More Discussion on Met Council

A response to the Peter Bell rebuttal by Steve Berg:

Contrary to Peter's assertion, we do not assume naively that the council has the power to dictate development patterns; rather we lament that the council, despite its 40-year existence, has been powerless to prevent the decentralization of the metro area. By trying to "balance" the wishes of central cities and edge suburbs (a political necessity for the council to hang together) the council unwittingly tips the balance toward sprawl. That's because the market fails to price fairly the true costs of transportation and land decisions. To meet the demands of global change (carbon, energy, etc.) the council would have to intervene on behalf of infilling the central districts and reversing its 70-30 expectations. But this it cannot do without the suburbs breaking away. That's the problem. The tail wags the dog. Peter closes his commentary by asserting that the council must look after the interests of the central cities and suburbs as if those interests compete with one another, when, in truth and over the long haul, it's in the best interest of the far suburbs that the cities blossom, as our competitors have. We have a regional planning agency with limited powers, unable to do what needs to be done in the face of global change.

Something's Brewing about Town

An interesting discussion has started about the Met Council's effectiveness.

An editorial subtitled, "Despite investments, Met Council fails the central cities" called: Decentralization dulls metro's edge got noticed by Peter Bell, the Met Council chairman. Bell responded with, Met Council does the work it is meant to do.

What we noticed was how close the central city development rating of Minneapolis/St. Paul was to our neighboring midwest city (no, not Chicago). See below:

CENTRAL CITY LIVING
Share of metro residential development in central cities, 2007:

New York: 55 percent

Chicago: 40 percent

Portland: 33 percent

Seattle: 26 percent

Denver: 25 percent

Atlanta: 21 percent

Minneapolis/St. Paul: 16 percent

Detroit: 7 percent

St. Louis: 5 percent

Pittsburgh: 3 percent

(Source: EPA)