(2004-11-18) Sucher Democratic Urban Regulations

David Sucher on the Democratic Party's need to find better balance in its approaches to Urban Design and other regulations (Red Tape). But the larger issue is that the Democratic Party has to start paying some real attention to the complaints of the regulated because not all the complaints of developers and landowners are just a matter of "greed." There is a lot of stupid and pointless regulation out there which serves no one but the government functionaries. Environmentalists and urbanists don't like to hear such talk. But it's true. There is a lot of regulation - and I am specifically speaking of Seattle land use regulation - which really doesn't actually advance the interests of building better cities but is indeed a general drag on life and the economy.

He also addresses Creative Class-driven policies, agreeing with Joel Kotkin and Fred Siegel that city governments should just focus on commonsense policies that stress basic services like police and firefighters, innovative Public Schools that are not beholden to teachers' Labor Union-s, breaking down of barriers to new housing (Real Estate) construction, and policies that lead local businesses to expand within the urban area.