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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (138696)	8/8/2001 6:20:27 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1588367

Tim, you are coming to that conclusion based solely on what the national politicians are doing. Not just that, also the reactions to what they are doing in the media and in polls. Also people I talk to even Republicans rarely seem to get worked up over government abuses of property rights in the name of environmental protection. It seems like those words are a magic charm and anything done in their name has to be considered good no matter what the cost in terms of money or freedom. Tim, there is no question that progress is being made and that people are more concerned with protecting the environment but things are still more in favor of environmental degradation. Case in point is the LA river...a river that runs through the heart of the city. When LA was under major development, the LA river had a tendency to jump its banks because its fairly shallow as rivers go. Because development was king in LA, it was decided something had to be done and so they cemented the river's bottom and banks. This was suppose to help keep the river in its banks as well as speed water to the ocean. It was so effective most rivers in S. CA were treated in this fashion. I rank this right up there with installing plastic trees along freeways to cut down on maintenance expenses. Furthermore LA is way under parked by national standards and its still growing. Many of the newest arrivals are low income with children and can most appreciate public open space. So in recent years, LA has looked for ways to create that open space. In the meantime, the LA river was nothing more than a cement sewer channel...you can see a portion of it in the 80's movie, Grease. With the passage of time, however, the cement has cracked in spots, allowing plants and river animals to come back. People began to notice and try to help this process. By the early ninties, there was talk of renovating the river in LA....to develop new open space along its banks....to break up more of the concrete on the river bottom. More ten years have passed and very little has been done. This is in a city that very much needs a lot of open space. I think LA's example is pretty consistent with what has gone on in many cities until recently. Only with the economic success of Riverwalk in San Antonio and some others have we started to really focus on the natural elements in our cities. Yet it always comes down to being about the $$$. We can spend billions for weapons of all kind that are never used but not a few million to revive a river. This is especially true in cities like LA where little economic development or $$$ can be expected from the renewal of the LA river, so the proposal languishes. Each year, we loose a considerable number of farmland and forested acres to urban sprawl. And every year, even years with Republican administrations, we get new environmental regulations, less freedom to do what we want to do with our own property, and more land put off limits to development. Like I have said before, there is no other recourse. Our land and resources are not infinitesimal. There are limits that have to be placed to protect everyone's well being not just those who need to make lots of $$$. ted