What better way to number and control us all than to herd us into compact cities and restrict land use and transportation choices?
Dr. Bonner Cohen, a member of the American Policy Center Board of Directors, is (was) in Ecuador attending the UN’s Habitat III meeting – the latest assault on private property. Here is his report.
In a world repeatedly described as under threat from innumerable challenges, including income inequality, inadequate urban infrastructure, discrimination against minorities of every stripe, and climate change, participants at the UN’s Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador were told that comprehensive planning aimed at densely concentrating people in urban areas offered the best way forward to a “sustainable” future.
Addressing Habitat III on the conference’s first day, Serge Salat, director of the Urban Morphology Lab in France, said compact cities with residents living as close as possible to public transportation should be the goal of urban planners. He noted that ready access to public transportation would mean residents would no longer need cars to take them to work and recreation. This, he added, would make forward-looking cities leaders in the fight against climate change. Salat’s panel at Habitat III discussed green solutions to climate change and other urban problems. Salat, it should be noted is an adviser to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Read more about the UN’s “New Urban Agenda”