I have written before that problems become crises when ignored. Whether beginning on the local level and working up, or at the international/national level and proceeding down, the longer we ignore them, the more difficult it is to find resolution.

Never before have we had such a convergence of crises that can end life as we know it sitting dead ahead. If you see the American Dream as a pathway of life, small pebbles are growing to the size of insurmountable boulders from which there may be no getting by.

You hear about them in the news: the housing/credit debacle; peak oil, resource depletion and the energy crisis; the runaway debt; the dollar’s collapse; global warming; and a exploding population we can no longer feed or take care of. These crises are not going away nor getting smaller. All of these need drastic action on the national level but I’ve got news for you: Don’t count on it. Short of a violent revolution a la 1776, it’s not going to happen.

We need leaders with forethought, intelligence and the wherewithal to lead us down paths, no matter how uncomfortable, if circumstances demand it. While not easy to influence our state and national leaders, we can begin with our local leaders who have, in most cases, failed miserably.

To be a responsible local leader, you have to look at the overall picture and make decisions based on events that will minimize the crises coming our way.

Here in Napa, Mayor Jill Techel and the city council have continued down a path of growth, even though the end is in sight. The crises mentioned above are threatening America with a severe recession and worse. Techel needs to have the backbone to do what is best for Napa’s long-range future and say no to future growth.

We need to ask: Do our leaders believe Napa can continue business as usual, despite a national economic meltdown? Or are they so in debt with the big money interests/developers, that they can’t think outside the box? I believe it is a combination of the two.

A “growth economy” is known as an economic oxymoron. It hastens the inevitable demise when a draconian contractual economy will take place regardless of what we do. Those who follow this path of growth to the end (the United States, China, India ...) will have the most difficult time adjusting to a bleak future. Those who have contracted will have a better chance to survive. This paradigm shift in thinking needs to begin on the local level. Napa has already maximized its growth and any increase decreases the quality of living. It also creates a deeper hole to dig out of where more income (taxes and growth) is continually needed.

An example of complete bone-headed growth is the Napa Redevelopment Partners’ Napa Pipe proposal. This project will do nothing but add to the intolerable traffic and create an infrastructure Napans will be paying for, for years to come. Who would come out ahead in this scheme? Those in construction, real estate, politics — the usual cast of characters.

We need to bite the bullet and slam the door on all development from this point on. Any development bringing more citizens, whether at Napa Pipe, Foster Road or elsewhere, will decrease the standard of living and make future crises worse. Any elected official not able to see this needs to be thrown out of office, and the sooner, the better.

There are groups out there who have agreed with me on this issue for years, such as those who supported the 1980s Measure A. Now we have an initiative that supports the same goals backed by hired guns with conservative backgrounds. This in itself will be very interesting to see how it plays out, but we may be onto something here. Politics is circular, not linear, and the left and right will always meet.

Another local leader who has to have his feet placed to the coals is Supervisor Bill Dodd. (Dodd, who admits he will not be seen using mass transit, is head of the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission). Dodd is in a position to make Napa County into an example of what needs to be done to survive the future. Napa County should immediately work on bringing back the commuter rail system from the Vallejo Ferry to Calistoga. As Bill Ryan said in an essay, the question is not whether we can afford it, as the reality is that we can’t afford to wait.

0ur local leaders can either position us in a good place for a questionable future or continue down the road to ruin. They need to make drastic decisions quickly, or we need to replace them with leaders with forethought and intelligence.

(Lydecker lives in Napa.)