Jacksonville grows, who benefits?

As we're getting closer to election time, you'll see every candidate claim it as part of their platform - growth. Sometimes disguised as smart growth or economic growth, but the questions must be asked, who does growth really benefit? Does it benefit the average citizen or just the developer?

The average citizen gets more traffic, less green space, more pollution from all that traffic and the need for JEA to burn more coal, and most pertinent to this blog, more mercury in our air and water as JEA burns more coal for all those news homes and buildings. So far, not seeming like a great deal for the average citizen.

Developers make more money, by getting to sell more new homes and offices, and pave more roads. So, its pretty easy to see who's behind this contstant need for growth at all costs, and who probably funds most election campaigns - the developers.

But here's a novel idea, what if we stopped encouraging growth? Or as Youngstown, Ohio is doing - a city that zigs where every one else zags, actually leveraging decreased population into a good thing. Below are a few excerpts from the Wall Street Journal article "As Its Populuation Declines, Youngstown Thinks Small: Rather Than Trying to Grow, Ohio City Plans More Open Space":

• "Unused streets and alleys eventually could be torn up and planted over, the city says. Abandoned buildings could be razed, leading to the creation of larger home lots with plenty of green space, and new parks."
• "'He (the mayor) envisions large blocks of green space throughout the city. The theme of the master plan is to make Youngstown clean and green,' he says."
• "City officials say there are many places where streets could ultimately be dug up, street lights taken down, and sidewalks removed in order to create green spaces where there were once densely settle blocks. While it doesn't have specifics yet, the city says it expects certain vacant land to be turned into parks or community gardens."

Is a bigger Jacksonville a better Jacksonville? According to Daniel Gilbert, a social scientist and author of the book "Stumbling on Happiness"..."But there's another way to get a sense of how you would feel in some future circumstance: other people's experience. For example, lots of people have won the lottery and put their happiness, or lack thereof, on public display. Rather than closing your eyes and imagining how wonderful it would be to win the lotto, you could find out how past winners actually feel. But we tend not to do that. Why? Because we all believe that we're unique and that other people's experiences are a poor guide to our own. But it turns out we're not nearly as unique as we think—at least when it comes to emotional responses to events."

So let's take a look at other people's experiences, what will the next phase of Jacksonville's growth, growth, growth machine look like. South Florida? Atlanta? Los Angeles? Basically, non-stop traffic, smog, and not enough drinking water ("Drought and development threaten our water supply") Do you really think that's a better Jacksonville?

And if you think the growth, growth, growth chorus will help you get a good price for your home when you sell, take a look around. How many homes are sitting for sale unsold in your neighborhood? How many new homes and condos are sitting unsold nearby? Do you really think you can compete with the developers dollars and incentives when it comes time to sell?

As a final note, here are a few words of wisdom from Joni Mitchell...
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."