stop progress than to make progress.  And you don't have to build an impenetrable wall to stop progress, just keep setting up speed bumps.

When I first moved to New Orleans a board member who was with the convention and visitors bureau told me that only New York City and Boston have more buildings on the National Historic Registry.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Over time I came to the opposite conclusion as I saw how "historic preservation" was a tool used to thwart almost every business development that tried to happen in New Orleans.  A number of times obstructionists would tell me that, "if businesses want to come here they'll make the adjustments we ask." 

Guess again.  In the early 60's New Orleans and Houston were the same size and had very similar natural resources (with the biggest difference being New Orleans has a definite port advantage).  The big difference is that Houston embraces Joseph Schumpeter's description of capitalism as the process of "creative destruction".  And New Orleans does not.

Houston grew and prospered.  New Orleans declined and became mired in poverty.  (Despite its success, Houston does have a large number of people below the poverty line but for very different reasons.)

This liberal has come to dislike environmentalists as well as preservationists.  While I don't want to turn our lands and waters into a wasteland either, literally every project outside of already urbanized zones has some species that will be impacted and therefore some lever that can be pushed so that even if the complaintant does not win, he can add sufficient delays and costs to make infeasible all but the most profitable projects. 

Would your factory that will employ a few hundred people and have a proposed ROI of 20%?  No problem, I can throw enough legal obstacles in your way to knock that down to 6% and you'll have to look elsewhere.  Too bad for the unemployed; I'll just tell myself they'll be better off with theoretical green jobs that pay more, if they existed.

Oh, and the Census Bureau just announced that poverty has grown to 14.3% with child poverty around 1 in 4 now.  But at least your jerk neighbor has his view. 

I hate him.