Absinthe & Cookies (a bit bitter, a bit sweet)

Glossy Political Mailers

With Ith's kind permission... here is my belated guest blog post.

A couple of organizations I've never heard of, Citizens for Public Water and Monterey FLOW, assure us that a publicly-owned desalination plant is the answer to all of our water woes. In their six-page glossy full-color mailer, they claim that they are "working together to ensure that water remains affordable for all county residents."

Well... I haven't the time or the energy to dig deep and study this one, but one sentence jumps out:

Growth . . . will occur in accordance with existing and new land-use policies.

Hmm. What "new" land use policies might those turn out to be? The mailer is mysteriously silent on this point.

I confess I am torn. As a lifelong resident and survivor of several past water shortages with rationing, I do want our local water supply to be safe and plentiful. But on the other hand... if there is a new source of water brought online (i.e. a desalination plant) I suspect we will find out very quickly what those "new" land use policies would be. All together, now, one-two-three: More development! More traffic! More bodies! More McMansions! Hurrah!

Water. At what price?

Discuss amongst yourselves. I have work to do.

Cross-posted at Coffee with CrankyBeach

Posted by CrankyBeach at May 1, 2007 7:05 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE