The City of Madison is controlled by the Democratic Party and the only potential political opposition that currently exists is from the extreme left Progressive Dane and Four Lakes Green Party alliance. It turns out that the grand vision of the presumably main stream Democrats may not be that far out of line with the eco-socialist left. Consider that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz can put forth the argument that Freeing the Poor from their Cars is a desirable goal and one he is working to achieve.
Mayor Cieslewicz is part of a sub-group of Democrats united around a belief in the power of municipal government as the best way of organizing human life on earth. These “Municipal Democrats” love cities in the same way that Capitalist Businessmen love corporate organizations. Furthermore, both Corporate Managers and Government Managers want to design, build and grow organizations that match their visions and ideals. Cieslewicz is a true believer as he proudly expresses in his writing.
Mayor Cieslewicz is part of a sub-group of Democrats united around a belief in the power of municipal government as the best way of organizing human life on earth. These “Municipal Democrats” love cities in the same way that Capitalist Businessmen love corporate organizations. Furthermore, both Corporate Managers and Government Managers want to design, build and grow organizations that match their visions and ideals. Cieslewicz is a true believer as he proudly expresses in his writing.
“Cities are good. Whether the issue is providing quality public services, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, providing affordable housing or creating family-supporting jobs, cities offer policies that can work for America.”
In the minds of Municipal Democrats, policies that increase the concentration of people into high density urban centers are good, because a tightly grouped population is the most efficient way for government to use limited resources in providing services to a population. Policies that enable and encourage individual freedom to move towards low density residential areas, therefore, must be meet with resistance.
The automobile is the greatest single invention empowering individual freedom of movement, and the rise of car ownership corresponds with the rise in American prosperity. Given the belief structure of the Municipal Democrats, it is not surprising that they must take a stand against all aspects of the automobile culture in America. They must demonize “fossil fuels", they must demonize “urban sprawl”, and they ultimately must demonize the automobile itself.
The automobile is the greatest single invention empowering individual freedom of movement, and the rise of car ownership corresponds with the rise in American prosperity. Given the belief structure of the Municipal Democrats, it is not surprising that they must take a stand against all aspects of the automobile culture in America. They must demonize “fossil fuels", they must demonize “urban sprawl”, and they ultimately must demonize the automobile itself.
“Rogers' ideas fit nicely with those of Scott Bernstein from the Center on Neighborhood Technologies in Chicago. Bernstein demonstrated, again with real world examples, how working with poor families to reduce their reliance on cars for transportation and practicing energy conservation could allow them to save enough to buy their first home and start accumulating wealth.”
“His eco-friendly household budgeting combined with Rogers' high road job creation present exciting possibilities to turn large numbers of the poor into the middle class. And it is cities, with their density and efficiency of resource use, that mix it all up and make it all possible.”
The same Democratic Party defending taking twelve cents of every working person’s dollar through Social Security Taxes, is now making the argument that the way the poor can acquire wealth is to free them from their dependence on their cars. If I understand this logic correctly, the poor can get richer by being dependent upon city government for transportation, to the job that the city government arranges to be in the city, and the poor can then buy property in the city which is subject to a perpetual property tax. Gas taxes, of course, go to the State which may not give the money back.
