While not surprised by the city’s decision to approve the Irongate development, I do feel I must voice my disapproval. This action typifies the human shortsightedness that defines modern America. Unsustainable quests for economic expansion will doom our planet. What good does a new crop of cookie-cutter McMansions bring to DeKalb? Below is an excerpt from an essay by author Edward Abbey from his 1968 book, “Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness,” on the importance of water in the southwest. Abbey is railing against development in the desert, but his criticisms apply here in DeKalb, too.

“What for? ‘In anticipation of future needs, in order to provide for the continued industrial and population growth of the Southwest.’ And in such an answer we see that it’s only the old numbers game again, the monomania of small and very simple minds in the grip of an obsession. They cannot see that growth for the sake of growth is a cancerous madness, that Phoenix and Albuquerque will not be better cities to live in when their populations are doubled again and again. They would never understand that an economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

This development will not benefit the people of DeKalb, the greater human race, any other organism or the very soil and water we rely upon in any way. It is just poorly considered growth for the sake of growth. Good to see some people on the council recognize this as a mistake.