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Show 18A Tht Salt Lake Tribune Common Carrier 1, 1984 Sunday. January Coping With Rising Salt Lake Cant Be Put Off Any Longer By George H. Smeath The Salt Lake Tribune, on Nov. 16, reported that the rising waters of Great Salt Lake last spring had caused about $100 million in damage as the lake peaked at an elevation of 4,205 feet above sea level. It was also stated that a study released the day before had estimated that damage next spring could reach $480 million, if the lake level reached 4,208 feet. The same article quoted Temple Reynolds, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, as saying that it is too late to do anything about next years flooding. This is undoubtedly correct, but it reminds one of the saying that the hole in the roof cannot be repaired because it is raining too hard. For more than 30 years, public agencies and students of the Great Salt Lake have offered plans for controlling lake levels, have warned of the cumulative costs of doing nothing; and have suggested alternative programs for action. In dry-yecycles, the answer has been that this is an arid land and that the lake would eventually dry up. In wet cycles the answer is always that it is too late to stop the imminent damage; and that no one knows, really, what to do. Behind all of these delays, of course, have been the conflicting interests affected by what might be Rally 'round the flag, men Don Shoemaker ,j v- They Is Government, Also the Rest of Us ' r ; Newspapers a is pronoun serving as personal "They 5 the plural of "he," she or it and refers to a group. It is one of the vaguest words in the language, and it is overworked. You hear people say, They ought to pave this road. i Or, They' are going to raise taxes on us. j, ' What the people are really saying is that J the Department of Transportation is sitting on its fundament while our shock absorbers i go to pieces. Or that the legislature or Con- is about to sneak a low blow at our, j gress JJ pocketbooks. u We treat "government" the same way. It is always they or them. It is always somebody else. For instance, a major oil 2 company which sometimes directs its ad- vertising at the First Amendment (nix) and the media (double nix) complains currently that "the government on this one tax alone is making more than we J are and refers to the windfall-profittax, ,1 which has netted Washington" $52 6 billion. (Washington, here, is a business rival about to bust through your bottom line). I suppose we are all along with ' Mobil, of blaming our illsguilty, on government. Man never invented a better scapegoat for ; ; i an imperfect society. t But what is government, anyway? Teddy Roosevelt told us in 1902. The government is us; we are the ernment, you and I. That took in a lot of folk, even if the 1900 Census counted only 75 million heads. Knight-Ridde- ; ' . J "anti-busine- s j I dont know why Mobil is so sore at the media (all of them) and the constitutional guarantees of freedom, especially when it has done so well. In the third quarter of 1979, when Congress was debating the windfall-profit- s in tax, Mobils earnings (third-highethe industry) were $595 million, a profit rise from 1978 of 130 percent. The phony oil crisis of those years, folin which it largely lowing OPECs efforts to wreck the economics of a succeeded number of nations, hurt the consumer far worse than the producer. Remember waiting in line for hours at your neighborhood gas station while brimfuii tankers were clustered offshore? Mind you, I have nothing against the energy people, and rather fancy and enjoy their nice stock dividends. But the fashion of blaming them and government" is going out of style and even squinting at anarchy. We tend to side with Ed Howe, icgarded as a humorist, who told us. The government is mainly an expensive st 4 'i Todays Common Carrier author is George H. Smeath, 3138 DaVinci Dr., Salt Lake City, Utah 84121. Mr. Smeath is a retired professional planner who wgs the first planning director for Utah, Weber and Salt Lake counties. He has served on a number of committees conducting studies of the Great Salt Lake, and was a consultant for the Utah Department of Natural Resources for developing outlines used in preparing a master plan for the Great Salt Lake. The views in the article are those of the author. Opinions expressed in Common Carrier do not necessarily reflect those of The Salt Lake Tribune or the Common Carrier Board of lay editors. Articles in this department are selected by the lay board of editors which operates independently of Tribune editorial and reportorial policies. The Common Carrier board, representing a cross section of the community, is composed of ' organization to regulate evildoers and tax those who behave. Government does little for fairly respectable people except annoy them. Like taxing windfalls. The image always comes back, though, of the late lamented, wise, an witty Pogo, who said he had met the enemy and they is us. There is not much profit, it seems to me, in railing about they and the government. We are all in this mess together, and we alone can straighten it out if we admit to ownership. Another way of looking at it is that this is a pretty good country inhabited by more than 226 million people who are, by and and rather inlarge, decent, clined not to live anywhere else. (Especially since Edwin Meese has ended hunger ) "They," in substance, are us, and so is the government." We have something remarkable called the ballot box where changes can be made at any time. Of course, I may alter my views when April 15 rolls around. God-fearin- done, how to provide the money for a comprehensive solution, and whether or not at all should be done (perhaps, if we just ignore the problem it will go away). Louis J. Halle, reporting for the New Yorker magazine many years ago, said, One of the reasons for the rarity of statesmanship is that, in a world increasingly e rushed to death, the waits on the immediate. What is urgent takes priority over what is merely important, so that what is important will be attended to when it becomes urgent, which may be too late." This happened in Utah with the Great Salt Lake, long-rang- with education, with geological hazards, with preservation of land, water and air values. We now face confrontations with problems we allowed to get out of hand. Utah Legislatures of past years, and our citizens, have failed to comprehend the rich potentials of Great Salt Lake as a unique feature of our state which, if properly understood and used, would be of incalculable value. At this time, the principal action proposed with regard to the lake is the breaching of the railroad causeway, to allow equalization of levels between the south arm and the north arm. There are strong arguments for and against the proposal. Almost an afd review of the terthought is the half-hearte- James E. Dooley, Salt Lake long-rang- County coordinator for equal opportunity; Dr. David Mulder, psychologist; Mrs. Deanna Clark, civic worker and past president of the Utah League of Women Voters; Kenneth D. Robinson, business representative for the International Association of Machinists, Lodge 1020 and John F. Stephens, a retired Army colonel. The board seeks articles from all segments of the community. Articles need not be professionally prepared, but should be less than four pages of doublespaced, typed copy. They should pertain to the economic, politig cal or social of the Intermountain Area. Articles should be timely, have a central theme, promote dialogue and well-bein- be challenging. Material should be mailed to Common Carrier, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. Universal Press Syndicate What can one predict for 1984, the year that was to mark mans human to George journey from Orwells automaton? self-wille- d Well, curiously enough, it will be mostly the opposite of that dark vision. Rather than f the Orwellian focus v; of power in the state, will see more t kinds of political religious movements crossing borders and often breaking down those states Whether Fidel Castro's guerrillas in the Caribbean, or Shiite internationalist terrorists in the Mid dle East, or even budding new formations of rightist regimes involving South Africa, Israel, South Korea and conservative religious groups, the events of the near future will involve movements rather than nations Instead of the Orwelh, in lert or nl total control, more likely we will lace the equal danger of rapid social disintegration Tom. agers without homes roaming the sir rrN in an reonomicallv i oPap .ing Rt azil or masse. N el i i Promise Fulfilled: Restored Housing for the Poor Washington Post Service SAVANNAH Can historic city neighborhoods be renewed without evicting their tenants? low-inco- In the mid-70when no one knew the answer to that question, a group of pioneers in tradition-bounold Savannah decided to try. Their Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project, a nonprofit alliance of 23 white and black leaders, adopted a breathtaking goal: to purchase and restore for black tenants 600 of the 1,200 apartments and houses in the Victorian District a area of wood-framgingerbread houses fallen victim to slum landlords and disrepair. s, d low-inco- e, The Savannahians in autumn a national conference to billboard the concept, mobilize national support, and encourage grassroots groups to tackle restoration 1977-calle- without gentrification. Leopold Adler II, the influential, persistent investment banker who founded Savannah Landmark, assembled a panel of luminaries including the late Nancy Hanks, first chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, and Philadelphias renowned city planner, Edmund Bacon. From other cities came Adlers in preserving historic buildings for poor folk: Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh Histojry and Landmarks Foundation, Carl Westmoreland of Cincinnatis Mt. Auburn, and others. The yeast of a coalition never before seen in our cities was present in the mix of attendees in 1977: neighborhood organizers, bankarts and ers, architects, specialists. Yet if truth be told, Adler had precious little then to show a few buildings under restoration, plus lots of plans and hopes. Last month, Lee Adler called another conference. And dramatic results were to be seen. Along the streets of the Victorian Disrental units have trict, over 250 been successfully rehabilitated, every exterior gingerbread detail lovingly renewed or replicated, the interiors to high standards. Another 44 units of infill housing have been constructed to blend in with the Victorian Districts architecture. Providing the delicate financing can be put together, 100 blue-blood- historic-preserv- ation low-inco- units will be added shortly and perhaps 100 more in the future. Direct federal subsidies were a financial mainstay in earlier years. Now the project looks to syndicates of private investors who are taking advantage of historical structure tax breaks. e The black tenants of these homes, enjoying the first quality housing of their lives, express pride rare among tenants anywhere. Property maintenance is And not by accident: in addition to hardship and need, each tenant has been checked carefully for employment stability, g credit, history, housekeeping habits. All have received home visits. Hours are spent familiarizing each with proper maintenance of his or her apartment. (Some, for example, have never before had to cope with a thermostat) And theres an active tenants council. top-notc- h. rent-payin- Savannah Landmark proves that housing rehabilitated for poor people, if done right, doesn't discourage higher-incom- e residents but draws them. Substantial private-markrehabilitation has cropped up throughout the Victorian District. The Historic Savannah Foundation has cooperated by selling Vic- et 1984 Will Not Fulfill George Orwells Dark Vision WASHINGTON Half-measur- Neal R. Peirce Georgie Anne Geyer ft alternatives developed by governmental staffs and their consultants for an overall, will not e solution. be enough! Great Salt Lake is a forceful, wonderful (but mean and powerful) opponent for those who think to tame her. Perhaps that is why they so often walk away from the fight. Professor Hurd Willet of Massachusetts Institute of Technology was employed by the state of Uah in 1977 to study probable future water levels of the Great Salt Lake. After several months j of intensive investigation and review, he stated that m his opinion the lake would probably rise to an elevation of 4,216 to 4,218 feet before the year 2000. He indicated that such levels might occur by 1990! That level would be to 10 feet above the $480 million loss level projected as possible and the suggested time for next spring schedule is less than 10 years away It is time to put up or shut up. Responsible public officials and citizens should decide what can be done, how it can be done, and get about doing it. Great support has been given over the years to the building of recreational facilities on the south shore, the development of a park on Antelope Island, the protection and enlargement of wildlife habitat areas adjacent to the lake, and to resource developfument. These all fit into the multiple-us- e ture of the Great Salt Lake. They are all damaged and severely threatened by the exfluctuations. tremes of lake water-levA comprehensive solution to the problems of Great Salt Lake must be found, and action taken. Let's get on with the job! of illegal immigrants invading the developed countries across the globe, transformithose ng or destroying national cultures are only two of the myriad new symptoms. The important new geopolitical issues next year, it will become evident, will be more and more the issues that I believe women understand more than men. Whereas men have been socialized to approach issues in terms of power politics, women under- - stand better the newer, "softer" social issues population pressures, immigration, unemployment, state welfare, cultural and educational levels If men in high leadership positions are to deal with these problems, they will have to think more like women. The Caribbean basin and the Middle East will remain the two major regional problems for U S interests in the world. But in 1984, the American policy in the Caribbean will begin to take hold and work, while tht polity in the Middle East and parliculai-l- y in Lebanon if not bv then radically changed will suck the United States into a new Vietnam situation The sleeper that will emerge on the wm Id scene in 1984 - one that the Reagan administration has showed no interest in or will be ability to ant ic ipate or manipulate the Philippines The situation there even now i'M of El Salvador five yean, - - - K ago, yet nothing is being or will be done to avoid an equally horrible civil war ap- proaching there. Europe will proceed along the road to neutralization. East and West Germany will drift and drive toward reunification, horrifying the Russians even more than the Americans. The Soviet communist empire will continue its move away from rule by the Communist Party and toward greater rule by the military something totally unforeseen in the early days of the Bolsheviks. Poland will grow ever poorer and more depressed. China will alternate between liberalization and retreat, but the overall impulse will be toward continued liberalization. Japan will gingerly begin to rearm. Afri- ca will continue to regress to tribalism, and tribal wars will break out all over the continent, with South Africa encouraging thcr.i. Latin America will edge toward democratic forms and away from military rule, following the example of Argentina in its recent election, but the road to democracy will be slow, particularly in countries such as Peru and Chile. - Now, heres Soviet a real winger for you: The will have serious minority and for the first time the prob Union problem lems will become apparent to the outside world. The occupation of Afghanistan, now in its fifth year, will exacerbate even more the minority problems within the Soviet Union, as Afghan Moslems begin to organize within Soviet central Asia itself. Soviet military might well have to focus mere on these internal problems. The Christian religion will become more and more politicized, with faith in God transmogrified into political strategies such as the campaign and other equally apocalyptic fights. But all of the news is not bad, and all the predictions are not violent. It will be obvious to people that the particular trauma that was to be "1984" didnt happen at all. Individual men and women have it still within their power to build the world as they wish. The political language, far from being more debased, will ditually become clarified. Democracy, far from being abandoned, will in the chaos be more embraced by the peoples of the world looking for decent and realistic ways to live with one another. Thats what I see, anyway And if by chance it doesnt all work out that way, weli, dont call me, Ill call you. Meanwhile, Happy New Year, 1984 (Copyright) anti-nucle- t torian District houses to people willing to rehabilitate them for apartments for the middle-incom- e market. From the exteriors, its virtually impossible to know the occupants income status. Certainly the network of national, state and local allies backing parallel efforts across the country has grown dramatically in six years. City governments 'like Savannah's recognize their bonanza -- ( in commupronity stability, in increased taxes-fr- om jects like Savannah Landmark. Banks havent thrown their vaults open! but they do i help more now. The National Trust for Historic Preservation takes much more activd interest in housing than it did1 in 1977, reflected in its Main Street program and Inner-City Ventures Fund. So do the Ford, Mott, Gannett and many other foundations. Then, James Rouses Enterprise Foundation for the poorest of the poor" didn't exist. Neither djd the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, led by Mitchell Sviridoff. Now both are active in cities coast to coast Discretionary federal grants no longer flow to projects like Savannah Landmark. And that may be a pity: Savannah Landmark, for example, got its start with a $17,000 Endowment for the Artsigrant. For a fraction of the cost of one missRe, Washington could plant modest seed money in hundreds more of such projects incorporating the values the Reaganites espouse local initiative, private support, budding public-privat- e I partnerships. But the multibillion-dolla- r federal Community Development Block Grant program still helps a lot. And Bruce Chapman, former Seattle city councilman, Census Bureau director and now Reagan White House ?ide, made a strong administration cpse in Savannah. The big tax breaks for historic buifding restoration in the 1981 Economic Recovery Act, he said, are generating inVestments of $2 billion a year in urban development, much of it in small housing projects "the government itself would not do well - if at all." Most important of all, the network of active local groups has grown lajjidly. Several were represented there in Savannah: James Brown of Philadelphia's successful Parkside Development Corporation, New Jersey businessman Joseph Coe plotting the redemption of abandoned or mistreated gems of gret old buildings in Newaik and Jei$.ey City, and George Gray of Shreveport, planning how to save rundown Dixie "shotgun; houses in h neigtibui hood where family incomes aver. ; age $5,000 yearly. j Six years ago no one couiif be sure jt was possible to renew neighborhoods without removing people," writer-urbacritje Roberta Giatz commented lb Savannah. "Now the evidence is in The Savannah Landmark approach doesnt work perfectly. But it works better than any Ameliean housing program since World War II." (Copyright) , low-inco- 3 i n |
