Mailbag: "Hardy Boy" writes; On Growth; On much more

Growth. Sometimes it's good for you and other times
it's a tumor. Evansville has " Grown " immensely in
the last ten years. The population has increased, new
schools were created, stoplights, and of course
McDowell's home of the golden arks. One thing that
hasn't grown is Evansville's individualism. At one
point Evansville was a small farming community with a
thriving downtown area with beautiful historical
houses that was a pleasant halfway point between
Madison and Janesville.

Now Evansville is becoming any town USA. It continues
to " Grow " by default. Do you think people are
moving to Evansville because they enjoy a 30-60 minute
drive to work every day? Its all about the $$$$. The
city gov. will tell you that everything is going
according to smart growth that the citizens created.
They can hide behind that survey that is going on
three years old or maybe stop every so often and
actually look and listen to what is happening.

What kind of PROVEN benefit has expansion created for
Evansville. One could say: added diversity, tax
revenue, new streets to name after developers, real
estate commissions and trial and error residential
developments. The other hand waves and signs: Added
cost of infrastructure upkeep, extra EMS, Fire,
Police, School, harder to give directions with all the
new streets, and a loss of neighborhood identity.

Is Evansville " Growing " just to be bigger? Are
there really benefits from adding more responsibility
to this city other than the chest pounding that occurs
when another subdivision gets rubber stamped because
the sacred god of smart growth demands it.

Get real, life is a ever evolving constantly
changing machine. The city of Evansville needs to
remember it is based on being a small community with a
thriving downtown. According to that same outdated
Smart Growth survey 62% of the residents of Evansville
wish the City would slow down or stop the rate of
growth over the next twenty years. It's only the same
survey the city waves in joy every time a developer
throws a new subdivision proposal on there desk. All
the Smart Growth Plan is a self full filling dog and
pony show the city created to justify there over
annexing tendencies to try prove that Evansville's "
Growth " is non-cancerous.