Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Yesterday, we couldn’t help poking fun at Glenn Beck’s red alert about the words he associates with an imaginary UN plot to take away our cars and our freedoms. But it gets better: Everyone’s favorite conspiracy-monger is touting his newest project — a “city-theme park hybrid” called Independence, USA that in some ways bears a shocking resemblance to the urbanism he sneers at, and in other ways seems far more coercive than the planning ideas he wants people to fear.

Wouldn’t you know it, this $2 billion master-planned community will be modeled after the walkable streets of Disneyland, without Disneyland’s fatal flaw, according to Beck — being overly “commercialized.”

Look at the video and read about what he has planned, and see if you don’t think it sounds just a little bit, I don’t know, collectivist. And please excuse the (many) typos; we didn’t change a thing from the original treatise:

The Marketplace would be a place where craftmen and artisan could open and run real small businesses and stores. The owners and tradesmen could hold apprenticeships and teach young people the skills and entrepreneurial spirit that has been lost in today’s entitlement state.

There would also be an Media Center, where Glenn’s production company would film television, movies, documentaries, and more. Glenn hoped to include scripted television that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency. He also said it would be a place where aspiring journalists would learn how to be great reporters.

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Sure, we know the movement for “sustainable” transportation and development is a front for Agenda 21, a.k.a. The UN Plot to End Private Property in the United States. But what to do?

As with any battle, the first step is identifying the enemy. Fortunately (and none too soon), Glenn Beck has published a “comprehensive list of key words and phrases that are often used at the local level when discussing Agenda 21 related initiatives.”

You no doubt know the biggies like “Climate Change,” “Global Warming,” and “Prosperity.”  Here are less obvious dog-whistle terms to listen for at your next “town council” or “planning commission” meeting:

Greenways, High Speed Rail, Land Use Policies, Livable communities, Livable Communities, Local, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (this one is also kind of a biggie, actually), Mixed Use Development, Multi-Use Dwellings, Open Space, Parking Policy, Regional, Resilient Cities, Responsible development, Safe Routes to Schools (!!), Smart growth, Sustainable development, Traffic calming, Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Transportation Justice, Vehicle Mileage Traveled Tax, Vibrant Neighborhoods, Vision, Walkable Communities

Other watchwords include “Choice,” “Communities,” “Consensus,” “Fair,” and ”Common good.”

Above all, remember this: If you are in a “public meeting” or “public forum” and you hear the word “Outcomes,” resist! Scream and shout and don’t let up until the UN agents abandon their plot!

Click through for brother Glenn’s complete list, and be sure to buy his new book — essential reading to thwart responsible, vibrant tyranny!

Hat tip to brother Jason Henderson. / End transmission

If you think the United States is doing a bad job shifting toward sustainable transportation, take a look at the developing world. The places with the most to lose from auto-oriented development are doubling down on it — to the enormous detriment of their citizens, especially the poorest.

The number of cars in the world is expect to grow as much as 375 percent by 2050. Road fatalities in low- and middle-income countries are expected to rise by 80 percent just over the next eight years, with pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable users making up about half those deaths. Harmful air pollutants that already cause 1.3 million premature deaths each year, mostly in developing and middle-income countries, will rise. And carbon dioxide emissions from transport could grow 300 percent over 2005 levels by 2050 — with most of the growth, again, coming from the developing world.

Michael Replogle and Colin Hughes warn of these dire outcomes in their article on sustainable transportation for the 2012 State of the World report, published by the Worldwatch Institute. While international climate change agreements have historically overlooked the transportation sector, the authors note some promising changes afoot as international development banks seek to add transit projects to their portfolios.

Replogle and Hughes frame transportation policy in terms of both sustainability and equity. The urban poor lose out disproportionately when car-oriented infrastructure dominates, they note, since the lack of affordable transportation forces them “to choose between low incomes in informal sector employment close to affordable housing and higher-wage jobs that force them to spend a large share of their income and hours each day commuting.”

Compounding the inequity, fossil fuel subsidies disproportionately allocate public funds to the wealthy, the authors report: “The International Energy Agency estimates that only eight percent of the $409 billion that the world spent in 2010 to subsidize fossil fuel consumption (about half of which is used for transport) went to the poorest 20 percent of the population.”

Unfortunately, say Replogle and Hughes, international agreements on poverty reduction and climate change have largely ignored transportation. Even the Agenda 21 agreement, a bogeyman among far-right cranks, included “no targets, goals, commitments, or other forms of accountability” for sustainable transport.

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If you haven’t been following the story of the Agenda 21 conspiracy theory, here’s a quick overview. Some people believe a two-decade-old, non-binding UN plan to promote sustainable development means the government is going to seize their land and cars and force them to live in tenements. The ultra-conservative John Birch Society says that Agenda 21 “seeks to curtail your freedom to travel as you please, own a gas-powered car, live in suburbs or rural areas, and raise a family.”

Despite its complete detachment from reality, the conspiracy theory seems to have influence and staying power. The Republican National Committee has condemned Agenda 21. The state of Tennessee passed a resolution against it (one legislator even said it would result in “forced abortions“). Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes infamously cited Agenda 21 as the basis of his opposition to Denver’s bike-share system. Tea Party adherents convinced that smart growth projects are a threat to their liberties have disrupted planning meetings all over the country. In Maine, Republican Governor Paul LePage halted an award-winning transportation and land use plan after one such outburst, though state officials denied that the decision was influenced by the conspiracy theorists.

Overall, a small percentage of Americans have been taken in by Agenda 21 paranoia, according to a survey commissioned by the firm Collective Strength, which does market research for many smart growth-related organizations. They found that 85 percent of Americans had never heard of Agenda 21, and only six percent oppose it.

“I genuinely believe the Agenda 21 phenomenon is highly manufactured,” Collective Strength’s Robin Rather told TreeHugger. “It’s not out there in the mainstream.”

She continued:

Usually when you listen to complaints like those of Tea Party members, there are different inflections, a much wider variation. But this isn’t organic and local, the same talking points come up everywhere. They are being played and used. The whole campaign serves no interest to anyone who isn’t trying to ensure that we keep burning as much fossil fuel as we can for as long as possible.

So who’s manufacturing the paranoia?

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