BIKE: Benefits of Suburban Sprawl ???

[alan_drake]

>First of all, everyone benefits from the roads (whether they drive on them or not) in the form of good and services, cost control, public
>maintainence/emergency services, and the like. 

First, I do *NOT* benefit from the sprawl roads in Metairie and the other post WW II suburbs of New Orleans (an early 1950s film promo of Metairie simply stated that "you cna get a VA loan for a beautiful new home in New Orleans, but not one to fix up an old house in New Orleans).

The faster that they are filled with potholes, clogged with traffic etc, the better off I (and New Orleans) will be !  I go there as rarely as possible and use Metairie based service firms as little as possible.

There is a close to zero sum "game" here.  Metairie today will never attract new industry from outside; too many negatives and not enough positives.  But they can serve (as a parasite) as a bedroom and service suburb to the prime economic drivers in the region (almost all in New Orleans).  Tourism, the Port, the Medical Center, the Universities, the Oil Industry, the USN & USMC and now the Film Industry are heavily concentrated in New Orleans (zero tourists come to see post WW II sprawl; they have that at home).

After 50 years, the wheel is turning.  The average home price in New Orleans is now higher than Metairie (I can remember when Metairie was 50% higher).  Our crime is going down, their's is up.  Their 1950's cheaply built infrastructure is beginning to become quite expensive to maintain.  Our 1890s high quality infrastructure is actually holding up better in several areas :-) 

Their higher incomes are either coming back into New Orleans or moving accross "the Lake" (& a 24 mile toll bridge).  The "Big Boxes" are opening up in Orleans Parish and the outward flow of sales tax $ is slowing.

Metairie feasted like a parasite upon New Orleans for half a century and delighted in our problems; using that as an excuse to take still more out from us. (Note the promo film, etc.).  So we will not be as aggressive in taking back from Metairie as they were from us; but their fate is sealed. even though their density is twice that of some recent Austin suburbs.

Likewise, Round Rock went after the Dell sales tax revenue from their mail order business, and then after more of Austin's tax base.  Just how does Austin benefit from RR sprawl ?

> I'm getting tired of the
>indiscriminate suburbia bashing--The sprawl already exists, some people are investing loads of time and effort to reverse the damage done by unwise development, and the "well, they get what they deserve" whine does not solve existing problems. It just stokes the fire. Let's be practical and focus on solutions for the world that is.

I belong to the school that I will live to see much of the post WW II sprawl boarded up, with the rest as slum housing, beset by the former "inner city" problems but without the inner city assets.

Should we make an effort to "save" suburbia ?

Others can if they wish; I will not lift a finger, support any effort, etc.  All of MY efforts will be focused on New Orleans and other "inner cities" (I am also doing some pro bono work for the Anacostia streetcar line in DC).

In my experience, suburbia does not want to be "saved" in any case.  Why lead a horse to water that it will refuse to drink ?