Tuesday, March 14, 2006

That town in Florida the Dominos guy wants to build











I've heard worries from some of my liberal, Democrat-leaning friends about Ave Maria, the town in Florida that the founder of Domino's Pizza (Thomas S. Monaghan) wants to build. From a CNN article:
The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida.
...
Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they could insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.
This is basically a large real estate development...not really a "town" in the way that I think a lot of people are assuming. There won't be any abortion or birth control in the "town," which means nothing since the development is only 25 miles away from Naples. There are numerous small towns around the country that are further than 25 miles away from abortion and birth control, so the fact that the development won't offer these things isn't anything to write home about.

But what really struck me when I first heard about this was how, if the developers really want to turn this whole thing into a town, it's not going to work. Why won't it work? It's too centrally planned. Central planning doesn't work. Ask the Soviet Union, East Germany, Cuba, North Korea, etc.

The planned university will probably succeed, but the town won't end up being some American version of the Vatican, as alarmists in the media would want you to believe. If the developers are overly oppressive towards businesses locating within their "town," developers will simply build just outside of the town.

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