[Novus]

CNN Pushes for Transit Villiages

This is the first time I have ever heard the MSM talk about sustainablity of car dependent suburbia.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')ven now, properties within a 5- or 10-minute walk to a train stop are selling for 20 to 25 percent more than comparable properties further away - a price premium that's likely to increase as traffic jams worsen...

Rising oil prices notwithstanding, sprawling car-culture cities and vast suburbs simply do not make economic sense in the long run. As much as 50 percent of the land surface area in any given city or subdivision....

Not only are roads a drain on landlords' potential income, they're a turnoff for residents -- and are only going to become more so as gridlock, road repairs and air pollution increase.

[pea-jay]

That the MSM is "discovering" this issue is not a surprise. It has been bandied around for over a decade in mostly western US cities. While a bulk of the development out there is undoubtedly still "conventional" a respectable amount of new construction and redevelopment contains new Urbanist principles.

While others surmise that this trend is due to a change in philosophical opinion on growth or the increased cost of commuting, I think reason is more basic: a number of these cities ran out of cheap land. Unlike Eastern cities, places like Portland, LA and others are hemmed in by mountains, water, restrictive planning guidelines or federally owned lands.

Even conventional development dimensions are shrinking. Transit oriented developments are the natural response to increasing land costs. I'd like to think the developers propose this with nobler intentions but the truth is that it simply makes more economic sense.