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The American body politic has consistently rebelled at

attempts to address byproducts of growth, such as sprawl and

traffic congestion, with draconian planning measures.

Recently, for instance, the same impulse that underlay the

founding of HUD found expression in a plan developed by the

Southern California Association of Governments, which, in

the name of clean air, attempted to mandate a complex plan-

ning scheme to ensure what it called "jobs-housing balance."

It would have guaranteed that new businesses and new resi-

dences would be close together.  The plan, which was never

adopted, prompted a public backlash.31

The American public has made clear its distaste for

central planning at the federal and metropolitan levels--

pointing to another weak cornerstone of HUD's foundation.

The dream of metropolitan government, with strong land-use

planning powers, has foundered.  Although the many small

units of American government cooperate in the delivery of

some public services, such as drinking water, fire protec-

tion, and vocational education, metropolitan government,

with rare exceptions, has not been adopted.  That is no

coincidence; there are powerful reasons why metropolitan

government has been resisted.  As Alan Altshuler, a politi-

cal scientist at Harvard University, wrote,

Where some see policy gridlock in the American

system of land use governance, many others see

commendable deference to private preferences and

property rights.  Where some see administrative

weakness and incoherence, many others see commend-

able flexibility--a system with many centralizing

options but geared toward preserving local prerog-

atives insofar as possible.  Where some despair at

government inaction in the face of growing subur-

ban-central city disparities, many others take

comfort in the traditions of market deference and

neighborhood-scale democracy that enable such

inaction to persist.32

After the Early Years

Of course, the fact that its initial premises were

flawed does not necessarily keep an agency from learning

from its mistakes and going forward.  But latter-day HUD

initiatives pose problems as well.