I have decided that there are two visions of growth in Queen Anne’s County (they presumably exist elsewhere as well, but I’ll focus on here because I know it best).
They are commonly referred to as pro-growth and anti-growth. Neither of these is accurate.
What the anti-growth advocate supports is not opposition to growth. It is an embrace of death. These individuals claim they are protecting a traditional way of life, but what they are really doing is advocating for quicksand, for trapping individuals in a mire that prevents them not just from progressing forward, but from moving at all. And the end result of that stagnation is death, a slow death by inevitable suffocation.
Inversely, what the pro-growth advocate truly stands for is not growth, but freedom. The freedom of the individual to use their property as they see fit. No Quick-Sander, as I think of them, would stand for a neighbor coming into his or her house and mandating how pictures must be hung or furniture arranged. And yet these same people see nothing wrong with going to their neighbors and telling them what they can and cannot build or divide. Nothing differs between the property inside a home and the property upon which the home stands, and the pro-growth supporter recognizes this fundamental truth.
As we approach the coming county elections the respective forces will begin to mobilize once more. In some ways they already are. So remember, the issue isn’t being for or against growth. It’s being for or against freedom and for or against a slow death by suffocation.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by new_jerseyBNN and Kevin Waterman, marylandBNN. marylandBNN said: Aquaman, Questing for Atlantis: Two Visions of Growth: I have decided that there are two visions of growth in Quee… http://bit.ly/bSCfgO [...]
[...] I went to school in north New Jersey so I know what I’m talking about) the anti-growthers, who should rightfully be recognized not as anti-growth but as anti-freedom, are insistent upon stopping any and all development in county. As a result, since my father is a [...]
Well, obviously I’m pro-growth… Just who makes up the anti-growth and why is this their agenda? I’m going on a whim and saying these are individuals who want to preserve what they already have in the community, without seeing what the consequences and benefits of it will truly be and how they will eventually weigh out. Perhaps you can point me to some fairly unbiased information on the subject?
You’ve hit the nail on the head, at least as far as it goes with my area. The only correction I would make is that they either don’t see or don’t care about the consequences.
As far as unbiased information, I’m afraid there isn’t much. It’s a small area, so there isn’t much written, and what there is pretty much all comes from one side or the other of the debate.
It’s not exactly related, and it isn’t unbiased, but I’d suggest reading some of F.A. Hayek’s work. He talks a lot about the dangers of centralized planning (something anti-growthers are big on) and how and why the market, through price signals does a better job. There’s also a good Cato Paper on the failure of Portland’s planning efforts, it’s titled “Debunking Portland: The City That Doesn’t Work.”