Smart Growth Part II
Smart Growth and Economic Development
By Ana Hernandez and Jay Burney
This is the second article in a four part series that the Sardinia Standard is publishing regarding Smart Growth and the impact of planning on Sardinia. Clearly appropriate planning decisions are critical to this community’s ability to grow and prosper and to provide a basis for a future that works for the coming generations that will live and work here. The Sardinia Standard publishes this series as a public service and as a resource to raise the level of discussion in our community so that we will not fall into the trap of inappropriate planning that will lead to urban sprawl, inappropriate decision-making, and a less than positive future.
Ana Hernandez is a Masters graduate from the University of Buffalo’s Architecture and Planning Department, and Jay Burney is both a Sardinia resident, and an expert on Sustainable Communities.
Smart Growth is about thoughtful and deliberate planning. Smart growth is about involving all local stakeholders including citizens and residents in important decisionmaking. Smart growth is hard work; it requires intelligence, patience, and an understanding of many disciplines. These planning disciplines include economics, environment, design, architecture, engineering, politics, and community.
Smart Growth is also about using a community’s resources efficiently. There is a difference between expansion and development, and Smart Growth is about development first, and expansion second. And if expansion is needed, then how can communities strategically invest resources so that quality of life is preserved. In fact, expansion can strain quality of life, whereas appropriate and “smart” development seeks to protect it.
Investing in Smart Growth strategies has many important consequences. Primarily, an investment in Smart Growth is an investment in the future of a community, and if done correctly, it helps guarantee a future that will work. In these days, that is a challenging task. And have no doubt; if Sardinia is to have a future that works, we as residents, business owners, and government leaders, have to be up to the challenge.
Smart Growth is all about economic development. Appropriate economic development. Economic development that enriches a community rather than exploits it. Development that doesn’t just expand a community for the sake of expansion. Smart Growth is development that invests in a community. Smart Growth is economic development that provides a strong local economy and not just exploits and extracts local money in a globalized scheme that tends to enrich outside forces while leaving local communities to deal with low paying jobs, ruined environment, the abandoned or inadequate infrastructure of strip malls, cheap housing developments, and the consequential aesthetic and very real financial burdens to the taxpayer.
What most people call “development” is really expansion. Expansion is just building new things with no regards to the consequences. Development is about improving what exists, protecting what has worked well for years, and being creative about how to meet new needs. Expansion is the creation of strip malls, chain stores, and other big box stores that wipe out small, independent and locally owned business that serves the community.
When these kinds of expansions come into small communities such as Sardinia, offering discount prices for the same products, small business often cannot compete and eventually are forced to close. Local economy is harmed. Money is extracted. Job quality declines.
One does not have to look very far to see abandoned and chaotic urban ruin, all originally created with dissembling arguments about how good this strip mall or that “industrial park” or housing development would be “good for the community”. Sadly, communities all over WNY are left with the very real burdens that this kind of “unsmart” and short sighted economic growth brings.
Sometimes this occurs because local planning and elected officials do not understand how important it is to fully think through the potential consequences of really critical zoning issues, site plans, and infrastructure and maintenance needs. This includes paying detailed attention to water and sewer issues, runoff and erosion, roads, and traffic flow. This affects both the ability of emergency services to respond adequately and the cost of these services. This all has significant impact on the quality of life and the costs to a community.
And sometimes, actually quite often, a few years down the road facilities are abandoned. Usually the developers do not think in the long range. They want to take what they can now, and if in 10 years the facility is not cost effective, it is abandoned and becomes the burden of the taxpayer. You can see these abandoned sites everywhere in WNY.
Think of almost any WNY community that invested in strip malls and you will find a preponderance of these have been abandoned and left for the next generations to take care of. It is sad, and it is not smart. It is expensive, and it does not contribute to the well being of a community or a local economy.
Smart growth encourages investment in the quality and character of a community and in the communities’ future.
Services
Of course you will find those that want to argue that these expansion developments provide important benefits including jobs, and inexpensive services. They say that the services provide ready access to products that we must have. In some cases this may be true, but often those that are making the argument, those that grab the soapbox have political or economic stakes, and are not necessarily representing the best interests of the community, the consumer, or the family. Sometimes price does drive value. Sometimes value drives price.
Smart Growth demands that we examine the real costs and real consequences and real burdens including economics and futures.
The importance of a local Economy
There is little that is as of critical consequence to a community than the strength of the local economy. In these days of globalization where the big money players are all about creating and exploiting markets of consumers that pay into the big picture, it is more important than ever to focus on how to create and sustain a local and regional economy. Smart Growth recognizes this, and it is important that Sardinia embrace the concept of local economies if this community is going to grow and prosper, and not just become another throw away town/marketplace and economic resource for big corporations whose only interest is the extraction of local wealth as the bottom line.
Local economy means that it is important that money that is generated in Sardinia, generated by our natural and human resources, stay in Sardinia or on a regional level as much as possible, rather than be extracted to corporate bank accounts on distant shores. This requires strategic planning. This means that locally owned businesses that are both sustainable and meaningful need to be supported and encouraged. These include shops and restaurants, local farms, and the wide variety of businesses that are locally owned and controlled. These are the kinds of business that have a reason to care about the future of the community. Support them. Buy local. Start one if you can.
Jobs
Smart growth recognizes this. Smart growth is also about job development.
Some will argue that these developments provide important local jobs, end of story. Smart Growth demands that we critically examine that basic premise.
It is important to remember that the most consequential relationships that any company or project has with a community rests in its ability to provide jobs. This should be characterized as the primary investment in the community. Is the company investing, or is it extracting with low wages and poor or no benefits? The quality and character of jobs determines not only the well being of the individuals employed, but also profoundly influences the quality and character of the community, the wealth of the community, and the strength of the local economy. An investment in good local jobs is a profound investment in the community. Perhaps it is the most important investment.
The opposite is also true. Low paying jobs with little or no benefits become a burden for the community. Many developments that promote the opposite of Smart Growth are notorious for creating low paying jobs that insure the maximum profit. These developments actually create quantifiable burdens on the communities that have been invaded by these developments. They often get tremendous tax breaks and other politically approved public money investments. It was recently revealed that a large NYS company, Alcoa Aluminum is seeking a long-term $5.6 billion subsidy for cheap power generated at Niagara Falls. The argument is that this tremendous subsidy, the largest economic development subsidy in the history of New York State, will create and or save jobs. The Buffalo News did an analysis of this and concluded that the subsidy works out to $148,000 per year per job over the 30-year span of the allocation. The average wage at Alcoa for the kind of jobs that this subsidizes is much lower. The Federal government, when considering these kinds of subsidies, caps this kind of taxpayer’s investment at $35,000 per job. One does not have to wonder who benefits and whom is harmed by this kind of lavishing and mind boggling allocation.
It is not smart growth, it is a typically deliberate money grab by a few large corporations practicing the global economy that characterizes our economic culture, and it comes at great expense to the rest of us.
Another example of poor economic planning on a local and regional level involves Wall Mart. This company is notorious for creating low paying jobs and then “helping” its employees to apply for public assistance including Food Stamps and Medicaid. While it is important to recognize that public assistance to those in need is both appropriate and smart, welfare probably should not be available to corporations such as Alcoa and Wall Mart. If it is, and it is, it should be exposed to the light of day. Wall Marts jobs benefits practice relying on government assistance has been exposed as part of the companies “benefits package” at many U.S. locations. You may pay less at Wal-Mart for shoes, and at other national chains that promote sprawl and local economic extraction but you pay excessively in other costs including not only the public and taxpayer costs of public assistance for these corporations, but also in the additional social services that are required when you have a poor and more disadvantaged population. This is a bad investment for a community. It is not smart.
What should a community look for when jobs are offered as part of promised economic development?
This can be a very sticky wicket. Certainly the creation of jobs is one of the most consequential decisions that a community makes when it is asked to support development. Smart Growth says that we must examine the quality and character of these jobs very carefully.
Smart growth and jobs is about investing in a local economy, providing living wage jobs, which include good pay, and adequate benefits for individuals and families. Jobs are one of the prime reasons that we have an economy. Lets not treat them as blistering boils on the back ends of our productive workforce and the families that they represent.
Sardinia has wonderful opportunities for economic development. As we rethink our economic future we should concentrate on quality of life, and making Sardinia a good and desirable place to live. Our assets include our environment, ranging from our forests and fields to our rivers and creeks. Our rural character is very appealing. Preserving that rural character may unlock a wealth of opportunities for a profound economic future.
Our family farms coupled with recreation and tourism opportunities could give us a chance to revisit our past and build upon the foundations that made Sardinia great to begin with.
Strip malls may not offer a positive economic future. But if there are coming, we should make sure that we understand what they are, what the represent, and do our best to mitigate economic, social, and environmental damages.
Of course there are solutions. Investments in good, well paying local jobs are a tremendous investment in a community. Appropriate design of facilities that help to maintain the character of a rural community like Sardinia will go a long way toward protecting future property values, and future investments. We will discuss appropriate design and thoughtful site planning in our next edition.
Remember always that money is just politics. And like all politics, the quality and character starts locally. We can make good choices here in Sardinia. Lets make sure that our leadership knows that we are interested.
Living Wages
A living wage is defined as paying a worker enough to support a family above the Federal Poverty line. Generally speaking this pay has been established at approximately 130% of the poverty measurement.
This poverty line varies from community to community.
In the City of Buffalo the living wage has been set by the City of Buffalo Living Wage Commission as $9.59 per hour for a job without benefits and $10.77 with health benefits.
Setting the standard as slightly above the federal poverty line is better than the minimum wage, but one can only imagine the costs to a family of four if they have to obtain their own health benefits. The burden on a community and on the taxpayer for social services is measurable. Investing in job development that includes jobs that do not meet these minimum standards is not only not “smart” but actually creates a greater burden on the community. Sometimes that investment of public monies is substantial. It is not always just a zoning decision, but sometimes it is a tax break, or a grant to the developer or the companies that are the beneficiaries are those that take the profits while extracting wealth from the local economy. This is not smart growth. When the jobs argument comes up, Living Wages is one way of measuring the worth of the job. Smart growth encourages a critical look at the jobs arguments that we are so often confronted with.
Photo Caption: You may have noticed that the new Tim Horton’s on Rt 16 has had a well drilling rig on the property since the day of the grand opening. Tim Horton’s has no water. Why is this? Obviously someone dropped the ball? Obviously Tim Horton’s is suffering because local planning officials did not adequately do their job.
No comments:
Post a Comment