Has the “tea bag” has become a modern day opiate of the masses.
The April 15th “tax revolt” was based upon a premise that the budget of the federal government is paid for by public tax dollars. As with all opiates, the feeling may have been great but no true journey was taken.
The Federal income tax collected in 2008 totaled $1.2 trillion. The October 2008 Bank Bailout alone cost $0.8 trillion.
The total cost of collecting these income taxes is estimated to be $68 billion.
Our expenses related to maintaining the defense of our military empire costs about $1 trillion per year.
So, let’s add up the numbers above. Income taxes collected in 2008 came to about $1.2 trillion. The expenses for 2008 noted above come to almost $1.9 trillion.
Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah -- the cost of operating the federal government, social security, social programs, and interest on our debt.
So…..wait a minute. The federal government spends a whole heck of a lot more than it takes in? How does that work?
Let’s go back to 1971. President Richard Nixon signed an executive order stating that the currencies of the world would no longer be tied to the value of gold sitting in their vaults. From that point on, the value of most of the currencies of the world became “pegged” or tied to their relative value compared to the U.S. dollar.
In short, that meant that the U.S. no longer was restrained by the amount of gold sitting in vaults in Fort Knox. Now we could create money out of thin air. A measure of the amount of money being “created” was a Federal standard known as “M3”. Don’t worry about what “M3” means because as the US money supply continued to grow exponentially, President Bill Clinton simply decided that the Federal government would no longer report the “M3” measure of how much money we are “creating” out of thin air.
So, here is the “opiate” part. Daily public conversation about the national economy is punctuated by extensive arguments about who is good or bad -- the Democrats or the Republicans. Who are the good people who require less taxes from the population and who are the bad people that require more taxes from the population?
But the “conversation” about the philosophical differences amount to watching TV and drinking beer and fighting over the remote while your house burns down. It doesn’t really matter who has the TV remote in their hand, now does it?
The fact of the matter is that each and every year, our Federal government “spends” far more money than it takes in from income tax.
Here are a couple of facts to ponder. Federal spending has increased steadily since 1965 regardless of Congressional leadership. Since September 11, 2001, nominal Federal spending has increased 97.6 percent. Since 1965, Federal spending has increased 334% but the median income has only increased 35%. (source: The Heritage Foundation)
Historically, if you look at the fate of currencies over thousands of years, two points stand out. Number one is that all currencies fail and go away. (The US dollar will be no exception.) Number two is that the primary purpose of income tax is to give to the prevailing currency the illusion that the currency has some intrinsic value to it.
So go ahead and argue about whether the remote control should be in the hands of a Republican or a Democrat. Meanwhile, do I smell the house on fire?
Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor, wrote recently that, “Based on traditional lead times, the substantial monetary inflation that has occurred over the past seven months probably won't start to become evident in the prices of everyday goods and services until 2010.”
“The effects of monetary inflation will work their way through the economy over the next few years, but the theft is happening right now. We suggest that the deflationists stop going on about how the amount of money created 'out of thin air' is small compared to the declines in asset and debt prices (and thus encouraging the Fed to counterfeit money at an even faster pace), and start emphasizing the problems inherent in the inflation.”
Here is the link to the full Steve Saville article: http://news.goldseek.com/SpeculativeInvestor/1240898820.php
James Turk (author of “The Coming Collapse of the Dollar”) recently wrote an article entitled “A Short History of the Gold Cartel”. It makes for a long quote here but you really should read his entire article.
“Governments want a low gold price to make national currencies look good. Gold is recognizable the world over as the ‘canary in the coalmine’ when it comes to money. A rising gold price blurts the unpleasant truth that a national currency is being poorly managed and that its purchasing power is being inflated.”
“This reality is made clear by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Commenting in his memoirs about the soaring gold price in the years immediately following the end of the gold standard in 1971, he notes: “Joint intervention in gold sales to prevent a steep rise in the price of gold, however, was not undertaken. That was a mistake.” It was a mistake because a rising gold price undermines the thin reed upon which all fiat currency rests – confidence. But it was a mistake only from the perspective of a central banker, which is of course at odds with anyone who believes in free markets.”
“So how does the US government manage the gold price? They recruit Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank to do it, by executing trades to pursue the US government’s aims. These banks are the gold cartel.”
“There was an abrupt change in government policy circa 1990. It was introduced by then Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in order to bail out the banks back then, which like now were insolvent. Taxpayers were already on the hook for hundreds of billions to bail out the collapsed ‘savings & loan’ industry, so adding to this tax burden was untenable. He therefore came up with an alternative.”
“Greenspan saw the free market as a golden goose with essentially unlimited deep pockets, and more to the point, that these pockets could be picked by the US government using its tremendous weight, namely, its financial resources for timed interventions in the free market combined with its propaganda power by using the media. In short, it was easier to bail out the insolvent banks back then by gouging ill-gained profits from the free markets instead of raising taxes.”
See the full article by James Turk here: http://news.goldseek.com/JamesTurk/1241449200.php
So what does all this mean? In short there is the conversation that you and I have on the street about money, free markets, and taxes. Then there is what is really going on behind the black curtain known as the Federal Reserve and the United States government. The single, lone voice of truth about these matters inside of Washington is Congressman Ron Paul. You can easily search on-line for videos of Ron Paul speaking at length about this topic.
The current economic crises in the United States can only resolve itself one of two ways. Either the banking system (and the Federal Reserve) is allowed to collapse or else free market capitalism will disappear. Restated, either we stand behind a “free market” or we allow the US government and the Federal Reserve to own the financial system.
While we waste our time drinking tea and arguing about who is a “Democrat” and who is “Republican”, our free market economy is disappearing before our very eyes. And, the economic structure determines the political structure. A state run economy can not allow a true democracy. Which is why our big-picture financial planning occurs behind a black curtain.
It is time for us, the citizens, to recognize that our currency, our economy and political system has been completely taken over by an elite group of bankers and profiteers. Rather than blindly go along with the quick fix “bandaid” of trying to create another credit bubble, we need to let the banking system collapse and let the Federal Reserve collapse with it. Our only other option is to let those very same elite bankers and our Federal government complete their decades-old scheme of a state-run economy. If we the people do not demand the short-term pain of financial collapse right now, we will have handed away the keys to our free market system and our historic republican form of democracy forever.
We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves about the petty topics of “national politics” and start talking about the real problems of a free market capitalist democracy on the verge of permanent death.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Do No Harm
Either I am totally lost or I am on the verge of some great personal discovery. You make the call.
I’ve been a little bit quiet lately. For about eighteen months, I had a lot to say about land use planning, the growth of our town, and our plans about how it all should happen. Make no mistake -- I still have a lot to say -- but I’m just not sure how to say it.
I spend a large portion of my day on the internet. That gives me access to lots of points of views, news stories, videos and opinions.
Yesterday for example, I ran into a YouTube video of a college event on a big field. Lots of students and partying going on. It looked like a sports event. For some reason, a guy decides that it makes sense to take off his clothes and hang out naked.
Three uniformed police officers respond -- as professionally as possible -- to encourage the guy to put some clothes on. It escalates to the point where the naked guy says that he is not going to put clothes back on and that there is nothing that the uniformed police officers can do about it. Of course, the officers have no choice but to “enforce the law” and you end up watching a video of a naked guy getting “tasered”, tackled and handcuffed by the three police officers. (A taser is an electronic gun which sort of electronically stuns.)
I was unable to watch the second half of the video. It’s just too painful for me. Everywhere I look, I am seeing the violence that goes with our current notion of being human beings.
It’s not the police officers. It’s not the naked guy. I mean, it’s just us. I’m talking about all of us. I’m talking about me.
The very last piece that I wrote here in the Post, was an article where I took the Town Council to task for rejecting attempts to unify some Planning and Building services of the Town and the County. I accused -- point blank -- the Town Council of actively reinforcing the mentality of “division” within our already functionally unified community, That somehow there really is an “us” downtown and a “them” uptown.
I mean, maybe that is how it was once upon a time. But the fiction of a “tale of two towns” is not the reality on the ground today. It’s just not.
But of course, the real problem is that my language and my speaking about “the problem of divisiveness” was clearly divisive and harmful in and of itself. I was complaining about the harm someone else was inflicting but I was doing it by inflicting harm.
Ouch.
So, now I am wondering about what’s it going to take for me to communicate in a way that “does no harm”. At the same time I want to completely tell the truth (as I see it). How do I share my perspective with the community without turning it into another opportunity to hit somebody over the head?
That goes back to my feeling of either being totally lost or just on the verge of some great personal discovery.
If I didn’t know any better, I would just become comfortably numb. But, I do know better. It’s a bit of a challenge for me but somehow effective communication has got to be an option. Like most people, I spend a lot of time staying distracted, being off point, and generally not being focused on what is really going on here and now.
Right now, there is almost nothing that our community leaders can do without provoking an outcry or attack from the “public”. There is almost nothing that the public can say without attacking the leadership.
It is fascinating to watch the gut level, visceral attacks that come upon a new president of the United States. When a “Republican” becomes president the attacks come from people who say that they are “different thinkers”. When a “Democrat” becomes president the attacks come from people who “think differently”.
Never mind the fact that the liberal and conservative points of disagreement actually all exist in a fiction from the past and have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on right now -- today.
For example, the federal government is not really run on “tax dollars”. The United States budget is primarily funded by money literally printed out of thin air. And that, my friends, is neither a “liberal” nor a “conservative” problem. It’s a very much bigger problem. (More on that topic, later.)
But of course, it is entertaining to distract ourselves with heated banter about who’s a liberal and who’s a conservative. That’s a whole lot easier than talking about the end of free market capitalism and the looming destruction of our currency. Our supposed “two-party” system of government in the United States and all of the chattering of the talking heads “is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”
Our current community dialogue must be what Don Miguel Ruiz (author of books including “The Four Agreements“) was talking about when he said that humans all live in a dream. We all live in a collective dream that we call “reality”. But actually the dream is a nightmare called “hell“.
Apparently, this problem has been around for a while. I like this 2500 year old verse from Lao-tzu:
Governing a large county
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.
Approach the universe with the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that evil is not powerful,
but its power will not be used to harm others.
Not only will it not do harm to others,
but the sage himself will also be protected.
If only the ruler and his people would
refrain from harming each other,
all the benefits of life would accumulate
in the kingdom.
Empires rise and empires fall. National currencies get stronger then they collapse and disappear.
Vibrant communities are led by vision and hope. Communities contract underneath the weight of their own fear.
Sometimes I can communicate and help lead the community forward. Sometimes my opportunity to lead gets lost in my reptilian instinct to attack, defend, and become numb.
In my speaking, I am a painter with a brush. My carefully chosen words, consciously placed upon the canvas of the community conversation have the power to create something new. I can paint a positive vision of tomorrow or I can kick the canvas in frustration.
I’ve been a little bit quiet lately. For about eighteen months, I had a lot to say about land use planning, the growth of our town, and our plans about how it all should happen. Make no mistake -- I still have a lot to say -- but I’m just not sure how to say it.
I spend a large portion of my day on the internet. That gives me access to lots of points of views, news stories, videos and opinions.
Yesterday for example, I ran into a YouTube video of a college event on a big field. Lots of students and partying going on. It looked like a sports event. For some reason, a guy decides that it makes sense to take off his clothes and hang out naked.
Three uniformed police officers respond -- as professionally as possible -- to encourage the guy to put some clothes on. It escalates to the point where the naked guy says that he is not going to put clothes back on and that there is nothing that the uniformed police officers can do about it. Of course, the officers have no choice but to “enforce the law” and you end up watching a video of a naked guy getting “tasered”, tackled and handcuffed by the three police officers. (A taser is an electronic gun which sort of electronically stuns.)
I was unable to watch the second half of the video. It’s just too painful for me. Everywhere I look, I am seeing the violence that goes with our current notion of being human beings.
It’s not the police officers. It’s not the naked guy. I mean, it’s just us. I’m talking about all of us. I’m talking about me.
The very last piece that I wrote here in the Post, was an article where I took the Town Council to task for rejecting attempts to unify some Planning and Building services of the Town and the County. I accused -- point blank -- the Town Council of actively reinforcing the mentality of “division” within our already functionally unified community, That somehow there really is an “us” downtown and a “them” uptown.
I mean, maybe that is how it was once upon a time. But the fiction of a “tale of two towns” is not the reality on the ground today. It’s just not.
But of course, the real problem is that my language and my speaking about “the problem of divisiveness” was clearly divisive and harmful in and of itself. I was complaining about the harm someone else was inflicting but I was doing it by inflicting harm.
Ouch.
So, now I am wondering about what’s it going to take for me to communicate in a way that “does no harm”. At the same time I want to completely tell the truth (as I see it). How do I share my perspective with the community without turning it into another opportunity to hit somebody over the head?
That goes back to my feeling of either being totally lost or just on the verge of some great personal discovery.
If I didn’t know any better, I would just become comfortably numb. But, I do know better. It’s a bit of a challenge for me but somehow effective communication has got to be an option. Like most people, I spend a lot of time staying distracted, being off point, and generally not being focused on what is really going on here and now.
Right now, there is almost nothing that our community leaders can do without provoking an outcry or attack from the “public”. There is almost nothing that the public can say without attacking the leadership.
It is fascinating to watch the gut level, visceral attacks that come upon a new president of the United States. When a “Republican” becomes president the attacks come from people who say that they are “different thinkers”. When a “Democrat” becomes president the attacks come from people who “think differently”.
Never mind the fact that the liberal and conservative points of disagreement actually all exist in a fiction from the past and have absolutely nothing to do with what is going on right now -- today.
For example, the federal government is not really run on “tax dollars”. The United States budget is primarily funded by money literally printed out of thin air. And that, my friends, is neither a “liberal” nor a “conservative” problem. It’s a very much bigger problem. (More on that topic, later.)
But of course, it is entertaining to distract ourselves with heated banter about who’s a liberal and who’s a conservative. That’s a whole lot easier than talking about the end of free market capitalism and the looming destruction of our currency. Our supposed “two-party” system of government in the United States and all of the chattering of the talking heads “is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.”
Our current community dialogue must be what Don Miguel Ruiz (author of books including “The Four Agreements“) was talking about when he said that humans all live in a dream. We all live in a collective dream that we call “reality”. But actually the dream is a nightmare called “hell“.
Apparently, this problem has been around for a while. I like this 2500 year old verse from Lao-tzu:
Governing a large county
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.
Approach the universe with the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that evil is not powerful,
but its power will not be used to harm others.
Not only will it not do harm to others,
but the sage himself will also be protected.
If only the ruler and his people would
refrain from harming each other,
all the benefits of life would accumulate
in the kingdom.
Empires rise and empires fall. National currencies get stronger then they collapse and disappear.
Vibrant communities are led by vision and hope. Communities contract underneath the weight of their own fear.
Sometimes I can communicate and help lead the community forward. Sometimes my opportunity to lead gets lost in my reptilian instinct to attack, defend, and become numb.
In my speaking, I am a painter with a brush. My carefully chosen words, consciously placed upon the canvas of the community conversation have the power to create something new. I can paint a positive vision of tomorrow or I can kick the canvas in frustration.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Being a "leader" instead of a "caretaker"
The Town Council held a workshop Tuesday afternoon to discuss ways that the Town and County could merge Planning and Building services. Also discussed by some was why it could never really happen. With a total of five members of the Town Council and the Mayor, there appeared to be an even three to three split over the idea of doing some kind of merged planning versus doing very little to nothing to change what we have got.
From my seat in the audience of a packed house, here is what I saw. No I won’t pretend any personal objectivity or neutrality on this topic at all.
The County’s spokesperson Rick Bellis appeared to be offering everything that the County possibly could to entice the Town into combining staff.
What I saw was some people attempting to form a more unified and more streamlined way of managing future development. I saw some other people so afraid of the details and the possibility that “something might go wrong” that they were completely unable to see the bigger picture here.
Imagine that large aliens from outer space came with a huge vacuum cleaner and sucked away both the Town Hall and the County Hall of Justice. Imagine that we were then left to replace the government of our community with a new structure.
Given a clean slate, would we build two separate governments to manage our small community or would it be logical to only install one government for our unified community of less than 10,000 residents?
Would it make any sense at all to install two building departments and two planning departments for a small community organized around a single seven mile strip of commercial development?
It can only make sense with the statement “well, but that’s just the way it has always been done”.
The heart of what I want to write about here is the difference between being a “caretaker” and being a “leader”. Most of the time, it is adequate for elected officials to be caretakers. Once in a while -- at critical junctures in our history -- true leadership is necessary.
Sometimes that leadership comes from elected leaders. Often times it must come from somewhere else.
General George Washington and his ragtag band of rebels almost starved to death in Valley Forge in 1778 because the vast majority of the citizens were too afraid to “change the system” and couldn’t be bothered to dig into their personal pockets to finance the rebel army. It was only a handful of men and women who led the vast populace of the American colonies towards forming a more perfect union.
After a bitter debate, only 7 out of the 13 colonies voted to approve the new constitution in 1787 which formed the unified republic. This result was the achievement of a small handful of leaders.
On its face, as an outside observer, obviously one planning and building department to manage our one small community makes more sense than having two departments do the same work. It’s obvious from the outside.
The real estate and building community has articulated clearly why a “one stop shop” is better than two separate departments. One thing is for sure. The current system of two planning and building departments does not work to grow our community as envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan.
For myself, it was a little painful to sit in those Town Council chambers and watch some random remarks about how a merged Town and County Planning and Building staff would be less efficient than two separate departments. It was a little painful to watch some make claims that the best interests of Town residents were served by continuing with a divided administration of our single little community.
So to those few adamant voices who argue against merging redundant Town and County services, I ask you this. What is your vision for the future of the community? I have heard your fears. I have heard your rejection of the logic of the merger proposal based upon small details that have yet to be worked out. I heard what might go wrong.
But, I don’t believe that I heard any vision for the future. I don’t believe that I heard any guiding plans or principles. Where are you leading us to?
Fear is not a future.
This disfunctionalities of the past do not inform a positive road map for tomorrow.
In life you always end up with one of two things: What works or the reasons why not.
From my seat in the audience of a packed house, here is what I saw. No I won’t pretend any personal objectivity or neutrality on this topic at all.
The County’s spokesperson Rick Bellis appeared to be offering everything that the County possibly could to entice the Town into combining staff.
What I saw was some people attempting to form a more unified and more streamlined way of managing future development. I saw some other people so afraid of the details and the possibility that “something might go wrong” that they were completely unable to see the bigger picture here.
Imagine that large aliens from outer space came with a huge vacuum cleaner and sucked away both the Town Hall and the County Hall of Justice. Imagine that we were then left to replace the government of our community with a new structure.
Given a clean slate, would we build two separate governments to manage our small community or would it be logical to only install one government for our unified community of less than 10,000 residents?
Would it make any sense at all to install two building departments and two planning departments for a small community organized around a single seven mile strip of commercial development?
It can only make sense with the statement “well, but that’s just the way it has always been done”.
The heart of what I want to write about here is the difference between being a “caretaker” and being a “leader”. Most of the time, it is adequate for elected officials to be caretakers. Once in a while -- at critical junctures in our history -- true leadership is necessary.
Sometimes that leadership comes from elected leaders. Often times it must come from somewhere else.
General George Washington and his ragtag band of rebels almost starved to death in Valley Forge in 1778 because the vast majority of the citizens were too afraid to “change the system” and couldn’t be bothered to dig into their personal pockets to finance the rebel army. It was only a handful of men and women who led the vast populace of the American colonies towards forming a more perfect union.
After a bitter debate, only 7 out of the 13 colonies voted to approve the new constitution in 1787 which formed the unified republic. This result was the achievement of a small handful of leaders.
On its face, as an outside observer, obviously one planning and building department to manage our one small community makes more sense than having two departments do the same work. It’s obvious from the outside.
The real estate and building community has articulated clearly why a “one stop shop” is better than two separate departments. One thing is for sure. The current system of two planning and building departments does not work to grow our community as envisioned in the Comprehensive Plan.
For myself, it was a little painful to sit in those Town Council chambers and watch some random remarks about how a merged Town and County Planning and Building staff would be less efficient than two separate departments. It was a little painful to watch some make claims that the best interests of Town residents were served by continuing with a divided administration of our single little community.
So to those few adamant voices who argue against merging redundant Town and County services, I ask you this. What is your vision for the future of the community? I have heard your fears. I have heard your rejection of the logic of the merger proposal based upon small details that have yet to be worked out. I heard what might go wrong.
But, I don’t believe that I heard any vision for the future. I don’t believe that I heard any guiding plans or principles. Where are you leading us to?
Fear is not a future.
This disfunctionalities of the past do not inform a positive road map for tomorrow.
In life you always end up with one of two things: What works or the reasons why not.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The "conversation" that we are
I like to read the Pagosa Daily Post almost every day. The regular writers keep me up to date with what is going on in Pagosa Springs.
What particularly fascinates me is the "conversation" that the community of Pagosa Springs is.
Sometimes -- actually more often than not -- we as a community are a "conversation" that looks something like: everyone who ever takes on any position of leadership in our community needs to be destroyed.
Sometimes -- actually more often than not -- we as a community are a "conversation" that looks something like: everyone who ever takes on any position of leadership in our community needs to be destroyed.
It really is fascinating to watch and explore. Well, unless the news story of the day involves "you". When the "you" (that would be the "I" in your mind) gets involved then all of a sudden it is not so much fun and interesting but all of your painful whatevers are there ready to get triggered.
It looks like this might just be a local Pagosa Springs "conversation". But actually it is a national and an international conversation.
What happens every second day of a new U.S. presidency? The "impeach so-and-so" bumper stickers come out.
So, actually, this "conversation" is not local. It is the conversation that all of humanity is mired in.
But, like fish in water who do not know that water exists......almost none of us humans are aware that we "swim" in a "conversation" not of our own making. Most of us think that we are thinking the negative, critical thoughts. But actually the negative, critical, back stabbing thoughts are thinking us.
That is not just a poetic flourish. The greater conversation of humanity actually "thinks" for the individual. That is to say that we "individual" humans are born into and show up into an already known way of thinking and communicating.
That is not just a poetic flourish. The greater conversation of humanity actually "thinks" for the individual. That is to say that we "individual" humans are born into and show up into an already known way of thinking and communicating.
So, here is the good news for you if you are the "target" of a critical story. It is actually not personal.
The critic thinks that they are thinking and writing a critical story about you. The gossip thinks that they are saying something unique. But, notice that most of the letters to the editor are also from the same school of "thinking"......about how other people are wrong and jerks and whatever. And, so, by necessity, the writer must be right or something.
Or at least, for sure, the "leader" must be destroyed or exposed or something.
Or at least, for sure, the "leader" must be destroyed or exposed or something.
The good news is that the "conversation" really isn't about you. The "conversation" was in place before you were even born. You were born into it.
This conversation permeates all aspects of human life. This is the conversation that you are with yourself (you know, that ugly chatter in your head). This is the conversation that we are as an intimate relationship. This is the conversation that we are as a town. This is the conversation that we are as a nation. It is a conversation of "no possibility". Roughly, it could be called the conversation of "everything, everywhere is hopeless".
But, the greater human conversation can be altered. Great leaders can do that. That is the fun part.
What I am writing about here is a call to personal responsibility. On any given day, in any given situation, the opportunity is to personally take full responsibility. I did not say "to take blame". To take full responsibility is to claim it. To take full responsibility is to claim and to be a stand for your own personal power. To "blame" is to give away your power. To "criticize" and to talk about the mistakes of "the leadership" is to pretend that you do not have any power to influence your community from whereever you are.
Just because the County Commissioners wear fancy hats or because the Town Councilors wear fancy badges does not mean that they have any more "power" to affect change in the community than either you or I. The true source of the "power" of a County Commissioner or of a Town Councilor comes from the fact that they show up every week and try to get something done. Showing up and taking action is the source of personal power.
But as a people, on this planet, we swim in a conversation that goes something like this. "I have no personal power. Someone else has the power. I can't really do anything to improve my situation and the situation of my community."
As a people, we reinforce the mistaken theory that power exists outside ourselves by "blaming" and finding "fault" in the "leadership". Finding fault and blame are the narcotic that keeps us each, individually, asleep to the power that we each have inside of ourselves.
What power did Rosa Parks have when she stepped onto a bus in a segregated south and demanded to sit where "the white folks" sat?
What power did Nelson Mandela have from the jail cell in South Africa where he was incarcerated for 25 years?
What power did women have to demand the right to vote?
What power did the American colonists have against a Britain which was the greatest military power in history at that time?
What power did Nelson Mandela have from the jail cell in South Africa where he was incarcerated for 25 years?
What power did women have to demand the right to vote?
What power did the American colonists have against a Britain which was the greatest military power in history at that time?
What power do you have to alter the shape of the local economy in Pagosa Springs?
What power do you have to influence an efficient merger of redundant County and Town services?
What power do you have to influence an efficient merger of redundant County and Town services?
You have whatever power that you claim for yourself.
If you say that the power to run the community is outside of yourself, then you are right. If you say that you claim personal responsibility for the future of our community, then so you do.
More often than not, true vision, leadership, and change in a community comes from somewhere other than the "appointed leadership". True leadership comes from one or two people who take a stand.
True power comes from somebody showing up and taking action week in and week out.
True power comes from somebody showing up and taking action week in and week out.
So, to the critical, the naysayers, and the voices of doom I ask "so what?" Now, what exactly are you going to do about it?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sprawl is as American as apple pie. I love pie. But I hate sprawl.
Recently, the County has been trying to wrap up a new Urban Services Area map which hints at where new development and maybe higher densities will go in the future.
Some have argued that the people who come to Pagosa are looking for a lifestyle of 3 to 5 acres -- a sort of semi-rural aesthetic. But consider that other people who prefer walkable communities and higher density have not arrived in Pagosa -- yet -- because there is nothing here for them to arrive to.
We currently do not have a solid example of newer mixed-use development in our community. Under the “I know it when I see it” standard, a mixed-use development is characterized, in part, by people walking around. Walking from the house to the coffee shop. Walking from the house to a store to buy a loaf of bread. Walking from the house to a job.
Right now in our community, every “trip” is done in an automobile. Mixed-use, done well, eliminates the need for some automobile trips because a variety of activities (living, shopping, office) are all mixed together on the same site.
The old downtown commercial core does provide some mixed-use living. Economic stimulus is missing at the moment. A more vibrant downtown would lead to more people walking downtown.
I have argued previously that we have to choose now whether future development is going to lead to sprawl or if we going to commit to density. But for Pagosa Springs, my argument was really not quite on point.
We have already let sprawl happen in Pagosa Springs. Drive from Ace Hardware on the west end of Town all the way to Day Lumber on the east end of Town. That distance is seven miles. Drive from Highway 160 to Hatcher Lake. That distance is five miles.
Too late folks. We already let the “sprawl” genie out of the bag.
Now, let’s get out of our car and walk around a bit. Everywhere. If we look long enough and close enough, here is what we see. Almost every trip to a house, from a house, to a restaurant or to City Market is a vehicle trip. Every trip from Lake Hatcher to a coffee shop or City Market is a five mile vehicle trip also impacting Highway 160. Even downtown, most trips are vehicle trips. Under our current plan (or lack of real plan), when our population doubles again, the number of vehicle trips will also double.
So what is this “small town character” that people say that they want to “keep” for Pagosa Springs? In my dream of a small town, people bump into each other on the street. Some trips are done in the car and some trips are done on your feet. Isn’t that what “Main Street” U.S.A. is supposed to be all about. My dream of small town is not bumper to bumper traffic heading up and down Highway 160 from the east side of town to the west side of town.
Sprawl is as American as apple pie. I love pie. But I hate sprawl.
Does anyone doubt that the population in our community will double again in size sometime in the foreseeable future? You might not like it. You might not want it. But can you stop it?
When I was born in 1962, the world population was about 4 billion people. Now the world population is fast going on 7 billion. I will live to see 8 billion people on the planet. Maybe a whole lot more.
I live in the heart of downtown Pagosa Springs. But given my “lifestyle”, I also head up to the west end of town (currently the commercial center of town) every day. In my truck. At least once per day. That’s a five-plus mile drive from my house in the heart of the downtown to the functional commercial center of town.
Is this the “small town character” and lifestyle people are trying to preserve?
I know that some of the downtown folks never venture up to the west end of town. Some of the Pagosa Lakes folks never venture downtown. What does that tell us about the future of Pagosa Springs? Nothing.
We all live in a one town, small county. We are one unified community. Even if we don’t quite believe it yet.
Eventually, downtown will be restored as the vibrant commercial center of our community. Take a roughly 8 block radius and draw a circle around the downtown core. If we get this downtown core right -- a must see tourist destination and a walkable civic center where locals actually walk -- then the rest of the county will successfully ride on the coattails of this socio-economic heart of the community. (Hat tip to the new Overlook spa and the new Springs hotel.) If we blow it on growing the downtown core properly then we will always have non-descript sprawl, anywhere USA. And, indeed, we will have blown it for the future generations of our community.
We need a heart and soul to this place. Sprawl, by definition, has no heart. Continue to create the heart in the downtown. Then create some satellite mixed-use centers that are also pedestrian in use; not just theory. Then, the best that we can, try to tie the whole thing together along Putt Hill.
I have one single litmus test for all future development in our community. Does it attract new, young families? If new development attracts new families then, by definition, it attracts new jobs.
Second home owning retirees -- we love you. Tourists -- we definitely want you. But new, young families will be the life blood of the future generations of Pagosa Springs.
Which brings me to this new Urban Services Area map that the County Planning Commission has just passed on to the County Commissioners.
For someone as interested in land use planning, you would think that I would have spent a lot of time analyzing the details of the current version of the map. But I haven’t. I’ve got my letter-size piece of paper with a printout of the current draft of the map.
Is it a good map for our community? How many people have actually been involved with the process so far?
There are three things that I really like about this draft USA map. One is that it shows, conclusively, that Archuleta County/Pagosa Springs really is a one town, small unified County. I’m not ignoring Arboles or Chromo. They need their own special community plans. But that does not detract from the fact that we really are a single, unified community.
Here is a County map, showing an oval outline, with the “Town” in the middle and the “County” together as single bubble of people and houses.
The second thing that I really like about the draft USA map is that I trust the people who put it together. I trust the County Planning staff and I trust the County Planning Commission. They put a lot of time and energy into making that map the best that they possibly could.
Is someone going to complain about too much potential density in their back yard? Yes. Is someone going to complain about not enough potential density on their own acreage? Yes. Would I have done some parcels differently? Maybe.
But the point is that the Planning Commission did the best they could to represent all of the thousands of people who did not show up at the meetings. They did their best to represent all of the thousands of people who don’t live here yet but will live here some day. This map is a stand against future sprawl.
Is the map perfect? Maybe not. Is it a very good draft? Definitely. The draft Urban Services Area map is a picture of the future growth of our community and where it should be located. Should growth continue haphazardly all over the place or should growth be limited to inside of the oval bubble?
Pagosa Springs is currently defined by a seven mile stretch of commercial sprawl along Highway 160. And by miles of perpendicular residential growth arms.
The entire City of San Francisco, California sits on land just about seven miles by seven miles square. The Urban Services Area of our “small town” looks to take up as much space as that large city.
To the extent which the Urban Services Area map will establish the idea that we are not expanding this community out any farther into our open space, I applaud it. I hope that this map becomes a “line in the sand” over which future subdivisions will generally not cross.
So, here’s my personal nod of support and appreciation to the work of the County Planning Commission and Planning Staff on the new map.
Some have argued that the people who come to Pagosa are looking for a lifestyle of 3 to 5 acres -- a sort of semi-rural aesthetic. But consider that other people who prefer walkable communities and higher density have not arrived in Pagosa -- yet -- because there is nothing here for them to arrive to.
We currently do not have a solid example of newer mixed-use development in our community. Under the “I know it when I see it” standard, a mixed-use development is characterized, in part, by people walking around. Walking from the house to the coffee shop. Walking from the house to a store to buy a loaf of bread. Walking from the house to a job.
Right now in our community, every “trip” is done in an automobile. Mixed-use, done well, eliminates the need for some automobile trips because a variety of activities (living, shopping, office) are all mixed together on the same site.
The old downtown commercial core does provide some mixed-use living. Economic stimulus is missing at the moment. A more vibrant downtown would lead to more people walking downtown.
I have argued previously that we have to choose now whether future development is going to lead to sprawl or if we going to commit to density. But for Pagosa Springs, my argument was really not quite on point.
We have already let sprawl happen in Pagosa Springs. Drive from Ace Hardware on the west end of Town all the way to Day Lumber on the east end of Town. That distance is seven miles. Drive from Highway 160 to Hatcher Lake. That distance is five miles.
Too late folks. We already let the “sprawl” genie out of the bag.
Now, let’s get out of our car and walk around a bit. Everywhere. If we look long enough and close enough, here is what we see. Almost every trip to a house, from a house, to a restaurant or to City Market is a vehicle trip. Every trip from Lake Hatcher to a coffee shop or City Market is a five mile vehicle trip also impacting Highway 160. Even downtown, most trips are vehicle trips. Under our current plan (or lack of real plan), when our population doubles again, the number of vehicle trips will also double.
So what is this “small town character” that people say that they want to “keep” for Pagosa Springs? In my dream of a small town, people bump into each other on the street. Some trips are done in the car and some trips are done on your feet. Isn’t that what “Main Street” U.S.A. is supposed to be all about. My dream of small town is not bumper to bumper traffic heading up and down Highway 160 from the east side of town to the west side of town.
Sprawl is as American as apple pie. I love pie. But I hate sprawl.
Does anyone doubt that the population in our community will double again in size sometime in the foreseeable future? You might not like it. You might not want it. But can you stop it?
When I was born in 1962, the world population was about 4 billion people. Now the world population is fast going on 7 billion. I will live to see 8 billion people on the planet. Maybe a whole lot more.
I live in the heart of downtown Pagosa Springs. But given my “lifestyle”, I also head up to the west end of town (currently the commercial center of town) every day. In my truck. At least once per day. That’s a five-plus mile drive from my house in the heart of the downtown to the functional commercial center of town.
Is this the “small town character” and lifestyle people are trying to preserve?
I know that some of the downtown folks never venture up to the west end of town. Some of the Pagosa Lakes folks never venture downtown. What does that tell us about the future of Pagosa Springs? Nothing.
We all live in a one town, small county. We are one unified community. Even if we don’t quite believe it yet.
Eventually, downtown will be restored as the vibrant commercial center of our community. Take a roughly 8 block radius and draw a circle around the downtown core. If we get this downtown core right -- a must see tourist destination and a walkable civic center where locals actually walk -- then the rest of the county will successfully ride on the coattails of this socio-economic heart of the community. (Hat tip to the new Overlook spa and the new Springs hotel.) If we blow it on growing the downtown core properly then we will always have non-descript sprawl, anywhere USA. And, indeed, we will have blown it for the future generations of our community.
We need a heart and soul to this place. Sprawl, by definition, has no heart. Continue to create the heart in the downtown. Then create some satellite mixed-use centers that are also pedestrian in use; not just theory. Then, the best that we can, try to tie the whole thing together along Putt Hill.
I have one single litmus test for all future development in our community. Does it attract new, young families? If new development attracts new families then, by definition, it attracts new jobs.
Second home owning retirees -- we love you. Tourists -- we definitely want you. But new, young families will be the life blood of the future generations of Pagosa Springs.
Which brings me to this new Urban Services Area map that the County Planning Commission has just passed on to the County Commissioners.
For someone as interested in land use planning, you would think that I would have spent a lot of time analyzing the details of the current version of the map. But I haven’t. I’ve got my letter-size piece of paper with a printout of the current draft of the map.
Is it a good map for our community? How many people have actually been involved with the process so far?
There are three things that I really like about this draft USA map. One is that it shows, conclusively, that Archuleta County/Pagosa Springs really is a one town, small unified County. I’m not ignoring Arboles or Chromo. They need their own special community plans. But that does not detract from the fact that we really are a single, unified community.
Here is a County map, showing an oval outline, with the “Town” in the middle and the “County” together as single bubble of people and houses.
The second thing that I really like about the draft USA map is that I trust the people who put it together. I trust the County Planning staff and I trust the County Planning Commission. They put a lot of time and energy into making that map the best that they possibly could.
Is someone going to complain about too much potential density in their back yard? Yes. Is someone going to complain about not enough potential density on their own acreage? Yes. Would I have done some parcels differently? Maybe.
But the point is that the Planning Commission did the best they could to represent all of the thousands of people who did not show up at the meetings. They did their best to represent all of the thousands of people who don’t live here yet but will live here some day. This map is a stand against future sprawl.
Is the map perfect? Maybe not. Is it a very good draft? Definitely. The draft Urban Services Area map is a picture of the future growth of our community and where it should be located. Should growth continue haphazardly all over the place or should growth be limited to inside of the oval bubble?
Pagosa Springs is currently defined by a seven mile stretch of commercial sprawl along Highway 160. And by miles of perpendicular residential growth arms.
The entire City of San Francisco, California sits on land just about seven miles by seven miles square. The Urban Services Area of our “small town” looks to take up as much space as that large city.
To the extent which the Urban Services Area map will establish the idea that we are not expanding this community out any farther into our open space, I applaud it. I hope that this map becomes a “line in the sand” over which future subdivisions will generally not cross.
So, here’s my personal nod of support and appreciation to the work of the County Planning Commission and Planning Staff on the new map.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Patriotism is Born
When the greatness of the Tao is present,
action arises from one's own heart.
When the greatness of the Tao is absent,
action comes from the rules
of "kindness and justice".
If you need rules to be kind and just,
if you act virtuous,
this is a sure sign that virtue is absent,
Thus we see the great hypocrisy.
When kinship falls into discord,
piety and rites of devotion arise.
When the country falls into chaos,
official loyalists will appear;
patriotism is born.
18th Verse of the Tao
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