Refab Now!
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 09.18.08
Foreclosed farm, Great Depression
I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to defend modern prefab from an analysis by Chad Ludeman and in the end, failed, coming up only with a tie. I spent the rest of the day thinking about it and realized that no, we both fail. Now that Hugo George Chavez Bush and the Republican administration have nationalized the financial structure that funds the entire housing industry, the mortgage guarantors and the reinsurers, neither site built nor prefab has a future.
Now that there are tens of thousands of empty houses in the rust belt, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of foreclosed and abandoned houses across the sun belt, we have to figure out where people are going to live now, and we have to fix what we've got rather than building new. That means Refab, not Prefab.
Buffalo, New York
Refab Now: the Pottery Barn Doctrine
I wish I could take credit for the coinage, but it goes to commenter Victor. It is better than just rehab, it is a positive expression of what we have to do. Now that the government owns the industry, it can set policy. It is what Colin Powell called the Pottery Barn Doctrine: You broke it, you own it. Now you fix it.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Refab Now: Hurricane bait is off the ledger
No more money to fund hurricane and tornado bait that the reinsurers have to pay for again and again. Build where it is safe and stable, don't build where it gets washed away.
Pool at foreclosed house, Phoenix, Arizona
Refab Now: No more McMansions
No more low density suburban sprawl. No more McMansions. If the government is funding development then it can tell every builder that there is no more money without assessing the cost of externalities, that we are not paying for highways and sewage treatment plants to service greenfield land when there are thousands of houses sitting empty across America.
Boston, Mass
Refab Now: It can solve our energy and carbon problems.
48% of our energy is consumed by buildings. Now that the government owns the business, they can fix that, and demand efficiency. Since they are the lender, they can lend for renovation and rehabilitation, not new construction. If they can drop half a trillion on the banks and investment houses and 25 billion on the car makers, they can drop a few bucks on insulation and caulk.
Refab Now: Let's use this time-out to ensure that we do it right, that we fix what we have instead of mindlessly building more. Demand a plan from your politicians before you vote for them.
More rants on renovation in TreeHugger:
Big Steps in Building: Ban Demolition
Razing Buffalo : Why is This Happening? : TreeHugger
Donovan Rypkema : LEED stands for "Lunatic Environmentalists ...
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
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- Girl Scouts Perform Energy Audits, Prove Their Future Value
- Ecofriendly Prefab Homes Debut in Turkey
- Sun, Nike, Starbucks and More Meet for Climate Action
And hire local people to do it. They are starving and losing their homes and need the work desperately. Do background checks to make sure the SS numbers are real and border fences may not be needed any more.
It has to do with oversupply. It's that simple, nothing more. The building boom and speculation was caused by low interest and easy credit.
The government can now do everything you just said, but it won't. History has proven time and time again the when ever the government gets involved it makes a bigger mess. Social security, welfare, the war in Iraq, IRS, EPA, OSHA, FDA, etc.... Every example here, while having good intensions, has done more harm then good. Don't expect them to get this one right.
Great article. ( I dig dumpster diving and this is like that on a grand scale ... digging whole houses and communities out of our throw away society). There is a lot more out there about this that many folks don't know about. I am pretty right wing but I am sure that even the most capitalistic minded hates to see these already built houses go to waste. I mean, there should be no more homeless problem in this country. These former manufacturing hubs should be put to work building solar and wind components or cheap stuff that we buy from Walmart anyway. Subsidize it (a little?) and have stuff made in the USA. Electrify a local transit system and make these places work again. Of course I am just saying ... let's put a bell on the cat ... beyond that well???
vsk
The "homeless problem" has many causes, but a shortage of houses is way down at the bottom of the list.
I might have agreed with author.
Unfortunately, Lloyd lives in Canada, and doesn't have a clue about the low quality nature of the McMansions that have saturated the market due to George Bush's immigration failures (using unskilled laborers to build this house of cards) and the now infamous bank and Wall Street pigs who slapped his back.
These houses are not worth "re-fabbing." Nice, cheeky, cheerful Canadian thought though. Thanks anyway.
So I guess it's best to just bulldoze all lthese things and then another building boom cycle will begin a couple of years later.
vsk
The government "can" fix it? Yes. Will they fix it? HAHAHAAHAHA. I have a strong feeling that Mr. G.W. Bush and company will set enough loopholes and special circumstances that people will be paying their mortgage payments to Haliburton before another administration can make any real change.