Many small communities that formerly hired their workers to repair their roads and do the work that was required of communities have tended toward private contractors for these services.
This movement toward privatization has been increased to the point that now private development firms are being subsidized and encouraged to develop in these communities because of the resulting property tax increase potential.
In the development area especially, we are engaged in a partnership arrangements, where we share some of the speculative risks that businesses face in market situations.
There's also movement toward privatizing schools and the eventual privatization of even police departments and fire fighters, especially where there are no volunteers involved.
Usually many of the people associated with these community activities lived in the community and added to its community spirit. Suburbs generally, were not like small towns with rooted populations and people living in suburbs were instead, fairly mobile. People who lived in suburbs had the same feelings of transiency toward community as they had when living in hotels during their travels.
The price of living in suburbs is basically the price of the property tax plus the cost of the living accommodations. Pretty much like hotel accommodation but at another level of impermanence. These other forms of privatization further add to the transiency and to the decline of the more rooted elements of community.
Lack of interest in community is seen in the dearth of opposition candidates for official positions in our local governments.
A few people make a great deal out of their activities that seem to stem out of their sense of community. This is often is spotting one green pea floating around in the fluid called pea soup. One becomes excited over some evidence of an element of the whole. For example, the idea of the “walkable community” is seen as evidence that we are basically a community.
I'm especially concerned as to the guarantees we are inclined to give developers, especially now in what appears to be a declining real estate market. We also subsidizes what might over-stimulate real estate development activity at perhaps the wrong time.
Our emphasized economic interests, also seem to over-ride the potential components of community. Community elements could be improved as a result of these developments if we were not merely involved in these activities as normal business or money transactions.
This abbreviated critique only begins to summarize some of today's trends that move us further away from community and from social community development. Need we mention that we are also interferring with and moving away from normal market forces.
