Growth is inevitable

To the parents of young children this statement is an encouragement. To watch your children grow to adults, is one of the most wonderful experiences. Less inevitable but wonderful all the same is to watch your company grow. Growth and renewal of neighborhoods and cities can also be a good thing for neighbors and citizens. But not all growth is good. To a cancer victim, the inevitability of growth and spread of a tumor is death. The difference between good growth and bad growth has to do with the motives of those involved. Normal cells grow in order to meet the needs of the body. Normal cells have restrictions on their taking over more and more of the body's resources such as nutrients, hormones and oxygen. A cancer cell is a cell no longer filling the requirements of the body. It divides at the maximum rate constrained only by the limits of the body's resources. We don't think of cells as having human motivations but you could describe the behavior of cancer cells as selfish or exhibiting unrestrained competitiveness.

In the same way the growth of cities has historically been a good thing up to a point. People come to cities because that is where the owners of business are. That is where the jobs are. It is more efficient or cost effective to provide the services and infrastructure we all depend on in cities rather than in small towns, villages and farms. There is a wider variety of economic opportunity in cities. On the other hand, cities are places of anonymity. In a city it is possible to live next door to someone for years and not even know his or her name. In a village people not only know your name but they know enough about your life and habits that they can exercise some kind of social pressure to conform to local mores and morals. You can be competitive in a village or small town but only within limits of what people around you will accept. If you harm people they will know about it and they will deal with you directly and effectively. In a city of any size the only restraint on competitiveness is what the traffic will bear, what the law allows or what you can get away with. Greed and selfishness are quasi socially acceptable motives. The bottom line is the only justification required for actions that cause great harm to the people and the environment. The Growth Management Act or greed management act has been a failure in preventing environmental and social harm.

The history of cities is that after periods of rapid growth and increasing prosperity they become necrotic. Like a tumor, the inside dies and decays. The long-term history of countries and cultures is that cities have become centers of concentrated power and wealth and ultimately destruction and death for their citizens. Is there hope for our cities? What can the human body teach us about protecting ourselves from the effects selfish unrestrained growth? Is the solution urban renewal? Should we rebuild our inner cities and start over? These questions speak to the symptoms rather than the real causes. We live in the richest county in America. We have so gone past the limits of consideration for the needs of the people as a whole as to be blind to what is happening around us. We have confused need with greed. I need a car, a boat, a road bike, my own house and yard, books, restaurant diners, movies, an expensive vacation, a better computer, and a better digital camera. That is just my own short list. Unless and until we, as a people begin to pursue what is good for everyone instead of what is our own need/greed we will continue our progress toward death and decay. Working for the common good is a thankless task. The ones who try are often blamed for the failures and mistakes and unacknowledged for the success. We have the ability as a people to revitalize our economy from exchanging money, goods and services to exchanging love, acceptance and forgiveness. That would inevitably lead to growth, good growth.

Any attempt at building on what is good in Shoreline and putting the brakes on what is not working cannot go very far unless we have an understanding of the values underlying our way of living. People sometimes don't like to have these kinds of conversations because often the concepts seem so far removed from the realities that we face every day. People feel stuck in their dependence on destructive practices because society has not provided an alternative.

We can have a conversation about values and analyze what values are conveyed by the body of our society. Then contrast that by the values we want to live by. Then the challenge becomes how to create the infrastructure needed to live by the values we hold dear? We need to make sure that we convey to the public that we know we don't have all the answers and it is going to take every voice working together to come up with solutions.

-Bill Bear

Modified 12/7/2007