An imaginary continent called 'Europe' (no less!) is lauded, for no other reason than to pour scorn on the perceived flaws in American society.
On the housing question, this is doubly bizarre, since most Europeans - insofar as one can aggregate those disparate societies, and social strata - are of the opinion that their own housing market is dysfuntional, that house prices are out of control, that Europe has too great a rented sector in comparison to owner occupation, that social housing is a social disaster associated with the institutionalisation of poverty. Now, then, let's acknowledge that these Europeans might well be wrong, but that is where the weight of opinion lies on these things, insofar as anyone thinks that hard about them.
First off, the differences are wildly exaggerated.
Taking Britain, a majority of Britons live in Suburbia, not cities. And that trend is pretty common across Europe. Those who big up European cities are kidding themselves - or rather they have not seen the edges of those cities. Nor could they, since their edges generally blend into the adjoining cities. Europe is a continent of conurbations, with varying densities between inner city, suburb and exurb. Pretty much like America, in fact.
There are a few freakish exceptions, like that living mausoleum Bath or Venice (Marinetti said they should fill in the canals with concrete and make proper roads) - but those are artificially sustained by wierd bye-laws.
(Similarly, and in spite of the LBOers belief that we all travel by cart and horse, Europeans are only marginally behind Americans in car use, and in trend, moving in the same direction.)
What is more, the planning regimes that seem to recommend Europe to LBO contributors, are seen as problematic in those countries that they are adopted. Britain, New Zealand and Australia are all debating, or in the process of amending their restrictive planning laws, because they are widely seen as contributing to a housing crisis, where, for example, Britain is building fewer homes than it has at any time since the Second World War.
Nor indeed is the US as liberalised a planning regime as is supposed in the comparison of 'Social Europe' vs Free Market America. Robert Bruegmann records the extensive limits on growth imposed under Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Act, the greenbelt in Boulder, Colorado, Washington's 'Wedges and Corridors' plan, and so on. Bruegmann's point is that the no-growth policies in Portland have only succeeded in bidding up the price of homes, and pushing the new building out to out-lying suburbs - exactly what has happened beyond London's green belt in fact.
It would be interesting to have an informed discussion about housing policy, but it won't happen if LBO continues to project a fantastic image of 'Europe' whose purpose is to offer a positive example to the self-loathing of Americans.
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