Staff Writer, DL Mullan
ICLEI / Sustainability
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"They paved Paradise and put in a Parking Lot," Joni Mitchell, Amy Grant, and the Counting Crows have sang.
Why would anyone want to pave Paradise?
That is where sustainability comes in with its "infilling." Pretty soon the town or city you know will look like an urban wasteland. Or perhaps suburban wasteland is a more accurate phrase.
Where trees, grass, and wildlife used to flourish, asphalt, brick, and petrochemicals now reside. If sustainability is really about environmentalism and not a political tool for communistic regionalism, then wouldn't towns and cities do everything possible to cultivate green spaces?
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| Photo Credit: John LeMay |
Villa de Paz is the perfect balance between green and suburban. Animals and humans live in harmony together. The community could not be more environmentally friendly.
Here we see a common sight during the
spring on the golf course: a mother duck with her ducklings. Golfers
still golf. Neighbors take pictures. Ducks are raised and sent into the
world.
Natural coexistence is a beautiful thing to behold.
Villa de Paz does not need fancy brochures or website to sell their homes.
Realtors do not have a hard time marketing the already mature development with golf course access, beautiful trees, and wildlife galore.
One current listing on Hazelwood states: "Bring your serious buyers. Seller not negotiating much on this well laid
out property. There are before and after photos to appreciate the pride
of ownership. The upgrades were well thought out. Truly a gem in this
established golf course community."
Another two listings, this time for Fairway Villas, boasts: "BRAND NEW COMMUNITY!! Overlooking Via De Paz Golf Course."
If this active community is all about the Golf Course, then why is the
City of Phoenix in such a hurry to do away with it? Villa de Paz is in a
battle with a ravenous developer to destroy the very thing that makes
the community a viable, beautiful, and living wildlife refuge: the Golf
Course.
This attack on community stipulations and families only comes when politicians buy into false claims of sustainability. Thanks to the sustainability push, cities are indoctrinated to believe: "We will build mass transit and they will come. If they don't come, well, we'll force the issue." This line of thinking is corrupt and illogical.
ICLEI and the City of Phoenix are terrible bed fellows. If the city has to destroy beauty in order to fit into the sustainability nonsense model, then the city needs to re-think its membership as well as its mission, vision, and goals.
Who wants to live in a city without character or charm and that looks like every other city in the United States? Who wants to defund social programs when the average age of a homeless person in Arizona is seven years and divert that money to "light rail?" It is baseless and stupid.
According to Phoenix Rescue Mission, Phoenix has more to worry about than a supposed volunteer sustainable scam, there are
10 Facts about Homelessness in Arizona politicians need to read before sending away anymore funding to this ruse.
Of course there is a revenue side to this story, but as
Resilient Communities points out: "It’s not just forests that are torn down. Arable land for crops is often
destroyed as the suburbs stretch further and further from the main
city. The new roads burden local government with maintenance costs that
create problems within years of building."
The plans and promises may look good to a city in these hard economic times but in the long run, the cities pay the price of up keep long after developers leave with their thirty pieces of silver.
People are tired of the 'smash everyone into small living spaces' philosophy to satisfy false and misleading environmental rhetoric. People are tired of being used as renters and not proprietors of their own property: "Homeowners spend enormous amounts of money on maintenance, HOA fees, and yard work for a home that doesn’t produce anything." Why shouldn't people leave the cities for a better life elsewhere?
The math is very simple. As we drive faster and faster down the road of sustainability, the more and more environment we lose to be sustainable. Sustainability should not be measured in fearmongering CO2 levels that have no basis in fact. Sustainability should be based on water tables, clean air, less traffic, and communion with nature and wildlife.
"Much of what we discuss here is aimed at shifting the balance away from a
broken system that often seems hell-bent to destroy every natural
resource we cherish. Parks become retail shopping meccas, forests become
industrial centers and all the while, we are losing sight of the most
sustainable resource we have – the ability to grow food. "
That is what this fight has come down to: shifting the balance away from a broken system that often seems hell-bent on destroying every natural resource we cherish for the false promises of revenue and sustainability.
As a resident of Villa de Paz, I hope that the soul of Phoenix, Arizona can still be saved from the idols and false prophets filling the political checking accounts of the City Council members who took an oath to uphold the Constitution and be a leader amongst people, not sheep leading their communities into an unsustainable nightmare of a wasteland.
