You have a problem with taking a smart approach to urban planning?
When a city or town gets it right I am more than willing to offer praise. As I have numerous times here.
All too often we the taxpayers end up with poor solutions that become costly white elephants. All you have to do is look at the state of most major American cities to know I am right.
The biggest fault with modern urban planning among government entities is the one size fits all mentality. As such urban planning has run in fads over the years with occasional success, but more often failure when a concept is applied to a scenario in a city where it is not the right answer.
The current fad is bike sharing. It works great in some areas and should be expanded, but in some areas it runs into a little problem called winter. That is not to say it is a bad idea. But one has to ask is it worth it if the bikes have to be stored 3 months of the year? Is it worth the effort needed to keep the lockup points shoveled out to have it available year round? Large scale bike sharing might not be the right answer for every city. Yet people who raise such honest questions are shouted down.
Solutions to a host of issues vary greatly depending on geography, climate, city layout and a host of other factors. It is often as complex as, what works on the west side of a big city might not work on the east side.
On a final point. Call me a troll if it makes your day, but it is never wrong for a taxpayer to second guess the motives of people spending millions and sometimes billions of OUR hard earned dollars.
NIMBY aside, if a majority of residents think a project is a bad idea for their city yet a government bureaucrat pushes it all the harder, follow the money.
