Shills for the growth machine

From the news round up in the Sunday edition of the Loudoun County Extra section of the Post (the Post publishes the Extra twice/week in Prince William, Loudoun, and Southern Maryland, because of the volume of advertising:

On the Job for Growth?

Sandra Chaloux , founder of the anti-Dulles South group Gum Spring Regional Citizens Network, told the Loudoun County Planning Commission to be cautious when considering that two-thirds of those who spoke at the panel's public hearing Monday night did so in favor of Dulles South.

"There are a lot of folks on the payroll here tonight," Chaloux said.

She was onto something. It turns out that many of the professionals who gave addresses in such communities as Ashburn, Lansdowne and Stone Ridge -- and said they are concerned county residents who think the Dulles South plan would improve regional traffic -- were not presenting a complete picture of themselves.

When approached in the hallways of Mercer Middle School and asked their occupations, many of them refused to answer. Others grinned sheepishly and said they work in the development industry. Still others said they work for Toll Brothers, the national company with plans to build 2,500 residences in Dulles South.

Toll Brothers division Vice President John D. Harris was at Monday's meeting. He said that he didn't know how many of his company's employees were there and that he was not aware of any organized effort to draw them out.

An informal survey revealed that at least two dozen of those attending the meeting work for Toll Brothers. Most wore stickers supporting planned communities and other stickers with pictures of "Kitty" and "Kingsley" -- the imaginary horse riders conceived by Dulles South proponents to paint their foes as wealthy landowners in western Loudoun.

From this angle, it looked pretty organized.

Also see City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place, the classic sociology paper by Harvey Molotch.

Index Keywords: growth-machine