The debate over urban planning models is now as polarized as any other culture war issue with a strong partisan divide in support for denser walkable development with democrats being much more sympathetic to the idea. Some on the right view denser urban living as part of a leftist or elite sponsored agenda for us to accept a lower quality of life: “living in pods and eating soylent,” as the memes hold. In contrast to this the single family home symbolizes freedom and prosperity to Conservatives: the ideal of the American Dream.
Like liberals I like dense urban areas (and liked to live in Paris in my 20s and may like urban centers when kids go away). But modern leftists seem incapable of managing large cities. They have been weak on crime (Giuliani and Bloomberg saved New York) and unable to restrain public sector unions for decades, but now with racial justice and environmental lunacy they are leading great cities to disaster. This applies to New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis...but you find the same phenomenon across the West: London, Paris... Several regional cities in France are now headed by lunatic green mayors (Lyon, Toulouse, Grenoble...). White urban liberals have many qualities, but they have become incapable of self governance. My solution: charter cities. Instead of creating a new city from scratch in some shithole country, why not have Singapore in charge of managing Paris, New York, Chicago and San Francisco and make these cities great again?
Like liberals I like dense urban areas (and liked to live in Paris in my 20s and may like urban centers when kids go away). But modern leftists seem incapable of managing large cities. They have been weak on crime (Giuliani and Bloomberg saved New York) and unable to restrain public sector unions for decades, but now with racial justice and environmental lunacy they are leading great cities to disaster. This applies to New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis...but you find the same phenomenon across the West: London, Paris... Several regional cities in France are now headed by lunatic green mayors (Lyon, Toulouse, Grenoble...). White urban liberals have many qualities, but they have become incapable of self governance. My solution: charter cities. Instead of creating a new city from scratch in some shithole country, why not have Singapore in charge of managing Paris, New York, Chicago and San Francisco and make these cities great again?