Letter to Steven
Hey Steven,
Tonight I accidentally watched the 11 o’clock news. I hate TV, and especially TV news, but the tube was on and something caught my attention.
It was Robt. Liberty. I have known him for years as head of 1,000 Friends of Oregon. You know, the pro-land use planning organization, proponents of Oregon’s “vaunted” statewide land use laws. But he was billed as a Metro Councilor, whatever that is. He was interviewed for a story about East Multnomah County. It seems that the Metro policy has been to jam high density, low-income housing into East County.
Now the crime rate there is skyrocketing. Drugs, robberies, assaults, etc. Highest crime rate in the state. The older residents who still own single-family homes are scared to walk their dogs anymore, to walk anywhere on the now Mean Streets of East County.
Robt. Liberty said, “It’s not the density, it’s the poverty.”
He is dead wrong. It’s the density.
People need space, or as I like to say, personal territory. When human beings are jammed together they react in pathological, anti-social ways. It’s not a moral or ethical problem. It’s a psychological one. High density affects people in a visceral way, just like rats crowded into a cage. Normally kind and compassionate people lose their bearings when their personal space is compressed.
Poverty is a condition related to high density. Land is wealth, real wealth (real estate). To be landless is to be poor, even if your income is high. To have land is to be wealthy, even if your income is low.
For over 30 years I have been fighting to help my clients get permits to build homes on their rural properties. I have butted heads with the land use planning crowd who wish to dehumanize the landscape and compress humanity into tight spaces.
I have been a “back to the land” guy since college. I believe in “resident stewardship” of the planet. I oppose wilderness, wildlands, open space, vast tracts of government land, roadlessness, and all the other land uses that prevent people from living on the land.
I am not a contrarian or a rebel. I support good government. But I don’t support confining human beings to high density living. That has placed me in the politically incorrect camp, but not because I seek conflict. On the contrary, I seek peace and harmony.
All the struggles I have been involved with, like our land use laws, federal megafires, small woodland stewardship, family farming, heritage cultural landscapes, tending our forests, etc., all come from the same place: giving people enough personal space (territory) to be sane, caring, and compassionate to the land and each other. I like what Steve Pyne said: “It’s about making this a habitable place.” That’s a deep concept.
And that’s what it is all about for me. It is all related to personal territory. Stewardship of the land means human presence, human connection, human personal space, human personal responsibility, and a decent society and landscape in which to live, for me, my children, and my neighbors.
The TV news was shocking tonight. I recoiled in horror once again at the violence and tragedy that has been wrought by the likes of Robt. Liberty. He seemed confused. He probably is not a bad person, depending on how you define that, but he has perpetrated a lot of suffering.
Just wanted to get that off my chest. Keep up the good work. You may not fully understand how good the work is that you do. It’s not about fighting the good fight; it’s about saving your fellow humans from undue suffering. It’s about making this planet a habitable place.
Your friend Mike
