摘要：Not long after the most recent turn of the century, but well past the point at which
a wide variety of commentators had signed and date-stamped socialism’s death
certificate, the publisher of a libertarian website made a disturbing discovery: the
criticisms of suburban sprawl articulated by planners advocating “smart growth” matched
almost exactly the vision put forward by Soviet urban planners in a book entitled The
Ideal Communist City. Mixed-use development would facilitate access to public
services. High-density housing would promote equality and community. Public
transportation would ease congestion by reducing the need for private automobiles. The
New Urbanism was nothing short of a communist plot and its outcome, the author of
Vanishing Automobile Update #53 warned, would be just as grim and foreboding as the
gray world once enclosed within the Iron Curtain.
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In one sense, of course, this was the
sort of hysterical slippery slope paranoia that would have made Colonel Jack Ripper
proud: If the communists tie their shoes with bows, we’d better use square knots!
