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Cities in the Wilderness
Bruce Babbitt
Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2005
216 pp., $25.95, hardcover
ISBN: 1559630930

Bruce Babbitt, former Secretary of the Department of Interior for eight years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, has written a book in conversational language calling for smart-growth development while preserving and restoring America’s ecosystems. Citing successful examples such as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan of 2000, Babbitt argues that environmentalists should espouse a vision of restoration to rescue ecosystems from collapse, as in the case of the Florida Everglades, or with Babbitt’s own call to mitigate the drying-up water systems of the American West. Babbitt's version of urban smart-growth is to promote density and protect surrounding open space. Babbitt's vision of statewide land-use planning is to chart all economic growth in a sustainable context, considering the community and future generations. This goes against the American ethos of the frontier-blazing, individualistic entrepreneur, and changing the U.S. cultural mindset is Babbitt’s long-term goal, to be fought in local battles. Babbitt uses the bulk of Cities in the Wilderness to examine the history of several victories in the 1990s. He does so to show the political techniques of success, so others can learn and accomplish more.

Babbitt's goal is to show how American economic policy can meld with environmental policy so that development is sustainable. His mission is to weld these two concepts so they cease being opposite poles in a polarizing debate. To exemplify this smart-growth, pro-development thinking, Babbitt looks to Las Vegas to describe his vision of urban growth that favors density while preserving nearby open space. As in Las Vegas under the guiding hand of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a zoned Las Vegas urban-grid visible from any airplane has helped preserve the desert ecosystem by protecting surrounding open space. This open space prevents suburban sprawl, provides habitat for wildlife, and offers people nearby hikes and scenic walks. Open spaces’ aesthetic and recreational appeal boosts housing prices and tourism dollars. Preservation is economic development.

Government officials and developers caught up in the labored human world of monetary value sometimes overlook the abundant value given to us by the natural world. This insight in the hands of Babbitt is translated into something more practical. He states it in terms politically palatable: Sustainable development is smarter and profitable. Babbitt wants environmental activists to adopt win-win pro-development arguments that meet people where they are, not where someone wants them to be. Babbitt argues that his brand of restorative smart-growth will convince the voting public, the media, local officials, and enough business allies to forge solutions. In contrast he writes, "Open space proposals that can be stigmatized as limiting growth are not likely to succeed."

As U.S. Interior Secretary, Babbitt recounts using federal regulations as a threat to get developers to negotiate. Babbitt, rather than using the law to hammer a solution and possibly spark a backlash, often forged solutions through behind-the-scenes negotiations, and avoided polarizing debates. Still during negotiations, he sometimes goes public with statements designed to 'turn up the heat.' Babbitt details how he helped draft restorative solutions for the Florida Everglades, and for environmental land-use planning in San Diego and Los Angeles Counties, by working with all factions of a community to steer toward consensus. In these three cases, citizens wanted land-use planning as they witnessed the Everglades sicken, or sprawl besmirch Southern California's scenic hills. As a result Babbitt was able to harness favorable media coverage and public support, as well as find allies in the business community, to forge smart-growth solutions. In Iowa, Babbitt lobbied for federal farming subsidies to promote wetland restoration. Here he first had to educate the public about natural Iowa habitat, which nearly had been eradicated by crop planting. He was successful in doing so and won.

In the case of restoring controlled-flooding along the multi-state Mississippi River, Babbitt found he could not make headway in a multi-state environment where neither the public nor the media were aware of the downsides to levees and the problem of wetland loss. Of communities along the river Babbitt says, "Most of the groups I met were interested in not less but more development.”

Babbitt’s book is a good environmental tool to cite to a local Democratic official or conservationist Republican who would respect Babbitt as an elder statesmen. It would make a good gift to a local official who might read it. Babbitt does not address whether pro-growth ideology will one day clash with sustainable development. Babbitt’s cities in the wilderness may work in the short term, but can unrestrained population and economic growth really be sustainable? It is difficult to tell whether Babbitt’s silence is a defense of U.S. pro-growth globalization policies, or Babbitt avoiding what he believes is politically unpalatable, too large an argument. I agree with Babbitt's idea that tomorrow's idea needs today's language. However, today's language must contain the seeds of tomorrow's awareness.

This book reflects the fact that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was backed by an environmentally friendly administration, even as he recounts dealing with recalcitrant local officials beholden to developers. Today’s White House is a proponent of unrestrained development on private and public lands. Babbitt's call for state and federal partnerships may not apply right now.

Furthermore, Cities in the Wilderness does not address the fear-driven post-9/11 political world. In this political world, many electronic voting machines are being installed around the country that do not contain paper receipts, and only the voting-machine company has access to the results stored in their proprietary software. It is an eclipse of verifiable voting occurring right now. Meanwhile, the National Security Agency pursues wiretaps without warrants, elements of the U.S. military openly engage in torture, and according to numerous news reports, the Bush Administration has paid journalists and pundits like Armstrong Williams to praise government initiatives in the press. Verifiable voting is a necessity for enabling citizens to enact change. Bruce Babbitt's arguments for advancing smart growth and open space fundamentally depend on such a democratic context.

According to Rep. John Conyers' (D-Mich.) report "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio" (01/05/2005; pp. 56-67), there were irregularities in county-by-county voting machine tallys in Ohio during the 2004 election: historically high number of votes for third-party candidates, some obscure local Democratic candidates beating national candidate John Kerry, the award of 19,000 Bush votes in Miami County after all the precincts had reported, and the existance of 19 extra ballots in Perry County above the number of registered voters. John Conyers' report, available online as a PDF, is an alarm bell. This post-9/11 script is one we must change to begin the environmental planning Babbitt calls for.

– BY GREGG MOSSON

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