Growth and its consequences are a common topic here. Fingers are pointed, blame is heaped, and characters are assaulted due to frustration from a county that seems to be consuming itself.
“No wonder Americans in the 1990s became increasingly alarmed at their deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl, congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions on their individual liberty in order to handle the new population explosion!” From www.numbersusa.com [1] The quote seemed as if it were written about current Clay County. I have included it here to remind everyone that “our” problem is not just Clay County specific, but is happening all over the US and the World. There are two percentages associated with population - natural growth and overall growth. Natural growth represents the births and deaths in a country's population and does not take into account migration. The overall growth rate takes migration into account.
Some stats: US: 303,000,000 people; .894% growth rate (population doubles every 78 years); 14.18 births per 1,000 people; 8.27 deaths per 1,000; 2.92 immigrants per 1,000; average lifespan 78.14 years. World: 6,600,000,000 people; 1.167 growth rate (population doubles every 60 years); 20.09 birth rate; 8.37 death rate; average lifespan 65.82 years.
As much as we wish to blame politicians and bureaucrats for our “deteriorating quality of life”, we need to look more deeply into the real problem. Actually, it’s pretty simple. We keep making more and more of ourselves – natural growth. Clay County is a GREAT place to live – migration. Here in Clay County, it has been full steam ahead with regard to growth. In 1960, there were 19,535 people living here. 1970 – 32,059 (64% increase); 1980 – 67,052 (109% increase); 1990 – 105,986 (37% increase); 2000 – 140,814 (25% increase); 2008 est. – 180,000+. With just a natural growth rate (.894%), we will add more than 1600 people per year. County projections have our population at well over 250,000 by 2015. Obviously, more people need more homes, more services, more cars, more of everything. It may make us feel good to blame some government person for all of this, but we are making this problem ourselves. My little family grew from 2 people (my wife & I) that migrated here from Duval County in the early ‘80’s to currently 8 people counting kids, grandkids, son-in-law. Personally, I’m looking forward to my family continuing to grow and prosper – right here in Clay County.
I’m not letting the government off the hook completely, but if we are to cast blame, we need to include our own growing families in the blame. Government can only do so much. As imperfect as they may be, there are Growth Management laws on the books in Florida. But no where do those laws attempt to address the root of the problem – people making more people.
Growth management regulations, changing out politicians for a new batch of politicians, or laws like the Hometown Democracy Amendment will not solve this problem. We may be successful in increasing the cost of housing and business to the point where no one wants to, or can afford to live here, but those efforts will not – will not – change the problem.
If we really want to stop growth related problems, we will figure out how to get our growth rate to 0, or better yet, a negative number. I recommend we all learn how to get along better in a more crowded environment, because people making fewer people just ain’t going to happen.