Clive Doucet Points to Other Causes
   
    First, there is a shift in urban development to “just in time” provisions of goods, from factory to suburban mall. This has eliminated warehouse districts, helped to promote urban sprawl development, and supported the automobile as transportation. Building and maintaining roads consumes 25-50% of all city budgets. Parking lots and parking spaces are subsidized by the government and are a net drain on the civic economy. Less money is available for historic services like libraries, schools and community centres.
    In addition, tax money flows from the older part of the cities to develop the new low density suburbs. In Ottawa about 70% leaves the inner city for the outer fringes and their “traffic sewers.”

Who Pays for Services?
    All across North America suburban developers are heavily subsidized by the older areas of the city. The “development charges” which cities impose on the developers cover water, sewer and local roads, but little else. In Ottawa the city council agreed to hire economists and accountants to discover the true costs of suburban development. They documented the enormous subsidy given to suburban development. But when the inner city councillors came up with a new sliding scale for development charges which would shift more of the burden to the new areas, the developers, their lawyers and the PR men showed up en masse and argued that the new plan would halt development and shift people to other cities. The city council caved in to the developers. New schools were built in the suburbs. Older schools in the inner city were closed.

Closing Schools Is a Bad Option
    There are no good reasons to close neighbourhood schools. Doucet notes that all cities and neighbourhoods go through growth phases. When older people leave an area they are replaced by younger people with families. “Closing neighbourhood schools creates inner city rot because no young family will move into a community where their children can’t attend local schools.”
    Once a local school in a city and its play yards disappear, they are gone forever. As Doucet recalls from the Ottawa experience, “They are too costly to replace. Schools are the lungs of the community. They give it breathing space and vitality.” There may be some small short-term savings in closing a school which only has 70% of potential enrollment. “Unfortunately, the long-term cost of creating just-in-time schools are incalculable. Community stability, greenspace, generational revitalization, property values and the neighbourhood quality of life all tumble.”

Comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!