Wrong Way on Dead Ends

Jillian Bandes | April 08, 2009 2:31 PM

Home builders and owners are at a crossroads over the new Virginia legislation to outlaw cul-de-sacs. It's a budget issue, said Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine -- cul-de-sacs take more resources to maintain, and are more difficult to access by emergency services.

I say that it's a two way street. Cul-de-sacs are safer, and more community oriented - benefits that Kaine and others have kicked to the curb. "When you have 350 to 400 miles a year of new roads you have to maintain forever, it's a budgetary problem," said Kaine told the Washington Post. "But it's not just about the money. It's about connecting land-use and transportation planning and restricting wasteful and unplanned development."

Wasteful and unplanned? Hardly, for the people who live on them. You can tell how Republican a family is by how far he has to walk to take his trash out, and cul-de-sacs have becomes a main form of development in the VA neighborhoods surrounding DC. This legislation shouldn't have been given the green light.