Post by Rick Shea on Aug 26, 2005 21:37:13 GMT -5
A discussion paper located at www.innovation.cc/discussion-papers/slow-growth.htm is, in effect, a lengthy condemnation of much of Kelowna's past. Although the paper mainly discusses cities with "slow growth," the conclusion begins this way:
In the introduction we noted that a variety of writers, representing very different perspectives, were unanimous in stressing the centrality of the growth impulse to the development of North American cities. Why? Peterson (1981) argues that it is quite simply in the interest of the city as a whole because it allows the wealth of the city to grow. That is true a very general sense, but it leaves out a lot of important details.
A more detailed understanding of the dynamic is available from such commentators as Stone (1987, 1989, 1993) and Logan and Molotch (1987). They describe the quest for wealth and growth in terms of joint action and inter-group conflict involving such groups as landowners, developers and corporate interests. An understanding of the tenacity with which wealth is pursued and the fierceness of the struggles that ensue makes it easy to see why slow growth is not greeted with great enthusiasm, especially on a continent that, even today, still has a great deal of space for expansion.
It is less easy to understand how the struggle for growth transformed itself from a hard-nosed pursuit of wealth to an obsession. One might expect that the same hard-headed and practical spirit that allows some people to be successful in the competition for the fruits of urban development would also allow them to make a realistic assessment of what is possible and what is not. Yet in these pages we have documented instances in which it seems clear that ordinary common sense is abandoned in the pursuit of pipe dreams.
A more detailed understanding of the dynamic is available from such commentators as Stone (1987, 1989, 1993) and Logan and Molotch (1987). They describe the quest for wealth and growth in terms of joint action and inter-group conflict involving such groups as landowners, developers and corporate interests. An understanding of the tenacity with which wealth is pursued and the fierceness of the struggles that ensue makes it easy to see why slow growth is not greeted with great enthusiasm, especially on a continent that, even today, still has a great deal of space for expansion.
It is less easy to understand how the struggle for growth transformed itself from a hard-nosed pursuit of wealth to an obsession. One might expect that the same hard-headed and practical spirit that allows some people to be successful in the competition for the fruits of urban development would also allow them to make a realistic assessment of what is possible and what is not. Yet in these pages we have documented instances in which it seems clear that ordinary common sense is abandoned in the pursuit of pipe dreams.