Thomas Jefferson demonstrated remarkable foresight regarding the challenges of urban development. He warned: “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe and go to eating one another as they do there.”

In a letter to John Adams (October 28, 1813), Jefferson identified what he saw as the missing element: ownership and care of land, which he believed was essential to “law and order.” He argued that when citizens own land, they come to understand its true value.

Jefferson was particularly critical of urban populations without property stakes, famously stating: “The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.”

Today’s urban policies seem to validate Jefferso

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