Dark Sky
Tonight at 5:30 PM, all the lights in our house in Connecticut went out. This is not unusual; we waited for the generator to kick in. It didn’t. Like our pool heater, it is subject to the depredations of mice, who seem to feel a special attraction to wiring. So we went to the movies, figuring that by the time we got home the electricity would be back on. It isn’t. At 9:30 PM, I am writing this by candlelight.
The distribution grid here is all above ground, making it susceptible to wind, which is what knocked out the power today. In New York City, the grid is all underground, making it susceptible to water. And just as we are subject to the vagaries of the wind atop Sharon Mountain, New York is subject to the surges and eddies which can overwhelm its harbor and low lying areas. This was clear a year ago when Superstorm Sandy struck, but I fear that, with the short memory of the optimistic, we are not doing enough about it.
In every hard hit section of the city, rebuilding is taking place which, while perhaps more structurally sound, does not often take into account the fundamental fallibilities of our strategy. Shouldn’t there be a master plan for catastrophe management when it happens again? Should we be building SO close to the water again in the lowest areas?
Every year, urban populations grow. This makes sense to me. Cities not only use less energy, but they are also more convenient, more vibrant places to live. I never understood suburban life, with its isolation and its car culture; I am a city boy through and through. And I believe in development. We need new housing, especially affordable housing, everywhere in the city. But I am uncomfortable with the height of some of the new towers that are going 80 and 90 stories into the air. What happens to people on the 85th floor in the event of a blackout, especially if then the generator fails? (There are mice everywhere!) Not only do these buildings cast enormous shadows, they also feel ill-conceived for integration into our urban landscape.
Urban areas change and evolve; that’s a trait shared by every vital organism. They keep the best of the past while pointing themselves firmly towards the future. But the future we see before us is more complex than we had once imagined. It includes the likelihood of more extreme weather, rising oceans, and the grid interruptions and other difficulties those issues will visit on coastal cities like ours. We must move forward, but we need to make a distinction between what we CAN do and what we SHOULD do.