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Hurricane Issac and Agenda 21--The Anti-Planning Movement

People do not like to be told what they can and cannot do.

Maybe I hang out with the wrong people and read all the negative stories, listen to the wrong radio stations and watch the wrong television stations.  But, it seems to me that people do not like to be told where they can or cannot live, build or do business.  "It is a free country!"

 

Watching the results from Hurricane Issac it would appear to me that people are living where it is no longer feasible to live--long term.  While the $14B spent on improving the levees around New Orleans worked this was after all only a category I storm.  Add in the quickly rising oceans and disappearance of marshes that once protected the city and I think there will be another Katrina like disaster in that city's future.  It is easy for politicians to say "we will rebuild," but I question the wisdom of trying to hold back Mother Nature as humans.  We can look pretty feeble in our attempts to contain disaster impacts when we insist on spotting the disaster 30 points by living in the wrong location to start with.

 

Which brings me to Agenda 21.  Quoting from Governing Magazine, "For those of you among the 85 percent of Americans who have no idea what this is about, Agenda 21 is a nonbinding resolution the United Nations passed in 1992 that encourages development in dense areas and conservation of open land."  I hear many a conspiracy theory about how we are being set up to be governed by the United Nations.  How they will tell us what to do or not do.  While all of this is baloney, there are those who believe it and tell it to their friends, etc.  These types of stories feed the anti-government and anti-planning rhetoric that pervades the print and airways in certain circles.  

 

Which brings up the anti-planning attitude that exists.  Building codes that require certain standards like drainage, electrical, plumbing and the like irks people.  They think that these requirements are also baloney.  A way for government to gouge the taxpayer for the fees associated with getting a building permit and having their plans reviewed.  What they fail to see is that mistakes compounded by many multiple, perhaps thousands of times, are what usually causes the larger community problems.  Surface water flooding is but one example of how urbanization has paved over the land so that there is no place for the water to go.  

 

As for where people should be able to build and live--let them build where they want if they are not hurting other people.  Let them take the risks, buy "private" insurance and when something bad happens don't bail them out with government grants and subsidies.  People who live in recurring disaster zones will quickly learn that it is not in their best interests to stay put.  Like some who experienced Katrina and now Issac they are saying, "No more" and are packing up and moving.  Natural selection and economics will drive those decisions.  

 

Note:  The other thing that irks people about permits is the cost of obtaining them.  What they don't understand is that in many instances they are a direct fee based structure.  Instead of general tax  revenues supporting building permits, it is the permits themselves that directly pay for the building plan reviews.  Only those getting the plans pay for the service.  It helps keep general tax obligations lower, a fact that they normally disregard.  We all want something for nothing!

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