On the Banks of the Salton Sea

The title of this L.A. Times article is "A Dangerous Slum Sprouts in the Desert" and the writer is quite obviously horrified.

"They call it 'Duroville,' a haphazard village of roughly 4,000 people and dozens of unregulated businesses that has sprouted from the desert scrub in just two years. It was named for its founder, Harvey Duro, a husky member of the Torres-Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, who said he just may double the size of the place.

Whether anybody can stop him remains to be seen. Duroville sits on sovereign Indian land, beyond the reach of state and local laws. So, although one county official says it is the worst and largest substandard housing development of its kind in the region, there's nothing she can do about it."

(I'm not really sure what's supposed to be more horrifying, that these people are living in substandard conditions, or that there's nothing the state can do to stop them.)

Comments

[dhex]

'cause the BIA is always so very helpful. really.

[Plutarck]

Unregulated businesses? Someone must stop these lunatics before they kill us all!

[Kevin Carson]

It's much more horrifying that they're beyond the reach of the state. The sheeple are much more troubled by disrespect for "the law" than by the evils the law is ostensibly designed to remedy.

I saw a sign at the post office that said it was illegal to mail flammable liquids; "and it's also dangerous." So people who would never be moved by the danger of burning themselves or someone else alive are willing to genuflect when they hear the magic words "the law."

I tend to have the opposite reaction. My immediate impulse to break the law is only with difficulty restrained when I stop to reflect that the malum prohibitum is something I wouldn't want to do anyway, for reasons of common sense. Every time I see the warning on a package, "It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its purpose," I always have to mutter, "I'll put it on my fuckin' corn flakes if I want to."

[joe]

I think localities should adopt regulations requiring building to be done according to code. But if one doesn't, I'm not too worried. A settlement that doesn't enforce reasonable building and safey codes will be self-limiting in size. If the place does manage to grow to a significant size, it will establish a set of groundrules - and if that doesn't mean adoption of the state building code, it will mean something close. Most people do want to build, and live in, houses that have a reasonable assurance that their construction and design are up to snuff, and don't want to put up with fly-by-nighters undercutting them or selling them shoddy goods.

Making building and zoning regulations make sense and be user-friendly would cut down on this sort of thing, though.

[Lonewacko]

Is anyone here a trailer expert, or a dioxins expert? While I partially agree about the fact that The State is frustrated about the situation and will probably lash out, doesn't the state have a role to play in setting standards for trailer and house construction or determining whether there are dioxins in the soil? Or, should Harvey be able to do whatever he pleases, including allowing dioxins to seep into their drinking water if it'll save him money? After all, the courts, after he's sued by the survivors, will be able to make future dioxin-seepage unprofitable. Right?

Anyway, entering Huell Howser mode and responding to the inspector's comment 'Wow. Places like this actually exist in America?', I haven't been to Slab City, but it sounds interesting: http://www.slabcity.org/

I have been to New Idria, and if you've never seen orange streams, it's a good place to check out: http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Starrs/NEWIDRIA.html

And, I'd also highly recommend Alpaugh in the Central Valley.

[Madog]

I'll sure the state will find some way to harrass the inhabitants of Duroville. They'll set up roadblocks and search people as they enter or leave the territory or something.

[Smiling Dave]

Since Duroville sits on sovereign Indian land, it
is none of the county's damned business what
standards (or lack thereof) it adheres to. I'd be
willing to bet that its denizens - if forced to
move back under county control - would become
homeless people. If Duroville isn't polluting the
county's water supply, then the busybodies who
think the state should regulate conditions on
Indian land should shut up.

[Steve]

Holy Underwear! Cattle stampeded!? Women and children blown to bits!? We've got to do something! We've got to keep our phoney-baloney jobs! Harumph!

[Croesus]

joe,

Lawsuits would be one mechanism for ensuring safe building procedures; in fact, the notion of private lawsuits being a means of ad hoc regulation is quite old.

[Anonymous]

Substandard housing is supposed to be a monopoly of the state! Why those lousy no-good injuns, muscling in on the state's business....

[Nora North]

Kevin Carson, WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS!
Not only does it ensure your safety; not only does it allow you to defy momentum; but (and here comes the crucial part)
IT IS THE LAW, dammit!

[Tim Ber]

Kevin, every time you come across a federal warning on a package, have you considered letting your eyes just SKIP that part and keep on reading?

Long ago, I've trained my mind to do that -- automatically.

(I just feel sorry for the poor suckers in the market who have to PAY, in more ways than one, to have this garbage printed on their products.)

[joe]

The lawsuit-as-regulatory structure theory has its appeal, but there seem to be some pretty sever limitations. What about fly-by-nighters, who aren't around to sue, and who aren't trying to create a repuation and thus aren't deterred? What about reliability - every lawsuit is a crapshoot, whereas black letter law lets everyone know what they're gettin into up front.

[fyodor]

Joe,

Then it's up to the consumer to know whether the builder has a good rep and to decide whether he wants to trust a builder who doesn't. Of course, there'll always be someone who gets screwed under any system (Utopia is not an option!). The question, as always, is whether bureaucractic rules do more harm than good, both in practical terms and morally.

Say, the BBC News very briefly mentioned last week while covering the Algerian earthquake that private homes fared much better than the public housing that collapsed and killed everyone. Anyone else catch that or know anything else about it? This is a slightly different issue, but the principle remains the same. Just because the state says something is good for you doesn't mean it really is. Luckily we don't have nearly the corruption in this country that many places in the world do, but I would sitll trust a builder with a good rep more than state backed assurances!

[Keith]

The article mentioned a welder who's pleased he can send his kids to public schools:
"We like it here," Lourdes said. "The kids go to public school. And you can do most anything you want. You can throw a party, or build a fire. No one complains."

But the article is not clear if it's a BIA administered school or a California county public school. I thought BIA schools were only for tribe members and are not funded for the tenants of tribe members. (Which could be true, and also be an unchecked attribute in this situation) If it's a Cali school, then I have to question the sovereignity of the reservation in this scenario.

One aside. This tribe's land is half in the Salton sea? They should hire a team of fancy-pants laywers to pore over their treaty documents and see if there's any language that grant super powered water rights that could extort Imperial Valley agribusinesses. 100 year-old tribal treaties sometimes carry surprises... sucked to live in Salamanca, NY in 1992.

[Jim Antley]

Keith, that water is reeeallly salty - no good for any kind of irrigation. The Imperial Valley irrigation water is from the Colorado River.

Anyway, Joe (up top), I couldn't agree more. I had roommates that used to park on my front lawn at my house, killing the grass. I used to try to get them to quit. Then a neighbor came buy and told me that there is a city law stopping them from doing that - he was thinking he was helping me out telling me this. I proceeded to tell the roommates to park on the lawn all they want.

[Ladypixel]

The sad part is that everyone's panicked about the migrant workers, and nobody bothers to think about the fact that perhaps, just perhaps, the feds ought to be concerned just a wee bit about the /tribe/ who's living in the same substandard conditions. See, it's okay for the Indians to live like crap and not have good facilities, but we have to take good care of the migrant workers and their illegal families, right?

I've /been/ to Thermal, California. I know people who live on that reservation. And I know that housing looks more like cardboard boxes than anything else. They don't have a casino, they don't have money. If the feds want to make a stink about it, maybe they'd better to offer some help to the tribe, so they can improve conditions all around, not only for the migrants, but for themselves.

[O'Brien Megan]

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DATE: 01/25/2004 06:23:56
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