Marbletown Defies Growth
Published in the Blue Stone Press, 10/5/2007
To the Editor:
If there’s one observation I’ve made from the public discourse on Marbletown Green, it’s this: a majority of us – including the project’s opponents – readily accept that “growth is inevitable” in our town. But that majority doesn’t include  , who challenged the notion in these pages two weeks ago. Nor does it include me, and I’m writing to pose a few challenges of my own.
First, I’d like to remind the reader that Marbletown has been defying growth for decades. To wit, its population crept gently from 4300 denizens in 1870 to 6000 today while the nation was multiplying seven-fold.
Second, industries and jobs aren’t exactly flocking to our area. Without meaning to disparage, we could present the erstwhile Tech-City as Exhibit A for this point.
Third, while Marbletown could certainly expand on its own, doing so would be easier if there were a tailwind. But New York isn’t a growing state. From 2000 to 2030, the Census Bureau sees its population edging up 0.09% per annum. That’s rounding error, not growth.
The fourth point (which might also lend insight to the third) is that, at least among developed economies, human population is no longer a driver of growth. It seems incredible, but owing to low birth rates the populations of Germany, Italy, Britain, Scandinavia, and other places, are now shrinking. Thanks to immigration the United States’ isn’t doing the same. But, demographically speaking, Marbletown bears a closer resemblance to those “endangered species” than to the nation as a whole.
Lastly, Marbletown’s archeology reminds us that growth can be undone. Witness the D&H Canal, now smothered by weeds, or the settlers’ stone fences, shadowed by trees where they once marked vast, open farms. Then there’s the O&W. Jog or bike a stretch of it (which you should!), and you’re more apt to spot a beaver lodge than a rail tie.
So it seems to me that growth lacks both the drivers and the precedent to be considered inevitable in Marbletown.
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