Last year, I wrote a guest opinion on the horrendous growth overwhelming Moab. Your acceptance of more motels startled me as I’ve played in your city for 40 years. Again this year, I noticed another four new motel-apartment buildings choking out the view and creating skyrocketing living costs for locals.
Somehow, highly credentialed leaders in Moab seem to think that your city and state can continue unlimited growth. There’s no question that leaders in the Moab community think that every new building added to your area becomes a ‘plus’ to your economic abundance. Their mantra seems to be “growth adds more jobs….Arches isn’t crowded…there’s no gridlock in Moab….”
It’s a “Faustian Bargain” whereby developers enjoy the money and luxuries for the moment but could care less about the consequences to future generations.
They said the same thing in Salt Lake City—now facing enormous consequences to its unending growth.
The realtors and construction people fail to understand that exponential growth is like a cancer cell: it keeps growing until it kills its host.
The authors of exponential growth in Moab would like you to believe that the battle against growth is lost; therefore, your only role is to be the best possible losers. “You must give up any efforts to achieve a quiet, sustainable or stable community,” they explain.
You must remember that “smart growth” or “dumb growth” or “slow growth” or “managed growth” or “economic development” all destroy your environment and your quality of life. But “smart growth” destroys everything you cherish with “good taste.”
How about a realistic solution: what about voting for a “Moab Population Stabilization Policy.” How about avoiding becoming another ‘mega-city’ where the engines of progress became so successful that they create mega-problems that cannot be solved. (Do you see the “Brown Cloud” over Salt Lake being cleansed? How about the bumper-to-bumper traffic being solved? How about the ‘crush’ of people hammered into every high-rise and tenant building?)
In the end, what will happen to Moab if it continues exponential growth? Answer: more school crowding. Packed recreation centers. More traffic congestion. Additional police needed. More expensive government. More tax revenue needed. More outrageous housing prices. Higher utility costs. More air pollution. Higher food costs. Arches National Park turned into a human anthill. Gas prices escalating. Accelerating destruction to your environment. Don’t forget: your quality of life deteriorates with each new construction project.
Remember that each city in Utah that continues growth policies, you and your family ultimately become victims of that expansion. How about changing course by voting for a stable, sustainable and environmentally viable Moab? It’s the least you can do for your children.
Frosty Wooldridge
Golden, Colorado
