Blogger Candidate Forum: Think Big

Hello Everyone:

It is a gray and damp Wednesday afternoon which means time for Blogger Candidate Forum. Once again Mr. Donald Trump is keeping everyone in suspense over whether he will sign the new budget agreement, negotiated by the congressional bipartisan group, and avert another shutdown.  The big news is he is not getting the $5.7 billion he is demanding for his wall. Instead, House and Senate members agreed to a much lower amount--about $1.6 billion--as part of a comprehensive barrier package. Memo to the White House, this is real life, not a reality show. You cannot leave people hanging until the last millisecond.  Alright, shall we move on?

Last week newly installed Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey introduced "H. Res. 109-Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal (congress.gov; Feb. 7, 2019; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019), which broadly outlines policies that "calls for a national, 10-year mobilization that would repair and upgrade infrastructure and switch the country to 100-percent clean energy, among other goals" (citylab.com; Feb. 11, 2019; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019). Although the specifics are still being worked out but it looks very ambitious like its ancestor the New Deal, introduced in the thirties, during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term.

Like the New Deal, the Green New Deal is equally sweeping in its scope (washingtonpost.com; Jan. 31, 2019; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019).  The original New Deal was a comprehensive package of "massive public-works projects like Hoover Dam and jobs program such as the Civilian Conservation Corps." (Ibid). However, somewhere in all of the excitement of the Green New Deal's plans to address wasteful land use (brookings.edu; Jan. 15, 2019; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019), a less bold faced, smaller program: green belt towns run by the short-lived federal Resettlement Administration. 

Amanda Kolson Hurley writes, "With that program, the U.S. government grew its weight behind a progressive approach to urban planning and offered an alternative to helter-skelter suburban sprawl" (citylab.com; Feb. 11, 2019). The federal government could re-start this program with the goal of repairing suburbia's dearth of sustainable, affordable housing, and lessen its dependency on cars. The millennial agenda would use the lessons of what did not work for the New Deal and place a premium on racial and social equity, working with communities instead of a top-down approach. 

Ms. Kolson Hurley recalls in her soon-to-be published book Radical Suburbs Experimental Living on the Fringes of the American City (beltpublishing.com; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019), "the RA's town building program was inspired by the 'Garden City' movement that swept across Europe at the turn of the 20th century" (citylab.com; Feb. 11, 2019).  British self-educated stenographer Ebenezer Howard (Ibid; Dec. 20, 2018) imagined a network of "Garden Cities" on the outskirts of  London to alleviate the population oressure. She writes, "Each would have about 30,000 people and combine the best of urban and rural life, with shops and cultural venues for social and intellectual stimulation, but also fresh air and greenery, protected by an encircling 'green belt'" (Ibid). 

Ebenezer Howard planned the Garden City as "a sort of anti-bedroom-suburban, a place not just to live but to work, with factories sitting at a healthful distance from homes..." (Ibid).  The Garden City was be small enough so that residents could walk from one point to another in 20 minutes or less, connected to other Garden Cities and the cities themselves by rail.  The land would be publicly owned and rents would go toward public services. 

His 1902 book, Garden Cities of To-morrow, gave birth to experiments in the United States, Germany, Sweden, and elsewhere but it was slow to catch on in the United States.  Similar projects were abruptly ended by the Depression. However, New Deal presented advocated saw a golden opportunity. Under the tenure of Rexford Guy Tugwell, the left-leaning economist head of the RA, constructed three suburban demonstration towns in the Garden City manner: Greenbelt, Maryland; Greenhills, Ohio; outside of Cincinnati; and Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee. Each of these model towns were located close enough to cities, near jobs, also available to people shut out of the urban housing market. 

Greenbelt, Maryland was the closet approximation to his ideals. When President Roosevelt visited in 1936, he lauded it as an experiment that ought to be copied by every community in the United States (Ibid). Greenbelt featured apartment buildings and townhouses in the Modernist style, arranged around greens spaces to promote social interactions. They were, in short, self-contains cities.  The first Greenbelters rented their homes from the federal government.  Amanda Kolson Hurley sums it up, "Greenbelt was aspirational, suburban public housing" (Ibid). 

The experiment was so unusal, so exotic, that it drew curiosity seekers to the area between 1935 and 1937 to check out the site.  However, the Garden Cities had their detractors.  Some called the planned federal city as the epitome of social engineering (Ibid). The construction and real estate industries cried foul over the perceived competition. Ms. Kolson Hurley notes, "It's true that Greenbelt was from perfect. It did cost a lot to build, partly because of its emphasis on make-work.... There weren't many jobs for residents nearby, and commuter transportation to Washington was a stubborn problem" (Ibid). More outrageously, the Garden Cities excluded African Americans, who help build it. 

Hindsight is 20-20 the green belt program was ambitious in scope and did get a lot of things right. There was a variety of housing options for families and individuals, stressing efficient and affordable smaller homes. Lucky for us, many of those are still in existence, part of a co-op Greenbelt Homes, Inc., (ghi.coop.com; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019)m available at a reasonable prices. After World War II, Congress ended its relationship with the greenbelt towns and suburbanization took off.  The Garden Cities and greenbelt towns are still part of every urban planning and design students' curriculum. Sadly, most postwar developers ignored them, in favor of monolithic single-family homes, which we are now reckoning with. 

As nice as suburbia may seem with their single-use communities, residents have to drive everywhere, which increases the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, creating a more sedentary lifestyle. The larger homes require more energy to heat and cool than a multi-unit residence and attached homes.  In (real) fact, residential energy accounts for a sizable share (rspc.energy.gov; date accessed Feb.13, 2019) of American energy consumption. Researchers found that the suburban carbon footprint cancels out (news.berkeley.edu; Jan. 6, 2019; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019) whatever progress advanced by cities. Further, the concrete road and parking lot surfaces do not absorb water to cool them, creating a heat island effect, pollution, and floods (water.usgs.gov; Dec. 2, 2016; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019). Last, despite becoming more inclusive, many suburbs with good schools and amenities remain out of reach to the less-affluent through restrictive zoning ordinances or preventing new development. 

One way for the Green New Deal to recapture the spirit of Greenbelt is, rather than build from scratch, is retrofitting existing suburban places to create more sustainable, liveable, equitable communities.  Someone say historic preservation?  New more energy efficient construction sounds like a great idea but it could fuel sprawl, be resource-intensive, and legally questionable (citylab.com; Feb.13, 2019).

Using existing housing stock, near jobs and transit; to the highest energy efficiency standards, would meet a more critical need and enable training for green jobs.  State and federal governments could prioritize extending or building light rail or bus service into the suburbs, creating more walkable communities so suburbanites could leave their cars at home. Imagine that, addressing obesity-related health issues and creating more environmentally friendly communities in one shot.

The federal government could sweeten the deal by tying funding to loosening local zoning ordinances that raise the court of housing and increase segregation.  Both Democratic nominee candidates Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker recently tested out similar proposals (brookings.edu; Sept. 27, 2018; date accessed Feb. 13, 2019).  Another way to create more dense suburbs is legalized duplexes and "granny flats" which could support additional transit, businesses and services, and become more inclusive. 

A Green New Deal could have a monetary incentive for intiatives that turn obsolete parking lots into green spaces, establish public land trusts, boost small business incubators in dead malls.  All of which could be part of what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey call community-defined projects and strategies.  (citylab.com; Feb. 13, 2019)

Over half of Americans live suburbs and even if urban centers underwent major densification, they could accommodate everyone. We need to recapture that think big energy of the thirties.  It is what helped get the United States out of the Depression and address the more catastrophic effects of climate change.