Re: funding idea

A very interesting and creative idea. I think it
needs to be mulled over and a look into what all the
ramifications would be, if that is possible


a favor to ask of all of you...

I am making a brochure for our organization. I would
like to have some birds eye view drawing of equal
sized areas suburban, urban, and carfree to put on the
brochure. I would like to point out the differences
in land area dedicated to streets and cars, housing,
parks, etc with other information about population in
the areas, etc.

does anyone have these drawings that I could use? 
also, statistics comparing these three development
styles.

thanks a bunch. your help will be greatly
appreciated.

david

--- "dearleb <[email protected]>" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Hi folks. Here's a notion I've held for years, but
> never subjected to 
> real scrutiny. Your comments would be interesting at
> minimum. 
> Above and beyond all the oft-repeated issues to be
> addressed in 
> converting an auto-centric North American town
> (practically a 
> redundant phrase)is the bedrock issue of money. Lots
> of it would be 
> needed to jump-start a project of a sufficient size,
> and to sustain 
> it through the pains of resistance and cultural
> change required for 
> it to be accepted and thrive. 
> Short of some zillionaire stepping forward (ain't
> happened yet so 
> ain't gonna)how about this: most towns are sitting
> on a fortune in 
> real estate they don't realize they can liquidate,
> to great profit. 
> Roughly half the land area of a typical North
> American town is 
> consumed by publicly-owned roads and rights-of-way.
> Sell much of this 
> to private developers to build housing and use the
> proceeds to not 
> only build the required extra infrastructure but
> also incent 
> otherwise skeptical voters to assent, plus fund city
> services that 
> are strapped in the best of times and evicerated in
> downturns such as 
> we are now in. 
> Who might accept such a scheme? Taxpayers and civic
> leaders of 
> liberal-leaning towns being hammered by upside-down
> budgets. (These 
> are in abundance at the moment.)
> For example, a town, or a portion of it, would
> dangle the prospect of 
> substantial remuneration to existing property-owners
> (and renters)in 
> return for the sale and development of their
> streets. Perhaps every 
> third or fourth street would be left open to
> vehicles and to parking 
> facilities for same, the rest turned into housing or
> 
> housing/commercial structures connected only by
> walkways. Some 
> portion of most blocks could be set aside as public
> open space. The 
> typical property-owner might get a hefty cash
> payment or a long-term 
> property-tax credit in compensation. 
> This leverages the vast influence of lucre (often
> filthy but useful 
> if well-directed) towards a goal - carfree living -
> that most of our 
> North American neighbors simply cannot appreciate
> until they see it 
> for their own eyes.
> I'm grossly oversimplifying the concept but I trust
> the readers of 
> this group may see the possibilities.
> Not too long ago, while living in Berkeley, I
> mentioned this in brief 
> to a neighbor who described himself as a
> dyed-in-the-wool Berkeley 
> radical. He regarded me with some horror, as if I
> was a Martian or 
> maybe some kind of Republican. I haven't broached it
> since. Maybe my 
> good neighbor was just too used to driving his
> ancient Volvo over the 
> local potholes, or hadn't been able to visit Venice,
> the Cinque 
> Terre, Gulangyu, Zermatt, and the other places where
> one can 
> experience car-free life. 
> But just think of the stupefying sums that could be
> raised by selling 
> the streets in a place like Berkeley. Think how
> civic leaders and a 
> critical mass of voters, open to a
> convention-bashing notion of 
> greatly-constrained auto traffic (with its
> currently-popular 
> undertones of making loud statements against the
> Bush-oil-SUV 
> paradigm)might be pursuaded to overcome their
> reticence in the face 
> of such a potential windfall. 
> The ideal of car-free (or nearly so) living is
> sufficient to motivate 
> the readers of this posting, all of whom I presume
> are of limited 
> resources as am I. It is not, by itself, going to
> motivate anything 
> like a critical mass of the public, anywhere in our
> continent, for 
> the forseable future. But add the money from the
> sale of streets, and 
> the political mindset may change. Developers, if
> properly incented 
> and managed, may be relied upon to fund the
> speculative building 
> required. 
> What thoughts are stirred by this idea? 
> 
> 


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