State must slow population growth

Letter to the Editor
The Contra Costa Times
February 17, 2012

Population Growth Questioned

It’s amazing that with all the environmental, overcrowding (e.g., classrooms and traffic congestion) and limited-resource issues that we face, no one wants to talk about the number one factor, population growth. Unbridled population growth, with all the human-based negative impacts, is not "sustainable" long term.

For years the state has made a population forecast and provided large financial incentives (taxpayer moneys) to cities and counties to add a specified amount of new housing (including "affordable housing") to facilitate that growth. No one seems to be questioning the population forecast or discussing whether it’s desirable, or what might be done to slow it.

The current One Bay Area program is trying to sell the public on the need to ‘pack and stack’ new housing around transportation hubs such as BART stations as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But that objective could be better served by slowing population growth. The word limit here precludes more details, but interested readers should check out Californians for Population Stabilization (www.CAPSweb.org).

Don Huggins, CAPS Member
Walnut Creek, CA