The Seattle Times ran an interesting commentary discussing how much the central government of Britain has been promoting redevelopment. Without a doubt our government could make vast improvements if they rearranged their priorities. However, I’m not sure enough Americans want to live in these dense “utopias”.

At a recent conference in Seattle, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott…

described the amazingly broad set of activist initiatives that Prime Minister Tony Blair has allowed him to lead and champion — in housing, transportation, recycling abandoned industrial lands, revitalizing towns and using government power to force new malls and megastores back into downtowns.

All of this is rolling forward with tens of billions of pounds invested, pushed with little opposition in a national parliamentary system with few of the checks and balances of the U.S. system.

More links:
The Thames Gateway London Partnership