Are we destroying what we're looking for?
                        Feb 26, 1997

Cache Valley offers us a slower-paced, rural lifestyle.  Are we
destroying what we're looking for?

Are we trading the sights, sounds and smells of agriculture for the
sights, sounds and smells of suburbia?  The distinctive styling of
vinyl siding and overfull garbage cans at the curb?  The drone of
lawn mowers and the squeal of tires?  The smell of lawn spray
services and auto exhaust?

Farms that supported several generations of rural families are now
growing one last crop of homes, to be populated by strangers who
will grow crop after crop of Kentucky blue grass and send their
moldering harvest to the landfill.

The view of the valley from the foothills still shows us towns,
defined by their cluster of trees and separated by the agriculture
that supports them.  But the visual distinction of separate towns
is beginning to fade in the sprawl of new subdivisions, naked of
trees.  Will our towns lose their identity as they lose their
geographic separateness?  Will we cease to be able to tell Hyde
Park from Smithfield or Millville from Providence?  We can already
scarcely notice when we travel from Logan to North Logan or to
River Heights.

Irrigation canals become highways for weed seeds travelling from
unkept fields awaiting the developer's bulldozer, to invade turf
that soaks up all the water it can get.

Family businesses lose to malls and strip developments that are
landscaped with acres of asphalt.  And nobody leaves their home
except in a car because everyplace they want to go is too far to
walk.

Watch the traffic downtown.  One or two people riding in a vehicle
built for 5 to 7.  They paid for their vehicle; they paid for the
fuel; they helped pay for some of the transportation infrastructure
and services that they use.  

But they don't pay for the public impacts of their mobility.  They
don't pay for the air they contaminate with exhaust.  They don't
pay for the surface water they contaminate with leaks, drips,
particulates and abrasion.  They don't pay for the congestion that
they increase with the empty seating they carry around with them. 
They don't pay for the space they use for curb-side parking.  

The only way this can be "fair" is if everyone contributes to these
public impacts, if everyone contributes to the public degradation
of our community.  And, nowadays, darn near "everybody" is doing
his or her share.

What can we do?  The agricultural land preservation movement needs
support.  Farms that have been in families for generations
shouldn't have to be sold off and subdivided for retirement income
for one lucky, or hard-pressed, generation.  

The transportation planning that is taking place needs to do more
than focus on increasing capacity for unconstrained trips in
personal motor vehicles.  Increasing the viability, feasibility and
useability of other modes of mobility will help.  

Planning and zoning could help by finding ways to acceptably mix
the places people live with the places they need to go so that the
car isn't a "practical necessity" for every trip away from home.

What kind of rural living can we enjoy when the whole landscape is
carved up into one acre mini-estates that empty out each morning as
everyone drives away to work, school and shopping?