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There's an old saying that Floods are acts of God,
but flood damage is an act of man.
That is, if people
didn't build in flood plains where the river obviously
flows on occasion, then there wouldn't be major disasters
with every goose-drowner thunderstorm.
Much the same thing is happening this summer with fires.
Forests burn and have burned since the Carboniferous Period
300 million years ago. But when there are houses in the
woods -- especially expensive houses with shake-shingle
roofs, cedar siding and expansive redwood decks owned by
people with Save the Redwoods
and Protect the
Spotted Owl
stickers on their Jeep Cherokees -- then a
mere brush fire becomes a national disaster.
Colorado -- to name just one Western state -- offers an abundance of stupid construction sites. McClure Pass between Paonia and Carbondale (a major commuting route for the working class who are welcome to mop floors in liberal Aspen but not to live there -- how can one concentrate on significant global issues unless there's some cheap help to handle the catering?) had to be closed some winters because of snowslides.
Until the state figured out how to do it safely, it was
afraid to shoot
the mountainsides. Houses below the
slide runs had been built, and homeowners might sue
Colorado if its workers started an avalanche.
Those houses should never have been built there, just like houses in the bottom of the Big Thompson canyon, or houses in the wind zone on the west side of Boulder, Colo., or trophy homes close to public land near Jackson, Wyo., or dozens of other places prone to everything from regular hailstorms of biblical proportions to swelling soils that demolish foundations.
To solve this problem, some have proposed statewide zoning and building codes. That sounds appealing, but why give our governments any more power? Is that why we live in America? Is that why men died storming Normandy Beach and crossed the icy Delaware to attack the Hessians?
Aside from employing building inspectors, what do building codes accomplish? Boulder has building codes, and it must also lead the observable universe in quick-spreading apartment-house fires. Many rural counties don't have building codes, and people seem happy constructing their own homes from adobe, straw bales, tires, recycled styrene, old boxcars, etc. They haven't had any lethal fires, so why inflict regulations upon them?
As for state-wide regulation in general, Colorado passed a law a few years ago which outlawed guns on school property. It seemed reasonable until you talked to people in small towns who watch high school football games from their pickups. They park them under the lights and watch the games in comfort. But their unloaded deer rifles were also parked on school property -- in gun racks in the back window of those pickups. Nobody local wanted to enforce the law and kick out all those parents.
Maybe there's a better solution than imposing a one-size-fits-all solution from a state capitol. The state government does have expertise, people who know about flood plains, fire-prone areas, avalanche paths, subsiding soils and the dozens of other ways Mother Nature discourages stable homes in the West.
Instead of passing new restrictions, each state could
use its experts to produce a map with official Stupid
Zones.
You'd still be free to do whatever you liked with your property in a Stupid Zone. However, you'd manage on your own with no property services from the government. No road plowing or maintenance, no rescue, no flood insurance, no deputy sheriffs, no rebuilding assistance, no subsidized electric or telephone service, no standing to sue in court for property problems, no fire-fighters dying to protect the trophy-home lifestyles of the rich and famous.
The Stupid Zone would thus allow people to continue building whatever they liked, wherever they liked, and so the apparently endless real-estate boom could continue unabated. Outsiders buying property could find out about the Stupid Zone if they wanted to, but no one would be required to tell them about it.
Further, the Stupid Zone would instantly cut the size, expense and power of government at all levels, at minimum cost -- just convene the experts and draw the map. It's a worthy project for someone who likes to get signatures on a petition. Hey, I'm not that smart -- I'll be the first to sign.
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