What Could Make Someone Want to Leave New York and Move to Buffalo?
What, indeed? There are two stories in this article: one, the tale of trading expensive major urban living for cheaper minor urban living, and two, the undercurrent of urban decay and its implications. First, the second.
Last summer I was sitting in a creepy Internet cafe in Sevastopol, Ukraine, checking my e-mail and the news. I only had a minute or so, so I could only skim a quick CNN.com story about the I-35W bridge collapsing.
Being the interstate highway nerd I am, I knew that meant one of two places: Minneapolis or Fort Worth. Turns out it was Minneapolis, and we know much of the rest of the story. Then there was the steam explosion in Midtown Manhattan last year that killed a woman, badly burned a number of people and should have raised a great national discussion of our aging infrastructure.
I think the root of most of our national problems is in our urban planning. America spent much of its considerable postwar wealth on constructing suburbia. In the process, we built a remarkable network of highways from coast to coast which made it easier for people with money to escape the major urban centers of the East, and build cities with no urban center to speak of in the West (I'm looking at you, Houston). In the process, we built big houses on large parcels in subdivisions far from school, work and shopping. We drove everywhere and we got fat. We never bothered met our neighbors and we felt isolated. And I'm afraid of these fat, isolated people driving across some old interstate causeway and it crumbling to dust beneath their SUV.
The Brooklyn Bridge is 125 years old. The Golden Gate Bridge is 71. The Boston transit system (the "T") is 111 years old. Lord knows how old some of our sewage systems are. Undoubtedly, the people who take care of those structures are working hard to prevent disaster. But somehow, demand for services and infrastructure has increased in a time where local government revenues are down, and the most common solution to traffic is to build more roads. Let's put a stop to pork-barrel federally-funded projects and repair or replace the parts of our infrastructure that we rely on. Let's increase government revenues not by raising taxes, but by selling the right of way from unused transit corridors. Tear down (some of) the interstates. Encourage people to walk, bike or transit to work and watch the societal and health benefits roll in. It ought not to be that hard.
The other note here is just more of a personal one: here is a story about people who fell in love with the big city only to find it didn't offer them some of the things they wanted. They made a decision to try and find a fulfilling life off the beaten path, away from the teeming masses. I could write a lot more, but this post is too long.
Homework: Why isn't our national infrastructure more of a political priority? Why have government revenues failed to keep pace with the price of public works? And what do you think of my "urban planning is the source of all societal ills" idea?
So, who wants to move to Buffalo?
2 comments:
“Why isn't our national infrastructure more of a political priority?”
Because it's boring.
“Why have government revenues failed to keep pace with the price of public works?”
If it ain’t broke, why spend money and political capital to fix it?
“And what do you think of my ‘urban planning is the source of all societal ills’ idea?”
I think you’re correct that the (lack of) design of our sub-urban communities causes problems. I’m not convinced that it’s the primary cause. I think it's as much symptom as it is cause. In general, we’re pretty bad at balancing our immediate, short-term tastes and desires with diffuse, long-term consequences. Suburban communities that only provide for getting around by automobile are just one example. See also: the average (developed world) person’s attitude toward diet and exercise, just about every form of pollution, et cetera.
And if you’re right, what’s the implication for policy? How do you propose to fix the problem?
“So, who wants to move to Buffalo?”
You know, it doesn’t sound half-bad!
I absolutely agree with this. I wouldn't say that poor urban planning has caused all of America's problems, but it certainly has the capability of exasperating social ills that already exist. The creation of suburbs and white flight, fear of thy neighbor, envy of thy neighbor (keeping up with the joneses) and ignoring social classes or races that make people uncomfortable, and the inevitable homogenization and isolation as a result.
Why the infrastructure hasn't been updated is because it's been much cheaper not to. Like you mention, the solution has always been more roads, more cars, more houses. The emphasis in the past 50-100 years has been about newness - it's always much more fun and interesting to do create new things than to fix old ones. And until recently, it's been cheaper too.
But I think with limited resources, energy, space, and money, we (humans) will be pressed to find solutions that combine fixing old infrastructures as well as building new ones. Here's to hoping things break slowly so we have time to fix it (efficiently!)
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