Agenda 2030 in Small Town U.S.A.

The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 is becoming reality for cities and towns across the country. A recent example from small-town Arkansas comes to us from a resident, who writes:

Our city council has adopted a plan called Discover Paragould 2042. It’s modeled after Rogers and Bentonville in Arkansas, and Oxford, Mississippi, as well as several cities served by the Orion Group, a smart growth city planning company. The full plan for us can be found at https://www.discoverparagould2042.com/.

The city of Paragould essentially wants to turn us into a big homeowners association, where nobody owns a yard and everything is in walking distance (as in 15-minute cities). One businessman has called the plan “regulations on steroids.” But few people are paying attention, so this is going to happen. I’m actually about to move away so that I don’t end up having to live in a townhouse and sharing a pocket park or courtyard with 20 other families.

This is blatant Agenda 2030 in action. Of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the 11th aims to make “human settlements” sustainable. This is code for 15-minute cities — a term introduced following the 2015 UN Climate Conference. The plan is to herd people into urban areas where everything they need is within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride, and travel outside the “district” will be restricted. Some cities are already transforming into these open-air prisons; residents of Oxford, England, are required to obtain a permit to cross six major roads that demarcate the city’s zones. Urban planners are also building these future detention centers from the ground up. An example is the LEAP Project outside Lebanon, Indiana, funded by the state in cooperation with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, which has offices in Germany, Japan, South Korea, China, Israel, Italy, and the U.K.

History of the Agenda

President Joe Biden boosted the 15-minute-city agenda in 2021 only six days after his inauguration, issuing an executive order that called for conservation (i.e., government takeover) of “at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030” to “tackle the climate crisis.” This “30×30” initiative is part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims to gobble up “conserved” land for SDG 15, which favors “green” over reliable energy, and endangered species over livestock. This goal is already threatening farmland across the United States with eminent domain for boondoggles such as solar, wind, and carbon capture, all backed by hefty government subsidies.

But the plan has been in place for much longer. President George H.W. Bush signed the United States on to Agenda 21 at the 1992 Earth Summit. His successor, Bill Clinton, formed a Council on Sustainable Development, naming J. Gary Lawrence as lead advisor. Lawrence explained “The Future of Local Agenda 21 in the New Millennium” in the September 1998 issue of the council’s publication, The Millennium Papers. But, he warned, the name Local Agenda 21 in the United States would “bring out many of the conspiracy-fixated groups and individuals.” His solution: “We call our processes something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.”

Nationwide Infiltration

UN-inspired comprehensive plans are now ubiquitous. New York City’s “OneNYC 2050,” “Imagine Austin” in Texas, “OurLA2040” in California, and “We Will Chicago” are just a few examples on the home front, while “The London Plan,” “Metro Vancouver 2040,” “Plan Melbourne 2017-2050,” and Singapore’s “Master Plan” reveal that no corner of the globe is left untouched.

Tentacles entwine small towns and rural areas, too. Durango, Colorado’s comprehensive plan is filled with telling catchphrases such as “socio-economic diversity,” “sustainable behavior,” and the “unsustainability of transportation based on single occupancy vehicles.” Otsego County, New York, even offers Comprehensive Plan Samples and Tools, downloadable from its website. Look into what your local city council or county commission has adopted, and you will probably find similar fingerprints, such as those in Paragould, Arkansas. It’s just as likely that your local representatives are innocently unaware of the internationalist origins, so plan to collaborate with rather than confront them to free your community of these globalist traps.

This article is part of The New American’s weekly online newsletter Insider Report, which is emailed to TNA subscribers each week. Click here to subscribe to The New American to receive the Insider Report and access exclusive content.