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Notes on the NorthWest

These notes accompany the discussion in our text, Nine Nations of North America, chapter on Ecotopia. I have prepared these notes for classroom use. This page is a work in progress.

Pacific Northwest: Ecotopia at the Crossroads

Themes

Ecotopia

• Ecotopia, the title chosen by Garreau as the title comes from a novel by that name by Callenbach. The theme of Ecotopia flatters the Pacific Northwest, just as the theme of MexAmerica in unwelcome by Anglos in the SouthWest. But the label ecotopia begs an important question: Is the Pacific NorthWest really a conserver region?
• Professor Emeritus Murray Bookchin of Ramapo College claims to have invented the phrase and used it in conversation with Callenbach. Bookchin still claims "ownership" of not only the term. Murray Bookchin is probably the foremost exponent of the idea of an ecological society, the main theme of Callenbach's novel..
• Note the imagery at start of this chapter: rafting under the auspices of strong, able women. Outdoor values are claimed as a hallmark of Ecotopia, which is probably valid.
• Bioregionalism prominent, not a strange view of the world

Looks Eastward

Much influence from Asia, especially Japan.The Pacific NorthWest has reacted to Japan-bashing, is preferred by Japanese firms and people, fought for Japanese ownership of Seattle Seahawks.

Hawaii should be included within Ecotopia, for its social ecology is more advanced than any other state. The mingling of an astonishing variety of ethnic cultures is a global model of celebration of diversity. The exotic but fragile ecology of the islands receives the most astute land use planning of any state in the nation.

Geography & Environment

• Split by Cascades: coastal, Willamette Valley, wheat
• Hanford Nuclear Reservation
• Spotted owl controversy; salmon runs; coastal zone management
• Valdez happened here. Never again! Explain how AS is out of synch

Economy

• Has become robust and diverse, with little environmental hostility.
• Software capital: Redmond, WA, home of Microsoft & Bill Gates
• Primary = lumber, fishing
• Hydroelectric power (subsidized by big dams) keeps electricity costs artificially low throughout region. Thus, attracts aluminum and semiconductors.
• Stanford and overall excellent CA system attract high tech. But CA higher ed declining, but WA coming up.
• Aluminum, based on cheap hydroelectric power
• Boeing
• Garreau & Trident dated. With retirement and death of Scoop Jackson, a conservative Democratic Senator from WA, military spending has declined in NorthWest
• Seattle appears to have become financial and decision making center for Pacific rim corporations in North America, scared off by Los Angeles nightmare and San Francisco conserver growth policies

Politics

• Liberal political preferences, especially Northern California (Shasta) and Oregon; may be apolitical
• National figures: Sen. Packwood! Speaker Foley: district assumed its rep was Speaker. Little national significance
• Northern vs. southern CA looms large: Prop 209 Affirmative Action split 60% each
• Region defends interests of Japan in national politics.

Growth Games

• Spotted owl controversy; salmon runs;
• coastal zone management: triumph of conserver region.
• Rejects growth: "Don't Californicate Oregon"
• Seattle leans toward balanced growth.

• San Francisco & Bay Area: Conserver City Jewel

• San Francisco as truly great, progressive city, but conserver growth policy city has cost it jobs.
• When will the next earthquake hit? Will it be the big one?
• Has SF lost out to Seattle as capital city of Ecotopia? Perhaps. Financial and corporate influence from Asia, particularly Japan, appears to favor Seattle.
• San Francisco has emerged as America's unofficial gay capital city: remember the Harvey Milk slaying.
• Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco founded the idea of bioregionalism about 20 years ago and is still a champion of reinhabitation, rebuilding regions according to natural and cultural norms.
• A tour of the SF region will be given in class, including Bay Area Rapid Transit; tourism; and Berkeley, a suburb with a superb state university.
• Gerry Brown, former Governor Moonbeam was recently elected mayor of nearby Oakland (sort of like Jersey City's regional niche in New York.)

Surrounding Region: Shasta

• Shasta mountain on border, CA OR; salmon is icon
• Silicone Valley is the geographical heart of the 21st century's technology
• Peripheral Canal: water wars between southern and northern California: north is wet while south is dry, but north consistently opposes the appropriation of water by the south. As southern population grows faster than that of north, the statewide vote will eventually favor the south.
• Strongly opposed Proposition 209 (anti-affirmative action), voting against 60%, the opposite of MexAmerica
• Supported Big Green referendum guaranteeing strong growth protections and environmental laws, which lost in the south of California. Values on conservation and growth creates much tension within the state, dividing the state into two distinct regions, north and south. Occasionally, the call for succession resonates from the north, led by San Francisco.

ProfWork, by Wayne Hayes, Ph.D.
for Inside America, AAMR30501
https://www.oocities.org/~profwork/ia/west/nw.html
whayes@orion.ramapo.edu
Friday, January 04, 1980 01:35 PM