Decision Time for Kentuckians
Narrow focus may leave communities with deep scars

By the time this is in print, the 2002 General Assembly session will have adjourned, leaving us abuzz about what did and didn’t happen. But certain distinctive trends emerge to give each session its own signature.

Two issues this session were garbage and gaming. The trends include a proliferation of contrast lobbyists and special interests and a divided trend toward shaping the input of local citizens – power plant and celltower siting.

There are interests now representing every variety of business, environmental issue and nearly everything else. All of these groups should be desperately concerned about the future of our communities. But, thus far, the messages that have risen above the fray to my ears have been:

• Fewer taxes, more government services.
• Give business the break it deserves.
• Save the family farms.
• Provide more for working families.

All these groups represent pieces of communities, but what about the community as a whole? To be sure, there are those who champion saving historic structures and downtown districts. But they do so as our cities and towns hemorrhage population to subdivisions outside their boundaries. A narrow focus of damage control is akin to polishing the brass on the Titanic.

Those subdivisions are filling with people who seek country life but realize that city amenities are hard to live without. As they demand city services, they remain steadfast in their opposition to becoming part of a city – too many taxes to pay, they say. Here again, the narrow focus on near-term tax relief flirts with long-term disaster.

What does this mean for Kentucky? Several initiatives have begun recently, catching a national trend best known by a term that is somewhat radioactive: smart growth.

So many people have spoken about their opposition to smart growth that the joke now is that what people really want is dumb growth. But as the laughter fades, we need to get serious: Interpreting what we see before us today could very well mean that people really do want dumb growth.

We see example after example of our cities coring out – leaving fewer people to live in what is known, felt and designated as a “city.” Those who remain as city residents are increasingly living in poverty, and it is getting harder to justify spending money on the center of the city – the traditional downtown. This is so in spite of the fact that a growing body of research indicates that knowledge-based jobs that pay good wages are being created in cities and that the knowledge and culture they create will lead to a higher quality of life.

But, you may say, if people don’t want to live in cities, why should they be forced to do so? The point lies in the short-term versus the long-term. Already, in fast growing Kentucky counties such as Oldham – notable for its lack of city-type development and vast crops of giant look-alike houses – the schools are crying out that they cannot accommodate the student population. So much for the quality of life.

Community life can mirror business planning. The dot-coms failed because they tried to defy the laws of financial nature. Nothing could substitute for the necessary balance between real profits and losses.

So it is with communities. The balance is what matters. Cities are necessary and so is the countryside. Whether we’re describing a business, a community or a person, the center must hold or we are doomed. People will seek communities where they can find good work as well as a good life. They will stay here or they will go where they need to in order to find it. Kentucky can make a choice.

What is the impact of public policy? So far, it has generally been negative. Our public policy fails to educate the citizens about their long-term responsibility for the greater good of their communities. Public policy encourages schools to build on the edge of town in huge complexes that neglect the importance of community life for young people. Public policy discourages the growth of cities with restrictive annexation policies in 100 counties that allow runaway growth just beyond the edge of town.

So I say to my lobbying friends and colleagues: Yes, we are clutching at straws and seeking to survive in a world that is turned on its end. Bring in the slots and bring on the video poker. It can’t be as bad as trying to find a “downtown” in search of customers.

Sylvia L. Lovely is executive director and CEO of the Kentucky League of Cities
editorial@lanereport.com

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