Caldwell embraces "Complete Streets," cedes control over our property to the UN via Agenda 21

Kiss the parking spaces along Bloomfield Avenue goodbye.

Get ready for traffic gridlock, and watch formerly four-lane roads get reduced to two, as "bike lanes" and "pedestrian corridors" are prioritized over cars.

Wonder in amazement as zoning board decisions are vetoed by a nameless, faceless, unaccountable bureaucrat deep in the bowels of a United Nations NGO, whose only loyalty is to George Soros and Agenda 21.

No, this isn't some conspiracy theory.

It's the reality behind the progressive-nirvana "Complete Streets" program, which was just adopted by our Mayor and Council.

But don't take it from me, take it from their own website, where they tell us straight-away what the goals are.

The traditional performance measure for transportation planning has been vehicular Level of Service (LOS) — a measure of automobile congestion. Complete Streets planning requires taking a broader look at how the system is serving all users. Communities with Complete Streets policies can measure success through a number of ways: the miles of on-street bicycle routes created; new linear feet of pedestrian accommodation; changes in the number of people using public transportation, bicycling, or walking (mode shift); number of new street trees; and/or the creation or adoption of a new multi-modal Level of Service standard that better measures the quality of travel experience.

That's urban-planner gobbledygook for "no cars allowed." It's an exercise in raw power by the do-gooders among us, foisting their utopian vision of how we ought to live upon an unsuspecting populace. Our streets won't be "complete" until cars are eliminated entirely.

But of course they don't tell you about that part up front. It's all rainbows and unicorns until one day you wake up and discover the truth for yourself, like they did in Alexandria, VA.

Substitute "Bloomfield Avenue" for "King Street." And get ready for even more urban civil disobedience in the form of "Critical Mass." Here's what they do. A line of bicycle activists organizes themselves into a complete traffic-blocking phalanx, pedaling along in slow-motion at 5 PM on a Friday afternoon. It's not their fault you're stuck behind them, waiting to see your wife and kids.

Nope, it's your fault. Or more importantly, your way of life's fault.

You don't live "sustainably." You're the enemy. And UN Agenda 21 aka "Smart Growth" is the cure.

Put simply, Smart Growth is a breathtaking usurpation of private property rights. In New Jersey it's come to mean "upzoning" of single-family lots to permit construction of hundreds or possibly thousands of inclusive housing units, including apartments and condominiums.

Remember COAH? Mount Laurel? Yeah, they're the bellwether of Smart Growth, putting a slum in every town.

And in case you haven't guessed by now, Smart Growth and Complete Streets are two sides of the same coin.

You guys just made it the law in Caldwell that 5 percent of any public project, and 20% of private development, must be dedicated to Complete Streets. So that nice new store proposed by the Corner Butcher Block? It just became 20% more expensive. And whoever buys the old Rite-Aid building could be on the hook for a sidewalk boondoggle, like resurrection of "the loser bench," and all the dead cigarette butts that go with it.

Oh, and Mayor Dassing? I saved the best for last. Smart Growth means no more Republicans.

"Smart growth is not science; it is political dogma combined with an insidious dose of social engineering. Smart growth is a wedding wherein zoning code is married with government-sponsored housing initiatives to accomplish government's goal of social re-engineering. It urbanizes rural towns with high-density development, and gerrymanders population centers through the use of housing initiatives that enable people with weak patterns of personal financial responsibility to acquire homes in higher-income areas. This has the effect of shifting the voting patterns of municipalities from Right to Left."

Because we don't have enough socialists in this town already, right?

Posted at 16:07 by Chris Wysocki   [/caldwell]   Comments | Perm Link |
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