Back-seat driver: Targeting 'dumb growth' called a wise approach
By Tony Bizjak
When you leave your house or apartment to head to work or school, or the store, bank or park, do you invariably use your car?
If so, then you may be living in what some politicos now are calling a "dumb growth" area.
We first heard that term this year from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top transportation chief, Sunne Wright McPeak. She was saying the state has to do better at putting housing near jobs.
Asked if that meant the administration is advocating "smart growth" principles, she worked a fast rephrase: The state, she said, needs to stop promoting "dumb growth."
"Smart growth" is a politically volatile word that generally means denser development in already built-up areas, where housing, jobs and commerce are mixed tightly next to transit.
A local example: The combination of condominiums, stores and offices under construction next to the 65th Street light-rail station at Folsom Boulevard.
(Live there and you're 10 minutes by foot from Sacramento State, 10 minutes by light rail from downtown, two light-rail minutes from Granite Regional Park, a half-mile from the American River bike trail, with plenty of stores and restaurants in strolling distance.)
While that kind of development has tons of positive attributes, much like an old-fashioned small town, it isn't for everyone. "Smart growth" for some sounds like too much government engineering, and a little claustrophobic to boot.
But the phrase "dumb growth" conjures things that everyone agrees are undesirable: long commutes, congestion, pollution, lack of time for family and community.
With that in mind, the new leadership of the state Senate has come up with a big-picture idea for next year. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata is merging the Senate's transportation committee with its housing committee.
In a Bee article by Eric Stern last week describing the need to fight sprawl and create affordable housing, Perata said it's part of his and the Schwarzenegger administration's "anti-dumb growth" approach.
Sen. Tom Torlakson, chosen to head the new Transportation and Housing Committee, says the approach encourages policy-makers to think more broadly.
Too many people who work in the Bay Area are spilling into the Central Valley to find homes, he says. Same goes for Sacramento and its suburbs.
The tale he tells: A young couple, renting near their workplaces, decide to buy a home. But there isn't much housing in the urban area near their work, and what is there is too expensive. So, he says, "you drive and drive" from suburb to suburb until you find a house you can afford. Then, on your first Monday, you find yourself in a two-hour congested commute to work.
"We need more housing in general," Torlakson says. "But we also need it in the right mixes in the right places. We are not providing enough work-force housing in our cities. We want to see transit-oriented development increased, job-center development increased and infill opportunities utilized to the maximum."
It's not a radical idea. The thinking seems to match what Sacramento-area planners have been talking about as they look for ways to reduce sprawl and congestion and provide more affordable housing.
We sincerely hope this leads to some "anti-dumb" policy-making.
Sac Bee article