November 7, 2005

Hurry Up and Wait
ASLA hurricane relief efforts look to balance the urgency to do “something” with the desire to be a part of concrete, sustainable efforts that will have a positive impact.

There was a telling political cartoon in The Washington Post recently that had Pakistanis going door to door for earthquake relief funding, and a couple at one house simply said, “We already gave at the tsunami.” It was instructive because it highlighted not so much a lack of generosity as a gap between the virtue itself and the actions that must flow from it to transform goodwill into tangible results. Hardly a day in the capital passes without word of a new program or task force that is being formed to address the destruction of the Gulf Coast, and yet it is very difficult to ascertain any level of coordination among these efforts, and there is no sense of unanimity as to how the nation will proceed. Our American generosity, for better or for ill, is being filtered through the political process and its countless interest groups and concerns.

ASLA can be fairly counted among those interest groups. From our national leadership and board of trustees down to our chapter leadership, there has been an avowed desire to positively contribute to the long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region. Beyond generosity, there is  the strong belief that the profession of landscape architecture can impart substantial wisdom and expertise about reconnecting the region to its natural systems and aiding in the restoration of natural ecology. This is no small point, especially taking into account a National Science Foundation-funded report, issued last week, which cited soil erosion as the major cause for much of the damage of the levee system in and around New Orleans. The levees are just one piece of this perplexing puzzle, but their design and “geotechnical” failures underscore the challenges that we will face, many of which have sensible, virtuous solutions, if only they are considered.

ASLA continues to work to position the profession at the intersection of recovery, livable community design, and hazard prevention and mitigation. This has involved balancing the urgency to do something with the desire to be a part of concrete, sustainable efforts that will have a positive impact, in keeping with the stated goals and public policies of the profession.

On November 3, ASLA participated in a meeting arranged by Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Hon. ASLA, to discuss a proposal to convene a regional dialogue to develop a long-term vision for rebuilding and restoring the Gulf region. Other participants included Regional Plan Association (RPA), Smart Growth America, APA, AIA, AmericaSpeaks, the Brookings Institution, and the Alliance for Regional Stewardship. The proposal, which to date has largely been developed by RPA and AmericaSpeaks, focuses on assessing the public values of the region through electronic “town hall” meetings with local residents who have been dispersed around the country. ASLA has already lent its expertise to the work of the RPA to map the environmentally sensitive areas in the Gulf region. Frederick Steiner, FASLA, is leading the team of landscape architects for the mapping project.

Other important developments:

• It was reported late last week that the Bush administration, in response to the need to help pay for clean up after the hurricanes, asked Congress to reduce current fiscal year spending for the Interior Department and related agencies by $788 million. Included in this request was the proposed elimination of the $30 million appropriation for the state side of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Monies can also be expected to come out of preservation spending for heritage areas and the state and tribal wildlife conservation fund. And $535 million for an emergency fire-fighting fund would be eliminated. While across-the-board spending reductions are expected from the administration and Congress through December, there is considerable concern that some programs, such as the LWCF, that had been previously targeted for elimination but were eventually restored in the legislative process, are once again being singled out. The winds of the hurricane season have also, unfortunately, served to pry open the doors of previously negotiated and settled funding matters.
• On November 1, President Bush signed an executive order creating the Gulf Coast Recovery and Rebuilding Council. This council consists of the secretaries of every major department, administrators of EPA and the Small Business Administration, and a number of other officials. Alan Hubbard, the chairman of the National Economic Council, was selected as chair. In establishing the Council, the order explains that it is the policy of the United States to “provide effective, integrated and fiscally responsible support from across the Federal Government to support State, local, and tribal governments, the private sector, and faith-based and other community humanitarian relief organizations in the recovery and rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region affected by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.”
• President Bush also signed a second order that day, creating a new position within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate federal efforts. According to the order, the coordinator’s mission “shall be to work with the executive department and agencies to ensure the proper implementation of [the policy described above] by coordinating the Federal Response. The Coordinator shall be the principle point of contact for the President and his senior advisors with respect to the Federal Response.” The President appointed Don Powell as coordinator. Powell is the outgoing chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

For more information, contact Scott Kovarovics, Manager Federal Government Affairs, at skovarovics@asla.org.

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