I suggest you keep this on file for the times you would like to rebut land
speculators, developers, pro-growth politicians, and unwitting supporters.
Steve
> Pro-Growth Argument: Myth or Propaganda
>> >***** ***** ***** ***** ******
>FEATURE ARTICLE
>
>Urban Growth Means Lower Taxes -- and Other Myths
>By Donella H. Meadows
>
>We need to bring in business to bring down taxes. This development will
>give us jobs. Environmental protection will hurt the economy. Growth is
>good for us.
>
>If we've heard those arguments once, we've heard them a thousand times,
>stated with utmost certainty and without the slightest evidence. That's
>because there is no evidence. Or rather, there is plenty of evidence,
>most of which disproves these deeply held pro-growth beliefs.
>
>Here is a short summary of some of the evidence. For more, see Eben
>Fodor's new book "Better, Not Bigger," which lists and debunks the
>following "Twelve Big Myths of Growth."
>
>Myth 1: Growth provides needed tax revenues. Check out the tax rates of
>cities larger than yours. There are a few exceptions but the general
>rule is: the larger the city, the higher the taxes. That's because
>development requires water, sewage treatment, road maintenance, police and
>fire protection, garbage pickup -- a host of public services. Almost never
>do
>the new taxes cover the new costs. Fodor says, "the bottom line on urban
>growth is that it rarely pays its own way."
>
>Myth 2: We have to grow to provide jobs. But there's no guarantee that
>new jobs will go to local folks. In fact they rarely do. If you compare
>the
>25 fastest growing cities in the U.S. to the 25 slowest growing, you find
>no significant difference in unemployment rates. Says Fodor: "Creating
>more local jobs ends up attracting more people, who require more jobs."
>
>Myth 3: We must stimulate and subsidize business growth to have good
>jobs. A "good business climate" is one with little regulation, low business
>taxes, and various public subsidies to business. A study of areas with
>good and bad business climates (as ranked by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
>and the business press) showed that states with the best business ratings
>actually have lower growth in per capita incomes than those with the
>worst. Fodor: "This surprising outcome may be due to the emphasis placed
>by
>good-business-climate states on investing resources in businesses rather
>than directly in people."
>
>Myth 4: If we try to limit growth, housing prices will shoot up. Sounds
>logical, but it isn't so. A 1992 study of 14 California cities, half with
>strong growth controls, half with none, showed no difference in average
>housing prices. Some of the cities with strong growth controls had the
>most affordable housing, because they had active low-cost housing
>programs. Fodor says the important factor in housing affordability is not
>so much house cost as income level, so development that provides mainly
>low-paying retail jobs makes housing unaffordable.
>
>Myth 5: Environmental protection hurts the economy. According to a Bank
>of America study the economies of states with high environmental standards
>grew consistently faster than those with weak regulations. The Institute
>of Southern Studies ranked all states according to 20 indicators of economic
>prosperity (gold) and environmental health (green) and found that they
>rise and fall together. Vermont ranked 3rd on the gold scale and first on
>the
>green, while Louisiana ranked 50th on both.
>
>Myth 6: Growth is inevitable. There are constitutional limits to the
>ability of any community to put walls around itself. But dozens of
>municipalities have capped their population size or rate of growth by
>legal regulations based on real environmental limits and the real costs of
>growth to the community.
>
>Myth 7: If you don't like growth, you're a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) or
>an ANTI (against everything) or a gangplank-puller (right after you get
>aboard). These accusations are meant more to shut people up than to
>examine their real motives. Says Fodor, "A NIMBY is more likely to be
>someone who cares enough about the future of his or her community to get
>out and protect it."
>
>Myth 8: Most people don't support environmental protection. Polls and
>surveys have disproved this belief for decades; Fodor cites examples from
>Oregon, Los Angeles, Colorado, and the U.S. as a whole. The fraction of
>respondents who say environmental quality is more important than further
>economic growth almost always tops 70 percent.
>
>Myth 9: We have to grow or die. This statement is tossed around lightly
>and often, but if you hold it still and look at it, you wonder what it
>means. Fodor points out, quoting several economic studies, that many
>kinds of growth cost more than the benefits they bring. So the more growth,
>the poorer we get. That kind of growth will kill us.
>
>Myth 10: Vacant land is just going to waste. Studies from all over show
>that open land pays far more -- often twice as much -- in property taxes
>than it costs in services. Cows don't put their kids in school; trees
>don't put potholes in the roads. Open land absorbs floods, recharges
>aquifers, cleans the air, harbors wildlife, and measurably increases the
>value of property nearby. We should pay it for it to be there.
>
>Myth 11: Beauty is no basis for policy. One of the saddest things about
>municipal meetings is their tendency to trivialize people who complain
>that a proposed development will be ugly. Dollars are not necessarily more
>real or important than beauty. In fact beauty can translate directly into
>dollars. For starters, undeveloped surroundings can add $100,000 to the
>price of a home.
>
>Myth 12: Environmentalists are just another special interest. A
>developer who will directly profit from a project is a special interest. A
>citizen
>with no financial stake is fighting for the public interest, the long
>term, the good of the whole community.
>
>Maybe one reason these myths are proclaimed so often and loudly is that
>they are so obviously doubtful. The only reason to keep repeating
>something over and over is to keep others from thinking about it. You
>don't have to keep telling people that the sun rises in the east.
>
>There are reasons why some of us want others of us to believe the myths
>of urban growth.
>
>By Donella H. Meadows, director of the Sustainability Institute and an
>adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.
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