Shantytowns

I am not amused by the recent article in Slate advocating the development of shantytowns in New Orleans. It is true that economic redevelopment is being stymied by a slew of rules and regulations that hinder the ability of homeowners to return and rebuild. Tyler Cowen in Slate envisions a future where after the 9th Ward is razed, if regulations were suspended “entrepreneurs” would put up less-expensive buildings – or shantytowns.

To be sure, the shantytowns could bring socioeconomic costs. Yet crime, lack of safety, and racial tension were all features of New Orleans ex ante. The city has long thrived as more dangerous than average, more multicultural than average, and more precarious than average for the United States. And people who decide the cheap housing isn't safe enough will be free to look elsewhere—or remain in Utah with their insurance checks.

Shantytowns might well be more creative than a dead city core. Some of the best Brazilian music came from the favelas of Salvador and Rio. The slums of Kingston, Jamaica, bred reggae. New Orleans experienced its greatest cultural blossoming in the early 20th century, when it was full of shanties. Low rents make it possible to live on a shoestring, while the population density blends cultural influences. Cheap real estate could make the city a desirable place for struggling artists to live. The cultural heyday of New Orleans lies in the past. Katrina rebuilding gives the city a chance to become an innovator once again.

So, let me see if I have this straight. We will build an edgy, multicultural, sexily dangerous shantytown! It will attract those too cool artists bored with or gentrified out of Brooklyn and the East Village, a couple of Mexican migrants playing mariachi music, and some hip-hop brothers. We will create a new New Orleans and a new form of music and art too. If the former residents of New Orleans are too attached to trivialities like sanitation, running water, building materials other than corrugated metal and plastic tarp, to participate in the rebirth, then they can live someplace else.

Now I haven’t been to Salvador, Rio, or Jamaica. But I have been to some Caribbean islands, to the famed Soweto shantytown in South Africa, and to Bangkok and other places in Thailand. I really don’t remember much creative vitality in the shantytowns. I do remember filthy dogs, cats, and children. I remember being fascinated with the concept that people lived permanently in large urban areas, next to skyscrapers, without such basic essentials as, say, a mattress to sleep on, a flush toilet, or basically, anything.

Perhaps he didn’t really mean shantytowns like, well, a shantytown. He did refer to buildings with a life expectancy of less than 50 years, to rent, to cheap real estate. Shantytowns do not involve ownership of private property, the residents there are all squatters. So perhaps he is just a dumb ass, and he really is trying to say that we should be building Katrina Cottages. But if he said that then it would be contributing something useful to the debate on how to rebuild, instead of just throwing out inane suggestions aimed at reducing government and empowering entrepreneurs, that will instead degrade the quality of life.