Dawie Coetzee wrote: <snip>
At the risk of becoming tedious, I repeat, cities change all the time, and the way in which they change can and should be channelled in a better direction, and now. Biofuel people need to get into urban form issues, and vice versa.
This is a difficult thing to do. Locally, for instance, a landowner / developer / contractor pact has formed that actually undermines the ability of local peple to have a say in development issues. We had a moratorium on development in the nearby hills, but the developers began installing the infrastructure for new housing tracts and the municipality caved in because these people had already made a significant investment in "improving" land. The municipality has no other way of raising money than to increase its tax base, so the local government has a financial incentive to allow unbridled development.
There are only two ways up the hill to where I live. There are no churches up here, no recreational facilities (other than an elementary school yard), no post office, no theater, and virtually no commerce, save for a single convenience store that is struggling to survive and a video store within walking distance of my house. Going to the municipal meetings is a waste of time, because the people with money (that is, the developers and contractors) have far more influence than residents do. Worse, in my area nearly everyone has come here from somewhere else. We who have moved here seem far less passionate about limiting development than long time residents, and worse, most people who have moved here from elsewhere still work elsewhere (so they need to drive to get to their jobs), and this divides their loyalties.
It's complicated and frustrating. One thing that makes this debate REALLY hard, is that the developers can look at people like me and say: "Who are you to talk? You built a house up here too!" They're just trying to earn an honest living, and while I don't begrudge them for that, the PATTERN of development forces people into their cars. Traffic has increased tremendously, along with noise and pollution, and the ongoing cost to the city to provide police, fire, water and sewage services keeps driving up our property tax rates.
I wonder how long this dynamic will continue. Older people are selling their properties for HUGE profits and moving eastward, into the lovely, dry interior valleys and in doing so, they're driving up the prices there, too. Sometimes it seems that the best solution would be to start a new community altogether and get it right from the start!
robert luis rabello "The Edge of Justice" "The Long Journey" New Adventure for Your Mind http://www.newadventure.ca Ranger Supercharger Project Page http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/
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