A Roundhouse Has No Corners

My Dad was a great guy. And he had many funny sayings that he used to repeat to us all the time. One of them that I always remember is "Head for the roundhouse! They can't corner you there!" It reminds me of the self-fulfilling predictions and circular arguments that communities use to generate the population growth they really want here in Northern Illinois. Their circular arguments go something like this:

First, local communities make quantitative projections of the "inevitable" growth they expect in their area. They use the word "inevitable" because it implies that they can't do anything about it. These local projections are then fed into the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission that keeps track of all this data. This further validates their projections because now they can say that these are NIPC's estimates for growth, and not their own.

Then multiple local taxing bodies set about to plan and acquire all the infrastucture they need to accomodate the predicted growth. Some of it comes from the development process to be sure, but a significant portion has to be raised through referendum questions and bonded indebtedness that increase our property taxes.

Once bonds are issued to raise the needed money, the local infrastructure is expanded to accomodate the growth.

It is interesting to note that usually the bonds are paid off on a schedule that is based on the growth projections that the community set for itself in the first place.

Then, because everyone wants to make sure that the bonds are paid off, the community and its leaders do everything in their power to make sure that the projected population growth actually takes place.

At some point, the local officials speak proudly of their realistic attitudes and their foresight in predicting all the growth. But, I ask you, who needed the infrastructure in the first place if not for all the planned growth?

Here's the circle. We need the infrastructure to support the growth, and we need the growth to support the debt to create the infrastructure.

And, positioned in this endless loop of logic is exactly where some local officials want to be. It is politically comfortable to simply go round and round. And, they can never be "cornered" to take a stand on the "growth-related" issues in their communities.

If this self-fulfilling prophecy of growth doesn't make sense to you, I assure you that it doesn't make sense to me either.

I found these observations in a scholarly paper written by Professor A. A. Bartlett titled "Reflections on Sustainability, Population Growth, and the Environment."

But, I think my Dad must have known something about this a long time ago. Of course, when he told me to head for the roundhouse, he was talking about a building for trains. We're talking about a roundhouse of arguments to politically support uncontrolled growth. There is no place to be "cornered" in that roundhouse either.