Journal: News & Comment

Smaller-scale disaster: La Conchita, and the wisdom of zoning

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Some people think government regulation is, on principle, bad. I'm not among them. Today, Doc Searls shows someplace where regulations would have done some good. La Conchita, California is the site of the recent mudslide that wiped out houses and killed a number of people.

Look at Doc's photo and you can see that there's no way the town should be where it is. There oughta be a law, as they say. Apparently, no lender will offer a mortgage in the town because of the landslide danger, yet people continue to build there.

But how do those people get electricity or plumbing, or any other utilities? Do the same utility companies provide services to sandbars on river beds, or the slopes of active volcanoes, or beaches below the high tide line, perhaps?

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