We are proud of Mayor Letty Hardi and Councilmember Justine Underhill for their whirlwind trip to San Francisco last week to participate as elected officials in an event hosted by what we believe is called the “Abundance Alliance.” Readers can check out our Page One article about this to get the drift of what it was all about, and, from our point of view, what is definitely promising and necessary about it.
This time, we credit The Washington Post for beating us to the punch with an editorial lauding this new “Abundance Movement.” In theirs, published just yesterday, the headline is “America Needs an Abundance Mindset.” Waxing eloquently, it pronounces “The future can be better. But getting there requires a mindset of abundance, not scarcity: a bigger pie with bigger pieces for everyone, not a more pleasing distribution of what’s already in the pan. In fact, an abundance mindset is essential to tackling climate change and entitlements. Faster economic growth is the easiest way to manage high levels of debt and the rising cost of Medicare and Social Security.”
This way of thinking should be nothing new to citizens of Falls Church. In fact, this newspaper has been an undying advocate of this point of view since our inception 34 years ago and the City leadership has been generally all in on it consistently if not always unanimously for the last quarter century. We know and have directly experienced how economic growth leads to all good things, like the best schools and facilities of government and public use.
This is what is responsible for the fact that, contrary to all other jurisdictions in the region and national trends as well, revenue generated from Falls Church’s robust economic development has brought not only massive infrastructure improvements – a state of the art high school, renovated city hall and library, just to begin with – but a steady decline in the real estate tax rate, such as the City Council here is now addressing in its new budget deliberations. As affordable housing is a critical component of what the “Abundance Movement” argues is important, too. Falls Church is making steady gains in that arena, as well.
The “Abundance Movement” is growing out of a closely related effort called “YIMBY-ism,” as in “Yes in Our Back Yard,” as opposed to “Not in My Back Yard” NIMBY-ism. Also, Councilmember Underhill’s newest documentary film, “Green Vs. Grey Environmentalism,” that was screened at a Falls Church Forward event not too long ago, makes the compelling case that dense urban-like development is the best way to act against the climate change crisis by reducing travel time-related emissions and leaving more land to be green.
The San Francisco event drew some predictable San Francisco-style online leftist criticism. But, frankly, we now have an opportunity as a nation to forge a new bipartisan alliance to stop the extremist Trumpism that threatens to destroy us. This “Abundance Movement” may be the key for how to make that happen.
