Decide on Growth First, <i> Then </i> Build

In your lead editorial (April 16), you refer to a part of the opposition of Proposition 111 as “fringe elements.” I suggest that not all of those that oppose it share the same reasons given by (economist Arthur) Laffer and (Los Angeles County Supervisor Peter F.) Schabarum.

In Orange County, we have watched with growing alarm new freeways accompanied by new houses being built, followed by more people moving into the county with their automobiles. Within a few short years the traffic density is back to where it was before all the road building. What does change is the deterioration in the environment caused by more crowding, more noise, thicker smog, more garbage to dispose of and more sewage to dump in the ocean.

The people who are behind this proposition are the same business interests who have always preached that growth is essential for prosperity and that more is always better. Expanding the population means to them more customers, more sales, more profits and more campaign contributions. Few newspaper editors can resist the siren song of increased circulation figures.

When a degraded environment is balanced against short-term profits, the outcome has, until now, never seriously been in doubt. But with population growth, as in many things, enough is enough. What is needed is a recognition that growth is the root cause of all the county’s environmental problems.

Instead of first collecting the taxes, then building roads wherever they can be fitted in and then watching the population increase, let us turn this procedure around. First, decide what an optimum population density for Orange County should be. Then plan for the roads we need, and lastly, vote for the taxes to get the job done.

JOHN FERGUSON

Orange