Caveman Thinking
Fire, good! Development, bad!
Imagine a time long, long ago when Thag and Aack, two evolving and sophisticated cavemen, banged a few rocks together and discovered how to make fire. This undoubtedly made living a lot more palatable, and rewarded the hairy bipeds with warmth, light and the first barbecue. Thag and Aack were high-fiving each other, resplendent in their marvelous invention. But then, some uppity cave dwellers next door thought they, too, should have fire, and before you knew it, every caveman on the block had it. Thag and Aack were disgruntled by having to share their discovery, and so they took a big, gnarly club and beaned the other cave folks until the fire was all theirs again.
Thag and Aack may be long gone, but their ancestors survive to this day, and the clan has spread all over the Southwest lately. Having long ago lost the patents on fire, these cave people are now bent on preventing any other homo sapiens from sharing their newly adopted hunting grounds. Thus, the cave people are opposed to new roads, housing and development.
I'm not sure the cave people have thought through their beliefs on growth. My family has lived in Las Cruces, Deming and Silver City for over a hundred years, and I am pretty sure there has been a lot of growth since then. I myself have seen Las Cruces grow from around 30,000 clear-eyed residents to over 75,000 anonymous strangers, and why not? Southern New Mexico is a great place to live, and I can't blame others for following our lead. There seems to be plenty of room for everyone, even the cantankerous ones who want to be the last ones allowed in.
Recently, the city of Las Cruces sought to annex 4,300 acres into the city to plan for future growth. This simple proactive action served as a vigorous ringing of an anti-development dinner triangle, and all the cave people heeded the call. It was an exercise in creativity to see all the reasons the anti-development herd could come up with as a basis to deny the annexation: water availability, existing infrastructure needs, unmolested "view sheds" (isn't that a fancy word for "nice view"?), critter habitat, pollution, taxes and possible occupation by an alien intelligence. Okay, I made that last one up (or did I?), but a lot of stringy-haired weirdoes belonging to sketchy wilderness-activist organizations showed up citing all the other concerns, which are arguably valid, but not insurmountable.
The most ridiculous objection brought up, however, is: "We already have enough houses and people."
Now, who in the wide, wide world of sports is qualified to make that decision? Who among us is wise enough to decide who can and can't live in our area, and how do they propose to enforce this? A big ol' fence? Snipers? Seems to me, people want to move here anyway, and builders don't build homes unless there are buyers. The simple act of building a home doesn't make people move—it's the other way around. So if you're going to grow anyway, shouldn't you plan for it?
It turns out that some of the leading cave people were uniquely qualified to decide exactly how much growth is good: They were self-appointed, and their mission statement is "nobody after me." One of the anti-growth leaders bought property in an area outside of city limits, with poor zoning, adjacent to Bureau of Land Management Land, under the promise that his view would never be obstructed. Well, hell, I wish my view would never be obstructed, either, but unless I buy all the land around me, it seems that neighbors generally don't ask me if they can build a porch onto their house or plant a tree next to the property line. That's because they don't have to.
In the end, the anti-growth cave people failed to do anything but create emotional controversy that made people hate them even more. They claim to want a voice in the planning process, but bring no planning credentials to the table. They claim to want quality growth, but don't accept the quality growth that long-range planning can provide. They claim to have altruistic motives, but belong to various left-leaning political action and wilderness-protection groups.
Nobody likes it when the land next door gets bulldozed and turns into a subdivision. But property owners have property rights, and they extend only as far as the fence line. When it comes to development that meets all existing laws and codes, those rights don't include the right to tell other people what they can and can't do with their land. They don't include the ability to decide who can and can't live here. And they don't include the right to deny others their right to the pursuit of happiness, especially if your agenda isn't exactly what it seems.
Cave people are hot right now, thanks to the Geico
commercials. They have contributed a lot to civilization, but somewhere
between inventing the wheel and turning animal skins into haute couture,
the cave people evolved into something far less productive. In current
times, "cave" has become
an acronym that stands for "Citizens Against Virtually Everything." When
the next ice age comes, these will be the cats arguing for the glacier's
right to exist, and preventing man's tampering with the grand natural design.
This will not affect me in the least, as I intend to not give up on my balmy
Southern New Mexico family compound. Stop by some time—everybody's still
welcome at Chateau Lightcap.
Columnist Henry Lightcap makes fire—and cocktails—in Las Cruces.