Free Market Rules

Re "The Good Life" (Feb. 7), I share Jo Anne Darcy’s belief that "urban design" can help us avoid a "future consisting of individual homeowners, with no sense of community belonging." For example, the City of Santa Clarita can help give people more free time to pursue community activities by:

• Ending the restrictive zoning requirements that force people to drive further to work and shop.
• Ending restrictions on day care centers, so people can run them out of their own homes, or neighbors’ or relatives’ homes.
• Ending restrictions on private enterprise in transportation, so we can have hundreds of small shuttles and vans getting people out of their cars by providing really cheap and convenient alternatives to driving.

As a libertarian, I also believe the "sustainability" Darcy wants requires a free market where people can pursue their own interests and prosper by trading freely with others. This means Santa Clarita can stop paying millions of dollars to large businesses such as Costco, Wal-Mart and Nordstrom to come to our city and put small business at a disadvantage.

Bruce K. Bell

Santa Clarita