True, some urban redev abuse had little to do with trade. Highways routed through black neighborhoods. Busing.
Some folks date a judicial jihad (whatever that means) against property rights to the New Deal period, saying urban problems are caused by a ‘moral’ flaw, and by local corruption and a fall from these ideals, to be cleaned up by judges.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s always been plenty of good old local corruption. I enjoyed a lot of it.
My point is: loss of respect for founding fathers’ ideals didn’t cause urban decline. Furthermore: I helped a few judges get elected. They were grateful.
Urban decline is big-picture stuff, decades of subs directed against business types like me, not founding fathers’ ideals.
‘Real property’ property rights are pretty much passé anyway, even though the average person doesn’t know that.
For example, creditors’ rights have been stronger than real property owner rights. Mortgage holders, banks, for example. (That’s why I invested in them.) Say, who’s more likely to get bailed out, you or me?
Because multi-urban problems aren’t caused at the single city level, they can’t be fixed there.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t say local officials should do nothing.
But most big urban decline can’t be fixed by local redev efforts, more alert local judges, more zealous property rights advocacy, more home, local grass roots, or direct democracy, rule.
Local home rule debates, still go on in some states where we used to have operations. Who cares?
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