"There are several reasons for the downturn, said Elizabeth Flegel, the city's water conservation coordinator."

Ummm, maybe it rained a lot?

We can treat water problems like traffic problems – claimed water solutions: low flush toilets, water-efficient faucets,etc. - claimed traffic problem solutions: solved by diamond lines, metering light, light rail, bus only lanes, etc.

All these solutions are, in the end, limited when the full tilt “smart growth” buzzword con turns into dumb growth - water shortage, and stop and almost go traffic congestion.

Here you go with your bizarre logic again, Ben. So water use is down by almost *twenty* percent over the past 12 years while the city's population has grown, and this is somehow just a 'buzzword con', a set of gimmicks to pull the wool over all our eyes?

of course water use goes down with rising population. The biggest culprit in water use is landscaping. We've already reached to point that future growth will cut total landscaping of our town as buildings are put over land where we earlier put lawns.