Whitcomb: Hackerama; Reusing Old Buildings; Big Name for Mid-Size Airport

Whitcomb: Hackerama; Reusing Old Buildings; Big Name for Mid-Size Airport

“One vast segment of the tree, the very topmost, bows ceremoniously against a

           breath of breeze,

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patient, sagacious, apparently possessing the wisdom such a union of space,

           light and matter should.’’

-- From “Tree,’’ by C.K. Williams (1936-2015), American poet, critic and translator

 

 

“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.’’

-- Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), American Protestant theologian and ethicist

 

 

May and early June and late September and early October are the loveliest times of the year in southern New England.

 

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The Colonial Pipeline crisis is, of course, a reminder of the vulnerability of our aging physical infrastructures to cyberattacks, some of them by such governmental enemies as Putin’s Russia, others by criminal gangs working with the knowledge and cooperation of such dictatorships, be they Russia, China, North Korea or Iran (all of whom work in varying degrees to weaken the West.)

 

The Colonial mess, exacerbated by panic buying in some places, which has caused gas stations in some areas to go dry, reminds me of why I like living in cities, where you can walk to most services if you must. Fossil-fuel crises tend to be particularly painful in the suburbs and beyond, where frequent, even daily, driving is unavoidable.       

 

The Feds must put in place new mandates forcing energy and other companies essential to national security to implement much tighter protections ASAP. Americans must accept that we are at war.

 

The attack suggests that we should move faster away from fossil-fuel-based energy systems to one based on electricity generated by decentralized renewable-energy generators.  Highly centralized networks such as Colonial’s make us far too vulnerable.

 

We should encourage more distributed electricity generation, including rooftop solar and land-based wind power (most of the latter small-scale to reduce local opposition), for the environmental and security benefits.  I know that this presents big financial and operational challenges to utilities.

 

Too bad that Colonial paid the hackers a $5 million ransom. They’ll use some of the money to expand their operations.

 

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What appears to be the final – and far too long delayed -- federal approval of the first phase of the big Vineyard Wind project, south of Martha’s Vineyard, New England is a very happy sign for our region. Starting in 2023, it will generate enough power for 400,000 customers in Massachusetts, including the juice needed for a proliferation of charging stations for electric vehicles.  

 

Let’s hope that another big offshore southern New England project, Revolution Wind, gets fast approval to start construction and begin providing electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

 

We’re lucky to be so close to such a big wind-energy resource.

 

 

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The Colonial Pipeline hack increased the inflationary pressures that had already been building because of pent-up business and consumer demand as the pandemic eases and by supply-chain problems. But a bit of inflation is healthy, especially if it includes higher wages for those who have seen little or no inflation-adjusted raises since the 1990s. In any event, inflation seems likely to cool later this year.

 

 

Reusing Old Buildings in an Old City

Excel Academy, a new charter school in Providence, will be housed in part of the former St. Joseph’s Hospital.  (Reminder: Charter schools are a kind of public school.) Meanwhile, the city’s School Department plans to renovate other parts of the old hospital for a separate K-8 public school.

 

Many big stores are closing, and hospitals are shrinking as more and more care, including surgery, is performed on an outpatient basis. Thus more and more space will be available for reuse to address growing or brand-new needs.

 

I’ve sometimes thought that the Providence Place mall would be a nice, completely all-weather college campus.

 

 

Trying to Go Global

Apparently, the name of T.F. Green Airport will soon be changed to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport – once you’ve said it you’ve missed your flight!  I like the “International” part. Given the population density and location of our area, we deserve to have a real international airport, especially one with flights to Europe. Many travelers would love to avoid the traffic congestion and other hassles of Boston’s Logan International Airport.

 

Still, I would have preferred “Providence International Airport’’ – easier to remember and speaking to the fact that the Providence metro area (population about 1.3 million) is very much a two-state thing.

 

The name-change plan reminds me of the continuing name confusions amongst some travelers. Some folks still confuse Rhode Island with Long Island and Providence with another very liberal community – Provincetown!

 

Will the pandemic-pushed drive toward more remote work, especially business meetings, mean a long-term depression in business-related air travel? Probably. How will airports adapt? Can airports like Green close to summer resort areas make up more of the lost revenue through the tourist trade?

 

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If some variant of President Biden’s infrastructure bill is enacted (probably in the face of almost total Republican opposition to everything he proposes) I  hope that it doesn’t mean more and wider highways.  More asphalt quickly draws in more cars and congestion.

 

We need more public transit for environmental and demographic reasons (e.g., the increase in the number of old people who can’t or won’t drive). But at the same time, the rise of remote work might put the brakes on traffic congestion, lessening the mistaken push for more and wider roads.

 

It’s frustrating to know that much of such programs could be funded by new tax revenue from cracking down on tax evasion.

 

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But would somebody please repave the crumbling streets of Providence!?

 

 

Turn It Off

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.), Roman statesman, scholar and philosopher

 

 

I rarely watch politically focused cable TV talk shows. Whether the talking heads are on the right, left or extraterrestrial, their remarks are almost always predictable, as their hosts strive to keep their viewers riled up and so their ratings high.

 

It’s often as much a waste of time as watching “professional wrestlers.’’

 

Still, when staying in a hotel, as I did the other week in New York on a business trip, I’ll briefly turn on the Bozo Box to see what’s new in the political yakking world.  (We have only very limited cable service on our home TV.)

 

I was disappointed again last week; the shows are structured to appeal to true believers on whom new verifiable information would have no effect. They want the soothing reinforcement that comes from listening to hosts and guests trained to appeal to true believers who will believe whatever the hosts and guests are peddling, including the most absurd conspiracy theories.

 

First maddening and then boring.

 

If you want to understand today’s world, perhaps you’d best read more history and ignore a lot of what constitutes “current affairs’’ on TV.

 

Gotham Gets Going

I hadn’t been in New York for more than a year until the other week, and was happy to see that it, and other cities, are opening up again at a good clip. It was far from what my younger daughter, who lives much of the time in Brooklyn, called a “hellscape” last year at this time.

 

While lots of people were eating outside restaurants, some in lightly heated, jerry-built shelters, plenty of people were eating inside today, albeit well-spaced. I was also struck by the fact that the vast majority of people on the sidewalks were wearing masks.

 

Still, there were many signs of the damage done by pandemic – there are more homeless and mentally ill people on the streets and on the subway, along with many vacant storefronts and restaurant spaces. I wonder how much that might change in the next few months as anti-COVID controls are further lightened amidst the release of pent-up economic dynamism. As a visitor and past resident, I never bet against New York, which, like America in general, has impressive powers of reinvention.

 

Donor Disclosures

I hope, but don’t expect, that the U.S. Supreme Court will let stand a California statute that mandates that “nonprofits” disclose their contributions to state regulators. The likes of such right-wing groups as the Charles Koch-connected Americans for Prosperity Foundation (which should be called The Give Billionaires Even Bigger Bucks Club) are pushing to overturn the rule. But the public deserves to know who might be influencing (or out-and-out buying) public officials.

 

In 2011, the Supremes’ Citizens United ruling opened the flood gates for already very powerful and privileged groups (as opposed to individual citizens) to strengthen their political and economic powers through campaign contributions. The court may soon further strengthen those powers.

 

 

Along the Sound

The Amtrak route between Providence and New York is under-appreciated. You see lovely woodlands, now with the trees quickly leafing out from multi-colored buds (but mostly pale yellow and reddish), harbors filling with boats, some classic steepled New England small towns and, my favorite, the views across the marshes to Long Island Sound.

 

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Maybe because this is such a fragrant time of the year, I remember some old smells from childhood – crayons, Elmer’s Glue, linseed oil, kerosene and, especially, the sweet smell of mimeograph fluid in those far-away pre-Xerox days.

 

 

Novelist and Farm Visionary

The flamboyant Louis Bromfield (1896-1956) was, back in the ‘20s and ‘30s, one of the more famous American novelists, closely associated with “The Lost Generation,” which included the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. Parties at his places in and around Paris (especially his riverside house in Senlis) drew celebrities from far and wide.

 

But his greatest passion turned out to be agriculture and conservation, on which he was a prolific writer. He eventually returned from France to his ancestral home base of  Ohio, where his family had included farmers, and became a pioneer in sustainable and organic agriculture at his model farm, which drew many visitors from across America. But Bromfield, who also worked in Hollywood, continued to maintain numerous connections with the famous. He was Humphrey Bogart’s best man at the actor’s marriage to Lauren Bacall, at Bromfield’s farm, and had a romantic relationship with Doris Duke.

 

Sadly, Bromfield has mostly been forgotten. I hope that Stephen Heyman’s elegantly written and deeply researched new biography, The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution, which connects the literary and agricultural sides of Bromfield’s legacy, rectifies that. It’s an amazing story.