lizzzyyy100

Judging from the scorn heaped on Richard Florida for his new book " The New Urban Crisis " one could believe that this man single-handedly created this new crisis of "winner takes all" and of the two very disparate cities by writing his first book "The Creative Class".  Urban demonstration His "creative class" and his observations about the world being spiky , are a more elegant expression of the German proverb which states that "the devil always shits on the same pile". Progress has always been lopsided. Now decrying it looks like a late awakening for which the author is rightly derided . Far from congratulating the man for having gained new insights during the last 15 years, the New Republic ridicules him for simply being "nimble". While cynicism can be fun, a critique from the left should be a bit more analytical, more historical, and less ad hominem. We will use a bit of Marx to put the critique back on its feet. When Flo

"The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit.  We are answerable for them to our God.  The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as [they] are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god." Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia,  in  Jefferson, Writings, 285-286 (The Library of America, 1984). Land use, usually a topic eliciting yawns, becomes a gripping topic when it finds itself at the intersection of freedom of speech, smart growth and environmental protection. That happens when the proposed use is religious and opinions have been strong ever since Jefferson. Pristine landscapes of northern Baltimore County. Challenged by mega-churches? (Photo: Valley Planning Council) In the US, where religious rights free speech rights and property rights are especially strong, places of worship got an additional layer of protection with what is known as the  Religious Land Use an