Cities and Water (and Beer and French Fries)

One can scarcely write enough about the importance of water to cities. Water is obviously critical for drinking, agriculture, sanitary sewage, washing, plus a whole host of industrial processes; yet somehow, as I've read more about the subject over the past year, I've had the nagging feeling that somehow we don't properly appreciate, or imagine, what the consequences of water mismanagement are.

Hurricane Katrina obviously provided an object lesson in the ability of water to wipe out an entire city. Two articles, one on television and one on the radio, recently brought home more pictures of devastation in a way that reading text cannot. A 60 Minutes article on Katrina last week showed the complete destruction of the neighborhoods, using an effective gimmick: they hired a cherry picker to lift the camera 60 feet into the air, and as far as you can see, the houses and neighborhoods are destroyed. This NPR article (in audio, text and images) gives a haunting sense of what it's like to be in the still-empty city.

If you find it, as I do, difficult to imagine that a city's water supplies could be jeopardized -- wouldn't we just adapt and adjust? -- then there's this news (IHT, LA Times) just in from China: the entire city of Harbin (population 4 million) is having its water supply shut-off due to potential water contamination with toxic benzene:

(International Herald Tribune) BEIJING, Nov. 24 - The Chinese government's decision to cut potentially contaminated supplies of fresh water to a major city has highlighted the threat that industrial pollution poses to public health and economic development across the nation.

Almost four million people in Harbin in northeastern China are expected to be without running water until late Saturday after a chemical plant explosion on Nov. 13 contaminated the upper reaches of the nearby Songhua River with toxic benzene.

A 50-mile stretch of the river carrying the benzene reached Harbin this morning, Shi Zhongxin, director of the city's water bureau, said on state television, according to the Associated Press. The contaminated water was expected to take 40 hours to make its way through the city.... The airport and railroad stations were reported Wednesday to be jammed as residents tried to leave.

The Financial Times reports that this may have consequences beyond the immediate shortage, including contamination of the food chain, the Telegraph (UK) details some of the health effects of benzene.

The strangest aspect of this is that some of the immediate reports on the Web were on the implications for beer and french fry production.

[Update: Water has been restored to Harbin. A few more details have emerged about why details about the toxic chemical spill emerged so late, and what steps the Chinese government took (and didn't take) to restore water service. Also, the Chinese government issued a rare public apology to the Russian government, because the river flows into China towards the town of Khabarovsk:

NYT, Nov. 27th: The Harbin disaster began with a Nov. 13 explosion at the chemical plant in Jilin, a city about 120 miles southeast. Five people were killed and 10,000 evacuated.

But it was only last week that the government announced that the Songhua had been poisoned with 100 tons of benzene. The spill is possibly the biggest ever of the chemical, a potentially cancer-causing compound used in making detergents and plastics.

State media have criticized local officials for reacting too slowly and failing to tell the public the truth in a timely manner. Environmentalists have said the government failed to prepare for such a disaster and questioned the decision to allow construction of a plant handling such dangerous materials near important water supplies.

AP summary here, New York Times article here, and BBC article here].

Technorati Tags: China, cities, Katrina, New Orleans, urban, water, wetlands

A Retrospective View of New York

A neat article in the New York Times about a series of articles in 1955, envisioning what New York would look like in... 2005! I hope that they consider continuing this theme.

All of the urban visions and pronouncements are quite plain, really -- when what I was really hoping for was something quaintly futuristic -- though it gives me pause to think about whether anyone could have, or can, really envision the New York City of today, that is Internet-enabled, cell-phone-toting, immigrant-filled, gridlocked by cars yet still serviced by the same decaying infrastructure, with low crime yet frayed neighborhood character. Most of all, I'm curious, were people as obsessed by real estate and education as they are now?

New York City: Bloomberg Wins Big

New York City re-elected Mayor Michael Bloomberg over his Democratic challenger Freddy Ferrer, the former Bronx Borough President, about a week and a half ago. FYI, in the spirit of full disclosure, I used to work in the Bloomberg New York City government, but these are really just observations of the media.

I don't feel bad blogging about it well after the fact, because though the election just ended last week, the election seems like it has been over for months. Ferrer never seemed to find his footing against Bloomberg, who turned most of his potential disadvantages into advantages:

• his relatively colorless public persona came to signify his competence at governing;

• his inexperience in government was billed as an antidote for those things that we dislike most about our politicians and politics;

• his willingness to use his fortune both in strategic philanthropy and to buy (oops, I meant) to win the election never became a handicap;

• his initial opportunistic switch from registered Democrat to Republican candidate played well in a Democratic town (even better than his newfound appreciation of the Yankees after being a lifelong Red Sox fan);

• all in all, the past four years were roundly considered a relief after the histrionic and divisive Giuliani era.

Upon reflection, I find myself offering all of these snarky caveats, not because Bloomberg is a bad mayor, but because by the manner of his election. It is true that he is a well-meaning public servant, since he could otherwise retreat to a pretty good life without all of the hassle; and it is true that he governs competently and efficiently. The democratic process, however, is poorly served by the basically unlimited sums of money that he spent on the election -- estimated at $74 million -- and by the fact that no one really discussed the fact that this wealth translates into privileged speech in the public realm.

If this sounds too academic, make no mistake about it, everything about Bloomberg's campaign was enabled by his immense wealth, which resulted in less debate and less real dialogue (though this was aided by Ferrer's lack of ability to engage in dialogue, either).

Though I don't miss election campaign drama for it's own sake, I think that there is real value in the process of the debate, and real value in being able to identify with your politician's values and community. Elections are one of the chief arenas for both politicians and electorates to build this rapport. I don't mean simply the politics of personal identification, but I mean the process by which communities and leaders begin to talk about what matters to them, what messages resonate, and what goals are worthy of focus in the upcoming term. Sure, it can be -- and is often -- blithely stated that money influences politics, but if that is a fact of life, then it certainly is a disappointing one. Belief in democracy requires one to work against this cynical certainty.

So, in the absence of any real suspense, most of the articles have focused on the significance of Bloomberg's large margin of victory, and particularly what it says about New York City after just about everything: post-Giuliani, post-September 11th, and post-racial politics:

• The best article I've seen is by Greg Sargent in the online edition of the American Prospect, which finds hope in Bloomberg's "smart-government liberalism", yet the article also (quite fairly) analyzes the issue of Bloomberg's wealth, and differing media coverage of Bloomberg and Ferrer. These questions should have been asked during the campaign, and discussed more widely, but the issues seem to have met with resignation and indifference more than anything else.

• There's an interesting article from the New York Times about how the Bloomberg campaign developed new profiles of the electorate, including Fearful and Anxious New Yorkers (FANS), middle-class moderates of all races ("Middle Middles"), cultural liberals, and so on. Kevin Sheeky, City Hall spokesman, spins it as a path for "future candidates to communicate with voters on something other than race- or religion-based formulas". One of the main points of the article, though, is that it takes a mere $10 million to create;

• Many articles on the most expensive city election on history, with Bloomberg spending roughly $70 million. An article from the New York Times on Nov. 4th, based on campaign filings, put his spending at close to the $74 million spent in 2001 (NYT, restricted access). For a final tallied vote of 723,635 votes (NYT), that's more than $100 per vote. (New York Times, Yahoo!).

• The weakness of Fernando Ferrer as a candidate (NYT). I'm surprised to find some good commentary that I agree with from the Wall Street Journal (it's not free), by one of the editors of City Journal, which explains well the palpable disconnect between the local Democratic party and the vast Democratic electorate.

• Mayor as an outsider: Otis White has a nice piece at Governing about the trend towards mayors elected from outside politics, including some other highly regarded current mayors, like Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Denver's John Hickenlooper, and others.

So, what comes next? This news analysis from the New York Times, released on election night -- and clearly prepared well in advance -- speculates on what Mayor Bloomberg is going to do this newfound political capital.

This week, Bloomberg already appointed some of his top officials to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, in an effort to shake up the Ground Zero rebuilding effort (NYT).

Sadly, one of the things that Bloomberg has already rejected is congestion pricing (NYT, New York Observer). (Sorry, Green Economics, I liked your spirit.)

Technorati Tags: cities, New York, urban

Atlanta Re-Branded

A story on NPR about the "re-branding" of Atlanta, which harnesses hip-hop to promote Atlanta in a rather funky song called "The ATL" -- plus you can hear blues and symphonic versions of their song!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article about the reaction to it here. It could be spreading like wildfire, for all I know. I have to doubt, however, Mayor Shirley Franklin's assertion that the song will play equally to youth and international global corporations.

Technorati Tags: Atlanta, cities, hip-hop, marketing, urban

Paris is Burning

I begin this post as I used to start letters -- when I used to write them -- by apologizing for my absence. I've been more than a little bit preoccupied by economics and statistics lately -- doing homework again is quite a shock -- but lately I've found a little bit of time to think about the insistence on, or persistence of, real cities and local issues. In particular, I've been reading a lot about Paris lately.

The latest coverage seems to indicate that the riots in Paris are slowly ebbing (NYT). Nonetheless, the coverage in Europe must be searingly intense, if only because most European countries seem to have relatively large and distinct Muslim communities. The Washington Post has a good roundup of world opinion here, and in particular, a summary article titled "Europe Wonders 'Could It Happen Here?'").

As an American living in Europe, I always thought that the common cultural heritage of the European countries outweighed any differences between their more recent efforts towards the oft-stated goal of 'integration'. Despite their efforts, all of those countries closely identify citizenship with national identity. Until they figure out a model that allows assimilation -- independent of, at the very least, ethnic identity -- it is hard not to imagine this kind of anger and frustration.

French President Jacque Chirac, in his first speech since the outbreak of riots, spoke to this as an "identity crisis" at the heart of French society (here) (though one can't imagine him navigating such a contentious issue very well. I doubt that the man who cited English food as a reason not to have the Olympics in London is not going to be able to come up with anything deep). One can't help but think that this is the third consecutive blow to French identity and confidence this year, following the failure to win the 2012 Olympics, and the 'no' vote on the European Union.

There's good English-language coverage of the French riots at the BBC and the Guardian. The Christian Science Monitor examines the roots of the riots here. These urban riots, of course, also remind me of the American failures to integrate African-American migrants from the South into cities like Detroit, Los Angeles and Newark (which I've written about before, here).

Technorati Tags: cities, Europe, immigration, Paris, politics, regeneration, urban

UN-Habitat "Jam"

Hi all, I was recently alerted to the upcoming online event, that I thought you might all be interested in. You can join in, it's free, and could be interesting.

From December 1-3, the Habitat JAM online event (here) will bring tens of thousands of people around the world together to discuss and debate some of the most urgent and controversial issues that face our rapidly urbanizing planet. The Government of Canada, in partnership with IBM and UN-HABITAT, is sponsoring this 72-hour online event as part of the preparations for the third session of the World Urban Forum, which is being held June 19-23, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada.

There are six topics to be discussed in the Habitat JAM based on the themes chosen for the third session of the World Urban Forum. The JAM forum
topics are:
* Improving the Lives of People Living in Slums
* Sustainable Access to Water in Our Cities
* Environmental Sustainability in Our Cities
* Finance and Governance in Our Cities
* Safety and Security in Our Cities
* Humanity: The Future of Our Cities

The event itself raises some interesting questions about social organization outside of physical spaces. IBM seems to have used this mode of online organizing in its own strategic planning, which is described more broadly (if not in detail) here.

More later.