By Neddie Jingo has an interesting post on the transformation of his rural area by the invasion of Hummerites and other denizens of subdivisions full of McMansions. The same thing is happening in my county, and it really sucks. But what is a libertarian to do?
My road is pretty quiet, and about half the land is held by the NYC water supply agency, including the parcel next door to me. This is great for me since it will probably never be developed. Also, NYC buys up a lot of parcels as they come up for sale. In this manner, a planned development of 6 homes was thwarted. It is not that NYC outbid the developer. Rather, one of the residents put up a fuss and called in some political favors and made the project unprofitable through governmental interference. That was a decidedly unlibertarian event, but I confess that I am glad the parcel is undeveloped.
About a half mile down the road on the more dveloped end, a smallish parcel of vacant land is up for sale, and I saw some folks looking at it with a realtor the other day. This has about 150 feet of frontage on the road and is a rocky wooded slope between two other houses. Maybe it goes back and widens behind them such that a building site could be had that was not right on top of the neighbors. But to put a house on this would make this stretch of road look a lot more suburban than it already does. I wish NYC would buy it. I wish I could afford to buy it and take it off the market.
The other end of the road is taken up by a gorgeous farm encompassing hundreds of rolling acres of pasture and woodland and occupied by herds of belted galloway cattle. It is a sight that brings me joy every time I drive or walk by it. Someday the farmer will be overwhelmed by how lucrative it would be to subdivide this land and put in a crop of McMansions. That will be a sad day indeed, and I will probably not put up a vigorous protest if my non-libertarian neighbors oppose such a development by political means.
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2 comments:
By political means, you mean of course the employ of the states thugs to preserve your bucolic desires, while denying other individuals, however unsavory, to own an affordable home.
I do admit that I'm embarrased to gently rebuke you here on your blog, being that I visit here often enough for your inspiration, and that I respect most your opinions.
Best,
iceberg
I deserve to be rebuked for my hypocrisy. I would like to be the kind of person who stood up to the state even when it did not suit me, but I know that I am capable of rationalizing up a storm.
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