I think you’re strawmaning, and extrapolating the worst possible argument from the broad statement. I’ve not seen western urbanists who are extreme. I think every one would say “ya, that sounds nice”.
For example, it’s usually the conservatives that want to zone a town so that it’s literally impossible, even with massive free market demand, to build anything but large houses on large plots. A hell of a lot of urbanists just want the government to stop telling them that they can’t build a 4-plex or open a coffee shop on their property because it’s not zoned for it, or doesn’t have the government-approved-totally-well-thought-out number of parking spaces.
Instead of spending 2 billion building a bigger highway, how about 1 billion to get people off of the highway in the first place?
None of these restrict personal liberty.
Only the ever terrifying Straw Man is about restricting liberties. Especially when it comes to land use, (most) actual modern urbanists are individual autonomy and freedom oriented.
See, for example, the Japanese zoning plans that a lot of progressives in the US are in love with, which amount to setting a maximum density/nuisance level for a fairly large area and letting people just build whatever as long as it falls within that bound.
For example, it’s usually the conservatives that want to zone a town so that it’s literally impossible, even with massive free market demand, to build anything but large houses on large plots. A hell of a lot of urbanists just want the government to stop telling them that they can’t build a 4-plex or open a coffee shop on their property because it’s not zoned for it, or doesn’t have the government-approved-totally-well-thought-out number of parking spaces.
Instead of spending 2 billion building a bigger highway, how about 1 billion to get people off of the highway in the first place?
None of these restrict personal liberty.
Only the ever terrifying Straw Man is about restricting liberties. Especially when it comes to land use, (most) actual modern urbanists are individual autonomy and freedom oriented.