Paul over at The Aesthetic Elevator wrote this post, in which he raised some questions about saving small towns. Here are a scattering of thoughts in response.
It seems that the first problem facing small towns is the question of access. If current systems of transportation aren’t sustainable, the two approaches I see are to keep the same model and reduce it, or to look to the solutions at work in other isolated communities (like islands, or parts of Alaska) and model after those. States and communities can choose. A group of towns could act like an island, maintaining the roads that join them, with limited means of access. I imagine that interstates would remain, as they’re part of a federal system.
Should towns be saved? Are they worth saving? (What are they? What about them is worth saving?) I would look to abandoned areas in Eastern Europe in considering those questions.
My first impulse is toward preservation, and to divide assets in a couple of ways: preservation of culture and knowledge, and for preservation of buildings. This is, admittedly, a utilitarian approach. The goal is to save the physical backbones of small towns, so that they can be reused.
How to deal with buildings? Some types of buildings can be mothballed – essentially, sealed and left in stasis – more easily than others. Other types of buildings might be better deconstructed, and their materials warehoused for future use.
What about culture and knowledge? It’s the way of the world immemorial that oral histories come and go, are transferred and are lost. My first question is (and there are those who could answer it, I’m sure): What assets exist, in terms of objects and in terms of people? How can our money (us, taxpayers) be invested to do the greatest good possible? There will be loss, there simply will. And the task I propose is impossible to perform perfectly: to figure out what we have, and to forecast what will be the most useful (not only on a utilitarian level but also on a human level and a historic level) to preserve for the benefit of future generations.
I would preserve a mission that harkens to that of the National Park Service, adding that such preservation should be done reasonably, and for the enjoyment (remember, at that time “to enjoy” meant “to experience”) and benefit of future generations. There’s no way of knowing what the future holds, but we could do our best.
“…to promote and regulate the use of the…national parks…which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
I imagine that in the next fifty years, the movement toward a simpler and more self-sustaining way of life will grow dramatically. States could invest wisely now, in order to be able to welcome those kinds of people with open arms. (ie, take temporary custody of these resources and sell them to private individuals – not at a loss, but as a state investment.) There’s the rub – funding. I argue that looking toward the future is a national issue, but that individual states will benefit from relocations. The fact is, some states may be reduced to a skeleton crew. Maybe each state should be left to plan and administer for itself. And maybe this is a place to look toward private investment as a form of stewardship. No easy answer for that.
On the topic of caring for the future but tangential to this post: working toward reforesting the Dust Bowl is another long-term investment that stands to benefit future generations. I wasn’t around for the Eisenhower era’s interstate system, and I don’t know what it would take, besides some gutsy and difficult decisions, to fund such a thing.
A last comment. People tend to conflate convenience with necessity. We could, as a country, return to a pre-Eisenhower transportation system. It’s worth considering. It wouldn’t be a pre-Eisenhower world: communication has evolved. My point is to set things in motion now, so that resources, not wastelands, will be available when they’re needed later.
