should property developers be redefined as land rapists?

Question

develop..such a neutral word
developer .. has almost noble coonotations

why should this word be used for destroying green land and ransacking the natural world for profit?

would desecrator be more a apropriate designation?

of course we cant totally blame desecrators of the past for They Knew Not What They Did.
but modern despolers know exactly what they are doing and what they can get away with, within the law.

IN A SMALL LAND, SHOULD HOUSES ONLY BE BUILT ON BROWN FIELD SITES.
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SHOULD IMMIGRATION BE ALLOWED TO ARTIFICIALLY BOOST THE HOUSE BUILDING PROGRAMME?
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Answer 1

This is an entirely ignorant question. There are already some great thoughts posted here around development. I'm a developer. I think enough has been said about the nature of growth and I would add one thought. Zoning has changed significatly over the last 2 years and a hot trend is with mixed use zoning. There are loads of "Pinwheel" developments going up that service the aging population to the rear of a property with commercial in the front.

I don't think zoning folks at the city have set things up so as to feed the autombile and oil industries. That's a stretch.

Answer 2

Ever been to a typical New England village, founded in the late 1600's / early 1700's? Often, in the town square, there's a statue honoring some sort of town founder, right? Guess what? Those "town founders" were nothing more than the historical equivalent of today's developers! So how is it that we've gone from a time where we used to erect statues honoring the memory of developers, to the point that they now have the same social status as organized militia groups, pimps, and drug pushers?

I would argue that it is the ARRANGEMENT of the various elements of a community that has so radically changed. And the fault lies largely with modern zoning practices and government regulations. You see, the historic little New England village that everyone loves is a compact community, where there are places to live, shop, recreate, worship, and work all within close proximity to one another, and within an easy walk. The closeness of these various elements made it absolutely essential that they be built in ways that were sympathetic to their local surroundings, and compatible with other uses.

Modern zoning practices, which one prominent architect calls the genetic blueprint for our own self-destruction, dictate that all the various land uses be separated by large distances. This separation permits the designs to be dumbed down and made incredibly ugly. It also means that almost every single activity outside of our homes requires an automobile trip. Where we used to walk to school, the corner store and church, now we drive. There are over 200,000,000 cars in the United States.

And guess which two demographic groups suffer the most in our current system of land planning? Yup... The elderly, and the young. Why? Because when a person becomes old enough that they give up driving, they have to be carted off to the old folks home where they feebly wait for that weekly bus ride to the mall. This is because they don't live close enough to any of their daily needs to walk to them, so they lose all their independence once they can no longer drive. NOT a very diginified way to treat our elders.

For the same reasons, kids are victims. Until the day they pass their driver's test, they are hostages inside their own homes, completely reliant on mom and dad to take them to school, ball practice, or whatever. Kids no longer learn important self reliance skills that walking to school once taught them. Bored and trapped in the home, they turn to video games and the Internet for entertainment. If THAT doesn't scare the bejesus out of you, nothing will.

Ever notice that all the infamous school shootings in this country are happening in SUBURBAN school districts, not urban? How many more Columbines must we endure before we begin to even CHALLENGE the notion that suburbs are great places to raise kids?

Anyway, sorry for rambling. YES, there are bad developers, but I'm in this field, so I know that there are also very good developers... Unfortunately, our system of land use planning makes it nearly impossible for them to do the right thing!

Go to www.cnu.org and www.epa.gov/smartgrowth for more info.

Answer 3

I LOVE how people like to blame the developer....and yet dont lots of people line up to buy those houses? So who has the right to complain? You buy a pre-built house from the 1960's and pat yourself on the back, but no one else can buy that house now, so they go buy a new house that a developer just put up for sale.

Answer 4

You are a crackpot.

Today's developers both follow the law (by definition, "rapists" do not) and are far more "green" than ever before. Green is as much a marketing tool to get suckers who care to buy as it is a strategy for long term environmental health.

Answer 5

The developer has probably stumbled on different capacity of get admission to to his belongings. He might prefer the data asked so as that he knows the thank you to exact grade and panorama the form to stay away from problems with drainage for the acquaintances. With such information, he can layout the 'panorama' to empty exact.

Answer 6

Yeah, and we could call Doctors "Slaughterers of Innocent Germs!", and Pastry Chefs could be called "Destroyers of Cane Fields!"

If you are using, wearing, or eating anything today, you are probably responsible for that part of the natural world from which it came.

Where do you think that computer you typed this on came from? Think it fell off a tree after it ripened naturally and completed its life cycle?

Answer 7

Yes, I totally agree. I live in a previously lovely coastal community in Florida, and have since 1958. It was beautiful when we moved here, and now you ride along the coast, and you can't even see the water. Evidently, if you have enough $$$$$ you can take away the views from the average Joe.

Answer 8

Do you live in a house or a cave. Hmmm if its a house, you can thank a developer. A cave? You might want to call a developer!

Answer 9

Yes. Couldn't have said it better myself!