The Obama stimulus package must effect change, not calcify the past

Articles — By forcechange on December 9, 2008 2:04 pm

David Brooks touches on a concern also voiced by Tom Friedman recently, that the Obama stimulus package be used to effect positive change, and not just further entrenching our past mistakes. 

The context of Brooks’ concern has to do with how our society has become sprawled-out over the past 50 years.  In response to this diffusion, in recent years, new civic centers have been springing up in suburbs, creating a “new localism.”  (“Restaurants and entertainment zones, mixed-use streetscape malls, suburban theater districts, farmers’ markets and concert halls.”)

In order to “build on today’s emerging patterns” towards civic centers and mixed use neighborhoods, Brooks argues that the infrastructure component of Obama’s stimulus must have two key features:

“First, it would have to create new transportation patterns. The old metro design was based on a hub-and-spoke system – a series of highways that converged on an urban core. But in an age of multiple downtown nodes and complicated travel routes, it’s better to have a complex web of roads and rail systems.

“Second, the Obama stimulus plan could help localities create suburban town squares. Many communities are trying to build focal points. The stimulus plan could build charter schools, pre-K centers, national service centers and other such programs around new civic hubs.”

Unfortunately, warns Brooks, it does not appear Obama’s plan is going to pursue these goals.  Since, “In a stimulus plan, the first job is to get money out the door quickly. That means you avoid anything that might require planning and creativity. You avoid anything that might require careful implementation or novel approaches. The quickest thing to do is simply throw money at things that already exist.”

Obama has described this goal as pursuing projects that are “shovel ready.” 

As Friedman warned with the auto bailout, and Brooks is now warning with the proposed infrastructure project, there is a risk that Obama’s policies may unintentionally calcify the untenable system of last century instead of transforming it into an efficient and viable system for this century.  Let’s hope we don’t sacrifice our future by repeating the past.

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