Comments on: The Nation’s mass transit hypocrisy

By: Rationalitate

Rationalitate — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:50:21 +0000

The San Francisco story is actually quite interesting. The best analysis that I've seen of it, oddly enough, was in a completely unsourced Wikipedia article. Someone has since taken it all out due to the lack of citations, but you can still see an old version of the article here.

By: Rationalitate

Rationalitate — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:47:09 +0000

I might not have been so harsh if they had shown any realization that it was the Progressives' policies that got us into this mess in the first place, but they punted the blame to everyone but themselves. "Federal policy favoring roads and cars"?? Yeah right – local policies pushed by early 20th century progressives were much worse. And though I didn't mention it, the article's author is brazen enough to excuse the local planning boards for their restrictive anti-density regulations, saying:

Under current rules, funding for a mass-transit system is only provided to areas that already have the density to support it. But mass transit works best when it is built in advance of creeping development, as it was in New York City, so that the tallest buildings can be built closest to the transit nodes, where the premium for housing or office and retail space is highest.

To be honest, it's not entirely clear that the author understands at all why New York City could never be built today.

By: Market Urbanism

Market Urbanism — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:01:29 +0000

Planning, zoning, sprawl, and roads were all part of the prevailing progressive agenda back in those days. That is just one example of many from that time. (Monday, I should be posting an article I’m fine-tuning about Hoover’s contributions to the progressive legacy in this matter)

I think it goes to show the deep flaws in the progressive philosophy that dreams big things, then rallies against the results of the implementation of their policies when the unintended consequences cause problems they despise. They then conveniently forget that their own ideology shares the blame.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:11:39 +0000

I’ve seen old photos of 4 street cars from competing lines going up and down Market Street. I’ve often wondered why the street car companies in SF went out of business and let the city form a gov’t monopoly. Now I know why. Thanks.

By: DVA

DVA — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:02:42 +0000

No offense–I basically agree with you about the issues discussed here–but I think it’s unduly harsh to deem an article from 80 years ago that contradicts one today as hypocrisy. On a time scale that long, I think it’s just called learning. (Although as you point out, they seem to have learned what, but not why or how.)