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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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There are numerous analyses dealing with turning agricultural land into urban developments. These developments can either be residential or industrial or commercial, with the roads and other infrastructures completing the picture. With the growth of the cities in North America and elsewhere, rural communities become increasingly hostile to any new urban encroachment into their lands. The reason is simple; with the growth of the cities the surrounding land becomes more and more expensive. Those who manage to escape earlier takeover may expect additional recompense. As a result, the new land that the cities manage to take is hardly enough to meet all new demands. Giving preference to any of the urban interests over the others leads to unbalanced market development.

A city X is growing at 3 percent economic growth annually, and at 2 percent annually in terms of population. Old territory cannot sustain this population boom. Since the 1950s the population has started moving out of the historic 19th and early 20th century downtown. After several decades of little opposition by rural communities the city authorities are finally reaching the limits of the soft expansionism. They must appropriate fertile lands that once were cultivated for feeding the urban population. The opposition is even harsher because the farmers know they will give up the land one way or another. Those who manage to keep it longer will get additional compensation than those who sell it first. On the other hand, the population push remains unabated. Everybody who can move away from the downtown does it, leaving inside marginal social groups plus the actors of gentrification.

City authorities must deal with increasing demand and slowing down supply of new lands for urban development. They face basically the same dilemma as the politicians in most western societies after the oil shocks of the 1970s, how to manage growing demand for resources with decreasing supply of taxes. In an ideal world, these city managers will develop harmoniously both residential and industrial and commercial and other projects, e.g. cultural and sport. In a world less than ideal they must choose between them. Each of their choices will produce problems that will need being fixed by next generation of city managers.

Suppose that the priority is given to industrial developments. Rural land is turned then into new industrial parks. The pool of people qualified to work in these parks is exhausted very soon. The companies are in need of more workers to meet their demands. Without more workers they may decide not to invest in new projects. These new workers can only come from outside. This need puts additional pressure on local authorities and on the authorities in other closely situated municipalities in order to facilitate the transportation in and out.

In an alternative vision, the priority is given to residential developments, turning new suburbia into sleeping towns. Attracting people into these residential areas as being environmentally friendly will contradict further industrial development. In fact, there will be more than enough local vested interests that will make such new industrial developments almost impossible. This, however, will create some additional pressure for facilitating the transportation between these residential areas and the business zones situated far from there. Again, local and other municipal authorities will be pressured to provide additional lands for more transportation projects.

To sum-up, giving priority to any particular function at the expense of any other will create tension between what's provided and what's needed to be provided. As a result everything that's in short supply, e.g. workers, cultural events, shopping malls, businesses, will have to be supplied in larger numbers and quantities. At the end, either the equilibrium will be restored as in the old downtown, meaning people have everything in close proximity, or the pressure for transportation enlargement will get bigger and bigger.

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