…the existence of interstate highways, dense air connections, cheap long-distance rates, ubiquitous television, and the celebrated franchise hamburger has lulled many, incorrectly, into some sense that North America has become utterly homogenized, if not bland…
— from ‘The Nine Nations of North America’, by Joel Garreau, 1981.
Back in the 1980s, when I was still living in Alaska, I came across a recently written book titled, The Nine Nations of North America. Author Joel Garreau had been working at The Washington Post, editing stories by a small band of journalists who traveled around the greater U.S.
Three of the writers began to casually refer to parts of the American Southwest as “MexAmerica”… a place with its own special identity and culture, but which was delineated on no existing maps. It stretched from Houston to Los Angeles and from southern Colorado down into Mexico.
The other reporters had similar stories about various regions of North America — shared cultures and values that ignored state boundaries.
Colorado, for example, had a split personality. The eastern half shared an agricultural economy with the American Breadbasket — the culture of wheat and corn farmers in the heart of America. But the other half of Colorado had a culture built around oil and mineral extraction, and tourism… and had more in common with central Canada and Alaska, than with Iowa and Kansas.
The southeastern part of Colorado, however, was pegged as belonging in “MexAmerica”…
Mr. Garreau ultimately decided to write a book about nine North American nations that have little to do with state boundaries and everything to do with economies, values, and culture.
Here’s a map of the nine nations, as perceived by Mr. Garreau in 1981.
Mr. Garreau selected a particular city to be the “capital” of each nation, marked with stars in the map above. Denver was his pick for the “capital” of the Empty Quarter — a region defined by vast, unpopulated vistas; high (and usually dry) mountains; and prodigious amounts of oil, gas, coal, and precious metals. The Empty Quarter covers much (but not all) of what we call “the American West” but also extends north to cover most of Canada and Alaska.
In the 1981 map, Pagosa Springs appears to be included in “MexAmerica”, sharing a culture and economy with parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas… and Mexico.
I started off today’s editorial installment with a quote from Mr. Garreau’s book.
…the existence of interstate highways, dense air connections, cheap long-distance rates, ubiquitous television, and the celebrated franchise hamburger has lulled many, incorrectly, into some sense that North America has become utterly homogenized, if not bland…
In some ways, that homogenization has continued, and I would propose that the Internet and social media — which didn’t exist in 1981 — have contributed towards that ‘sameness’.
One thing that most of North America seems to share in common, lately:
Overpriced housing.
I will be writing, later this week, about an upcoming election to be hosted by the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association. The Association’s board of directors and various PLPOA committees have proposed the construction of a new Gymnasium — the Pagosa Lakes Sports Center — adjacent to the existing Recreation Center. The election, scheduled for January and February, is required because the project would require a “special assessment” of $255 on each property within the Association. A majority of the participating voters would need to approve the special assessment.
Naturally — this being Pagosa Springs — there are people arguing on both sides of the issue. We’ll be looking at those arguments later.
But I bring this up today, in an article about housing costs, because a PLPOA slide show about the proposed Gymnasium begins with this information:
This has been the mission of the Association for as long as I can remember.
Each of our government and non-profit organizations in Pagosa Springs has a mission statement, that reflects the overall raison d’être for that organization’s existence.
In the case of PLPOA, the mission begins with “To protect property values…”
This makes perfect sense, of course, for a property owners association, in a culture where property and buildings are seen are “investments”, the value of which are expected to go up. And up. And up.
Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn started a blog in 2008 around concerns about the cost of municipal infrastructure, but more recently has focused his research on “the housing trap” — which is given an historical perspective in his book, Escaping the Housing Trap .
He thinks we might be able to escape.
Americans typically view housing as an investment. Investment prices must go up.
But housing is also shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
This is the housing trap. It’s time to escape.
In a November 26 ‘Building Culture’ podcast, Mr. Marohn gave a summary of how our ongoing (and worsening?) housing crisis came about, condensing maybe 50 pages of his book into about three minutes.
The housing crisis — more like, “the housing disaster” — is a national issue, although it’s more pronounced in certain places, like California. In Los Angeles, for example, less than 3% of homes are considered “affordable”, according to Zillow.. Compare that to, say, Pittsburgh, PA where 73% of for-sale homes are “affordable”.
“Affordable” is defined, by Zillow and most housing organizations, as “housing that consumes less than 30% of a typical household budget…”
In the case of Pagosa Springs, we had sufficient affordable housing… 25 years ago. But the situation has changed.
We can look, for example, at the price of a modest home in the Pagosa Lakes subdivisions.
Our real estate industry is selling more $1 million homes and fewer $300,000 homes, and that increases the “average home price”. But the chart above doesn’t refer to millionaire mansions; it refers to a modest, middle-class home in Pagosa Lakes.
The price of a typical home has increased by nearly $200,000 in just five years.
This same typical, middle-class home sold for less than $250,000 in 2012. And for maybe $150,000 in 1995.
What the hell happened?