Stanley Kurtz traces the mechanisms by which he believes President Obama intends to "abolish" the suburbs in a possible second term, and the roots of his desire, stretching back to his training as a community organizer.
Seeing a vast anti-suburban conspiracy aimed at "sweeping social change" to be executed through a "little-known and seemingly modest program called the Sustainable Communities Initiative," Kurtz warns of the Obama administration's plans to "force suburban residents into densely packed cities," "move the poor out of cities by imposing
low-income-housing quotas on development in middle-class suburbs," and expand a "'regional tax-base sharing' scheme
currently in place in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to the rest of the
country."
"Obama is a longtime supporter of 'regionalism,' the idea that the
suburbs should be folded into the cities, merging schools, housing,
transportation, and above all taxation," notes Kurtz. "To this end, the president has
already put programs in place designed to push the country toward a
sweeping social transformation in a possible second term. The goal:
income equalization via a massive redistribution of suburban tax money
to the cities."
FULL STORY: Burn Down the Suburbs?
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
