Submitted by Edward Nilsson, Jan 19, 2007 08:09

Both Robert Moses in his transportation projects and planners of the Big Dig in Boston drew on available public funding for the public good, addressing identifiable problems that could not be ignored. At the same time they appreciated the benefits to the construction industry and local economy. Another great NYC builder, Frederick Law Olmsted, revealed in his history of Central Park that twenty-five years after building the park, (also partly to address sanitation problems in the area that could not be ignored) the increase in real estate tax revenues of the surrounding properties paid off the land acquisition, construction costs, financing cost, and even generated a $17 million surplus. Central Park should be a model for planners engaged in projects rooted in tangible needs that make economic sense on the macro scale and land use sense on the local scale.

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