You people want to stop progress

I've heard it all before. Those "against" development (I'm not by the way) are also against "progress".

So why do we (or the Council) always seem to define 'progress' by how many more people move up here every year, or how much rates we collect, or how many building permits are issued?

We can and should also measure progress in a number of other ways, besides sheer numbers of dollars...

- education, adapting and skilling our local workforce;
- the smart ways in which we as a community manage our affairs;
- how and what we recycle
- how we manage and sustain our local natural resources;
- providing local non-vehicular infrastructure
- urban planning than primarily integrates humans first, cars second
- a fully intergrated and complete network of cycling tracks from one end of the city to the outer suburbs;
- building development is thought through on the basis of how it enhances and supports the land, not detracts nor abuses it;
- what's unique about what we offer our community;

I read a comment posted on this Blog by Charlie Stevenson, whom I don't know. He (or she!) stated that we need to look forward to a time when we have a [Council] administration that "listens to the ratepayers before the developers and puts environmental and social concerns at the same level of importance as economic concerns."

I couldn't have put it better myself. Honestly.