Sowell: Liberal Planners Cause Sprawl

Conservative writer Thomas Sowell charges that zoning and political meddling with housing markets drives housing prices up and encourages sprawl.

1 minute read

December 5, 2003, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"To put it more bluntly, liberals have driven housing prices sky high by forbidding, restricting, and harassing the building of housing. In turn, this has meant driving people of modest incomes out of the communities where they work. Nurses, teachers and policemen, for example, typically live far away from places like San Francisco or Silicon Valley, and have to commute long distances to and from work. All the while, liberals wring their hands about a lack of affordable housing, about urban sprawl, and about congested highways. In their puzzlement about the causes of all these things, they never think to look in the mirror."

Thanks to Urban Policy Listserv

Thursday, December 4, 2003 in Town Hall

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