Growth Politics Comes of Age

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's election to Governor of Virginia is attracting attention as far away as Michigan. Keith Schneider, with the Michigan Land Use Institute, has written an article for local consumption about the political signficance of Kaine's victory. In "Could Smart Growth Tip the Next Presidential Election?" Schneider argues that growth issues in America's fast-growing suburbs are changing the dynamics of U.S. politics.

Gasoline prices are rising fast. Roads are jammed. Construction costs are out of sight. Incomes of working people have fallen for five straight years. Government deficits drain public spending on infrastructure. America’s population is climbing at the fastest rate in our history, and so are obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other indicators of our behind-the-wheel way of life.

The old foundations of the economic development strategy that produced thriving suburban communities and successful American lives are crumbling. The fortunate circumstance of cheap energy, inexpensive land, rising incomes, moderate population increases, and massive government spending for roads and water systems yielded a prosperous way of life in the 20th century. But in the 21st every one of these trends has been transformed.

Schneider argues that Kaine's winning margin came from appealing to sprawl-related quality-of-life issues "in the fast-growing, conservative counties of northern Virginia, particularly Loudon County." (Nobody outside Virginia ever spells "Loudoun" correctly.)

I think that Schneider exaggerates the extent to which "sprawl" was a central issue in Virginia's 2005 gubernatorial campaign, but find his perspective to be intriguing nontheless. Especially cogent are his thoughts on rethinking the meaning of "economic development":

Conventional views about the benefits of a business-at-any-cost economic strategy are colliding with the reality of ugly sprawl, congestion, cracked roads, obsolete schools, fiscal deficits, escalating energy prices, and rising civic discontent about how communities grow. Advocates now have the best opportunity in a generation to make the case that Smart Growth’s proven economic principles and popular cultural values represent a national economic development strategy that has real merit.