Feral Cities

January 11, 2005 3:32 PM

Feral Cities. Imagine a great metropolis covering hundreds of square miles. Once a vital component in a national economy, this sprawling urban environment is now a vast collection of blighted buildings, an immense petri dish of both ancient and new diseases, a territory where the rule of law has long been replaced by near anarchy in which the only security available is that which is attained through brute power. It would possess at least a modicum of commercial linkages, and some of its inhabitants would have access to the world's most modern communication and computing technologies. It would, in effect, be a feral city.
posted by stbalbach (36 comments total)

I've had a number of very beautiful dreams which take place in such places.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:47 PM on January 11, 2005

They are talking about Chicago right?
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 3:52 PM on January 11, 2005

Bring it on.
posted by driveler at 3:53 PM on January 11, 2005

Sounds like Chiba City.
posted by leotrotsky at 3:54 PM on January 11, 2005

*looks out window* I thought they were talking about Los Angeles.

I too dream of such places. Sounds a bit like a Situationist city.
posted by loquacious at 3:58 PM on January 11, 2005

They are talking about Chicago right?

My thoughts exactly. Except for maybe Lincoln Park or the Gold Coast.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 4:10 PM on January 11, 2005

They are talking about Chicago right?

Hell, Wicker Park strives to be like this. It increases the rent...
posted by wicked sprite at 4:15 PM on January 11, 2005

Or Edgebrook. Or Lakeview. Or the near West Side. Or Oak Park. Or...well, it's hard to know exactly where Chicago is breaking down.

As a teenager I once rode a brand new bike from the north side of Chicago down Cicero avenue all the way to the city of Cicero and back, and remained completely unaccosted, although a prostitute did yell out "wanna date? I have a bike, too!" This has made me a bit skeptical of claims that the city is collapsing.

Then again, I certainly wouldn't want to spend any time on the wrong side of Washington Park, and there are some blighted areas outside of the city to the west that seem more than a little fast and lose with the law enforcement.

Of course, I've been out of Chicago for four years now. Has it changed that much?
posted by davejay at 4:21 PM on January 11, 2005

Clearly, this is a post about Detroit.
posted by mwhybark at 4:26 PM on January 11, 2005

loquacious-- you're not the only one to think of L.A. Constance Rice (a.k.a. Condi's sister), a civil rights attorney in L.A., wrote a commentary for the Los Angeles Times (already in archives, not linkable) titled, "LA's Budding Mogadishus" arguing that the poorest and most crime-ridden sections of their cities are well on their way to a feral state.
posted by availablelight at 4:28 PM on January 11, 2005

*section of their cities = sections of the city*
posted by availablelight at 4:29 PM on January 11, 2005

Definitely more about Detroit than L.A. or Chicago...
posted by banished at 4:52 PM on January 11, 2005

As a teenager I once rode a brand new bike from the north side of Chicago...

Yeah, but everybody knows that the South side of Chicago is the baddest part of town.
posted by fixedgear at 4:56 PM on January 11, 2005

c.f. Carpenter, John. Escape From New York, 1981.
posted by sharkitect at 5:06 PM on January 11, 2005

Dhalgren? "DHALGREN takes place in an urban landscape where the laws of nature have broken down and the laws of mankind have as well; there is no way to tell which breakdown preceded the other."
posted by LarryC at 5:07 PM on January 11, 2005

Damn, beat me to it sharkitect!
posted by josh at 5:08 PM on January 11, 2005

Constance Rice (a.k.a. Condi's sister), a civil rights attorney in L.A...

Condi Rice is an only child; Constance Rice is her second cousin.

/condi rice fangirl nitpick
posted by Asparagirl at 5:22 PM on January 11, 2005

I couldn't get to the site ...
google cache
posted by Dillenger69 at 5:22 PM on January 11, 2005

Condoleezza Rice has fans?
posted by loquacious at 5:33 PM on January 11, 2005

Very interesting--thanks for the link.
posted by donovan at 5:42 PM on January 11, 2005

Heh... I'm no socialist, but I couldn't help picking out a trend on the bottom line ("going feral") of that chart in the middle of the essay. Cities going feral have the following attributes:

Government: "At best has negotiated zones of control; at worst does not exist."

Economy: "... industry based on illegal commerce."

Services: "Those who can afford to will privately contract [for water and power]."

Security: "... is attained through private means or paying protection. "

Hey, it's a libertarian paradise :)
posted by rkent at 5:45 PM on January 11, 2005

I don't think it even occured to the author that a US city could become a feral city too. What would be the Navy's role then?

And it's hysterical that we're the example of a green city--if it's so, it's despite our being starved for and cheated out of needed and promised funds from the federal and our state govt for ages now, something not likely to change, and more likely to worsen in the future.
posted by amberglow at 5:46 PM on January 11, 2005

Very interesting article, thanks much stbalbach.

Immediately brought to mind Rio de Janeiro (as mentioned later in the article), especially as depicted in Cidade de Deus, which everyone should see, because it's awesome.
posted by Fontbone at 6:07 PM on January 11, 2005

rkent, sounds like many deregulated societies out there. Limited government intervention, corrupt (illegal) corporations, government services (health, water, power) outsourced to individual companies, and security provided for those who can afford it.
posted by cosmonik at 6:14 PM on January 11, 2005

Detroit is a post-feral city. Camden, NJ. Gary, IN. Now those are feral cities.
posted by Chrischris at 6:16 PM on January 11, 2005

So many strange coincidences, lately. I've been re-reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities; yesterday, I took it with me to read over nachos at a neighborhood bar.

Right next to me, two men were discussing a failed, city-sponsored "night-life" district in downtown Rochester, which was intended to anchor economic revival in the general area. The problem is that the district has no residences, at all, has non-baseball-season daytime traffic only from the thinly-populated offices in the area, and a little bit of side-traffic from home ball games during the season, and other than the offices and the nightclubs, has no mixed-use to speak of. The edge of the "district" is a solid quarter mile of uninhabited industrial space (former power plant) and broad high-throughput city street from any residential areas, and the folks who live there can't afford the restaurants, brewpub, nightclubs, and single coffee house in the "night life district" that is High Falls.

It's like something Jane Jacobs would have dreamed up as an example of "how to fail."

So then I come here, and see this.

I'm reminded of my youth, when I used to get lectured by my teachers about the "feral city" that was South Bronx. It got better. Probably it's not great, but it got better. That doesn't mean it can't happen here; just that, sometimes, what's got to happen is that the propery's got to become sufficiently worthless that developers no longer think they can make any money off of it, so they butt the hell out.
posted by lodurr at 6:47 PM on January 11, 2005

I'm astonished anyone would pick Chicago, where Daley the Younger has reasserted city control over the once-spectacularly-failing school system, cleaned up the park district and made it responsive and reinvesting, rebuilt the downtown (including its first residential buildings in decades), created a tax and zoning climate that has drawn business to the city and led developers to wholesale demolish neighborhood after neighborhood for condos, and created a model community-policing initiative, as a "feral" city. Detroit is much closer, but I agree it's turning the corner, too.

I've lived many years in Chicago (until recently), and it's cleaner and safer than it has ever been. The CTA works; the bridges aren't rusting and inoperative, they're being repaired and painted; the concrete isn't crumbling from Wacker Drive, it's being rebuilt into a model throughway with river promenade. I've also lived in late-80s New York City -- and Jersey City. Now THAT was a near-feral landscape. When I was there the mayor of JC wrote an op-ed to homeowners being pushed out of their paid-for brownstones by skyrocketing "gentrification" property taxes: Nobody deserves to live in a nice neighborhood. They have to pay for it. Thanks a fucking lot, Mr. Public Servant!

Anyway, everybody's just snarking, because this is extremely unlikely in the US. Norton is clearly thinking of places like Mogadishu, or perhaps Quetta and Kirachi in Pakistan (not to mention the Tribal Areas), which in many ways are decreasingly under the control of the central government.

Hey, it's a libertarian paradise :)

You think you're kidding. Libertarians weren't. There was particular highlighting of the way that Somalia developed a sophisticated cell-phone industry despite the lack of a central regulatory telecom agency. Did I say despite? I meant because of.

I don't think it even occured to the author that a US city could become a feral city too. What would be the Navy's role then?

amberglow, probably standoff action along the shore -- as they did during the New York Draft Riots (though they never fired cannon, as depicted in Scorsese's film; infantry units did use artillery, though).

And if you thought this being a Navy publication was odd, keep in mind that 4 times out of 5, the service appointed to a feral city -- probably for Operations Other Than War, e.g. diplomatic rescue, etc. -- would be the Marines (a "maritime service").
posted by dhartung at 10:38 PM on January 11, 2005

LarryC, you bet.
posted by mwhybark at 10:41 PM on January 11, 2005

This has nothing on the strange letters sent to China Mieville in the latest Chabon-edited McSweeney's compilation.
posted by ed at 11:29 PM on January 11, 2005

Yeah, but is there a Starbucks?
posted by Human Stain at 6:45 AM on January 12, 2005

If Buffalo has a Starbucks, any feral rotting post-industrial wasteland of a city will have a Starbucks.

Interestingly, according to that we're about halfway between marginal and "going feral," depending if you see a temp and retail based workforce as "subsistence industries" or not. All that's stopping us is that, in all likelihood, our population will drop into the five-digit range before we hit full-on chaos, and is nowhere near a million right now.
posted by Kellydamnit at 7:14 AM on January 12, 2005

The most important bulwark against deterioration to ferality is a police force paid a middle-class wage and staffed on civil service, not patronage, principals.

Quality of policing goes a long way to explaining why Chicago and New York, even at their worst were still surprisingly well-functioning. A police force which was more politicized in its staffing and operation explains the worse state of (say) Detroit and DC.

But the real difference is international. Detroit, which is economically benighted in any way you can imagine, is still vastly better ordered than Mexico City, which is economically vital in most any way you could mention, because Mexico insists upon paying its police poverty wages, and, predictably, has terrible law and order problems.
posted by MattD at 7:46 AM on January 12, 2005

dhartung quotes a civil servant: Nobody deserves to live in a nice neighborhood. They have to pay for it.

Civil servant's hidden assumption: "With money."

Where neighborhoods do work, people do pay for them: With labor and care. Money without care never, ever makes a neighborhood work.
posted by lodurr at 9:03 AM on January 12, 2005

Funny how .mil is so concerned about Feral Cities since the only one I can think of was their own creation; Fallujah
posted by fingerbang at 9:05 AM on January 12, 2005

Immediately brought to mind Rio de Janeiro (as mentioned later in the article), especially as depicted in Cidade de Deus, which everyone should see, because it's awesome.

Agreed, Fontbone.
posted by stbalbach at 9:21 AM on January 12, 2005

i have to admit my surprise that anyone would mention chicago before detroit in this category. detroit gets the shaft regularly, more so than (i think) any other large city in the US. for lots of reasons. but to see detroit get the shaft even here, to not be the first mention as a feral city, to see that go to chicago instead? damn. that hurts.

detroit does have its problems. it is clearly not a feral city on the order of fallujah or mogadishu, sure; every time i drive through that town i see block after block of empty brownstones and ask myself why detroit hasn't been revitalized the same way parts of other large cities have. there's so much that could be done... heck, i'd be willing to bet that anyone with the balls and the cash to buy up several large blocks of detroit and renovate them could be sitting on a potential huge pile of cash. we need to convince the people who work in detroit that living in the suburbs and letting the center of the city die isn't the way to keep a metropolis healthy.

but then again it would turn into harlem, wouldn't it? those with the perseverance to stay even though the neighborhood went to shit would be the first to be forced out as property values priced them out of their own homes. it sucks.

(as far as states go i'd say new jersey probably gets the shaft. with individual cities, i'll stick with detroit. gary, IN might be an industrial stinkhole but at least it has a happy song about it. flint MI might give detroit a run for the money except it is so much smaller... flint was featured in an impossible-to-win sim city scenario though, and that is a big vote in the feral direction.)
posted by caution live frogs at 10:49 AM on January 12, 2005