Privatization and Public Structures

Posted July 15th, 2008 by yawu

Rose Kennedy Greenway [from The Fein Line]Can a consortium of businesses do a better job of promoting the public good than the city of Boston?

Anti-government activists in the United States often complain that their local, state and federal government should be run more like a business. “If we operated our government like a business,” the argument goes, “we could have better services and lower taxes.”

So now that a group of downtown businesses calling themselves the Greenway Conservancy have stepped forward claiming they will help develop the Rose Kennedy Greenway by pooling private donations, it’s worth questioning how much of the taxpayers’ money they will save.

Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods organizer Shirley Kressel says in a Boston Globe op-ed that the group has filed a bill that would tap the state budget to the tune of $5.5 million a year to run the 10-acre park. By way of comparison, Kressel points out, the city of Bostonspends $15 million on its 2,200 acres of parkland.

So much for running our city like a business.

The lease drawn up by the Greenway Conservancy would give the group rights similar to private ownership, including the power to determine what events are held in the parks and the right to charge admittance to events. In short, Kressel says, the Conservancy is seeking public funding to run a privately controlled park.

The $15 million the city spends pays for gems like Franklin Park, the Boston Common, the Public Gardens and Jamaica Pond – spaces where residents of all Boston neighborhoods can play ball, sunbathe, sail, swim, listen to concerts, see
plays, fly a kite, protest the war in Iraq, rally in support of a presidential candidate or meet friends for lunch. Freedom of assembly, free speech, the pursuit of happiness -- this is what public spaces in the United States are for.

Businesses are best suited to run enterprises that earn profit. Let the stewardship of publicly-owned land remain under the control of our local government.

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The Role of Public Work

On July 16th, 2008 Harmony Blakeway said:

While market factors do naturally incentivize efficiency, government's capacity for long-term vision, collaboration, and public responsibility make it much more effective than business is in certain circumstances.

This is most clear when finite resources are in demand. The "Tragedy of the Commons" is that, in short, it is in the best interest of each individual to maximize his or her use of a public good, because the negative repercussions of that overuse and/or misuse will be split by all.

One area that this is very clear is the growing water crisis:

"Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, and, although there is no global water scarcity as such, an increasing number of regions are chronically short of water. By 2025, 1800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. The situation will be exacerbated as rapidly growing urban areas place heavy pressure on neighbouring water resources." [U.N. Water Scarcity Report]

And while a greater historical investment in the public oversight of water may have alleviated the current growing water crisis, does this mean we want to turn over its management and allocation rights to people like T. Boone Pickens, the largest private U.S. water owner?

T. Boone Pickens [Business Week]"T. Boone Pickens believes there's a fortune to be made in slaking the thirst of a rapidly growing population. If he pumps as much as he can, he could sell about $165 million worth of water to Dallas each year. "The idea that water can be sold for private gain is still considered unconscionable by many," says James M. Olson, one of America's preeminent attorneys specializing in water- and land-use law. "But the scarcity of water and the extraordinary profits that can be made may overwhelm ordinary public sensibilities."

...[Pickens regards] water as a commodity that should be bought, sold, and traded for the benefit of those who own it and those who can afford it." [BW Article]

And while the subject of "water scarcity" may feel a little off-topic, it is only one example of this phenomenon which very well could have been substituted for something such as "lack of open/green space in urban areas." Sound familiar?