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11/5/2008 7:55 AMCollapse and Resilience “People cross the river without even realizing it,” says Judith Martin. Indeed, when word spread on August 1, 2007, that the Interstate-35W bridge had collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 and injuring 145, many Twin Citians struggled to grasp just where the freeway spanned it. Martin, a professor of geography, recently joined two U of M colleagues for a discussion—part of a two-day symposium presented by the U’s Institute for Advanced Study—to address what has been learned in the wake of the disaster. “Few people talked about how the bridge collapse affected the neighborhood,” says Martin, who has lived near the river for more than 25 years. Thousands of residents felt the impact for more than a year. A local day care had to shut down overnight, its site taken over for the bridge project. Other businesses suffered as well, as access was severed and congestion became the new normal. “Traffic was composed of the unwilling,” Martin says, citing frustrated motorists and the bicyclists and pedestrians scrambling to get out of their way. For Martin, the bridge collapse marked the beginning of a year of missed opportunities. It was a sad reminder that we all remain in our usual routes and don’t think of other parts of the city as ours, she says. We wasted the “potential for a larger urban life.” Roger Miller, an associate professor of geography, looked at the larger urban area in relation to the bridge collapse. The repercussions of the broken link in the system only underscored his belief that “we need to rethink accessibility because of fuel and lifestyles,” he says. He projected maps of the metro area onto a screen to show increasing population density and suburban sprawl over the decades. High populations are clustered near interstates and are expanding ever farther from the core. Without roads, these communities would be stranded. We’re not paying enough attention to the realities that will affect the future of our cities, Miller says. For example, public space is being privatized, such as for shopping malls. “People think of malls as public space,” he says, “but try delivering a speech at a mall.” At the same time, people are making more of their purchases online. They may travel to a store in the suburbs to see the goods but then go home and buy on the Internet. Further, he says, people congregate less often to socialize, connecting through personal technology instead. And even with the housing market slump, the ability to purchase homes is declining. People have fewer reasons to travel to the suburbs and only one mode of transportation to get there. Miller says residential locations will be determined by alternative transportation modes, such as trains and bikeways in mixed-use neighborhoods. According to Tom Fisher, dean of the College of Design, the city is “fracture critical”—just like the old I-35W bridge. The bridge was built without redundancy, every part relying on the other parts. When one piece failed, the entire structure failed. Collapse is the result of exponential growth and strain, Fisher says, and we’re on several exponential growth curves. Population, for example. He cites a study positing that the world’s population, which was 2 billion in 1950, will reach 9 billion by 2050 and collapse to 2 billion by 2150. The bridge collapse is a metaphor for the collapsing economy too. “The shock is a similar feeling,” Fisher says. “But don’t be afraid; this is what ecosystems do. This will lead to a better global system”—healthier and more resilient. Says Fisher: “Collapse is moving back to resiliency.” See our story on the new I-35W bridge here. Shelly Fling may be reached at fling003@umn.edu. | |||||||||||||
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