Robert Whitcomb: Rebuilding & Rebuilding; Calling ERISA; Bailey’s Beach Bathos; Great Books

Sunday, September 03, 2017

Robert Whitcomb, Columnist

“Our boy {Donald Trump} can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this; I will manage this process.’’

-- Felix Sater,  Donald Trump associate with ties to Russia, regarding Sater’s promise in 2015 to do a Moscow real estate deal (which hasn’t happened yet)  with the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“When summer opens, I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn.’’

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-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Thus start the nicest weeks of the year, if shadowed by the season that follows.

 

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We in southern New England have had some famous hurricanes, although they’re usually different from those Down South. (They tend to be less intense, wider and to move forward faster.) So what are the questions/lessons from Harvey’s assault on Houston?

 

The most difficult lesson is that far too much building has been happening in flood zones, which includes much of Houston. And assuming that climate scientists are right, the results of overbuilding will get worse. Houston and Texas, in general, has lax (in comparison to, for example, the Northeast and California) building codes and in some places, most notably Houston, little zoning.

 

This has led to massive paving and building over of flood-vulnerable land, which has worsened flooding as water has poured from pavement and other hard surfaces into overburdened bayous. Marshlands, woods, and meadows absorb water and thus mitigate the effects of area flooding. In Greater Houston, much of these giant sponges have been destroyed to make way for parking lots, malls and subdivisions in the nearly uncontrolled development that Texas is famous for.

 

Of course, people like to live near water. Aided by the much-in-need-of reform Federal Flood Insurance Program, individuals and developers have built too close to the sea and rivers – with an irresponsibility partly subsidized by taxpayers. Seas continue to rise and rainfall events are becoming more extreme.  A lot of this indirect waterfront building subsidy turns out to be welfare for the rich, who can afford the high purchase price of waterfront property.

 

In some places, though, fear of flooding is leading even affluent folks to move to higher ground from homes right along the shore. This has even led to gentrification in, for example, previously unfashionable, higher parts of Miami. Let’s hope that this also happens more in inland jurisdictions open to massive freshwater flooding.

 

It’s unlikely that the Trump administration will take on developers (after all, Trump continues to be one, even in office) and push for gradual moves to keep new building away from flood zones. So the states will have to take the lead. Will Harvey lead even an anti-regulation paradise such as Texas to act?

 

Inevitably, people want to know if the Harvey flood was worsened by global warming. Well, there’s natural variability (part of “weather’’) and then there’s climate. Most very strong tropical cyclones lose some steam if they move very slowly over the sea because the turbulence brings up deeper, colder water. But the water in the Gulf over which Harvey slowly traveled has become very warm down very deep. That sounds very much like the effect of global warming. And the storm’s slow movement seems to be linked to a general slowdown in upper-level winds that’s been associated with a warming Arctic.

 

Finally, it should be said that Texas’s response to the Harvey disaster has been far better (orderly and calm) than Louisiana’s in Katrina. I think that’s mostly because Louisiana is such a corrupt and inefficient place. The leadership of the wheelchair-bound Lone Star State governor, Greg Abbott, has been impressive.

 

It will be entertaining to see and hear GOP members of Congress who opposed much of the federal funding for Hurricane Sandy recovery fall over themselves to get the maximum bucks from Washington to clean up after Harvey. They’ll get it, especially given the grim fact that most Houstonians don’t have flood insurance. But will they then back land-development and public-infrastructure changes to reduce damage in the next storm? Probably not because that would further enable “Big Government’’ (of which the Sunbelt gets a disproportionate share of the largesse.) Hypocrisy makes the world go round!

 

What won’t help is that the Trump administration has proposed cutting Federal Emergency Management Agency programs as well as funding for the National Weather Service (whose forecasts for Harvey were very accurate) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose services help coastal residents prepare for hurricane and other storm disasters.

 

By the way, the most prone places for hurricane-related damage in New England are Narragansett Bay and, even more, Buzzards Bay, the upper part of which is in danger of getting some of the biggest hurricane surges in the country. Watch out Onset and Wareham! Very vulnerable to fresh water flooding from these storms is the hilly terrain of inland Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

 

When will there be a  national taxpayer revolt against public money being used to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild structures on the same flood-prone land?

 

 

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Presumably we’ll eventually find out what caused the collapse of the St. Joseph’s Health Services pension fund. I’d say at this point it was negligence. In any case, there are some unanswered questions.  Time for a forensic audit.

 

What does seem clear is that “church plans’’ such at the St. Joseph’s one, should be put under the protection of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which sets minimum standards for private-sector pension and health plans to provide protection for retirees. Unfortunately, neither church pension plans nor municipal ones have to abide by ERISA-style rules.

 

Thus, for example, the Catholic Church or a mayor can decide when and how much to fund the pension plan for their employees.  Not exactly confidence-building!

 

The failure to properly fund pension plans recalls the failure to properly fund public-infrastructure maintenance and repair. In both cases, negligence dramatically raises long-term costs.

 

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Reading about the 120-year-old (!) Walk Bridge,  over the Norwalk River, in Norwalk, Conn., over which many rail commuters travel every day, reminded me of the decay of so much of our public infrastructure. The Walk Bridge swings to let big boats go up and down the river. But sometimes it gets stuck because it’s falling apart. When it does, thousands of commuters are inconvenienced.

To read more, please hit this link:

 

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Very, very few Americans are sympathetic to the “Alt Right,’’ the KKK or neo-Nazis. Thus the huge “counter-demonstration’’ against the  Aug. 19 “Free Speech Rally’’ in Boston was ridiculously overwrought.

 

The “Free Speech Rally’’ was conducted, such as it was, by an outfit called the Boston Free Speech Coalition, which says it’s “a coalition of libertarians, progressives, conservatives, and independents.”  The counter-demonstrators tried to label the coalition as a bunch of extreme right wingers and effectively quashed their freedom of speech. I have no idea what the real views of the members of the coalition might be. But I do know that their First Amendment rights were thwarted by this trendy counter-demonstration against “hate,’’ as if you could ban something that everyone feels from time to time.

 

The biggest problem in all this is not bigotry but massive ignorance about American constitutional rights and American civics and history in general. (Certainly, if the Alt Right or outright fascists took over they’d curb or prohibit free speech themselves and knock a lot of heads in the process.)

 

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Most people seem to love to read rankings – of cities, colleges, best places to retire, etc., etc. But just about all these rankings are comparing apples and oranges. Each of these places is unique.

 

National city rankings, for instance, usually fail to include such qualities as convenience, as measured by compactness and proximity to nearby important cities; cultural complexity and interest, and the beauty of the built environment. Rather they emphasize such financial metrics as low taxes for retirees.  And thus boring Sun  Belt cities tend to be ranked much higher than, say, Providence, which all in all, is a much more interesting place than most Sun Belt cities. (Perhaps the most exciting Sun Belt cities are seedy, dangerous, exciting New Orleans and Miami, the sort of place that the writer Somerset Maugham called a “sunny place for shady people’’.)

 

I’m quite aware of Providence’s shortcomings.

 

And college rankings take little note of the big differences between a rural college and city university or even between a large and small institution, which can have big impact on how courses are taught and the overall college experience. The rankings industry is big, but it sells very misleading stuff.

 

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In any event, here’s a plug for my former Providence Journal colleague David Brussat’s new book, Lost Providence (The History Press). This publisher’s blurb summarizes it well:

 

“Providence has one of the nation’s most intact historic downtowns and is one of America’s most beautiful cities. The history of architectural change in the city is one of lost buildings, urban renewal plans and challenges to preservation. The Narragansett Hotel, a lost city icon, hosted many famous guests and was demolished in 1960. The American classical renaissance expressed itself in the Providence National Bank, tragically demolished in 2005. Urban-renewal plans such as the Downtown Providence plan and the College Hill plan threatened the city in the mid-twentieth century. Providence eventually embraced its heritage through plans like the River Relocation Project that revitalized the city’s waterfront and the Downcity Plan that revitalized its downtown. Author David Brussat chronicles the trials and triumphs of Providence’s urban development.’’

 

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U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is a Democrat, and Democrats pride themselves on representing a wider range of ethnic and socio-economic groups than Republicans, who, whatever their populist rhetoric, in practice display a special affection for the rich. Democrats present themselves as particularly sensitive to the needs and aspirations of low-and-middle-income people and ethnic minorities.

 

The senator is gearing up for his re-election campaign in 2018.

 

So the senator may feel himself in a quandary about the all-white, all-rich Bailey’s Beach club, in Newport. (The official name is the Spouting Rock Beach Association.)

 

He has a  very close association with the club as a former member and through his wife’s continuing membership.  He has many friends there. Furthermore, the club is very conveniently close to their Newport house.

 

Freedom of association is a wonderful thing and a cousin of the First Amendment, but for practical political reasons – i.e., “the optics’’ – Mr. Whitehouse, who is very much part of the old WASP aristocracy, will presumably face considerable political pressure to separate himself from such a symbol of exclusion as the campaign heats up. It’s his business of course. And his capacity to be a  good senator would seem little affected one way or the other. But Bailey’s will come up next year, though he’ll almost certainly be re-elected.

 

I have been to Bailey’s Beach and found the members I met there cool, cordial and quiet. But as a reminder of the fragility of all human institutions, an overly fragrant mass of seaweed covered much of the lower beach that day.

 

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I go hot and cold on whether the time and expense of removing Confederate statues from certain public places is worth it. There’s a strong argument for doing it along the lines of the reasoning that has removed Nazi statuary from public places in Germany and Communist statuary from some places in central and eastern Europe. On the other hand, there’s an argument to be made that statues of defenders of slavery should be kept up as a reminder of, and points of discussion, about history.

That argument would be stronger if Americans knew more about their history. But in fact, as suggested above, history and civics knowledge has been plunging as schools cut back on teaching what should be essential subjects for citizens of this and any other republic.

I thought of that while reading a New Hampshire Public Radio piece about a controversy over a mural in a  U.S. Post Office in the college (UNH) town of Durham, N.H. The building has a long and complicated mural of images depicting the town’s development on its wall.

The images are mostly bland. But one shows a Native American ‘’crouching,’’ in NHPR’s words,  “behind a bush looking out at a colonial cabin. He’s carrying a bow and arrows, and in one hand is a flaming torch. The image is entitled ‘Cruel Adversity.’’’

“The painting is meant to represent the threat of Native American attacks on the town….,’’ NHPR reported.

Now some people want this image removed for its alleged derogatory attitude toward Native Americans; and they complain that the mural doesn’t show the savagery of European colonists. Hit this link for the full story:

https://nenc.news/post-office-mural-depicting-cruel-native-americans-sparks-debate-n-h-town/

Well, both sides were often savage (and Native American tribes were often very savage against each other), and students should be taught that; they should also know about past bigotry. Leaving the image up helps do that. The real problem, in this case, is the abysmal state of history teaching. If we improved that, the people looking at these murals, statues and so would have the context (including understanding the associated racism) to understand why they went up in the first place.

There may be exceptions in some places, but I’ve come around a bit to President Trump’s remark about taking down statues of Confederate luminaries: “Where does it end?’’ There are just too many of these public reminders of very bad causes, including the horrible “Lost Cause’’ of the Confederacy, which sought to maintain and even expand the horror of slavery. So, on further reflection, in most places, I’d leave up these reminders.

I’d even leave up the statue of the great mass murderer Vladimir Lenin at 178 Norfolk St., in New York City.

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Meanwhile, here’s what might be the idiotic PC moment of the summer?  Yale University has changed a campus stone carving of a Puritan and a Native American by cementing over the musket that the former was carrying but keeping the Native American’s bow visible. A committee had ruled that the sculpture was bad because it depicted colonial violence against Native Americans. The sculpture, now at an entrance to the Sterling Memorial Library, will be taken away to be shown at a less conspicuous place. 

 

Yale was created by Puritans. This controversy reminds me of the lyrics  of the start of (Yalie) Cole Porter’s famous song “Anything Goes’’:

 

“Times have changed 
And we've often rewound the clock 
Since the Puritans got a shock 
When they landed on Plymouth Rock. 
If today 
Any shock they should try to stem 
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, 
Plymouth Rock would land on them.’’

 

 

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A charming if a bit sad article in the Worcester Telegram the other day told the story of Peter Paradis, who is basically the only municipal employee charged with picking up the litter in downtown Worcester. He’s had this usually thankless job since 2008.

 

He noted how nasty the downtown would look if the plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts and so on weren’t picked up for a week (which is presumably what happens when he’s on vacation). “I think it would be quite nasty. The owners of buildings don’t clean out in front of their buildings. And people just don’t use the trash bins that much,’’ even though there are two trash barrels on most blocks.

 

“Some just accept that someone else is going to pick it up.’’

 

Poor Mr. Paradis,  diligently doing battle against America’s slob culture. Hit this link:

 

 

 

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Poor Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III – the thoughtful, very well informed and disciplined young man who has put a lot behavioral space between himself and a family too many of whose members are known for out-of-control and arrogant (“Do you know who I am?!”) behavior.

 

He must have been very embarrassed when his Uncle Max Kennedy and his daughter Caroline, both acting deranged, were arrested on Aug. 30 in a  fancy rented house near the Kennedy compound in  Hyannisport, on  Cape Cod,  after arguing with police officers responding to neighbors’ complaints about a very loud party there.

 

The cops said Max Kennedy was, among things, “screaming incoherently and throwing himself at the wall’’ and smashing a cabinet filled with glass valuables.

 

After he was put into a police cruiser, Caroline tried to get her father out of the vehicle and was arrested herself. At the police station, the cops said, she told them proudly: “I went to Brown and I’m a teacher, sweetheart!’’

 

Oh, well, as my late father used to say, bitterly, “Your friends you can pick; your relatives you’re stuck with.’’

 

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For most of us, our memories seem to be stronger about summer (and summer places) than about the other seasons. Thus was apparently the case for the great poet T.S. Eliot. Although he moved to England as a young adult and became a British subject, he was perhaps never happier than as a boy at St. Louis-based family’s summer place in Gloucester. This was a classic gray-shingled place on Eastern Point. He wrote in 1928: “{I}n Missouri I missed the fir trees, the bay and goldenrod, the song sparrows, the red granite and the blue sea of Massachusetts.’’

 

Now, aided by a charitable trust set up by Eliot’s second wife, Valerie, the structure (now officially “The T.S. Eliot House’’) has become a writers’ retreat, where other writers can brood on the brevity of summer and the beauty and wrath of the sea.

 

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President Trump was quite right when he said last week that “talking is not the answer” to North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un near-constant threats. “Negotiations’’ have been delaying tactics and cover for the Kim regime’s relentless nuclear-bomb and missile program.

Trump said that “all options are on the table” to contain North Korea, and he complained that the U.S. had been paying “extortion money” in the form of occasional humanitarian aid to that tortured police state. Exactly. But what can the U.S. do to impress upon Kim that Trump is not just blustering? As I’ve written, the answer must include much tougher sanctions on Kim-enabler China and relentless cyberwar against North Korea.

The latter would have been easier if we had not let American business be so supine in accepting Chinese demands that U.S. companies share their technology with Chinese ones in return for being allowed to do business in the huge Chinese market. This has let Beijing obtain all sorts of high-tech information that they and the North Koreans can use against us; it certainly weakens the capacity of our cyber warfare arsenal to weaken Kim’s regime.

This grab of U.S. intellectual property also obviously takes huge bites out of the American companies’ competitive advantages, enabling the Chinese companies to replace U.S.  firms in the world market.

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For an exciting tour of some great books in the “Western canon,’’ pick up a copy of David Denby’s Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World. The book tells of what Denby heard and learned while reading these works and auditing undergraduate classes at Columbia University taught by great scholars. Thus it’s also an immersion into the academy, whose ways are often quite different from the rest of the world.

Heart of Darkness is grim (“The horror! The horror!”).  But I was enthralled by Denby’s description of his class’s sometimes very tense takes on that Joseph Conrad novella about European colonialism in Africa, the fragility of civilization and the depths of evil to which some people can fall.  It’s also a brilliant adventure story.

And Virginia Woolf’s writing is breathtakingly beautiful. Which makes her suicide even sadder.

 

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An advantage of old age: You no longer have to pretend that you’ll achieve some great goal.

 

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I noticed while walking back from downtown Providence to my office near the Marriott on a nice day last week that virtually everyone I passed on the sidewalk was looking down at a smart phone, including people who were clearly in groups of friends or relatives.  Are we losing the ability to look people in the eye and directly connect – and losing the desire to look around and enjoy and learn from our surroundings? The devices are clearly having profound psychological and even neurological effects.

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