[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by haligonia

To be honest, I don't see any anti-urban development opinions in that article. It seems way more focused on the suburbs, not the urban core. Bosquet does have a history of anti-development in him (I think he'd rather be shot in the head than see the Nova Centre be built). In my opinion, it's a good article. A little bit excessive, but the point is still valid: urban sprawl as we know it is not an economically or ecologically sustainable form of development.

A good article would state a viewpoint and a possible solution such as stating that urban sprawl is unsustainable so the urban core should be more densely populated. Or stop population growth (but in Nova Scotia that is already occurring).

Here is an example from his article:

It comes down to a belief among the liberal managerial class that they personally will fare best through the coming struggles if they align themselves with the truly powerful---the oil and armament companies, the financiers who just stole trillions of dollars, the politically powerful who have perverted democracy, the land-rapists and "developers" who extract wealth by devaluing everything good---and abandon common people and common decency. Sadly, even many young people have bought into the principle, putting themselves on a career track to service the powerful rather than resisting the powerful for the sake of what is right and good.

It would be comically ironic if it wasn't so terribly awful, but when the climate change and expensive oil calamities strike, these smug, brown-nosing courtesans will find themselves on the wrong side of the dike, drowning right along with the people they've abandoned.

This is far more than excessive, it is pompous, self-righteous and paranoid. How can someone suggest that building homes by Larry Uteck Boulevard is aligning with the rich and powerful (and are all rich and powerful people actually evil?) People will still want homes and Larry Uteck Boulevard really isn't that far outside the city. Not everyone will want to live in apartments and condos (some people think that apartment buildings are evil). The end of cheap oil isn't a catastrophe, it will simply result in the use of greener energy sources - this is already occurring in Nova Scotia. The depletion of cheap oil will also result in a shift to more energy efficient cars. It is easy to form an alternate opinion that the existence, not the depletion, of cheap oil is the reason for excessive greenhouse gases and climate change.