22 Feb The Not So Cold War of Urban Renewal and Social Engineering
APC Vice President Kathleen Marquardt has written of the most important articles yet produced describing sustainable development and its radical origins. This is important research. Your local Officials need this background as they are forced to deal with planners and NGOs. Please share widely. Tom DeWeese
Tom has been telling you all the latest with AFFH, HUD, DOT, and the rest of the swamp. That is, the recent part of the swamp that is our federal government. But the swamp is far deeper, far murkier, and far more sinister in its aims than most people are willing to believe. And it is being promoted by the Pope, Mark Zuckerberg, the UN, and the world’s elite. I am trying to keep this somewhat short, but there is so much background that needs to be exposed to the light of day. If you can’t read it all, scan it; things will pop out and you will be surprised at the evil in our swamp. I was always told that before air conditioning, foreign governments paid their US embassy staff hazardous duty pay above their regular salaries for working in DC because it was built on a swamp. Now I wonder if there was a second reason, a second swamp to be negotiated.
Communitarians suggest a series of measures that would significantly enhance public safety and public health, without endangering basic individual rights and constitutional protections. Often these modifications entail no mare than limited reinterpretations of legal traditions – for instance, of what constitutes reasonable search and seizure, which, of course, the Constitution allows. Such reinterpretations have been taking place continuously over the past two hundred years. There are those who openly admit that the courts, especially the US Supreme Court, treat the Constitution as a living document that may be modified to respond to the changing times and changes in our moral values. Others argue that the Constitution is to be treated as a sacred text that is unalterable. The latter group of legal scholars does its adjusting of the Constitution by interpreting what they see as the Founding Fathers’ intent. In either case, we are not irrevocably bound by what was written two hundred years ago. Amitai Etzioni, The Spirit of Community – the Reinvention of American Society.
“Our changing moral values” and “we are not irrevocably bound by what was written two hundred years ago.” Unless one believes in moral relativity, morality is not readily mutable. But in order to move from individual rights and freedom to socialism/communitarianism, communism and, as Mary Parker Follett says, the ‘state (UN) ‘. . .must be a coordinating agency. It must appear as the great moral leader. Its supreme function is moral ordering,” and individuals be damned.
Urban Renewal
Jo Hindman wrote the following in1966; the only difference today is that there is no international cold war.
Much is written about the international cold war, but little about the incognito warfare on United States soil which public officials and their accomplices are waging to wrest private property from landowners.
The strategy is to make property ownership so unbearable by harassment through building inspections, remodeling orders, fines and jailings, that owners give up in despair and sell to land developers at cut-rate prices. Punitive municipal codes are the weapons in the warfare.
Hindman also wrote, “Planning assistance subsidized by Federal money leads small cities and counties into direct obedience under a regional master plan. Land use rights are literally stolen from landowners when zoning is applied to land.”
Now you might think, so what, there is no cold war and Trump says he is going to rid our country of anything that is evil. Hold on to your hats and your tongues. I want to show you some things from our not too distant history. Our government has been corrupted for many decades; we are not going to get rid of the rot and poison with 500 executive orders. This was written 32 years before the Rio Accord gave us Agenda 21. It is from the Constitution of the American Institute of Planners, the forerunner of the American Planning Association.
The 60s’ American Institute of Planners makes no bones about its socialist stance regarding land; its constitution states AIP’s ‘particular sphere of activity shall be the planning of the unified development of urban communities and their environs and of states, regions, and the nation as expressed through determination of the comprehensive arrangement of land uses and land occupancy and the regulation thereof.’ (AIP {forerunner of APA} Constitution, 1960)
The next step – Amatai Etzioni is not hiding what is going on.
To make our physical environment more community-friendly, our homes, places of work, streets, and public spaces – whole developments, suburbs, and even whole cities – need to be designed to enhance the Communitarian nexus. Etzioni, p.127
Is that spelled out clear enough? The next texts are from The Ideal Communist City by Alexei Gutnov, et al, published in 1968. It’s a lot, but it is also spelled out clearly with no ambiguity as to how much planning is being done of every aspect of life.
“This book was initiated by the architecture-faculty of the University of Moscow in the late fifties. For the Italian edition in 1968 the material was enlarged and revised by the authors, a group of young urbanists, architects, and sociologists, who represent a renewal of ideas and men that is taking place in Soviet Russia, especially in fields concerned with the organization of the physical environment. Their work is particularly original in its general assumptions, method of inquiry, and choice of models. The authors turn away from the proposition that the city should attempt to restore the habits and appearance of the countryside. This proposition adapted from the bourgeois naturalism of the nineteenth century, contradicted the ideological foundations of communism. By contrast, what is proposed in this book is world-wide urbanization. The authors design concept, the New Unit of Settlement, incorporates countryside with city, conceiving both as a communication network, uniformly intense and diffused. The method by which this original proposition is applied is as new as the proposition itself. No longer relying upon academic preconceptions, the authors have based their architectural and urban proposals on the analysis of life in the existing Soviet society and the directions of change within it. While the models and formal solutions are only sketched and presented hypothetically, they build upon the rich heritage left by Soviet architecture and urbanism in the twenties. Unlike Western architectural “revivals,” which consistently turn toward the past and are pseudo-innovative, the Soviet heritage suggests the idea of a “revolutionary tradition” to serve as an example for future-oriented planning. Preface
So what, that is Russia, we are on the other side of the globe, you say. Don’t be hasty. If you look at all the planning going on across our country, and you don’t have to look too closely, you will see that every plan has the same basic design on every level. You have no input into what your city, town, county, state will look like. But it isn’t just the city/townscape that is being planned. It is people’s lives, our lifestyles, even our social relations. Just look:
Social Relationships
“What should be our criteria for analyzing the functional structure of the communist city? First of all, we must arrive at one basic relationship that can express the whole social process (economic, esthetic, creative, etc.) and that can serve as an objective standard for measuring. We must examine the diverse forms of this relationship in different social contexts. Then we can construct a general functional model of the social organism that can be applied accurately to the historical analysis of any particular urban settlement. Accordingly, we shall be able to see the influence of different social systems on the some spatiotemporal organization and to foresee future trends.
All this preliminary work is necessary if we are to go beyond mere wishful thinking in trying to resolve the problem of the communist city. Considering its chief activities and basic social units with due care, we must also define and clarify the goals characteristic of communist society. Before we can think abouta single housing plan, we need objective data on the principal types of structure to be created and the functions and relationships of the social groups to be housed. The distribution and ordering of the total population can be studied only on the basis of facts, with a knowledge of the types of structure required and their interrelationship (quantity of each type, sizes of groups to be housed in communist society, limits on size of residential areas, distances between such areas, dynamics and discontinuity of the urbanization process). Ibid. p.I5
“To understand how social relationships manifest themselves in spatial and temporal organization we need a materialist approach and clear basic premises. Marx and Engels, in creating the materialist concept of society, gave their views a scientific basis. They stated: Our basic premises are not arbitrary assumptions or dogmas but concrete facts, from which one can abstract only by an act of imagination…. These can be established empirically.”‘ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Socinenija, Vol. Ill, p. 18. Ibid. p.16
“Unlike similar transitional stages in the past, however, the present does not call on us simply to wait and see how the new communist environment will shape itself and then to note its characteristics. It is the special and historical claim of communism to be a work of conscious creation based on theory. We must begin to look at the prevalent forms of social relationships and to inquire into the effects they should produce historically on the whole spatio-temporal structure of communist life. This means that we should analyze the basic communist premises of society as elaborated by Marxist-Leninism and also the contemporary social realities that reflect these premises.
“Applied to an urban environment, this principle means that anyone living in a true communist society should enjoy equally with all others living anywhere in it conditions conducive to self-development and similar creative activity. Ibid. p.25-26
“What we are proposing are patterns of settlement that are based on groups in the population. By so doing we are taking note of the general tendency toward functional disintegration in modern cities. This tendency produces the isolation of industrial complexes and research centers into relatively autonomous units with a “daytime population” of commuters from the central city or suburbs. Obviously, these isolated units in their present form have neither acquired a distinctive character of their own nor have they become well-integrated systems within themselves. Because of their unplanned development, they function simply as elements accidentally juxtaposed with others in one vast urban agglomerate. Ibid. p.27-28
Public Education
“Every family, including young couples, will have a hygienically adequate and comfortable home, a place suited to civilized living.” Program of the Communist Party of the U.SS.R. (Moscow 1961, p. 94) Ibid. p.55
“The arguments of those who defend public child rearing are stronger, in our opinion, than those of the opposition. Their ideas, however, sound rather hypothetical as yet, because they lack positive evidence and cannot offer a clear and precise model to contrast with the traditional system. Developing such a model requires an objective study of the forms of social interaction, especially at the early stages of personality formation. Ibid p.57
“The best opportunity for contact among children of preschool age occurs in the nursery, which is the best setting for developing the child’s imitative powers and individual activities. He expresses his inclinations most freely here, and his egocentricity is least harmfully repressed. The positive value of group activity, of course, is fully realized only when it is organized and directed by educators who have benefited from advanced social training. Ibid p. 57-58
“The first foundations of communist personality are established in nurseries through the relationship of children with their peers in preschool groups. The personality further develops in primary groups during the earliest grades. These are excellently suited to foster the unfolding of all aspects of a child’s potential. Ibid. p. 64
“With the development of full-time public education, the traditional functions of family housing will be taken over by three new types of residence:
- The residential units attached to the preschool and elementary school.
- Residential quarters attached to the secondary school community.
- Apartment-type units for individual adults or for couples who are parents.
- 64-65
“Then it would seem reasonable to use a residential standard of not more than 225 square feet per person (on the average). This assumes a small number of persons living permanently in each apartment and the development of public eating places within residential buildings. The preparation of food in the family unit will no longer be necessary, but merely optional. The stove and kitchen cease to be the focal points of a residential plan. Minimal kitchen facilities can be included in a living room or foyer, and the space thus freed can be used for other needs, such as more spacious bathrooms.
“The apartment should also provide a separate room for children during the hours and days that they visit their parents. Approximately fifty square feet to seventy- five square feet should be allocated for each child’s play, sleep, and other activities. Ibid. p.66
STRUCTURE OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
“The chaotic growth of cities will be replaced by a dynamic system of urban settlement. This system will evolve out of an integrated and self-sufficient nucleus: the NUS. Urban growth, through the formation of nuclei, represents a new phase in the conscious development of urban life. The goal is to transform the whole planet into a unified sociological environment. NUS is the fundamental unit of that organism. It is the “quantum” of the urban environment, the finite unit, limited by itself and directing itself. The realization of the projected NUS can be initiated today, for its real economic and technical infrastructure already exists. p.101
“The region itself is formed by the economic interdependence of its development, from the industrial complex to the industrial area and the industrial region. The region has a single system of transportation, a centralized administration, and a unified system of education and research. p.106
“Every zone with its urban nuclei will require some centralized institutions to co-ordinate and direct its economic activity and scientific education. These institutions can be placed in a single complex located at the center of the whole urbanized area, where, along with administrative offices to direct scientific research and higher education, a center for economic co-ordination would be located. Here, too, significantly, there can be an information center on which the sociocultural activities of the NUS (unit of settlement), including its political and administrative functions, can depend.” p.107
Back to Jo Hindman:
“If you are a typical American, you would not willingly surrender your traditional form of government. And yet, along with other Americans, you are losing your constitutional government in chunks. Metropolitan Government, a silent enemy, is ravaging the U.S.A., changing your constitutional laws, replacing them with Metro laws. Collectivizing government by mergers is a Metro trick. A present case is the attempted Metro merging of three states on the Atlantic coast, masked under a tri-state transit bill. In the giant merger, New York, most powerful of the three, would submerge the best interests of Connecticut and New Jersey. Connecticut turned down the legislation in 1963 and could not reconsider until 1965. The gallant independence of New Jersey caused the merger’s defeat a second time, decisively, in 1964. 3 To keep the merger notion warm, New York revived the tri-state measure early in 1964.4 State merging is a state-level Metro symptom, although Metro can produce symptoms at every level of government. Metro preaches strange New Jersey bars tri-state transit compact, New York Times, March 17, 1964. For details: Tri-State Conference on Community Problems, 109 Rock Road, Glen Rock, N.J. 07452. REGIONAL GOVERNMENT A 1313 GOAL 71 ideas, among which is the creation of giant Metro districts and regions to replace the governments of the present sovereign states. At other levels, Metro mergers are evident in Michigan’s six-county combine, Miami-Dade’s city-county merger, northern California’s ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments), and Southern California’s proposed SCAG, a five-county region that would engulf 131 cities.5 Often, “layering” is a first step. One of Metro’s many political contrivances is plastered on top of existing government. The citizen continues to see the remnants of his former government, and not until the Metro apparatus pinches does he realize that he is living under Metro law. Various baits are used to lure Americans into the Metro maze. The decoys range from a mosquito abatement district in the Midwest to talks before chambers of commerce, promising rich regional markets to businessmen. Amusingly, it is argued that mosquitoes do not observe political boundaries, and that a Metro district straddling cities or counties is needed to kill insects. The argument that the profits of business and industry can be improved merely by the fact of a Metro region is laughable.
“Unknown to most Americans, the normal concept of highway construction has been changed. A Federal report prepared under contract by American Society of Planning Officials, 1313 E. 60th Street, Chicago, has decided that no longer is it necessary for roads to go anywhere or to provide corridors for existing traffic patterns. From now on, according to Syndicate 1313 decree, highways are to be laid arbitrarily as huge veins to transplant population masses at the will of those in control. The United States Senate’s 1313-ghosted reports (1963 and 1964) both titled National Survey of Metropolitan Planning concur that the transportation networks should be designed to “help mold” future communities.7 A more devastating power can scarcely be imagined—cities to be killed or magnified at the whim of a handful of accomplices.
“LBJ Promises Metro Favors In his state of the Union message, LBJ revealed himself less a Democrat than a Metrocrat, one who promotes regional Metropolitan Government. No other President has ever so baldly told Americans that their check-and-balance government is on its way out while his “interpretation” of government is on its way in. LBJ said, “The first step is to break old patterns—to begin to think, work and plan for the development of entire metropolitan areas.” He promised, “New and existing programs will be open to those cities which work together to develop long-range policies for metropolitan areas.” Thus, cities not wearing the Metro dog tag will be disinherited. Metro government glorifies urban areas, channels wealth and power to big cities by impoverishing the rural. Metro aims to spread a tax base over a Metro region or area, then to shift voting power to the cities who vote themselves wealthy. At present, due to Metro’s one-manone-vote conquest, farm and open-space citizens are braced against being cut down and out of protective votes. The cruel idea was sharpened by Metro 1313’s political axis before being referred to the Supreme Court. Obviously giant regions (not states) are to be the ultimate frame for big Metro cities. Ignoring the fifty sovereign states by non-mention and by repeatedly calling for regions and metropolitan areas, LBJ foretold regional medical centers, regional recovery programs, including anti-poverty, indicating that immediate regionalization will move in on functions.” pp. 71-73
In 1992, Joe Spenner published a book, Rockefeller-Regionalism/The Shadow Behind Oregon’s LCDC, which does not relate only to Oregon. In 1972, he put together a section titled, “Maps Showing Regional, FED, and Bank Lines,” which states:
The next several pages show outlines of geographic, economic, and regional systems, exposing plans to restructure our country in a way that needs to be examined by comparing the various maps.
Notice similarity of the Federal Reserve map and one with heading, “Regionalism, the Quiet Revolution.” Compare numbering system of the twelve FED districts and the 10 Federal Regions.
This is where all the talk began about regions In 1913, it started with division of the nation into 12 monetary regions, rather than respect our traditional Constitutional arrangement. George Washington warned against government based on regions. . .
Compare map titled: “Planning Future Land Use,” with information in previous article titled: “Thinking about a New World Order for the Decade 1990.
Notice the map with ‘CIRRUS’ in the Eastern half. Check shape of this map with the one titled: “Planning Future Land Use,” and one with comment about “State Lands Illegally Claimed –“ by US Government. p.302
Now, back to today. What we are looking at is not from the fringe but from mainstream players. Mark Zuckerberg pushes for New World Order:
Building Global Community
“How do we help people build an inclusive community that reflects our collective values and common humanity from local to global levels, spanning cultures, nations and regions in a world with few examples of global communities?
“How do we help people build an inclusive community that reflects our collective values and common humanity from local to global levels, spanning cultures, nations and regions in a world with few examples of global communities?”
I know a lot of us are thinking about how we can make the most positive impact in the world right now. I wrote this…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, February 16, 2017
How do we stop this; undo all of this? Obviously, it won’t happen overnight or even in a year. But we can get started. The key, IMHO, will be to educate the people and their elected officials about what is going on and why. Then, as we move forward, they can watch to see that new travesties like this do not get put into effect while we are working to rid the swamp of the myriad of old rules from the turn of the 20th Century – and the type of people who worked to embed them in our governments. Instead of changing/gutting our Constitution as Etzioni suggests above, let’s see that this beautiful document that gives all people freedom and the Rule of Law is polished, brought back, and made good use of.