"Get me rewrite..." Once again, a Post editorial is wacky

Today, the Post editorializes about the impacts of military relocation to Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, in "Basic Sense," with the subtitle "For the sake of Fairfax residents, the Army should reconsider where it plans to put 22,000 new employees."

One of the advantages of a blog is that the writer can change what s/he writes, correct typos, etc. Some blogs do strike throughs to indicate changes. I don't usually do that, although I sometimes will put in Updated--- indicators.

Unfortunately, in the printed newspaper, the Post doesn't have the luxury of changing the last sentence of the editorial, which reads:

No matter which proposal the Army ultimately embraces, the Pentagon should weigh in with Congress to get Fairfax the funding for road improvements adapted for the new commuters -- a task more essential than building in the right place.

This point renders the whole editorial nonsense. I'd retitle the piece "Basic Nonsense."

No, you build in the right place and you ensure funding for adequate transportation infrastructure including and focusing on transit.

This is one of those examples I give of either-or thinking instead of and-and thinking.

Building in the right place and figuring out how 22,000 people are going to get to work are not mutually exclusive "tasks."

Land use and transportation planning need to be mutually reinforcing processes, not disconnected from each other. How do you think we got to the place that we are in right now?

And this is another example of why I prefer the term "sustainable land use and resource planning" rather than smart growth.

There's nothing smart about this editorial.

Index Keywords: mobility; urban-design-placemaking; car-culture