
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
One of my favorite reading sources is Headwater News, a daily digest of articles from around the West. When sitting in my office in Vermont, it keeps me aware of the big forces at work in the Rocky Mountain region and reminds me of some of the significant differences between the East and the West—water laws and public land ownership leading the list.
I’ve watched in shock as Arizona passed its draconian immigration legislation and with surprise as Utah adopted legislation enabling the state to condemn federal lands. Given the large public presence through the public lands, I can understand the backdrop behind these legislative moves and other practices (although I still can’t swallow Arizona’s approach).
The recent article in The New York Times about the continued new construction in Las Vegas really caught my attention. Despite record foreclosures and a 60 percent drop in real estate values in parts of Las Vegas, builders are cranking out the subdivisions again. The theory is that area and local industry can build themselves out of the slump. As the article pointedly observes, “Las Vegas is trying to recover by building what it does not need.” Haven’t we learned from the 2008 recession that the old normal of sprawl and unfettered growth is not the new normal? And that it was considered normal for so long is precisely what drove us into the recession in the first place? Las Vegas slumped so badly because of its excessive and ill conceived building. And now, with high vacancies, foreclosures and unemployment, they want to build more houses?
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