Letters

From the May 2001 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

But Ms. Nikolsky's point that "quality of life" is withering in suburbia is a bit too sweeping. While some may bridle at the automobile dependence of many suburbanites, others may embrace the car as a way to give them more choices than would exist in a traditional urban center.

Joe Willingham takes my perspective too far. I didn't write that "sprawl-and-mall suburbs are simply what people want" or that alternatives are bound to be "bossy and overplanned." I merely pointed out in my review of Picture Windows that the first post-World War II suburbs (e.g., Levittown) responded to a desire for something different than the dense, urban living of traditional cities. Many Levittown residents did voice misgivings about aspects of their community (e.g., long commutes), but they stayed anyway. The move to the suburbs was the result of complex trade-offs when considering housing and neighborhood.

Mr. Willingham questions whether suburban development would have occurred without subsidies. This is an important point, and I acknowledged the federal role in providing financing to William Levitt. In fact, without it, it is unlikely Levittown would have been built (at least not in 1949). The federal loan guarantees offset uncertainty in the financial sector about the viability of Levitt's new product: affordable, single-family homes away from the urban center. Whether Levittown would have eventually been built anyway is speculative, but given general housing and land-use trends, Levittown or some similar development would likely have been built later.

Mr. Willingham then lauds planning as a way to address growth issues, arguing that Portland's growth boundary and others like it help preserve "the open space and natural beauty that most Americans treasure." As an empirical statement, this is simply incorrect. Only a little over 5 percent of the nation is developed, and about 4 percent is urbanized. Only about 2 percent of Oregon is developed, and the rate of sprawl may have actually increased in the period after the growth boundary was adopted. Growth boundaries provide the illusion of protecting significant open space, but constrain housing choices in the process. Even if development had occurred at pre-growth boundary rates in Oregon, Oregonians would have been awash in open space and so-called "view sheds."

Instead of more Portland-style planning, policymakers and citizens should support a dynamic land market that responds to the varied needs and desires of consumers.

The Rainbow Phenomenon

I have been aware of the Rainbow Gatherings since 1975, attended the one in Idaho in 1982, and have heard of them from various friends ever since ("Take Me to Your Leader," February). I also knew Barry Adams, who is featured in Sam MacDonald's article. That the authorities went after Adams is an excellent example of just what different universes the Rainbows and the Forest Service inhabit.

Barry is one of the people who has been articulating the Rainbows' world-view since before the first Gathering in 1972. If the Rainbows had leaders, Barry might well be one. But they really don't. Were Barry or any of the older attendees to cast himself as a leader, the rest of the Rainbows would just tell him he was being a horse's ass. This has often happened. As I have heard it, Barry Adams himself has gotten a good laugh out of it many times, sometimes at his own expense.

Be all that as it may, Forest Service officials in Montana know who Barry is. They live in a world in which having someone on whom to pin legal accountability is a daily necessity. It probably does make some sort of sense to them to cast Barry as a leader and thus cite him for not getting a permit. But that doesn't make it true.

What is going on here is an interaction of two different cultures. The Forest Service uses the definitions that are "real" within its cultural context. An analogy is the United States presenting treaty documents to Native American tribes, ceding lands to the U.S., and insisting that someone sign them, when in fact there was no one in the tribe who, by the tribe's definition of reality, could take such an action.

The Rainbows descended from the cultural phenomenon that began to flower in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury and various other places in the mid-'60s, just in time for Ronald Reagan to become governor of California and to attack colorful, chaotic, youthful questioning with all the fury of ethnic cleansing. People involved in the cultural experiment who either would not or could not reintegrate into the dominant culture headed for the hills.

The Rainbow Gatherings have continued at least in part because there are a lot of people for whom mainstream America has no place. One of the things I was much impressed to watch at the one Gathering I attended was how Rainbows taught what I would call "social ejectees" both material and spiritual survival skills, including the values of honesty and honest work. Are some of the people in need of such a lesson a social nuisance? You bet. But Rainbow has been a largely constructive response for those who need a cultural alternative.

And it really is an alternative. Sam MacDonald found barter an inefficient way to get a souvenir. Well, yes, it is an inefficient way to do business. But that's not how the Rainbow Gathering works. Giving what one has and sees as needed is the economic base. Could a gift economy work long-term for millions or billions of people, as it actually does work for a few weeks for thousands at a Gathering? Would it be a better world if we all did things that way? I don't know. To ask if their way is better or worse than the one most of us are used to is no more meaningful than to ask if Basque or Iroquois traditional culture is better or worse.

Uncle River
Blue, AZ

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