Had any Smart Growth Kool-Aid lately?

Dustin Hoffman and Ann Bancroft discuss plastics in 'The Graduate'

When Gov. Jim McGreevey put forward 'smart growth' a number of years ago, I enthusiastically signed on: transit-oriented development (TOD) would revive our older cities (of which Plainfield is one), high tech infrastructure would lure hotshot technology-driven businesses, and citizen participation in the process would bring back Jacksonian or New Deal democracy (pick your flavor).

Time to reassess.

About transit-oriented development, I am reminded of the buzz around 'urban renewal' in the 1960s. Picture the scene. Highway strip malls and ever-expanding suburban settlements had sucked the life out of older downtowns. 'Urban renewal' was supposed to remedy that by making these older downtowns attractive once again.

In an homage to The Graduate, we might say the future was summed up in just one word: Parking.

Parking was to be the way out of the mess. Across the nation, tens of thousands of acres of retail blocks were flattened to provide parking lots and parking decks. Who can forget Paul Rudolph's brutalist parking deck near New Haven's Green? The one that became a template for all time? The one that was recently demolished as out of step with the times?

So, now we have transit-oriented development, and parking is not the solution. It is, rather, the problem -- or at least a part of it. Things should be done 'greener', air and noise and emissions matter more now. People will walk, they will bike, they will take trains and buses everywhere they need to go.

Yeah, right.

What I'm beginning to see is a lot of developers lining up, salivating, really out to make a lot of money, covering up their shoddy designs with some frou-frou and squeezing planning boards and governing bodies down on parking requirements.

That's true whether it's condos wanting to piggyback on public parking lots or little townhouse cul-de-sacs with cars parked in the 1-car garage, the driveway, and the turnaround.

The devil take the hindmost.

Transit-oriented development might still be a good idea, however residents, businesses and governing bodies are going to have to fight for quality outcomes -- no wily developer is going to give them up willingly.

But the walk-everywhere mantra is just one of the 'smart growth' assumptions that could use a closer look. For instance, will there be a future for light industry and the workers who depend on it? And where are all the people going to come from for these pricey new condos?

More later.

-- Dan Damon

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