We have all had about enough of government bashing concerning Katrina. However, there are lessons from the past two weeks concerning governance. A good place to start is to consider the issues raised on the Bacons Rebellion Blog.
Barnie D. is right that the feds have a lot for which to answer. Jim B. is right that there is plenty of apparent blame at the state and municipal levels too but that it is too early to have all the facts. Most of those pointing fingers and most of those arguing that “it” was someone else’s fault are partisans from the Elephant Tribe or Donkey Tribe trying to spin, score points or do damage control because of the prospect of an election looming in November. Today the headlines suggest many are jumping on the “bureaucracy-is-the-problem” band wagon.
James Atticus Bowden opened an important line of inquiry in a 3 September 2005 post with the heading “Bacon’s Rebellion” and subtitle “When Disasters Have Names.” Bowden clarified in a comment that this was a reprint of his September 2003 op ed concerning the impact of Hurricane Isabel on Poquoson, VA. Poquoson City is a village-scale municipality on the peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the James River north of Hampton and east of Newport News.
Bowden highlighted the role and importance of cluster-scale, neighborhood-scale, village-scale and community-scale agencies and institutions. As we point out in “What You Can Do About Katrina” a fundamental problem is there is not effective governance structure at any of these levels. In the case of Poquoson there is a village scale municipality and a geography context (a peninsula on a peninsula) that reinforces the focus of both agencies and institutions.
“South of the James/Conaway” posted important points about the current condition of urban society and the roles of both agencies and institutions. Bowden, to his credit, graciously agreed. Conaway at first glance seems to undermine Bowden’s positions on cluster-scale through community-scale enterprises, agencies and institutions but in fact does not.
“Subparte” enters to suggest if the “government” is to take up the slack it will be hugely expensive. He is absolutely right if we rely on the current municipal / state / federal levels of government. If the current bureaucracy (“Subparte’s term) is any indication, it will not function regardless of cost.
“Conaway” reenters and says in para one that he does not think cost must go up. (See above note about cost.) but then in para two hits the nail on the head: Governance has not evolved to match society. He cites good examples. Also see “Where is Northern Virginia” 18 Aug 2003 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com and the note on levels of governance in the post “What You Can Do About Katrina” from 3 September cite above.
A fundamental failure regarding Katrina was one of the governance structure that did not YET exist, not just failure of the governments that do exist.
The core issue is more than semantics but it starts with a failure of vocabulary. “Sub-urban” means less than urban. Humans cannot build and sustain an urban society with “sub-urban” settlement patterns. That is what the English thought when the word was coined in the 16th century. That is what we document in The Shape of the Future.
Just as important humans cannot build and sustain a civilization with a governance structure that does not match the settlement pattern. Mr. Bowden and Poquoson happen to be better off than most in this regard. The City of New Orleans and the adjacent Parishes are about as bad as it gets in the Untied States based on my experience there as noted in this weeks column “Down Memory Lane with Katrina” 6 Sept 2005 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com Perhaps some sections of northern New Jersey are on a par. Those with experience in Greater Buffalo and Greater Detroit suggest there are other candidates. Our own work in Cleveland suggest they may be right.
Before someone reaches for the “Manhattan” red herring we must repeat that densities that range from 10 persons per acre to 100 persons to the acre at the Alpha (Balanced) Community scale are not “Manhattan.” “Manhattan” is not the alternative to “sub-urban,” Balanced Communities in a sustainable New Urban Region are the alternative. See our column of 23 Aug 2005 on that topic at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com
As long as the default setting of contemporary civilization is economic competition, the pattern and density will depend on the operation of the Third Law of Human Settlement Patterns: The “U” shaped cost of services (and goods) curve. The application varies by scale of the settlement pattern component and the nature of the good or service. With a fair allocation of all location variable costs there are many alternatives but none of them are “sub-urban.”
Balanced Community “costs” include the cost of time and energy which we hope will be the subject of our next column. We will get to the issue of the “U” shaped curve in a future column.
We have noted often that no one ever said that creating functional human settlement pattern would be cheap. In fact the cost of functional governance of functional human settlement patterns will be less for just the reasons that Bowden suggests.
Citizens cannot afford dysfunctional settlement patterns. Compare the cost of the strategies RBA suggested in 1973 with the cost of “recovery” in 2005.
EMR
