The Suburban Treadmill.

The residential patterns of the postwar era are finally bearing their poisonous fruit. People started to fleet the cities because of their problems rather than stay and try and fix them. They moved to distant areas that enabled them to create a hybrid of small town and urban living that depended of the vitality of both. But then these communities began to get too built up, transforming into an unsightly sprawl that re-created the growing pains of urban growth. Then they moved further out, and further.

The result? Small towns are disappearing. Inner cities have been struggling for years, although doing better since the 1990's. Now inner suburbs are struggling as well. So you're telling me that our public policy is only benefitting exurbs? Where's the justice in that?

Don't worry, I'm not going to harp on the "car culture" stuff (again). But I will say that inner suburbs would probably benefit from seeing themselves as a direct extension of the big cities, rather than as distinct. I know that they were originally created as a backlash to what was going on in town, but that day is long over. Now they seem to have the same problems. Not that they be annexed, but that our public policy begin treating metropolitan areas as the unit of policy analysis, rather than artificial distinctions like "exurb" and "suburb." This would not only bring the inner suburbs into the mix, but reduce the biases towards exurbs and incorporate the externalities they generate. Exurbs create a lot of problems for other communities, and it's long past time that they bear full responsibilities for what they cause.

In other news, the Bush Administration is continuing to argue that the Constitution has no bearing on what happens overseas. I have a couple of questions about this position. Are they aware that the Constitution has always protected aliens within U.S. jurisdiction? What the founders thought of their position? How much do you trust a government that looks for excuses to torture? And what happens when other countries do the same thing to our citizens?