Friday, February 11, 2011

The opposite of Smarth Growth is dumb.

According to a report on the News/Tribune web site, the number of vacant housing units increased 45% in Clark County during a period of 14% population growth.

I admittedly haven't checked the latest numbers but, by comparing building permits issued to population projections last year, it looked as if there was a new, single-family detached home built in Clark County for approximately every one and a half new resident between 2000 and 2009. Floyd County's numbers were similar.

We continue to waste finite resources further diluting our housing and business markets, building structures in substantial quantities for which we have no need and little use. The proliferation of those ill-advised structures is then used in an attempt to justify even more automobile infrastructure, the purpose and outcome of which is the encouragement of more of the same kind of self-defeating building.

For those of you trying to communicate about this with new Hispanic neighbors, the primary word you're looking for is "estúpido". Once I find the Spanish equivalent of "delusional", I'll report back.

2 comments:

w&la said...

I believe the word is "delirante"

The New Albanian said...

I thought it was dalbyante.