Value choice: A Drabantby for Kristiansand?

Every time one opens the local newspaper, I feel like I’m reading the same thing. Some image of a local politician appears. It hardly matters who this is, because the message is largely the same.

“Every municipality must be forward-leaning and future-oriented in land policy if jobs and income are to be secured”.

This is a randomly chosen quote from the newspaper, and shows something of the point of the post I am writing. Because what does it really mean to constantly develop new business areas and building sites for Mandal city?

Of course, this hopefully means more income, also more legs to stand on. For the politicians, mind you. But at the same time, a growing population also means that we are moving in the direction of a metropolitan environment with the negative aspects that this often entails.

Another problem in relation to this is the competition Mandal has both in the east and in the west with the aim of attracting new industry. Historically speaking, Lyngdal is much more food-friendly. They have long traditions of facilitating new industries over there. And Kristiansand has all the advantages when it comes to infrastructure, and the power they have in being the biggest in every way in Southern Norway.

Mandal falls short in many ways compared to these two municipalities when it comes to business. And what are we then left with? Is the dream to become another drabantby for Kristiansand?

When you take these points into consideration, it may make sense to sit down and think carefully about where you want to go with Mandal. Do we who live here want to take part in a development towards us moving in the direction of becoming bigger, or should the city’s politicians rather seek to optimize Mandal as a charming small town?

Or in other words. Why be big when you are happy as a child?

This is called making a value choice.

I feel that this choice has disappeared somewhere between Jåbekk sør, Sodevika and not least the expected imminent sale of Strømsvika to Kristiansand. And once I’ve rooted myself out on those edges again, there are a couple of thoughts I’m left with regarding this. Why you blow up part of Mandal and then sell it on to Kristiansand seems quite incomprehensible to me. And with such a sale, surely much of the point of the whole of Jåbekk south also falls away?

Audun Steen