The US economy is in big trouble.  This makes it very difficult to promote and actually achieve improvements to economies of local areas like the City of Cape Coral.

 

 How did the national economy get so bad?  Most of the problems are related to federal expansions and mismanagement, Federal Reserve and money and banking system mismanagement, Wall Streets shift to international trade and investment, the CIA and the military industrial security complex, the rise of  establishment media and propaganda, the creation of unaccountable and unelected global or international governing bodies, and so on.

 

 The upper tier national leadership has exhibited a staggering degree of incompetence and a lack of respect toward people and domestic business.  Their agendas place their egos, self interests and special interests above their duty to properly represent domestic people, domestic business, the union states and the nation. Their efforts of federal centralization (health care monopolies, etc.), regionalism and globalism only help the few in control and are a burdensome cost to the rest of us.  And, current American leadership efforts to promote regional instability, conflict and war prompts many experts with credibility to warn that a new world war is now unfolding.  When the economies get bad, diversions and war follow. 

 

 Trends Research forecaster Gerald Celente correctly stated that when people have nothing they have nothing to loose.   People know something is wrong.  The tea party people, the end the fed people, the Wall Street protesters, the 9/11 truthers, the  peace and no war activists, the jobless, the underemployed, the taxpayers, and plurality of Americans know our standard of living and our society is in decline.  Big trouble is here and growing. 

 

(who have personal helicopters with golden parachutes on the top deck) plan to solve our problems by rearranging the deck chairs, placing locks on below deck steerage doors, and sending all available lifeboats full of well armed servants to the far corners of the world promoting “democracy” and looking for those responsible for all of our problems. 

 

We need new leaders.  And this can occur if we stop hoping and start doing.   Number one on the list is electing a president who seeks peace and defense and not entanglements, aggression and war.  Bring the troops home and let them spend their money within America.  This will boost the economy and help troop families. There is only one candidate who will do this.  Ron Paul. 

 

Beyond this what can local people and planners do to improve local economies like the City of Cape Coral?  How can economic recovery and prosperity occur? The answer is that we can be optimistic if local planners make the right choices.  For instance, the city council needs to promote the free enterprise system.  That is, the city needs to reduce taxes, reduce regulations, restore freedoms lost, end special interest public private partnerships which harm taxpayers, and avoid inefficient government service monopolies which harm taxpayers, ratepayers and existing local businesses.  Of course, if voters fail to make the right choices they should not expect good economic results. 

 

Additionally, there are two concerns which are keys to economic recovery and prosperity. 

 

need manufacturing.   Statistics reveal that each manufacturing job creates about 15 support jobs. The Cape needs to treat all business fairly including existing light manufacturing.  It also needs to be attractive to potential manufacturing startups.  The best way to do that is to support a free enterprise system in ways previously mentioned.  We need these wealth generators which continuously stream money and investment into the Cape.  Think people and free enterprise and not human resources and the capitalist/socialist model. 

 

Secondly, the long term plan for the city favors a high density population city with all of the 350,000 lots to be developed. The reason there so many lots were created was to satisfy the land developers need for extra profit.  Central planning did not include quality of life beyond initial promotions.  Currently most of these lots are undeveloped.  The approximate size per lot is ¼ acre.   The areas with the highest number of infill lots are north of Pine Island Road (Rt 78). Today many promote the idea of a mega city, a city with bragging rights, as utopia.  Well, they have it wrong.  A city with 350,000 developed home sites on such a small space will create massive problems.

 

Current city council efforts which turned some of these infill lots commercial will solve part of the problem while creating other problems.  The well intentioned rezoning result needs to be reviewed and changed. Many streets or sections of streets which were recently zoned commercial need to be changed back to residential. And, some areas left residential need be added to commercial. 

 

The real problem is that in spite of the recent commercial rezoning we still have too many infill building lots.  These lots, if developed, will create staggering problems and a lesser quality of life.  We need a new vision, a new master plan which promotes positive growth with an expected lower ultimate population size.  This outlook will actually create demand for development and result in a city of diverse and exciting possibilities.