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Moving Closer to Defining San Diego Civic Solutions
Perspective
on Ethical Growth
By Sanford Goodkin
January 27, 2004
Some
one said that if the world sat down to think, there
would be a revolution. I am certain that this is true,
but unfortunately, the people are too busy to sit down.
The revolution is coming no matter and it will not remain
bloodless.
Most
of us wait for an election to give us media’s take
on what our problems are and how the candidates can
solve them. This is not the revolution nor attention
that we require in order to focus on problem-solving.
I am a professional problem-solver. I know the impediments
to solving problems even when the truth is understood.
Reality
is different from truth. Reality is to know that to
make change you have to please people or voters or legislators;
it has no relationship to common sense. Truth is "conformity
with fact", actual existence. It can be reality
when coincidence and Fate dictate.
Essentially
my feeling is that problems do not get solved until
each is perceived as a threat to daily lives. So what
are the truths and threats to our region and our state?
Six
per cent of the nation’s population now lives in
LA, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Imperial
Counties. The San Diego regional population will add
another 46,500 people additionally for each of the next
20 years. There are too many people and there is too
much growth; Immigration will become a future flash-point
as population expands. Almost all of the population
growth will be from immigrants and births over death.
There
is a critical shortage of infrastructure to serve the
needs of communities of people, including transportation,
roads, bridges, highways, airports and water resources,
not to mention those which are obsolete to the point
of danger. Remember that voters do not give any of these
their attention until each is perceived as a threat
to a family‚s habits and needs. Until the voters
do, legislators will always look at the next election,
not to the future!
By
2010, annual demand will exceed supply by enough water
for 20 million residents. We live in a permanent water
shortage series of counties. People do not give attention
to this until ordered to stop watering lawns or washing
their cars. There is not much attention paid to it-hence
how can it be solved?
We
have a political reality which is dysfunctional and
which appears paralyzed to solution. Each problem is
considered as a political situation where cooperation
(solution) is most unusual, unless it is perceived as
an emergency. The electricity crisis of 2001 became
temporary priority number one, I.e. in terms of finding
someone to blame (political reaction), but not solving
it. When we look for blame, we are the blame as Pogo
noted.
Environmental
sustainability is somewhat the same in that everyone
is for it, except that the greening of buildings, parks,
industries, etc becomes a political situation further
polarizing the population. e.g. There is a great deal
of capital available to resurrect a multitude of precious
land, called "brown-fields", yet the political
or bureaucratic passage it must travel discourages people
from getting involved.
It
is estimated that 50,000 acres are converted to home-sites
annually. Land use is so contentious that it divides
all portions of the population, going from those which
are neighbor to the use, to those whose livelihoods
depends upon using the land. It is related to our capitalistic
form of economy where consumption is the necessity,
no matter the products‚ lack of perceived benefit
(toy), or the harm it may do the environment (auto),
it must be consumed or the economy might go dead in
the water. Housing and autos have kept the economy going
during this soft recovery. However housing is more legislated
than the spread of disease. What can be done to make
this less contentious?
We
need 19 new classrooms each day, every day, for the
next five years; that‚s about 230 new schools plus
modernizing so many more. Where will that money come
from? The system of public education appears unsatisfactory
to many people. It assumes a political posture rather
than a solution-oriented one, which would take the cooperation
of teachers, parents, administrators and the union,
plus the input of the children. The commonality of the
ethic for all involved should be: "what‚s
good for the child is the right action".
Economic
growth is the salient value of job creation, so how
can growthŕor should growth be slowedŕuntil we catch
up with solving some of the above problems? And who
would make so controversial a recommendation? Can we
imagine what would happen if we curtailed Immigration
to slowdown population and school growth?
There are many people-whole parties-that see melting
glaciers and severely changing weather patterns and
yet can conclude that there is no change in the climate.
Each looks at what is wrong through their individual
or political prism, bending the truth to serve their
orientation or selfish need. The human ethic is that
problems are ours to solve, not just the people whom
we elect. It is time to begin the process! SRG
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