Smart Growth: Changing the way we shop?

By Darren Weeks

The picture below illustrates what appears to me to be an example of "smart growth" in action. Notice the many shops on a horseshoe-shaped road. Below the photo in the newspaper that I scanned in for you, reads the following caption:

The Clarendon Market Commons in Arlington, Va., is one of the new "lifestyle centers" that compete with traditional retail outlets by clustering upscale stores in a pedestrian-friendly setting.

We talk about "sustainable" communities. Could this "retail revolution", of which the article speaks, be the beginning of these communities? Is this the future of living and shopping in America?

Click photo to enlarge

I remember reading somewhere that in the sustainable communities, everything that you need will be within a five-mile radius. Therefore, you'll have no need to use an automobile to get from place to place.

This photograph certainly seems to spell that out. Notice the high-rise living quarters in the back of the photo, coupled with various specialty shops for the consumers' perusal.

Is the term "lifestyle center" just another name for a sustainable community?

"Sustainable" communities are the plan of the future for everyone, as the United Nations Agenda 21 is implemented. More and more land is being put off limits for human use. As this happens, there is less and less land to own and use. Accordingly, populations in cities will continue to expand.

The land that doesn't come under U.N. "protection" or isn't designated as "conservation" areas (meaning little or no human use), will be heavily regulated and controlled.

I originally found a lot of articles about these sustainable communities in Britain by doing a news search in Google. Britain appears to be ahead of the U.S. in implementing Agenda 21.

Now, I am starting to see these communities spring up in the U.S. I discovered a prototype being established around the Naples, Florida area. It is called the Bella Via Community.

Upon further research, I discovered that New Jersey has it's own Bureau of Sustainable Communities and Innovative Technologies. They describe the responsibilities of the department:

Created in Spring 2004, the Bureau of Sustainable Communities and Innovative Technologies, among other duties, is responsible for designing and implementing a New Jersey Environmentally Sustainable Communities Program. Development of this program is currently underway. Our partners and clients are those New Jersey municipalities that seek to improve the quality of life for their residents by striving to become sustainable communities.

Improving the quality of residents' lives? Only if you consider having every aspect of your life regulated and controlled as your definition of "quality"!

Remember, Sustainable Development seeks to curb human impact upon the environment. The only way to accomplish this, is to heavily regulate everything that we do.

Sustainable Communities are an outgrowth of Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development comes from the United Nations, and is being implemented by virtually every agency of the federal government, as well as state and regional governing councils, and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The blueprint for Sustainable Development is Agenda 21, a 40 chapter document that was hammered out at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also called the Earth Summit), held Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. Agenda 21 contains various policy recommendations for U.N.-member countries (called "states") to implement.

In the U.S., the Department of State has the Office of the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, which consists of a cabinet member who represents the United States at the U.N.

Kim R. Holmes, U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs said in a speech in December 2004,

"We have many international organizations in which to advance our foreign policy. And one of those is the United Nations, which is so prominent in the news today." (Emphasis mine.)

Hence, we have a rare admission that the United Nations' real purpose is to advance the foreign policy of those who control the U.S. government. Put another way, the U.S. is the United Nations.

Just what is the foreign policy of the U.S./U.N.? It is one of world domination and population control, under the guise of environmentalism.

It's obvious that the ruling elite really care nothing about the environment. If they did, they wouldn't be destroying the environment right now in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where Depleted Uranium weaponry is being utilized.

Population control under the auspices of the U.N. is being implemented, and the tools of environmentalism and "sustainability" is the means by which it is being accomplished.