2 - Zoning

Feb. 19, 2010

Journal 2

Zoning is an interesting concept, but its forms of application and ramifications are defining the frontiers of the world today. Grady Clay posits that since the 1880's the American frontier has shifted from East-West settlements to Urban-Suburb fronts. And he has cartoons to prove it (p. 77).

Did tribal communities in America zone? Of course they set aside land for stationary activities such as farming and long-term shelter, so I suppose they were "zoning". I only recently became cognizant of the extent to which it defines everyone's life. It has to, right? What with residential vs public vs corporate landuse. Working with long-term development NGOs in Peru, one of the main focuses was on incorporating land titles and rural zoning: "Ordenacion Territorial (OT)". OT sounds like a supremely taxing and paternalistic activity to dedicate one's life to - at least in a place where the people who live on the land see no need for land zoning, and feel threatened by wealthy outsiders that visit them threatening to move houses and farmlands for roads. In exchange the people will receive faster transport of goods to the urban markets, new roads, and construction jobs.

One employee of GTZ, a German governmental developmental agency, named Victor was especially engrossed in OT. He was on a national committee that met monthly to discuss the once and future zoning of Peru. After accompanying a few GTZ employees on a trip out to the foothills of the Andes, we returned to the office and Victor began asking about my perceptions of the land use in the rural areas we had just been. The people there ate green pods and potatoes without flavor of any kind. This was what kept through the cold winter months. I hadn't thought about zoning, nor had I thought about politics. I felt like I had come back from the frontier, or as they called it "El Campo".

I don't know America well, but I believe him that the frontier of today is the suburbs - from a national perspective. But, we live in a global age, where America's market is internationally driven and spending by individuals, corporations, and governments is based on trends in countries around the world. Maybe a more appropriate question of today is: what is the world's frontier?

I would argue that the world still has a very real frontier, but it is about to disappear. My generation may be one of the last to ever view the Amazon as an untouched jungle. With discovery and of oil, 80% of the Amazon has already been zoned and contracted out to transnational oil consortiums. Uncontacted indigenous lands and fragile ecosystem zoning is being disregarded in light of the economic trade-off. With subsidies from the American government, and the American International Development Bank, Hunt Oil among many other large oil firms are "quietly" pumping and spilling oil to the coast and up to California. Unbeknown to the average American, he is in fact still expanding into the frontier. It may not be American territory, but it has become American turf.

When it comes to thinking about zoning, it turns out that Haymarket, aka Parcel 9, is in for layers of zoning. According to a December, 2009 article plans are moving forward for keeping Blackstone St. as a ground market and building offices or possibly residential apartments on top. One of the likely plans for offices is funded by the Rockefeller family, which happens to already own other pockets of prime Boston real estate. The other plan under consideration is for a Museum that will be subsidized heavily by a public subsidy.