POP: “Well son, your friend is right. A long time ago Janesville was surrounded by the finest farmland on Earth.”
SON: “So what happened to it?”
POP: “Academics, landowners, speculators and Janesville city officials all simultaneously thought the land could be better utilized by paving over it with concrete, asphalt and homes.”
SON: "But that happened way back in the 19th century, when they probably didn’t know any better, right?”
POP: “No. It began sometime in the middle of the 20th century, but the warning signs didn't show up until around 2010.“
SON: “But that must have been a time when they didn’t know about the rare quality of the soil, sustainability issues or carbon footprints, right pop?
POP: “Wrong son. They knew all of that plus more. They had all the data. They just chose to ignore it and go with obsolete trend patterns. Everybody else was doing it. "Economic development and growth" was the magic term. Sprawling out in the name of economic development – except very few other cities had what Janesville had.”
SON: “So, it could have happened by accident, and then others added to it and only made the mistake larger, right?”
POP: “Wrong again, Son. The city actually worked for years on this and documented 25-year-long plans to annex the farmland and develop it and even made efforts to oppose ruralization.”
SON: “OK, but you never explained what would make the people do this, pop?”
POP: “Some folks thought there was something in the water that dumb-downed the people or made them passive and compliant. But my grandfather told me it was caused by greedy landowners and developers and a city government that sought total control."
SON: “But wasn’t there over-development and infrastructure problems, and a housing glut back then?”
POP: "There sure was. But perhaps the worst part of all of this was the city’s philosophy on growth. They felt the best way to utilize the farmland was to fit as many homes on it as they can, primarily for tax purposes. The city opposed rural development and open land sprawl as inefficient use. They felt it best to urbanize it as densely as possible with homes and commercial developments – at the same time the inner city was becoming increasingly fragmented by bulldozing homes, and thinning the density by creating greenbelts."
SON: “Will any good ever come out of this?”
POP: “Well there could be a silver lining. Someday, they might bulldoze all those homes and rip out the streets and sidewalks and greenbelt it.”
SON: "But why would they do that, pop?”
POP: "Progress my son – progress."
Statement from Janesville's Comprehensive Growth Plan Overview:
The plan does not advocate for preventing development in the City as a viable strategy to preserve agricultural land….
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