Too Progressive

This is not news. Not new news, at least.

A new Census of Agriculture report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that Virginia lost 521,000 acres of farmland from 2002 to 2007, the largest decline in the past 20 years. That’s more than the combined land area of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico.

“We’ve been losing 50,000 to 70,000 acres on average every year for decades,” said Jonah Bowles, the agricultural risk analyst for the Farm Bureau. “Now it’s accelerating.”

Some lost farm acres have been rolled into conservation programs, but most were used for development.

The amount of urban and suburban sprawl in Virginia, especially in the Richmond area, is out of control and has been for some time now. In fact, I wrote extensively about Virginia’s excessive retail problem back in 2006.

In the United States, on average, there is about 20 square feet of retail space per person. The average for the Richmond metro area is OVER tripled that, at about 67 square FEET OF RETAIL SPACE FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD!

This is absurd, especially since walking around local malls (on the rare occasion that I go to them), makes me believe that some retailers aren’t having an easy time of things! It seems like many stores (especially the smaller ones) do not stay open long, and at Short Pump Town Center (despite their blatant LIE claiming otherwise) I can’t help but notice there are A LOT OF EMPTY SUITES, from where a business has packed up and left the mall (presumably due to a lack of business).

While SOME growth clearly CAN be a good thing, UNNECESSARY GROWTH NEVER IS! Richmond CANNOT support all of this retail. Not only that, but when either new homes, or retail centers are thrown up hastily, and/or in areas where they are not needed, in time, the building becomes empty, or unkempt, and the area becomes essentially a SLUM, which will no doubt happen to Short Pump, and other suburbs within the next 10 years.

It’s time for U.S. and Viriginia lawmakers to step up and get the situation under control before the entire country is left looking like New Jersey.

Posted on April 26th, 2009