This is a fascinating, and controversy-laden topic. When I volunteered with a group of New Urbanists in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, we discussed the idea at length. A cornerstone of the planning efforts was to essentially “regroup” into more defensible neighborhoods. It’s a nearly impossible task to pull off logistically, but makes eminent sense from a planning standpoint – build some successes, best utilize limited dollars and infrastructure, and create safe areas.

Gratz makes some interesting arguments in her piece, though I’m not sure they’re mutually exclusive from the efforts planned in other places. And, it’s always debatable how far you can get using New York City as an example to other parts of the country – it’s place in America is unique, and indeed the world. New Orleans, Detroit, Flint, Cleveland – these cities do not have the dynamic economy that New York has, nor the infrastructure (especially of transit). And yet, there’s no reason these places can’t regroup at a smaller scale, and in many ways look back to their origins as the article suggests. Of course, when the lower 9th and other older neighborhoods were established to begin with, they often weren’t competing with suburbia – a whole different animal…

The debate rages on . Your thoughts?

When we make such resolutions, we do so out of a desire to improve ourselves, not out of some sort of self-hatred. We do this by acknowledging our shortcomings, our failings, and looking for ways to improve.  Many times we fall short, but it’s an important effort in making sure we’re the best people we can be.

I believe the same should be true of cities, towns and even nations. By making a list of resolutions for the USA, it’s an acknowledgment that we have room to improve in many areas. In fact, if we are to be honest with ourselves, we would note that the US has room to improve in virtually all areas of life.

I think of America as similar to the 3^rd generation of a wealthy family. The first generation that makes the wealth generally is frugal, hard-working and smart. They then tend to spoil their kids with their new-found wealth, giving them what they didn’t have growing up. Sadly, in most cases what happens is that 2^nd generation spends the 1^st generation’s wealth, and tends to lack the work ethic or drive of their parents. Their kids, the 3^rd generation, proceeds to live off the fumes of the 1^st two generations, essentially living off the credit of the grandparents’ names.  At some point, the cycle ends, or starts over.

I see America through this lens. We spent a few decades building wealth and winning wars, earning a spot as top dog in the world economy and in prestige. Following that, we went on a gluttonous spending spree, building a sprawling infrastructure, an enormous military apparatus, and a social safety net. Unfortunately, we spent that wealth, and we are now in that 3^rd generation that is living off of the credit of the previous eras. No longer do we maintain the qualities that took us to the top.

We still have the biggest, baddest military in the world by far, but in most every other category we rank well below other modern, industrialized nations.  Whatever your measure – health, education, crime, infrastructure – we are consistently in the bottom tier of all modern countries.  The evidence is stark for anyone who is willing to see it.

Again, I’m not being negative for the sake of being negative. I like it here – I’m very happy to live in the US, even though it’s obvious through this blog that there are many ways in which I’d like us to collectively change. But, we do need a reality check.  An intervention. We simply are not “the greatest country in the world” in many important measures. We CAN be, but it’s time to knuckle down and get to work.

So, here’s some resolutions that I’m suggesting for us for 2012. I won’t try and solve the health care or education problems (at least today), but I can focus on our infrastructure, budget and quality of life issues. With each goal, I’ve suggested something that each of us can individually do.

Resolution: Own up to our addiction to oil, and get over it.

• For individuals: Start walking or biking to something you do every week, with the stretch goal of making that a daily trip
• For Presidential candidates: Let’s have one Presidential debate solely devoted to energy issues, with a real discussion of how we plan to get out of current mess, and the various trade-offs. Stop the pandering, and talk with us as if we were grown-ups.

Resolution: Start building real freedom of choice in our transportation infrastructure

• For individuals: Start experimenting in your travel patterns. Take a bus, a train, ride a bike, etc when you would otherwise drive. Do it once a month, or once a weekend. Demand drives change.
• For cities/towns/states:  Stop building new or expanding existing roads, anywhere. We can’t afford what we have, and need more other options regardless.
• For cities and towns: Do some real experimenting with public transit – try risky service and fare initiatives. Take a chance!
• For our federal government: The time for talk is over. Let’s get on with building a real network of trains around the US. There are many models to do this – let’s pick one and do it.

Resolution: Be more whimsical

• For individuals: Take small steps, do little things that add joy to your immediate living environment. Do something that will make people stop and smile.
• For cities/towns/states: Insist on designs that touch our human nature, not abstract creations that often repel. Public spaces and streets are supposed to be enjoyable, not off-putting
• For states/cities: Encourage more places to have liberal open-container laws, much like my new residence of Savannah, GA.

Resolution: Brainstorm some 21^stcentury solutions to renting. Those ownership models are so 5 years ago.

• For individuals: Treat your rental like a home – break down those myths that renters don’t care about their property
• For owners: Devise new models that give renters some kind of vested stake in their property.
• For financiers and federal regulators: Ditch the old financing models that make it difficult to finance and build multi-family housing or housing mixed with commercial uses.

Resolution: Focus on the simple and timeless

• For individuals: Insist on windows that open, shade in sunny areas, vegetables grown nearby and streets that you can walk along.
• For cities and towns: Reform your zoning and building codes so that simple, timeless solutions are easy.
• For neighborhoods/cities/towns: get together with people and plant some street trees

Resolution: Place simultaneous priorities on knowledge and fun

• For all of us: yes, I know this is a bit out of context, but is there anything more important than continuing to expand our minds? My hope is we all start to care more about the world around us, how we interact with it, and at the same time, how we can enjoy it and each other more.

Those are my suggestions for 2012. What are yours?

Traffic engineering a social science? How can that be? After all, engineers want to convince us that working with traffic is as simple as working with water in a pipe. Flows and volumes are predictable, and all we need to do is size the pipes and connections appropriately to make traffic “work.”

But here’s the rub – human beings are behind those steering wheels, and human beings are not as predictable as water flowing through a pipe. Well, let me correct that – sometimes we are very predictable. But we do possess an ability to modify our environment, react to it, and make choices depending on what is happening around us. And, that’s the problem with so much traffic modeling and engineering – it doesn’t take into account the human factor. There’s no reliable formula for that, no matter how sophisticated the software.

Road construction is an interesting example of this phenomenon. It often seems that in the world of traffic engineering, road construction never happens. Roads are sized based on formulas dealing with intersections, land uses, travel patterns, etc, and then assumed that they will always be fully available for use. Accidents, construction, or just bad driving doesn’t come into play. Water in a pipe.

But inevitably that pavement wears out, cracks, or is washed away by weather. And, it needs to be replaced. What then, is a transportation geek to do?

A few weeks ago I was back in Kansas City, and had a chance to see the road construction taking place on Wornall Road around 85^th Street for several blocks north. Wornall is a fascinating street, in that it was developed in both the streetcar era and the early suburban era. The mix of businesses has always been unique, to say the least, even though it has gradually suburbanized and homogenized over the years.

The building mix is also interesting – a ramshackle combination of older and newer commercial buildings, some with quirky or quaint character, and others bland and forgettable. Most buildings are fairly small, owing to the smaller lots in this corridor (appraisers have another word for these – obsolete). Where larger parcels existed, they have been turned into suburban abominations, such as the southern half of the 75^th Street intersection. Note to planners and landscape architects – a large, historic-looking monument sign does not create street life or character. It’s simply a reminder of what has been destroyed in the name of sprawl.

The road is being reconstructed now, with new pavement and new underground infrastructure.  At the time I was there, traffic was restricted to one lane in each direction, instead of the usual two. Due to construction logistics, the middle portion is being constructed last, which allows one to easily walk in the middle of the road and get a sense for the improvements.

Construction projects such as this allow us to imagine how things might work differently, if the road was permanently altered. On Wornall, for example, it’s great to imagine how it could look and feel if it really was only one lane in each direction permanently. Perhaps there could be on-street parking to support the businesses, or perhaps a bike lane. Maybe the sidewalks could be wider and shaded with street trees. Just north of the intersection at 85^th Street, it’s easy to see how buildings could spill out onto an attractive street with tables and chairs consistently. One nice benefit – with just one lane in each direction, it’s remarkably easy to cross as a pedestrian. The pavement width is obviously less, but also traffic speeds are noticeably slower than normal. It almost seems – pleasant.

But what would that do to road capacity and speed? How would we get anywhere? If this road suddenly went on a diet, and became half the capacity, how would it work?

And that’s the heart of the interesting thing about seeing construction as an experiment in behavior. Despite the slowdown, people still get to work, to shopping, to school. We might take alternate routes (which are copious in an area like this with a robust street grid), we might combine trips, we might even take alternate methods – walking, biking or transit.

If it can still function, and our lives go on, and if it’s potentially even more pleasant and economically successful as a smaller road, it begs the question – why does it need to be so big to begin with? What size pipe works the best?

Crying out for more than just a traffic solution

The impact of taking four lanes and making it two, even if temporary

A typical stretch of Wornall in its current configuration

One stretch that begs to be pedestrian-oriented

http://daily.sightline.org/2011/08/26/alley-alley-in-come-free-2/

For those who’ve forgotten their history, the CCC was the first of many New Deal programs that President Roosevelt put into place to counter the impact of the Great Depression. Begun in 1933, the CCC was later followed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and a slew of other programs that were intended to address chronic unemployment and a country struggling with a crippled economy.

The CCC and WPA directly employed those who needed work but were unable to find it– largely men, and typically one per household. The CCC was organized to build projects that the Interior and Agriculture departments needed, but the camps themselves were run by the Army. Enrollees thus lived in a disciplined environment, complete with structured daily working times, opportunities for education and recreation. Most of the enrollees for the CCC were from rural areas where unemployment was often the worst, and they were often uneducated and unskilled. The WPA was more generally targeted towards cities and towns, though it did complete work in some rural areas as well.

Over the course of 9 years, the CCC employed about 2.5 million people, and the WPA employed another 8 million from the years 1935-1943.  The peak year for the CCC was 1935, with about ½ million enrolled, and 1938 for the WPA with about 3 million enrolled.  CCC enrollees were paid $30/month, but $25 of that went directly to their families at home. WPA pay was more generous, at $50/month.  All told, the total bill for the CCC was about $3 billion over its lifespan, and the WPA about $13 billion over its 8 years. That $16 billion (averaged in 1940 dollars) equates to about $250 billion today.

Of course, all of this got me to thinking about our economic predicament today, what we’ve attempted to do about it, and what else we might do.  To deny the seriousness of our current economic climate is to deny reality. It’s clear that today’s total unemployment and underemployment rates are exceeded only by the Great Depression in recent memory. National U6 unemployment (a more complete measure than the U3 that is typically reported) is over 16% – still double what it was four years ago.  In some cities/counties, that rate approaches 30%, and the same is true of unemployment among specific demographic groups. Many economists believe we’re headed for another dip because of lingering problems with the banking and real estate industries.  Most respected observers agree that employment will not return to more “typical” levels any time soon, and that that will continue to be a drag on the overall economy. Worst case –we could see an even further dip with U6 levels nationwide exceeding 20%.

So, what do we do about it? This isn’t an economics blog, so I won’t debate the merits of taking a Keynesian approach vs a “free market” approach. What I can do, though, is rehash what we’ve attempted, and look at it in light of historical efforts.

For example, let’s look at the 2008 Stimulus bill that was passed to address our current malaise. The $787 billion bill contained $288 billion in tax cuts, $224 billion in entitlement spending – largely for unemployment insurance, and $275 billion for projects that were capital or infrastructure in nature. The goal was to protect between 900,000 and 3 million jobs, though the most recent reports suggest something in the neighborhood of 600,000 have been protected so far.

It’s very hard to look at just that $275 billion number and not feel that we’ve wasted it in comparison to the New Deal programs (again, which totaled about $250 billion in current dollars). Those programs employed over 10 million people for that dollar amount, over the course of about 8 years. It seems we will be fortunate to hit 1 million in employment with the stimulus bill. In addition, the $275 billion has been spent on many projects of a very dubious nature, including no shortage of road expansions and new highways.  The CCC and WPA spent billions on projects and efforts that we still benefit tremendously from today – 3 billion trees planted, 800 parks built, 125,000 public buildings built, 120,000 bridges built and much, much more.  The projects were thoroughly reviewed and debated by a bipartisan commission. Nearly every community in America can point to a WPA-era building or public space with pride.

Of course the primary difference on the efficiency side is that the New Deal programs had the government directly hiring and managing the projects. Today, we rely on contracting out all of the work, which obviously sends a great deal of money to company profits rather than direct employment. In the 1930’s, this wasn’t done without some amount of consternation. Both labor unions and employers were wary of the effect of the government directly hiring laborers, but ultimately a deal was struck for the good of the entire economy.

As much as anything, I also wonder what we would have a CCC or WPA do today? What kinds of projects would make the most sense, as we plan for the next 100 years? What are the easy, more inexpensive efforts that any laborer could be trained to do? Here’s a few off the top of my head: road diets throughout our cities and towns, creating bicycle infrastructure, urban tree planting, improvements to civic spaces, repair work on historic properties. In the rural areas, we could work to improve communication infrastructure, help with energy efficiency, plan for more localized, small agriculture, and improve a long list of state and national parks.

What would you suggest? This is a realpolitik discussion – we’re spending the money already, whether through the stimulus bill or in other appropriations. How can we employ the most people until the economy recovers, and leave a lasting legacy for future generations?