The NIMBY Monitor

Are We Entering a 'Superproject Void?' Is 'the Future of Huge' Really Uncertain?

Back in November, the New York Times' Sunday Week in Review section posed an interesting question in an article by Louis Uchitelle. Is the era of big public works over?

Are we done with projects on the scale of the Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, or the Big Dig? Will we build bridges again like the Golden Gate, the George Washington, or even the Leonard Zakim?

Are we "entering the superproject void" where "the future of huge is uncertain," as the headline asked?

The article leans in favor of suggesting that even Obama stimulus projects are puny in scale.

I don't think it will last long this way.

One reason is financial. The Times article carried the adjoining chart from Moody's with it, showing that during the past 60 years, public works spending has consistently been more than two percent of gross domestic product in the United States.

The second reason is need. I think the challenges of climate change will require engineering on a large scale, including a reinvention of mass transportation, energy production, and waste disposal. A regional system of solutions for any of these projects could prompt large mega-projects.

So I think they're coming.

And I think the NIMBY wars will be right along after the projects are proposed. I, for one, see projects such as wind farms as relatively benign, and if the fuss over them is any indication, the communications and community relations professionals of the next half-century will have their hands full.

Headline that Made NIMBYmonitor's Heart Sing: 'On Cuttyhunk Island, It's Yes in My Backyard'

It appeared on the bottom-right corner of the Boston Globe's front page back on December 11: "On Cuttyhunk Island, it's yes in my backyard."

What a marvelous civic attitude, I thought.

The sub-head? "Wind farm plan met with wide acceptance."

The article reported that residents of Cuttyhunk, a mile-wide island at the western tip of the Elizabeth Islands chain, which separates Vineyard Sound from Buzzards Bay in the southern waters of Massachusetts, are in agreement that they support a farm of 166 wind turbines in the waters off their home. The plan is proposed by the administration of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat.

Says Nina Brodeur, who's lived for 21 years on the island, "I don't think you can just say, 'Not in my backyard,' and expect that will be OK. If I had my preference, I'd choose not to seem them (the windmills). But I understand the needs of the state, and if it's not in my backyard, it would have to be in somebody else's. We can't close our eyes and think we're more special than anyone else."

That's a quote from a public-spirited citizen. According to the Globe, a draft plan calls for 100 turbines about three miles off the southern coast of Martha's Vineyard near former Navy bombing range at Nomans Land island. An additional 66 turbines would be built off the southwestern coast of Cuttyhunk.

This is a separate project from Cape Wind, which I've written about before in this blog. It's located a few miles to the east in Nantucket Sound.

What impressed me is that Cuttyhunk is a small place. It has fewer than 50 year-round residents. (It has a great harbor, which I have sailed into on several occasions.) Cuttyhunk is the poorest municipality in Massachusetts — actually, it's the town of Gosnold — with a median income of $22,344.

Which goes to show the public spirit of working families.