Growth Is Evil, Not AQMD Policies

I noticed that Hugh Hewitt (on behalf of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County) was talking about the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) rules to help retard pollution as though this were a crime (“Builders’ Lawyer Assails AQMD Policies,” Oct. 26). Implicit in his point of view is the backward assumption that growth is good and anything that impedes it is evil.

He has it exactly wrong. Growth is what is ruining Southern California, both on the ground and in the air. There is plenty of undeveloped ground between Denver and Las Vegas. He and the builders can head east and find lots of unopposed opportunity. Those of us who live and try to breathe here in Southern California don’t need any more dense development.

As to his assertion that companies are leaving because of SCAQMD rules--hogwash. They are leaving because of high taxes and high wages. When these companies leave, hopefully they will take many of their employees with them and help decongest the Southland.

If there are no new places to live or work in Southern California, people will stop coming and our problems will decrease. Our economy will find a way to live in a steady state based on real, viable, stable industry, instead of depending on building until we drop.

The idea that builders must build because of the demand out there is a myth created to promote builders’ interests. There are dozens of empty commercial buildings built on the expectation of profits. When they do eventually fill up, the inadequate planning of the infrastructure around them will then bring further misery to those who live and work in their environs.

STEPHEN H. GOLDBERGER, Huntington Beach