Rebuilding the Mississippi Coast
To Listen: Get Adobe Flash Player, or download an mp3 at the bottom of the post.
Battered Gulfport, Mississippi.[Ed Arnold]
Following Hurricane Katrina Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour warned that however the state rebuilt its southernmost region would “decide what the Coast will look like in 10 years, 20 years, and beyond. We must seize this opportunity to do this right.”
In hopes of doing it right Mississippi has convened the world’s biggest ever charette – an intensive collaborative planning meeting where urban design professionals tackle everything from what kinds of housing to build, to how to lay out a city’s streets. From now until next Tuesday, over 400 city planners, architects and city officials from Mississippi and elsewhere will convene in Biloxi’s Isle of Capri Hotel to figure out some grand plans and some small details on rebuilding the entire gulf region.
By the time we do this show, the charette will have ended. And the first of a series of town hall meetings will have taken place. So we’d like to do a post-mortem of the week long event – what was accomplished? What did they come up with? How were their plans and suggestions received? And how many are likely to be implemented by the towns and cities for whom they were developed?
We’d also like to know, what’s the story around the charette? How are people receiving it? ((One person posting on the Sun Herald’s blog asked, “If today’s event was a public hearing, why was it surrounded by barbed wire?”) Do people affected by the hurricane even care about the grand plans, if they’re still worried about getting their FEMA trailers or their insurance checks? Or if they’re stuck with family in North Carolina?
Andres Duany
-
Founding Principal, Duany Plater-Zyberk
Co-founder, Congress for New Urbanism
Widely considered the leading practitioner of “New Urbanism.”
David Tortorano
- Reporter for the Biloxi/Gulfport Sun Herald
Mayor Xavier Bishop
- Mayor of Moss Point, Mississippi
- Some more things to check out
-
Mississippi Renewal
Governor’s Commission
The Sun Herald’s Blog
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October 16th, 2005 at 7:20 pm
I went to most of the websites offered regarding the “charrette” at Biloxi last week before it convened. I could not find mentioned anywhere how the public was to apply for admission, where they could visit to watch the development of proposed projects, where they might sit to listen to seminars or to witness propositions by various groups of developers, by authorities, etc. It seems to me to be just another behind-closed-doors finagling of who gets how much of the money.
The charrette seemed to be “called” and organized by the (group of) developers calling themselves “The New Ubanists,” but I could not determine by whose authority (except that the governor of Mississippi seems to be very excited about the whole thing.) I could find nowhere any sanctioning by the public, the citizens of Mississippi (who will undoubtedly be contributing HUGE amounts of money to cover the expenses of the charrette – even though some participants are evidently attending at their own cost to make sure they are not left out of the spoils) much less the citizens of the cities, towns, villages at rural areas who will have the results of the charrette foisted upon them. And, of course, the expenses of the charrette will be infinitesimal compared to the cost of the implementation of the resulting decisions also to be born by the people not attending the charrette. Indirect attendance (online?) was implied, but never stated nor were directions available.
An enthusiastic advocate interviewee (of some stated position in the convoluted line of authority of bureaucracy which I could not remember,) when explaining what of some of the possible improvements could take advantage of the devastation to be begun immediately, mentioned that the railroads could be enticed to move the road beds and tracks from where they presently go through the center of the cities and towns to the outlying areas, thereby bypassing the many, and apparently deadly, grade crossings in the densely populated areas. Here was one person who apparently learned nothing from Katrina regarding the now lacking benefits of a good mass transit system whereby many, many, many people could move or remove themselves conveniently, with baggage and freight, very quickly at a cost miniscule compared to using the highways. Instead, this advocate of the charrette wanted to make the railroads a pain in the neck to get to. This will help ensure there is no incentive to reinstigate a convenient, cheap, fast and efficient way for people to get where they want to go nonlocally.
It is beyond questioning that the rail lines should be elevated or go underground to preclude the hazards of grade crossings. But they should go as close as possible to the most densely populated areas. They should be high speed “bullet” trains ala parts of the rest of the civilized world (ie. France, Germany, Japan, etc.) It is ridiculous that this country should use the techniques of some has-been, back water land to get its people around. The rail systems could be monorail, magnetically levitated, underground pneumatically levitated or just high quality rails. In addition to freight trains for commercial traffic, passenger trains should also have freight capacity, so whatever bulky packaged goods on individual pallets that can be conveniently trucked to the train stations, can travel cheaply on the same train as those it belongs to and be at their destination when (ie the same time) they arrive. Just like the good old days of Rail Way Express! Instead of driving one’s pickup to the strip malls strewn all over the place with their KayMarts, etc. along every highway between any two towns, one would drive his pickup to the train station and go by train at 200 m.p.h. to a larger town or small city four or five times farther away, where wholesaling and retailing can be concentrated at a convergence of rail systems from many areas in different directions, rendering otherwise necessary distribution to the current style of “outlets” unnecessary. Having purchased enough sheets of plywood, flagstones, or some appliances (stove, reefer) that would have required, perhaps, several trips to the “outlet” in one’s truck, the seller gets it to the station, the freight handlers load the pallets on the train in an instant with whatever kind of machinery you care to imagine (front end loaders, articulated booms or small cranes ala cherry pickers, etc.) while one relaxes in an observation car with the sports page or a sandwich. If train changes are required, your freight makes the same changes just a quickly and easily as you do. The trains are fast and arrive often. One is at one’s home station, near his establishment or home, more quickly and cheaper, with freight, than slogging through the strip mall traffic for a number of trips. The freight handlers at your station put a load in your truck for the short distance you have to go, and in a few more trips you have accomplished what you would have had to pay more for a trucker to deliver that stuff or spent half again as much time forth and back in strip mall traffic getting what you want. Before an emergency, of course, this system would be up and running, ready for use in that emergency.
But that enthusiastic advocate of redevelopment would have devastated any hope of such an improvement because of the habit of thinking of past mistakes and ugliness and inefficiencies and costliness are good enough as any. With stupid thinking like that to start off with, it seems to me things can only go downhill from there.
And then, along the coast, we can get to environmentally benign, high speed (70 knots or more?) hovercraft that don’t need to use the ship channels with the hazards of navigating in high density traffic, don’t even need high tide, or a landing terminal (any old beach parking lot or road end will do.) And so on, and so on, and so on.
Cheers.
October 19th, 2005 at 7:20 pm
Good health is closely tied to good, comfortable living. I am happy that the Mississippi charette has endeavored, in the best tradition of Jane Jacobs,and perhaps subconciously, to interweave an increased opportunity for a healthy lifestyle into their renewal suggestions, so that health care costs that are challenging our major corporations, can be controlled.
October 19th, 2005 at 7:22 pm
(Parenthetically, I note that you have scheduled a show on health disparities for next week. Tonight is a great opportunity to observe that the proposed re-designs do wonders for health promotion for the entire region. My career has been built on studying the best ways to maximize cardiovascular health for all people. I like much of what I see in the Mississippi renewal proposals.)
October 20th, 2005 at 3:00 am
[...] trailers or their insurance checks? Or if they’re stuck with family in North Carolina? Listen to the show here. Leave a [...]
October 20th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
JC’s impulse is correct — rebuild smarter than before, and plan for it publicly. But I think the commenter is making a lot of assumptions that are especially unfair. One reason the planners at the charrette — which was funded by the Knight Foundation, not taxpayers, and further subsidized by the particpants themselves — embraced the idea of moving the freight line was as a way to convert that corridor to a light rail/streetcar line. Connecting the coastal communities with convenient rail service was very much a part of the plan. You also should know that developers — the people who put together real estate deals — were deliberately kept from charrette activities, while members of the public and their elected representatives participated directly. The options and tools outlined in the charrettes may be adopted by the communities or not, after their own public processes; there were no deals made, no plans finalized. There was an offering of a coherent vision that virtually every public participant found appealing and compelling. Now they have to fight for it.
October 20th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
David –
Thank you very much for straightening me out. I am here to be corrected which I much appreciate because being corrected when wrong is about the easiest and quickest way to learn something I didn’t know. When expressing something which turns out to be correct, I find I learn essentially nothing but what I already knew. The only compensation is perhaps that someone else might get an insight that makes something interesting to them.
I see no reason why a light rail streetcar cannot use the same right of way as a high speed train, let’s say the light rail on the ground under a high speed line overhead. However, it seems to me that anyone on the streetcar trying to get to the next town, where the overhead train is going also, will not ride the streetcar more than once after seeing four of the overhead trains pass them accelerating to as near as they can get to 200 or 300 mph before they have to start breaking. I would guess the streetcars could better be used to connect smaller villages scattered abroad between the rights of way of the bullet trains, connecting them to each other and to the high speed train station at a convenient place and distance between the commercial area and the densest residential area of the center of town. I think the light rails might possibly best be used radiating out from a “hub” of a town to serve the outskirts and villages which are in that particular direction. When these spokes are too far apart to be convenient to all the area between them, circular routes around the town center would allow an access to the radial spokes as well as connect areas circumferentially around town. As the distance from town center to the farthest developed areas becomes greater, more intermediate spokes, as needed, can be added outward from the circumferential streetcar line beyond which such is required.
To get people out of their cars, a mass transit system must fulfill three requirements; it must be more convenient, faster and cheaper to use than a car. To be perfectly frank, I have yet to see a light rail system that satisfies these requirements well enough not to be, except, perhaps, at rush hours, usually quite empty. Such systems are inevitably far too expensive to ride, with so few riders per mile paying the costs, to be cheap enough to be enticing. These systems are never fast enough such that at off peak times fewer units can be used without making the wait until the arrival of the next car anything but convenient, especially at around 2:00 AM in a snow storm at about 10 deg. F. and a 25 knot wind! Anything more than a ten minute wait on a 24 hour basis is uncalled for. The rail systems I have seen seem to have been designed and engineered having in no way the goal of enticing people out of their cars. And today, cars are NOT cheap, not particularly fast on congested roads, and not particularly convenient where they cannot be parked. Two other attributes which many would not consider necessary until a system without them is put in place and a certain annoyance is perceived with their use. One is that money should not be a factor at the time of use. Devices to register one’s usage and arrange for payment, or a demand thereof (a bill), automatically should obviate the paying of a fare during use. The other is the capacity to EASILY store and retrieve bundles and boxes, laptops and brief cases, AND BICYCLES should be provided. Every light rail streetcar system I have seen resembles little of what is truly needed or wanted.
Regarding merely tooling forth and back parallel to the coast, hovercraft could undoubtedly be faster, cheaper and more convenient more easily. If the coast is essentially flat in topography, hovercraft may well be able to serve more area inland more easily than rail. What IÂ have seen of the furtherance of the light rail fad of late usually seems to result in something about as useful or desirable in today’s circumstances as the “Toonerville Trolley.”
It is gratifying to hear of the altruistic behavior of the sponsors and participants of the charrette. But I wonder what their wives will say when they find out how much was spent with no plans to retrieve it. I am happy to take your post in R.O.S. at face value and thank you for the edification. I will look for evidence to support or refute it. It would only seem sensible to hope that the public can be sold on the plans and projects concocted in the charrette what with the contracts to be won in the offing for their implementation. Perhaps you could respond by telling us all how the Knight Foundation and the participants of the charrette hope to cover the costs of the charrette and get their wives off their backs.
When is the next charrette for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast to be and who will be producing that one? The people of that area should have some other ideas to compare and choose which might be best, should they not?
Cheers.
October 21st, 2005 at 9:41 am
P.S. Well, if I had done it purposefully, I suppose I could be accused of (or credited with?) a sort of sick joke, but i hope it is just my dotterage which is to blame. What I am referrijg to is the last word of the second sentence of the second paragraph above. I hope it is obvious that the word “breaking” was meant to be “braking.” But, who knows, perhaps, to some, it wasn’t obvious To them I appologize if I stimulated some uncomfortable visions.
Cheers.
November 13th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
I participated in the charrettes. I grew up in Gulfport and am now an architect in North Carolina. I am not a New Urbanist, though I share their concerns for walkability, sustainability and other important planning issues. The New Urbanist developments built to date do tend to be architecturally homogenous and cute. But in the context of the Gulf Coast, where much development will be infill instead of green field, their planning principles are sound and could greatly improve the prevalent standards of development.
At present, the most dangerous threat to the rebuilding effort comes from the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which is aggressively pursuing ‘emergency’ bridge construction along the coastline that would be built to interstate highway standards, not at all pedestrian friendly or consistent with the recommendations of the planners at the charrette. These bridges, as conceived, are vastly over-scaled for the pre-Katrina traffic loads. Temporary bridge replacement systems are available (Florida used them after Ivan) that would allow time for thoughtful planning and consideration of future plannng goals.
In response to the comment about many different ideas, I agree in part, and yet, the charrette participants were divided up into 18 different teams, looking at separate communities and issues. There was actually a wide range of responses from different teams, though all shared a similar philosophy toward walkability and infrastructure, independent of scale of development. The towns on the coast can see more than one approach to rebuilding in similar contexts represented among the final reports, which should be available on the websites for the charrette in the very near future.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Your guests mention the vote to be grounds for disqualification; and, as for the administration, would its promotion of the incursion into Iraq, can the same be said with respect to impeachment?
Jorge