent residents.  Soleri estimates that another
eighty years of work are ahead.

	Soleri is not approaching Arocsanti as a bare-minimum, public housing
project where (rightfully) no one would want to live.  He is trying to see
whether it is possible to construct a community in which it is possible to
live frugally and efficiently, yet with dignity and comfort.  In my opinion,
ideas like his need to be encouraged.  Perhaps American experiments in urban
planning could be funded in a manner similar to other types of research.
Maybe we need a National Institute of Urban Research, just as we have the
National Science Foundation and the National Insitute of Health.  

	As for the Green Party of California, the 1992 platform calls for
better mass transit, and the elimination of the hidden subsidies which 
promote sprawl and excessive automobile use.  Some of my urban-restructuring
ideas contained in the above paragraphs are natural corollares of the 
transportation ideas contained within the Green Party platform, but are
not explicitly called for.

>Perhaps the
>best solution would be a slowdown in (or elimination of) the rate of
>population growth.  But that is such a remote likelyhood at this point
>as to almost not worth discussing. 

	It's clear to me that you are interested in discussing the 
control of population growth.  The Green Party of California continues
to debate this issue intensely.  If we don't discuss it, don't you think
that the population-growth problem will take even longer to solve?

>Until our society becomes more
>responsible about reproduction, we're going to have to continue to
>develop property and the people initiating this process (the developers)
>are not automatically evil.  

	Granted, but our society needs to take a good, hard look at which
kinds of developments are worth funding.

-- 
== John J. Ladasky II ("ii") ========================= ladasky@netcom.COM ==
"Great composers do not borrow -	     "Talking about music is like
 they steal."  - John Ladasky	      ~ -     dancing about architecture."
(quote stolen from Stravinsky, who    o o     - Elvis Costello?  Laurie
 stole it from a statement made by     >        Anderson?  Frank Zappa?
 Pablo Picasso about painting, who    \_/    -------------------------------
 stole it from...)			     "Property is theft." - Groucho
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"A man w/o charity in his heart - what has he to do with music?" - Confucius
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