Randall O'Toole has converted me

Thanks to my wonderful friends at Planetizen, I have been introduced recently to the messiah of urbanity, Randy O'Toole, and his blog the antiplanner. I have somehow been mislead all these years (probably due to reading too much and spending too much time working and in school), that I have somehow not realized how evil planning truly is.

Randy tells us that most people want a single family home, and that not only is this ok, but it is the proper American way to live. High-density housing may have nice views, good transit access and interesting neighbors, but who in their right mind would want that? I mean, look at all those empty apartment buildings in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, London, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland (I could go on and on about these hell holes). The demand is just not there.

More importantly, contrary to what you may believe if you have been reading too much Kropotkin, it is planning that is theft - property is sacred. You should see the pretty picture of a tulip farm that he uses to commemorate all we have lost to planning over the years. He asks the wise question, "Who should get to decide how this land is used — the owner or the government?" Certainly not the farm workers in the background of the picture. I mean, most of us who own large tracks of land have them because God wants us too or we inherited them. And don't even think of calling farm subsidies or the mortgage income tax deduction a form of planning - as Jules Winnfield once said, a public process of long range thinking and billions of dollars in handouts ain't the same damn muthafucking thing.

But perhaps Randy's biggest gift has been to finally allow me to embrace my car. I have been taking the bus to work and school of late, and I realize how much I miss spending money on gas, looking for parking, and getting regular tickets. I mean, why haven't I been able to admit that my quasi-urban lifestyle is a sham? Who am I trying to be, some sort of eurotrash urbanite?

I love you Randy for showing us/me the light. Do I have to stop reading Planetizen now?