"In Building New Communities: New Deal America and Fascist Italy, USC architecture historian Diane Ghirardo shows that American planners are far worse than the fascists ever were.
Both Italy and the U.S. built new towns in the 1930s. After they built the towns, says Ghirardo, the fascist government turned the towns over to the residents to use as they saw fit. In contrast, the New Deal planners, led by Rexford Tugwell, maintained strict control over the towns they built.
Residents, even those who were supposedly buying their homes, were not allowed to modify their homes or even the landscaping around them. Government officials retained the right to inspect people’s homes anytime they wanted to make sure that people were not deviating from the government’s plans. Among other things, wives were not allowed to earn a second income outside the homes.
To maximize its control, the government insisted on 40-year mortgages which homebuyers were not allowed to prepay. If anyone did anything in the community that the government did not like, it could and did eject them — causing them to lose any equity they might have earned on their homes.
The rules American planners want to impose today are different but at least as strict. Moreover, they want to impose them on owners in private developments, not just government-built new towns. When it comes to government control, Italian fascists don’t hold a candle to American planners.
Americans all grew up learning that “power corrupts.” So it should be surprising that liberals who believe in freedom and the ACLU are so attracted to giving government more power over individuals. In fact, this impulse to government control is probably universal. As Americans, we should resist this impulse whether it comes from the right or the left."
Little pink houses for you and me, right? The history of housing sounds like the precursor to HOAs (https://fleetingwest.substack.com/p/karen-cartels-hoas-and-growth-in) with some old fashioned twists mixed in. The heavily controlled housing mindset is coming West rapidly and powerfully.
With HOA's being strongly preferred by the local govs, ordinances that center on yard composition, building size, square footage, and so on, they're even able to bias what kinds of residents come in (with preference for richer ones). There's also a glaring irony hiding among the binary political partiers in who tends to prefer these uniform and controlled communities, and who doesn't ... the political horseshoe rears its head again.
From: https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=370
"In Building New Communities: New Deal America and Fascist Italy, USC architecture historian Diane Ghirardo shows that American planners are far worse than the fascists ever were.
Both Italy and the U.S. built new towns in the 1930s. After they built the towns, says Ghirardo, the fascist government turned the towns over to the residents to use as they saw fit. In contrast, the New Deal planners, led by Rexford Tugwell, maintained strict control over the towns they built.
Residents, even those who were supposedly buying their homes, were not allowed to modify their homes or even the landscaping around them. Government officials retained the right to inspect people’s homes anytime they wanted to make sure that people were not deviating from the government’s plans. Among other things, wives were not allowed to earn a second income outside the homes.
To maximize its control, the government insisted on 40-year mortgages which homebuyers were not allowed to prepay. If anyone did anything in the community that the government did not like, it could and did eject them — causing them to lose any equity they might have earned on their homes.
The rules American planners want to impose today are different but at least as strict. Moreover, they want to impose them on owners in private developments, not just government-built new towns. When it comes to government control, Italian fascists don’t hold a candle to American planners.
Americans all grew up learning that “power corrupts.” So it should be surprising that liberals who believe in freedom and the ACLU are so attracted to giving government more power over individuals. In fact, this impulse to government control is probably universal. As Americans, we should resist this impulse whether it comes from the right or the left."
Little pink houses for you and me, right? The history of housing sounds like the precursor to HOAs (https://fleetingwest.substack.com/p/karen-cartels-hoas-and-growth-in) with some old fashioned twists mixed in. The heavily controlled housing mindset is coming West rapidly and powerfully.
With HOA's being strongly preferred by the local govs, ordinances that center on yard composition, building size, square footage, and so on, they're even able to bias what kinds of residents come in (with preference for richer ones). There's also a glaring irony hiding among the binary political partiers in who tends to prefer these uniform and controlled communities, and who doesn't ... the political horseshoe rears its head again.
Leave the Pink Palaces outta this! 🤣