FEATURED STORIES
Taking a Stand: Halting New Home Construction
Where Will People Live in Atlanta?
What If You Yell Fire!...And Nobody Comes?
Border Fence Politics


COMMENTARY: by NPG President Donald Mann
Three of the stories in this week's NPG Journal have a common theme in that they all deal with local politics. That's important, because that's where the new population wars are going to be waged – in burgeoning small towns, exploding counties and overtaxed cities all across the country.

It's a bit unfortunate that the national debate on how Congress is going to deal with the massive numbers of illegal immigrants already here in our country – and the policies they will set for new immigrants – has overshadowed so many local population-related stories. However, these tales when put together are fast-building into a new crisis that will impact the vast majority of Americans right in their own communities. Schools, housing, roads, hospitals and other essential services are already being stretched way too thin in many locales and the problems will only get worse unless we prevent adding tens of millions more people to our population in the coming years.

As part of NPG's 35th Anniversary celebration in 2007 we will very much remain front and center in the national battle for a responsible immigration policy as it once again unfolds in the 110th Congress. Concurrently, we will also inaugurate a full series of projects that will open the lines of communication to elected officials at all levels of government – not just Senators, Congressman and Governors -- who must resolve these problems every day. Our goal is to offer our help in building the local and national solutions to emerging population problems and gather the support of hundreds of concerned officials so that we can all speak with one voice on this critical subject that so threatens our future quality of life.


TAKING A STAND: HALTING NEW HOME CONSTRUCTION
Anyone concerned with out-of-control population growth should cheer the actions of local officials in Prince William County, Virginia – that state's second fastest growing county -- who voted last week to halt construction of new development for a year.

NPG has worked hard in recent years to educate local officials about the vital need to stop further growth and not sell out their counties "livability factor" to greedy developers. Far too often, local government officials go along with unrestricted growth because they are desperate for the new tax dollars that result. And having grown accustomed to a constant "green light" to bulldoze more and more farms and pastures in their quest for additional bucks, developers get very touchy when they are reigned-in. Of course, both sides in the raucous Prince William County debate claimed that they were working in the county's best interests. One contractor who feared the impact on her small business chided the board by saying, "This will be your legacy. You will be known as the board that, with a flick of a pen, killed the county."

Those of us at NPG and all who embrace no growth would differ. These legislators are working to save the county for the tens of thousands of people who seek to make Prince William County their home far into the future. NPG salutes them for their courage and vision. Click above to read the full story.


HOUSING IN ATLANTA
Plenty has been written about the recent boom and bust of real estate markets all over the nation. But little has been said about America's growing housing crisis which is especially severe for those who rent.

The Atlanta Metropolitan area, which is estimated to grow by an additional 800,000 people in the next decade, is building like crazy in the suburbs. However, lower and middle income people are being hard squeezed to find affordable housing. Right now, virtually no affordable housing is being constructed in Atlanta itself. According to a recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the city is finally waking up to the growing housing crisis and its implications on the future quality of life. As is true across the country, the big question is: What's the solution? Clearly the real problem here is NOT a matter of housing shortages, but one of TOO MANY PEOPLE. Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in the country, and as the numbers continue to skyrocket, all resources will be threatened. Click above for the full story.


WHAT IF YOU YELL FIRE!...AND NOBODY COMES?
We constantly hear about our roads being jammed and our hospitals and schools becoming overcrowded. But what about essential services like the police and fire departments?

A recent article in Alabama's Birmingham News highlighted the growing crisis of a few small communities in the shadows of Birmingham where the population is ballooning much faster than firefighters can keep pace. It is a story repeating itself in small towns and once idyllic counties all over the country – the infrastructure just isn't there for the vast number of people moving into the area. Not only are local fire departments understaffed, they also do not have up-to-date equipment. And they're competing for scarce local tax dollars that are being spent furiously to keep up other vital services like health care, schools and sewer lines that are also needed by new arrivals.

NPG's efforts to take our message to the elected officials who are on the front lines of the population battle has never been more important. Click above for the full story.


BORDER FENCE POLITICS
One way to ensure that a project dies in Washington, D.C. is to put such a horrendous price tag on it that it scares people away from starting it in the first place. That seems to be the tactic of the Bush administration when it comes to securing our borders with a fence and other high tech instruments. A Washington Post story in mid-November cited the Homeland Security Department inspector general as speculating that costs for such measures will run much higher than the $2 billion industry analysts initially estimated and could go as high as $30 billion. The story noted that "The dramatically high estimates, delivered to House members ...injected a new dose of skepticism into the national debate to curb illegal immigration." Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) noted that a much smaller attempt in the 1990's to set up remote-sensing devices on the border "started as a $2 million program and turned into a quarter-billion-dollar disaster." Stay tuned.


POPULATION AND IMMIGRATION NEWS NOTES

A SIGN OF WHAT'S TO COME?
Pima County Arizona, which includes the fast growing city of Tucson, banned new lawns in commercial developments unless they are intended as parks or playgrounds. It is the toughest rule yet imposed to save water in southern Arizona. Look for similar measures to become a fact of life as population expands in an area where there is a limited supply of water for human needs, let alone lawns.

HISPANICS SUPPORT ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE...
A new Zogby International poll was recently released that finds that 65 percent of Hispanics favor making English the official language of the United States. Rob Toonkel, director of communications for U.S. English noted that the results of the poll of 903 Hispanic adults "challenges the long-standing claim that Hispanics generally oppose official-English measures."

WILL TOM TANCREDO RUN FOR HIGHER OFFICE?
Congressman Tom Tancredo who has been the premier advocate in Congress to focus his fellow legislators to address the immigration crisis is said to be weighing a bid for higher office. Speculation is that he may run for the U.S. Senate seat in Colorado if Senator Wayne Allard retires or perhaps even throw his hat in the ring in the race for the White House. Either choice would make sure that the out-of-control immigration problem gets even more national visibility in the debate about our nation's future.


QUOTABLE

"So many conversations on immigration don't go anywhere. It's just people venting feelings..."

John Tanton
Described in a recent Washington Post story as the "mastermind of the modern-day movement to curb immigration."



WHY THE NPG JOURNAL?

With our country just passing the milestone of 300,000,000 people, the coming months will find much of America's attention focused on our growing population. Here at NPG we are taking this historic opportunity – combined with the advent of our 35th Anniversary in 2007 -- to go beyond our traditional web postings and launch this new internet-based educational publication which will be delivered every two weeks via e-mail to you and an ever-growing list of NPG members, media contacts, educators, friends and supporters.

Our purpose in launching the NPG Journal (offered free to all recipients) is to give more widespread distribution to timely news stories and articles related to population, immigration, environmental and political issues that currently affect our daily life -- or have the potential to seriously impact our future. Combined with this information, NPG President Donald Mann will offer his personal insight and commentary on individual stories, especially those that challenge, confirm and/or complement our NPG Research and Forum Papers. In all, the NPG Journal will greatly expand NPG's educational mission, reinforce the vital need for Americans to speak up on population issues, and keep our nation -- especially our elected leaders on the national, state and local level – focused on taking action that can rein-in today's out-of-control population and immigration crises.

We welcome your feedback to articles posted on the NPG Journal and urge you to forward us the e-mail address of friends you think would like to receive a complimentary copy of the NPG Journal on a bi-weekly basis. Contact us at npg@npg.org. Also, please use that address to tell us if you do not wish to continue to receive this publication. Thank you.


ABOUT NPG

Negative Population Growth, Inc. (NPG) is a national nonprofit membership organization with over 30,000 members nationwide. It was founded in 1972 to educate the American public and political leaders about the devastating effects of overpopulation on our environment, resources, and standard of living. We believe that our nation is already vastly overpopulated in terms of the long-range carrying capacity of its resources and environment.