Oh, yes. We need more planning. The greatest argument in favor of planning is illustrated by Waynesville’s current need to develop a vision therefor. The logic being, since no collective vision has naturally emerged, people will likely be making things up on the spot, and moderators will be prioritizing values based on equal weights assigned to varying amounts of marginal preference. To date, I know of no statistical mechanism to filter good political intentions from actual data, either.
I like the old notion of property rights with government intervention when potential health hazards develop. But property rights are racist and misogynist. It is much more democratic to have those with leisure time sit around a table and charette their visions on the people who will have to pay for them (socializing the outputs, privatizing the inputs), and then letting anybody with rich lawyers supercede the grand vision.
Not oddly, the two best examples of streetscaping in Asheville in the last twenty years, in my opinion, have been the result of developers reaching out to extend a personal sense of stewardship to their neighbors by supplying time and resources. Not only does this voluntary service magnify that greatest force in the universe (love), it is so different from all the official planning schemes in which a few outsiders impose their demands on each and every other person in the hood.
