Will Planners Defend Smart Growth?

"Cultural trends have combined with smart growth planning initiatives to make central cities attractive places again. Even downtown Los Angeles, arguably one of America's most inhospitable central districts, is experiencing a boom in housing demand and cultural life.But maybe the biggest reason that smart growth isn't on the administration's agenda is simply that so many of the administration's friends are making a business out of opposing it. Under the banner of ideologues like Randal O'Toole, Director of the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute, and David Strom of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, the anti-smart growth movement has begun the air attack against smart growth and may soon send in the ground troops as well."