Sweet Land of Liberty

Residence

Everyone ought to live in a neighborhood that has good schools, transportation, and the amenities—shopping, entertainment, churches, police protection, parks, and recreation. In a human size community these features would all be available from one's home by foot. In the suburbs—autoburbs, (suburbs are no longer subordinate communities but have all the amenities including employment in their own right), a car is necessary to get to these places. All communities that are walking neighborhoods and autoburbs ought to be good places to live.

We assume this condition in the unalienable rights to humane habitation and environment. This condition is far from reality for a significant part of our population who do not have the education, training, and or experience to compete successfully in our society. The problems for this group, (and it may comprise as much as 40% of our citizens-sovereign), require special efforts on the part of our government with the cooperation of the business community and the citizens-sovereign themselves to solve. The problem has a solution: empowerment of the people to use their unalienable rights.

The exercise of the right of residence, movement, and communication assumes an economic ability to so act. When this is not the case, the society has to go back to "Go (don't collect the $200)," and start over by giving people their unalienable rights.

Where one lives in the social community of the humane ecosystem should depend upon a desire to live there and the economic wherewithal to do so. The humane ecosystem is not involuntarily segregated by race, religion, or ethnicity. All too frequently the human ecosystem is involuntarily segregated by all three factors, and economics to boot. Voluntary segregation is another matter altogether.

The local use of zoning authority is often used to cluster residential properties of equal assessment, as well as to segregate residential from business activities. Neither assumption is wholly justified in the humane ecosystem. There is ample reason to combine residential and business activities as a means of safeguarding the streets of the business community. Many business areas with no after business hours activities be come dark abandoned places ripe for crime or criminal activity.

Many of the older sections of our large urban areas have successfully combined business and residential activities to the benefit of both. All city planning should be approached with the idea of sustaining as much street activity as possible throughout the 24-hour daily cycle. Georgetown in Washington, D.C. and the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, with their large tourist and university student numbers, come close to this ideal.

There is nothing intrinsically beneficial in clustering-residential housing into groups of equal value homes. All this does is to involuntarily segregate the citizens-sovereign on the basis of economics without enhancing the value of city life.

St. Anthony Park, an urban residential neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an ideal example of mixed valuation, and building style in a single residential neighborhood. The area started out to be a high cost neighborhood with mini-estates, but the local metro area could not support the project. Therefore, after it had been started with a few palatial homes, the remainder of the project was cut up into normal city lots. As a consequence, there are large houses with many rooms and tiny cottages with only three rooms within sight of each other.

When I lived in St. Anthony Park, I lived in a house that had been placed on a divided lot. There was a scant eight feet between me and the neighbors on either side, but the front and back yards were adequate, and we even had a two-car garage. We lived in this house for seven or eight years, and when we sold it to move to Washington, D.C., we discovered we had never had a key to the house. I had to have a locksmith make keys for the new owner. Not once on any two-week vacation did we worry about the house.

I live in a similar neighborhood in Washington, D.C.—similar in the sense of different sized houses and old trees with a park across the street, but I am very careful to keep the door locked all the time and to call the newspaper to stop delivery when I am out of town, etc.

There should be no barrier to any citizens-sovereign buying or renting the house of his/her choice, if the persons have the means to pay for it. No local zoning should operate to segregate properties on a cost basis. Rather, zoning should be used to produce mixed neighborhoods that can accommodate the citizens-sovereign in all stages of the life cycle. Otherwise, public funding should not be used for any part of the development.

Small or medium size houses in neighborhoods of large houses can permit the independent living of older citizens, working people who then can walk to their work, or younger couples who are just starting active working careers.

It is a fairly important biological principle that neighborhoods should have three generations of citizens living in them. Children should be able to associate with people older than their parents—the grandparent generation—and old people should have young people in their lives. The people in the middle—the ones having the children—can benefit from having older, retired folks in their neighborhoods, who can act as baby sitters, neighborhood guards, and sources of inspiration.

There is a real benefit to society of having people of mixed income live in proximity to each other. It's not so much to be seen as an opportunity to do charitible things, but more as a barometer of reality to know real people—people who might be as well or better educated and as culturally inclined but, in a lower income level, either by choice or by chance.

In the early Middle Ages the poor were permitted to stand behind the diners seated at the dinner table; and beg for food. In the late Middle Ages the poor were permitted to come to the kitchen door and beg food from the cook. In our "advanced" society we want the poor out of sight and out of mind. If we had more contact with the poor we might come to realize that there but for the grace of the unalienable rights go we.

Inherited wealth is not uncommon in the United States, but the ability to make a good living at a good job because of having vital and up-to-date education, is far more common. It is educated people with good jobs who make the best role models because their achievements are attainable by any one willing to get educated, etc.

As already stated, the unalienable right to select the residence of one's choice, within one's economic ability, should be possible in any humane ecosystem, whether it be located in a big city neighborhood, suburb, autoburb, rural village, township farm, project, or a condo. For the poor and economically disadvantaged we need trust housing where the poor can become owners of the property in which they live. Trust housing can take any form from single detached dwellings to apartments, condos, and high rises.

Movement

Nothing could be worse than to live in substandard housing in a run down, vermin and crime plagued neighborhood, and have no means to travel out to other parts of the city, either to employment, or in search of employment, or entertainment.

Prior to the building of Metro in Washington, D.C., a newspaper reporter went to Anacostia, one of the poorest areas in Washington, D.C. and interviewed people about what they thought of Metro coming to their neighborhood. The most devastating comment was from a 13-year old girl, who said she had never spoken to a white person.

Public transportation is the essence of life in the big city. All forms of public transportation are required to make the big city tick—taxis, light rail, city buses, jitneys, interurban heavy rail, and intercity buses.

The automobile is the most convenient form of transportation, but it is private transportation that requires a heavy public subsidy in the form of roads and parking spaces. It is semi-public only when one considers the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) traffic on the commuter routes. It is estimated that the national subsidy to the private automobile may be in the neighborhood of 300 billion dollars/year, of which the motoring public pays only about 30 billion in gas taxes, license fees, sales taxes, excise taxes, etc. In addition, many drivers are subsidized with "free" parking. Since free parking is a thing of value it should be taxed at the fair market rate. Free parking is one of the major contributor to central city congestion, pollution, noise, and inconvenience.

The city of Pittsburgh, in the early forties, proposed to have a group of high rise parking garages ring the downtown area of the city. Motorists, on their way into the central city, would have been required to park their cars in one of the parking garages, (I think there were to be twelve of them), and take public transportation to the central city. The base of the parking garage would have been a light rail, bus, and taxi terminal. It was futuristic planning at the time, and it's still futuristic, but wouldn't it be nice.

The city of Paris (France) has the best attitude toward public transportation. They have been building the Paris Metro since the late 1800's. The Michelin Guides muse that construction may never cease as there are always more people to accommodate. At my last encounter with the Paris Metro, its literature said that there were no residents of Paris more than 100 meters from a Metro station. In the United States, many cities gave up their light rail systems when lured by the siren song of the auto makers, who were making not only the cars but the buses. The city of Pittsburgh gave up most of its light rail system. The city of Washington, D.C. gave up all of its light rail fleet, which is now doing service in Zagreb.

Why all this fuss about transportation in the city? For the citizens-sovereign to be able to maximize their opportunities for education, business opportunity, employment, entertainment, and social activities: in general, the humane ecosystem has to be replete with complete, rapid, efficient, and safe transportation. The same could also serve the business community, not only by being able to move people but also things.

It is easy to think of people in city neighborhoods being isolated, but consider the suburban and rural areas. One of the great things about the development of the American continent, especially in the East, South, and Midwest-North and South, was the section road. The land was first surveyed to market former Indian land at retail. The sectioning built in the concept of moving produce from farm to market. Our internal system of navigable rivers had the same effect: We have a little farm in Eastern Ohio, Jefferson County—Johnny Appleseed country In the 1890's on into the 1900's, apples picked on the Elson Farm were sent down river to New Orleans to market.

The most important transportation systems for the personal daily lives of us all are our local transportation networks. The larger network is just as vital to us in several ways. It is the general transportation network that moves the materials and people that make our economy work. Iron ore from Minnesota, milk and cheese from Wisconsin, oranges and fresh vegetables from Florida and California, automobiles from production plants in Michigan, Tennessee, California, etc. The airlines, long distance buses, the trains and private automobiles move millions of people daily. All this is important.

In the 1930's, when the arid winds produced the dust bowls in the Great Plains, the people migrated in their old "flivvers," "Model Ts," and "jitneys," to California and other places. After World War II blacks from the Mississippi Delta migrated to the factory cities of the North and Midwest. The national transportation network is part of the infrastructure of the United States. Maintaining it, increasing it, and making it better should be a never ending job, providing meaningful, useful, needed, and economically vital work. The national network has to connect to the city network and the city network has to connect to the hinterlands.

The ability to move freely in the local and national transportation network is an unalienable right, as the ability to move freely is the key to optimizing one's ability to survive and thrive in these local and national ecosystems.

When the railroads were partially deregulated, they abandoned all their less- and non-profitable lines. Farmers and ordinary rural folk were abandoned to the automobile. When the airlines were deregulated, they abandoned their less- and non-profitable lines. Whole sections of the country were left without air service. The State of South Dakota hired itself out to train Nationalist Chinese air line pilots, and in return the students provide air-service in the State. The deregulation of the airlines was a monumental error, and at some stage in our future a Federal-Airlines deal is going to have to be renegotiated to provide reasonable and responsible air transportation service and reasonably predictable prices. Service was cut and prices were increased as soon as the dog-eat-dog competition got rid of the weak sisters. The error was to think that free market competition would lower prices and make service more efficient: Free markets, without regulation, lead to monopoly.

The markets in marijuana, cocaine, and heroin are the best examples we have of free markets. They should be studied in all the business schools so one could distinguish free markets from the free enterprise system. A government presence in the business community is required if for no other reason than to represent the interests of the citizens-sovereign. Beyond that the government should play the same role as the persons who officiate at NFL games. The citizens-sovereign's rights cannot be entrusted to the business and industrial community.

Communication

I have a friend who is a successful business man. He is in sales. His home office is in the East and he and his clients are in the West. He lives on the phone. He doesn't have an office. Traveling back and forth between office and home would be a waste of time. Managing subordinates would also be a waste of time because subordinates cannot help him do his job. He is a prima donna, a high wire artist, a one-man band. He has to intervene between clients and the manufacturing facility, the maintenance service, the client, and the super bosses of the company who have to approve his deals because of the amounts of money involved. Take this man's telephone and fax away from him and you might as well shoot him. To a lesser extent all of business America works this same way. The day the AT&T network went down, untold millions of dollars were lost because, for several hours, it was not possible to complete transactions between buyers and sellers, some of whom require split-second timing for their deals.

The best fire alarm the country has is the phone system. The best emergency communications the nation has is the phone system. A home without a telephone is not fit for human habitation, especially in the city.

While the national communications system seems to be more or less private enterprise, it has a great element of public utility. The governments of most of the world's nations own the communications systems—phone, radio, television—as government monopolies. The United States is almost alone in allowing this essential service to be in the hands of private individuals. The government acting on behalf of the citizens-sovereign, must become involved in the communications infrastructure, since the citizens-sovereign have unalienable rights to communicate in our highly communicative ecosystem. Nobody should be priced out of the use of a phone, a fax, a radio, or a TV, or cable. All the services that use the airwaves are using the public domain and should be held responsible for its proper use. All surface networks that use public rights of way are using the public domain. The public domain should not be exploited for the benefit of a few individuals, or corporations, as opposed to the general public. Nobody should be enriched without obligation from the resources of the public domain.

As the Federal Government assumes the responsibility for the interstate highway system and the navigable rivers, so it should also take responsibility for the airports, rail roads, and the communication networks. The fiber optics communications network that can serve television, the telephone, radio, and computer networks should be a Federal responsibility, leaving private enterprise the opportunity to compete by providing services on the net. The Commerce Department, not NASA, should assume the responsibility for the commercialization of space, including the communications satellites. The ability to communicate worldwide should be reasonably competitive and inexpensive. All citizens-sovereign should be able to benefit individually from the existence of the communications networks to enhance their personal lives and their business opportunities, and to provide a richness of cultural and entertainment value in their homes. All these resources should be supported by the Federal Government and all citizens-sovereign should benefit.

For the citizens-sovereign to realize their full potential in the humane ecosystem they must be able to reside in a place that maximizes their opportunity for success, that is, be reasonably close to employment, schools, medical facilities, and the amenities. All parts of the humane ecosystem should be open to them through non-exclusionary zoning, and all segregation must be voluntary. The limiting factor on what kind of house the citizens-sovereign can buy is economics.

Within the humane community, sufficient diversity must be assured that all neighborhoods can accommodate three generations of people, and mixed housing must be available by size and type (high rise, semi-detached, etc.). Neighborhoods may vary, in size from 2000 to 20,000 individuals. All it takes to make public project housing into a humane ecosystem is clever and intelligent planning. Neighborhoods require an infrastructure to make them habitable. They must be served with water and sewage treatment, electricity, storm water removal, gas delivery systems, and other services. As much of this infrastructure is supported by the government on behalf of all the citizens-sovereign, through its zoning authority the government must strive to plan, develop, maintain, restore, refurbish, and retain humane neighborhoods.

For the citizens-sovereign to realize their full potential in the humane ecosystem, they must be free to move freely through the neighborhood, the city, the state, the nation, and the world. Again, cost is going to be a limiting factor, but efficiency of pricing and efficiency of service can make a big difference.

City transportation should not be designed to keep certain people out of the so-called "better" neighborhoods. It should be designed so that citizens-sovereign from all neighborhoods can travel to the cultural centers of the city. The recreation departments of cities should bring the cultural amenities to all neighborhoods. In their daily travel the citizens-sovereign should be able to move conveniently, freely, and efficiently through a humane ecosystem.

Foreign travel of individual citizens-sovereign should not be prohibited to satisfy a national policy. Anyone wishing to travel abroad should be free to do so. At the most, the State Department should offer advisories and warn that it cannot assure the traveler's safety, but it should not ban travel. No citizen sovereign should be denied the right to travel because the President doesn't like the other country or the other country's leader. If a citizen-sovereign wishes to travel to a belligerent country during wartime, he/she may have to renounce American citizenship to do so, but the individual should not be prohibited from traveling. Peoples are not enemies, governments are enemies. Systems of transportation are part of the infrastructure of the humane ecosystem and, as such, should be supported by the government on behalf of all the citizens-sovereign.

For the citizens-sovereign to realize their full potential in the humane ecosystem they must be able to communicate freely with all other parts of the neighborhood, city, state, nation, and world. Every home should be required to have telephone service to be considered habitable. Communication, entertainment, news, and all forms of interaction should be available to the least member of the system. Again economics will be a determining factor but, with efficiency and subsidies, communication services should be available at reasonable cost and, therefore; reasonably available in the humane ecosystem. The communications system is part of the ecosystem infrastructure and consequently should be supported by the government on behalf of all citizens-sovereign.

Residence, movement, and communications are what human ecosystems are all about. Having them available to all the citizens sovereign is what the humane ecosystem is all about.

...Ted Sudia...

© Copyright 1992
Institute for domestic Tranquility