Online Smart Growth Debate Rages

In what has turned out to be a fascinating online debate, Wendell Cox offers a rebuttal to the Congress for the New Urbanism. CNU recently issued a report in response to an article by Cox "American Dream Boundaries" which disputed an earlier report arguing that smart growth strategies induced superior performance in Oregon and Portland in relation to Atlanta and Georgia, which do not have such policies. This is the latest salvo in the battle: "CNU claims that housing is more costly in Oregon at least partially due to higher insurance costs. In fact, the American Housing Survey indicates that average house insurance costs are lower in Portland than in Atlanta. In the final analysis, CNU seems oblivious to the most fundamental of economic principals -- that scarcity raises prices. In the long run, it simply must be expected that rationing of land will raise the price of housing. To argue otherwise is analogous to suggesting that, all things being equal, water runs uphill, or that urban planners can negate the law of gravity."

Thanks to Trasport Policy Listserv