The Shape of the Future

E M Risse



 

Fiddling Around

 

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Virginia's legislators diddle while the state and its regions sink into dysfunctional governance. Only informed citizens can hold them accountable.


 

The results are now in: Barring a miracle between now and the end of the Veto Session, the day after April Fools Day, those concerned with smart growth and a sustainable future were hosed at the 2003 General Assembly.

 

In our last column (See Silver Lining, March 3, 2003), we examined why the very best that advocates of sustainable human settlement patterns could hope for from the 2003 General Assembly session was a set of clubs to use at election time. Every seat is up for election this fall, and those who have the fortitude to face voters after the last session will be standing for reelection.

 

The question is: What chance do those who favor responsive, efficient state and sub-state governance, and desire human settlement patterns that support a sustainable future have of achieving fundamental change?

 

From a logical perspective, the odds look good. 

 

First, we have the support of the voters on these issues, as demonstrated in poll after poll over the past decade.

 

Second, the support is concentrated in the three largest New Urban Regions of the Commonwealth.  These urban places are not only have the most voters, they are the most prosperous. Most important, the citizens of these three regions have the greatest institutional capacity and the best networking potential.

 

These three regions are the economic engines that pay Virginia's bills. As of July 2002, these regions had 67.3 percent of the population. If one-person-

one-vote is the law of the land, and it takes a two-thirds majority to achieve fundamental change, then supporters of this change should have no problem, right?

 

I don't think so!

 

There are four obstacles confronting any effort to use the legislators' positions on issues related to land use and transportation in the 2003 session as a lever to get a rational and responsible majority in the General Assembly this Fall.

 

Seniority and politics. If the smart growth interests are successful and the voters toss out many of the current legislators who stand in the way of fundamental change, the result could end up being a re-enactment of the 70s following the first suburban awakening. The first awakening occurred in the then-emerging economic dynamo -- the northern part of Virginia. In this Subregion angry voters tossed out many of those whose vote did not to represent their interests every two years. 

 

This made good government advocates feel better, but it resulted in the leadership of the legislature falling into the hands of the very forces that most opposed the perspectives of the majority of the population living in the northern part of Virginia. The legislature ended up in the control of delegates and senators from large, very-low density districts south and west of Richmond. Their names became household words in the 80s and 90s as Virginia emerged as a leader in 21st century technology and 18th century governance. These legislators have repeatedly been quoted as saying that any growth is good and that their constituents would love see a new Wal Mart,  power plant and 15 McMansions on a cul-de-sac in their districts, no mater where they were located.  

 

The primary alternative to attempting wholesale replacement of current representatives is to get a promise-carved-in-stone that existing office holders will mend their ways and work for the common long-term good as determined by the public, as opposed to engaging in party political horse trading and soliciting campaign contributions from special interests. For instance, fear of losing builder PAC money was often cited as the reason individual legislators gave for opposing Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances.

 

The retread/promise-in-stone strategy worked with some supervisors in Loudoun County in 1999, but will it work with legislators across the Commonwealth? As the next election approaches, the Loudoun effort may be unraveling due to intra-party squabbling. This intra-party dissension is rooted in the fact that the party leadership/party faithful do not hold the same views as the majority of the party members, much less the majority of the voters. 

 

The only cure for this problem in a democracy is extensive citizen education. That process takes time and professional help that no one seems willing to support. This leaves control to the political party apparatus, which means the citizens lose and business-as-usual interests and their PACs win.

 

The current legislative process. No matter how many responsible legislators are sent to Richmond to represent the urban majority of the Commonwealth, the current legislative process in Virginia is black hole that adsorbs time and resources from those seeking fundamental change. The only good thing about the current mock legislature is that it lasts only a few weeks each year. The rest of the time the legislature, which acts as if it is indispensable during those few weeks, goes into hibernation.

 

The current system is one established to respond to 18th century technology, economic relationships and population distribution.  There is no thought of working to create a more perfect union, or more responsive governance processes at the state and sub-state levels. There is a near perfect governance vacuum at the Regional and Alpha Community scales.

 

The only winners are those who avoid getting tossed out of office and return for more fun times in Richmond. The current legislative process is a yearly re-enactment of Lucy jerking away the football before Charlie Brown can kick it. The core problem is that it is the only game in town, and no one is stepping up to make fundamental changes in the process.

 

As bad as these two structural problems are, two others may be even harder to address.  

 

Faux fiscal conservatism. Faux fiscal conservatism is a disease that has morphed Virginia's tradition of "fiscal conservatism" into something completely different to suit the short-term political objectives of both parties. 

 

Fiscal conservatism has served the citizens of the Commonwealth well in many ways. It has led to intelligent investment in education and infrastructure. Taking advantage of the institutions and prosperity created by these investments, opportunistic politicians have changed intelligent fiscal constraint into something completely different. The new theme seems to be "government is bad but less government is less bad."  A lower tax burden and not better services is a sign of good government and a pledge of "no new taxes" is the only assurance of a representative acting in a responsible manner. 

 

Campaign after campaign on these themes have convinced voters that they are overpaying for the services, and the way to solve it was to elect those who pledged to pass no new taxes. Citizens fell for this ploy and are paying for their mistake with reduced services and growing governance inefficiency. The real goal should be to efficiently provide services and create an effective governance structure.   

 

The "no new tax/smaller government is good government" phobia infects all government services and deprives every citizen of the services they should be able to expect -- education, health care, resource conservation, etc. The disease negatively impacts human settlement patterns in many ways.  For example, failing to fundamentally change the state and sub-state funding structure encourages municipalities to chase non-residential tax base to pay for "sub-state" (aka municipal) services for residents. This creates a wild imbalance in land use control process and exacerbates the problems associated with dysfunctional human settlement patterns. "Tax reform" is the current buzzword.  Failure of the state government to address even the most blatant abuses of the current system gives citizens little hope that there will be a serious effort to make fundamental changes.   

 

Providing for the safety and prosperity of its citizens is a government responsibility. As Aristotle noted, the primary path to safety and happiness of citizens is creating and maintaining quality human settlement patterns. This process costs money, and in a democracy, the role of government is to fairly and equitably allocate these costs. 

 

Under our federal Constitution, it is the Commonwealth's responsibility to enable and support prosperous and stable communities within sustainable New Urban Regions. The 2003 legislative session proves again that those in office have no idea what this means or how to achieve these objectives.

 

The obsession with private interests and neglect of public responsibilities. Perhaps because the citizens elected representatives who are unwilling to address the larger issues, the legislature and the executive branch have become obsessed with issues of private rights and actions (e.g., seat belts and parental notice) without concern for private individual's collective responsibilities. The obverse is that the Commonwealth governance structure has become incapable of focusing on the collective, commutative impacts of government action and inaction that impact the health, safety and welfare of all its citizens.

 

Traffic fatalities, traffic congestion, air quality, water supply, economic prosperity, social stability and environmental sustainability -- all items directly related to human settlement patterns as well as many others such as education, health and safety that are indirectly related -- are ignored in favor of sometimes trivial and uniformly less important issues. The Lt. Governor recently distributed an e-mail to supporters lauding his efforts in facilitating distribution of deer meat to poor residents of the Commonwealth as an important legislative initiative.

 

This last point is perhaps the most troubling. Most agree that our individual prosperity and family welfare is directly tied to our region's economy, and the region's economy is directly dependent on our competitive role in the global economy. In this context, state government is taking profoundly counterproductive actions and crisis-sustaining inactions. The focus on "individual rights" and especially on "property rights" with no mention of the collective private responsibilities violates a basic economic reality. Robert Samuelson termed it "The Fallacy of Composition": What is good for one is not necessarily good for all.

 

The stock market demonstrates the wisdom of this observation every day. There is, however, no more dramatic demonstration of Samuelson's truth than in the pattern and density of land use. 

One curb cut on an arterial road is a convenience to the user and an occasional inconvenience or safety concern to the users of the arterial. Thirty curb cuts is strip development that reduces the arterial road to a collector road and may require a bypass. 

 

One urban house on a 10-acre lot in a small valley of farms is by-in-large tranquility with an occasional conflict. One hundred urban houses on 10-acre lots in the valley puts an end to agricultural activity. 

 

Reviewing and approving a series of "projects" that may all meet the general criteria of the municipal plan often results in a cumulative mess that requires expensive public intervention after the fact. This is demonstrated in every urban area in the Commonwealth.

 

If the proverbial Man from Mars were to drop in on Virginia and listen to the Richmond rhetoric, he would not believe that according to the Year 2000 Census, fewer than than one percent of Virginians live in families that are classified as "farm" (e.g. non-urban). Nearly 79 percent of Virginians live in the eight metropolitan regions, and the other 20 percent are urban residents who live in urban dwellings scattered across the countryside. 

 

The inter-planetary visitor would think most Virginian's were yeoman farmers living in a bucolic 1840 landscape. Those who did not farm were engaged in small family businesses -- most of them rolling cigarettes, making shoulder holsters and other gear to conceal weapons or running mortuaries. It would also appear that these genteel souls are being protected by the legislature from a demon force called "sub-state (aka, municipal) government" that is seeking to steal their privacy, property and innocence.

The common theme of discussions and decisions about governance in the Commonwealth is competitive, partisan, party politics-driven squabbling.

 

In grade school world history classes, I was fascinated by the suggestion that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. In our town, when something was on fire, everyone helped put out the fire. Then it occurred to me that Nero was not really playing the fiddle, he was just fiddling around. Democracy has come to this: In Virginia it is not the emperor who is fiddling; it is the whole governance system that is fiddling around while the Commonwealth grows ever more dysfunctional.

  

Those who like to play the political game and want to beat legislators over the head for their poor performance in Richmond during the 2003 legislative session have an insurmountable obstacle course unless they start with Civics 001.

 

-- March 17, 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed Risse, AICP, is the principal of

SYNERGY/Planning, Inc. He can be contacted at spirisse@aol.com.

 

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