Publicity about proposed parkland inflates land prices and triggers its private development.

Evidence

The option on the two miles of beach front at Hampton Bays was lost, and the land was promptly bought by three developers, who divided it into lots and began to erect bungalows on them. The option on Sunken Meadow was lost, and while the land was not sold, its value had obviously been tripled or quadrupled by the publicity. Other property on Long Island that Moses had coveted was being swallowed up by real estate developments. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 889

Categorization

• XREF: A broader pattern of how park/publicity cascades drive land speculation; the ‘option lost and price multiplied by publicity’ mechanic is a reusable causal shape.
• CANDY: The bitter irony that announcing plans to preserve wild beachfront causes its immediate subdivision into bungalow lots is a compact, vivid anecdote.