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Show long range planning What is sometimes billed as the new American Ameri-can dream---getting away from it all and moving to the country---is turning out to be a misleading picture. Few people are actually moving to isolated areas. They are shifting around, but staying within easy commuting distance from town. A report prepared for the Colorado Rural Development Commission by the University of Denver, examining the state's rural growth and economic problems, suggests spending massive amounts of money for rural development, and establishing tough policies regarding govern-. govern-. merit's responsibilities to balanced development. The conclusions in this report were reached after researchers discovered that the front range counties of Colorado near Denver would grow to 4 million in the next fifteen years, while the bulk of rural counties in the State will continue to decline. The same trends, we are sure, could be applied to projected growth in Utah. One need only travel through any one of a number of western states to see the facts of the above-mentioned report proven. Unbridled growth of metropolitan areas which brings all sorts of problems, is in stark contrast to the miles of dwindling activity in rural areas that were undoubtedly more active half a century ago than they are now. We do not believe that simply getting bigger is necessarily getting better. Over-dependence on one type of economic growth---such as the travel industry---can also be self-defeating. We "do believe, however, that government---particu-larly on the state level---must redirect its energies toward long-range goals for balanced growth on more than a regional level. With that growth comes opportunities for residents, educationally educa-tionally and professionally, which builds self-sufficiency self-sufficiency into rural areas. |