It’s long been said, “A city grows where water flows.”
This concept is elementary and simple to understand because water is absolutely essential to life. San Diego, in spite of its being a semi-desert area and in spite of enormous population growth, has been immune to the limits of growth because most of our water has been imported. But now, global warming has reared its ugly head and has been acknowledged.
Most of our water imported from the Colorado River has been cut off because of an eight-year draught condition on the Colorado River. And a large part of our imported water from the Sacramento Delta river has been cut off because endangerment to the delta smelt fish.
Solutions could be building a water reclamation system, mandatory conservation, ocean desalinization, building more reservoirs and finding other sources of imported water.
What stands in the way? Financial costs, objections to reclaimed water (even the Colorado River water is and has been reclaimed water), and the Poseidon desalinization plant in Carlsbad is the largest, most costly project of the type in the US and is now in litigation.
So what are we to do? After all, isn’t growth progress? That concept has been a given throughout history. What is the definition of unlimited growth? Isn’t that the definition of cancer ” unlimited growth, growth for growth’s sake, finally leading to enstranglement?
Why are there laws limiting growth or numbers of people in an area (e.g. elevators, buildings, swimming pools, national parks, etc.)? Because of safety considerations. And why are living creatures programmed for limits to their growth?
But if we limit population growth by limiting building permits, won’t that strangle the economy and cause mass unemployment? That’s the same argument that was used 100 years ago when we moved from the horse and buggy to the automobile. People learned new trades. Construction workers can be trained to build and install solar heating, mass transit, etc., mindful, however, that we cannot build a subway system in San Diego because of our unique subterranean conditions (an underwater table and an earthquake fault). All of which precludes a Manhattan scale population. And people in Cities of Villages need water too. Density building will not produce more water for these people.
Another myth regarding growth is that new development will bring in more tax revenue. But never is it mentioned that the costs of building the infrastructure needed for new people far exceeds the tax revenue. And the costs go up exponentially. Those needs include streets and street repairs, water and sewer lines and replacements of them, fire stations (presently 21 short), fire fighters and equipment, police and police buildings and maintenance, enlarging the airport and public transit. And now the costs of providing more water due to global warming and concurrent loss of imported water.
Why is it that our roads go unrepaired, our libraries and community centers have reduced hours, etcetera? And why is it that statistics show that in more populus cities, people pay more per capita in taxes, goods, and services than in smaller cities, and have less per capita income than people in smaller cities. They also have more pollution, congestion and social problems. As the population increases, it seems that the faster we go, the more behind we get. It’s long been an axiom that population growth is essential to economic improvement. Statistics show that the opposite is true.
And more industry does not lower unemployment figures. Statistics show that most new jobs are taken by those who move here from elsewhere so that the unemployment rate always remains about the same, while the population increases along with its myriad of costs and problems.
There are two groups who benefit from population growth “” developers who often live out of town (for example, the two highest bidders for he city administration building complex) and some legislators who receive large campaign donations from them.
” Mignon Scherer, Ph. D. Cd., has been a resident of San Diego for 51 years, is a former chair of Lesser San Diego and Slow Growth Committee of the Sierra Club, worked to help enact the 1972 San Diego coastal 30-foot height limit initiative and the 1972 California Coastal Commission ordinance. She is presently a six-year elected member of the Peninsula Community Planning Board.