DIY Urbanism
29th April 2016
Over the years I’ve belonged to a variety of different organizations that had the ostensible goal of accomplishing X or Y. At a certain point I would realize that all anyone was doing was exercising their fears and frustrations. Most of all they were trying to stop other people from doing things they didn’t like.
I’m impatient. I want to get on with the business of actually doing something tangible. Waiting for someone else to come along and accomplish your goals for you is a really bad plan. Trying to change government policy is endless. Expecting “the market” to magically solve problems isn’t realistic. So where does that leave any of us?
Writing a blog, maybe? It doesn’t get anything done but you feel better about yourself. Those of us with Native Indolence Syndrome tend to prefer the low-effort option.
Enter the Incremental Development Alliance. Let’s say you have a problem in your neighborhood. It needs a grocery store. It needs bike infrastructure. It needs more public gathering spaces. It’s in decline and needs new investment. It’s in the process of being gentrified and people are being squeezed out. Whatever. Why not be the person who brings the desired change? You. Right now. Go do it.
I doubt seriously that anyplace outside of mainland Europe ‘needs bike infrastructure’; that tends to be the compelling fetish of Hipster Whiteopias like Portland and Seattle and San Francisco. Nor do I see any compelling nned for ‘more public gathering spaces’ in a world where staring down at your cellphone is what most people below the age of 60 spend their day doing. And the innate contradiction between ‘in decline and needs new investment’ and ‘being gentrified and people are being squeezed out’ suggests that the author is either incredibly confused or writing for the incredibly confused. I’m not sure I want a confused person and his confused audience to ‘bring the desired change’; such people cause more problems than they solve.
Easier said than done, right? This isn’t easy stuff. There are zoning regulations, building codes, financing obstacles, bureaucratic landmines… The red tape is endless.
Said as if ‘red tape’ falls from the heavens on the just and unjust alike — which it does, of course, but unlike Global Warming it has an easily detectable cause. RED TAPE IS CAUSED BY GOVERNMENT. I’ll repeat that. RED TAPE IS CAUSED BY GOVERNMENT. Those who want to ‘bring the desired change’ need to GET THE GOVERNMENT OFF PEOPLE’S BACKS.