The Great Reset

Why the Suburbs End and Who is Behind It

The Great Reset

Why the Suburbs End and Who is Behind It

This week didn’t begin with a plan to write about the destruction of “the American Dream” of homeownership or about the attack upon the suburbs, but when I spotted the Conor Dougherty New York Times piece, “Where the Suburbs End” I felt it was time to give readers a glimpse of reality.

California’s government addresses a housing shortage by encouraging “density in suburban neighborhoods; allowing people to subdivide single-family houses and build new units in their backyards.” This “housing reform,” is being pushed across America using as justification “existential problems, including reducing segregation and wealth inequality or combating sprawl or climate change (transportation accounts for about a third of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions).” The reference to transportation is an important part of this story, so keep it in mind.

There is currently an eastward exodus out of California. Why is there a housing shortage?

Dougherty states that “members of the millennial generation continue to lag their parents in homeownership.” This aligns with November 2, 2018, Munk Debate claim made by Steve Bannon that millennials “own nothing”; “can’t afford a house”; have no pension plan or careers, adding, as Dougherty did, that generation is 20 percent behind where their parents were and live in multigenerational households. Bannon claims that President Obama’s war on jobs and the creation of a gig economy handle the financial straits that many millennials face. Worse is student loan debt for underemployed millennials who are barely getting by.

Let’s inspect claims made by the invisible “they,” which Mr. Dougherty refers to–reducing segregation, wealth inequality, sprawl, and climate change (transportation)–all familiar progressive, Sustainably Developed, talking points.

The Green New Deal and the Great Reset

That justification, transportation, brought to mind a 2019 Tucker Carlson segment with Mark Steyn just a few days after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY14) presented her Green New Deal environmental initiative. The highly ridiculed AOC plan would eliminate cows and flying–replacing air travel with train transit and beef with worms - to “make America free of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases.” Mark Steyn said “Democrats’ Green New Deal is nothing less than a “totalitarian” attempt to “cease the movement of people.” It’s meant to control transportation and where people live.

Also in July 2019, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations announced a “Strategic Partnership,” to outline “areas of cooperation to deepen institutional engagement and jointly speed up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

Only one year later, in July 2020, Klaus Schwab’s (The Great Reset) World Economic Forum told the world its citizens should live in tiny homes shared with others, near work, own nothing, stop eating animals, eat bugs, and be happy!

Don’t discount the involvement of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos Elite in the United Nations’ intention to deconstruct societies and Build Back Better through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

This Strategic Partnership Framework MOU follows the WEF-UN 2009 Global Compact, from which “WEF published a 600-page report entitled the Global Redesign Initiative, which called for a new system of global governing, one in which the decisions of governments could be made secondary to multi-stakeholder led initiatives in which corporations would play a defining role. In a sense, this WEF study recommended a sort of public-private United “Nations”–something that has now been formalized in this MOU. The agreement announces new multi-stakeholder partnerships to deliver public goods in the fields of education, women, financing, climate change, and health.”

The United Nations and the World Economic Forum told the world’s citizens that under their new Global Compact, corporations would take an active role in global governing, ensuring that Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are met.

Ending Single-Family Zoning

In the same month, July 2020, President Trump caused quite a stir when he said that Joe Biden wants to “abolish the suburbs” during a White House Rose Garden speech. NBC News accused Trump of being both racist and segregationist. MSNBC covered Trump’s claim as well, also accusing him of discrimination. MSNBC also included a Washington Post “fact-check” referring to Trump’s statement:

“Abolish — in the suburbs, you’re going to abolish the suburbs with this. Enforce Obama-Biden’s radical AFFH — that’s the AFFH regulation that threatens to strip localities of federal affordable housing funds unless they change their zoning laws to fit the federal government’s demands.”

The Democratic Party–Media spin machine ignored those words “threaten to strip localities  ... of federal funds unless.” It is through these federal funds that they carry the agendas of those holding the purse strings out. Those funds trickle down to local zoning and planning committees.

Now, President Biden’s infrastructure bill seeks to end single-family zoning, as reported by Real America’s Voice (here). Cities and counties use zoning ordinances to control land use. Ordinances regulate how a parcel of land may be used, as well as the type of structures that may be placed upon the land.

Think Globally, Act Locally,

The now-ubiquitous term “Sustainable Development” sounds virtuous, friendly, and tame enough, right? That term is used to categorize agendas, actions, and justifications by both governmental and corporate organizations. In fact, the United Nations, in 2015, adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, as the core of their “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

For this purpose, let’s look at Sustainable Development Goal 11–“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”

In the event one needs further convincing that Thinking Globally, Acting Locally about cities and human settlements is not a combined top-down (global) / bottom-up (local) approach, that last paragraph might help clarify:

Sustainable human settlements development was also discussed at the second and third sessions of the Commission on Sustainable Development. "Promoting sustainable human settlement development" is the subject of Chapter 7 of Agenda 21, which calls for 1) providing adequate shelter for all; 2) improving human settlement management; 3) promoting sustainable land-use planning and management; 4) promoting the integrated provision of environmental infrastructure: water, sanitation, drainage, and solid waste management; 5) promoting sustainable energy and transport systems in human settlements; 6) promoting human settlement planning and management in disaster-prone areas; 7) promoting sustainable construction industry activities; and 8) promoting human resource development and capacity-building for human settlements development.

Paragraph 89 of the 2030 Agenda calls on major groups and other stakeholders, including local authorities, to report on their contribution to the implementation of the Agenda. Local and regional governments have a wealth of valuable experience in the "localization" of the 2030 Agenda, where they provide leadership in the mobilization of a wide range of stakeholders, the facilitation of "bottom-up" and inclusive processes, and the formation of multi-stakeholder partnerships.

In a recent post, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs published an event, scheduled for 3 November 2021 named “Voluntary Local Review Series: Institutional arrangements for SDG implementation,” and a “Draft Programme” for that event. United Nations lists Sustainable Development member states on their website. (Archived) Every country listed participates in the Agenda 2030 plan to develop a “new system of global governance.”

Delivery of Sustainable Development goals requires input from cities, states, and countries with help from non-government organizations and the private sector.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Topics cover every aspect of civil society, every activity, every environment, and established Africa as a priority area. Non-government organizations (NGOs) are important partners in achieving Sustainable Development goals. In the United States, NGOs receive taxpayer-funded grants for the work they do. They do not require NGOs to publish detailed public reports of their activities; they are unaccountable to the public sources of their funding.

One such partner, The Partnering Initiative (website) “is dedicated to driving widespread, systematic and effective collaboration between civil society, government, and companies to address sustainable development challenges in all parts of the world.” The Partnering Initiative helps align the private sector, businesses, with the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. With only ten years remaining until 2030, TPI and the UN developed “The SDG Partnership Guidebook as a guide to building high-impact multi-stakeholder partnerships…”

“The 2030 Agenda Partnership Accelerator is a collaborative initiative by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and The Partnering Initiative, in collaboration with United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), UN Global Compact, and the UN Development Coordination Office. The initiative aims to significantly help accelerate effective partnerships in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Supporting at the local level are non-government organizations like the National League of Cities whose “2021 National Municipal Policy and Resolutions” mirrors the UN Sustainable Development language.

With South Carolina as an example, we see the Municipal Association of South Carolina (MASC). Every state has one or more organizations of this type giving advice to public officials and advocating for their initiatives. Here you can see the Affiliate Associations of MASC.

In the example below, Resource Links for the South Carolina Council of Governments lists International City County Management Association (ICMA) as the leading organization of local government professionals dedicated to creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world.

Below are screenshots from a general internet search, a search of the ICMA website, and the ICMA affiliates list. ICMA receives taxpayer funding through the U.S. Department of State for The Community Resilience Initiative–Bangladesh. ICMA Affiliate, Association of Ukrainian Cities receives taxpayer funding through USAID.

While it is difficult, if not impossible, to link the above examples directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development initiative, the language suggests that there is a connection. SDG Cities Guide website offers “mechanisms for integrated governance” below.

What I have written here is trivial when compared to other information available on the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. More and better information is out there–search for it and share it.

Just know that what is happening “where the suburbs end” began in the minds those whose compatriots seek nothing less than total control over every detail of earthly existence and seek to dominate every aspect of human lives.