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The Brilliant Way FDR Got America Back to Work—While Beautifying the Country and Protecting Our Environment
this story might as well be about a country in another galaxy; this kind of enlightened thinking is light-years away from the dangerous clown we have now. that was only 70 short years ago ? how did this country regress and collapse so profoundly ?
Perhaps not so enlightened. The CCC suffered from the same racial segregation that prevailed at the time. Here are two good articles.
all of my asian relatives say that FDR was the best camp director ever.....
These types of national solutions could never occur today. For one, development of public lands are open to public comment, which often bring out opponents to the project who can lob "environmental impact" grenades, triggering requirements of conducting a multi-year, multi-million dollar report to be drafted. Secondly, prevailing wage would double the labor cost of any project.
Jason, I totally agree that these solutions couldn't happen today; however, what the CCC did wasn't really "development" (in the modern, real-estate sense of the word) of public lands so much as improvement and conservation. The CCC planted a crapload of trees, offset erosion and flooding and created facilities whereby the American public could enjoy these National Parks. As for the WPA, they extended water, sewage and electricity to areas that previously had none, which it's difficult to imagine there being opponents of. You're spot-on about the prevailing wage issue in modern times; one "benefit" of it being the Great Depression was that there was no prevailing wage. I think that in that time, offering three squares a day was enough to get people on board.
I know, that's the bad part. Even the most noble and appropriate conservation and or improvement projects are too easily bogged down by process.
The volume and quality of work that came out of this period is impressive. It laid a foundation that is still hard at work today and in many cases can still be seen and enjoyed. Design degrees may have been far and few between but the creativity and craft of the workers was certainly up to snuff. The loose guidelines that were followed were published in a book called Park and Recreation Structures by Albert Good. It is well worth a look!
When PBS did a documentary on the CCC, one of the interviewees said that when WWII came around, CCC veterans already knew how to work together as a group, as an army. Not saying FDR knew this but it was an ancillary benefit that should not be forgotten.