Trump as President? Meaning for Landscape Architects?

[Dave McCorquodale]

Many of the guys I went to high school with in a small East Texas town close to the coast went on to become welders, pipefitters, machinists, millwrights, etc.  They work on projects that are only going to last a certain period of time, primarily in refineries near the gulf.  Once those projects are done, they take a few weeks off (as long as the unemployment holds out, usually), then go back to work on another project.  Construction inherently has a beginning and an end.  LA projects have a beginning and an end.  I often hear national media cover things like “the number of jobs created by a pipeline, new road, etc” framed as bad because they only last a “x” number of months or years.  That’s the way many people in America choose to work.  We make a decision, either consciously or unconsciously, to work in an environment that has an expiration date.  I’m not sure I could handle the commitment of a job making widgets that was there waiting for me until I die or am too old to work.  I agree with Andrew that contract labor and short-term projects aren’t synonymous with worker exploitation, and it’s our job to hold policy makers accountable to that fact.  Competition is healthy, and indeed benefits us all in the long run.  The other side of the coin is that competition also always creates losers.  We also need to make sure not to turn our back on those that need a little short-term help.  

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

First I want to start out by saying that I’ve been a big fan of yours for some time now Leslie and I always appreciate your input, even when it does go over my head. I agree that calling Bob hateful is not conducive to civil discussion. Yeah, your right with the wrong choice of words we end up talking past one another. Maybe I should have said that his words had a hateful tone.

I might be reading the hate into Bob’s statements, but it seems like he’s making the assumption that being a Muslim is a bad thing by default. You know like it’s common knowledge. I’m sorry, but this Christian will not be a part of normalizing that kind of talk. If we don’t stand up and nip this stuff in the bud now we’re going to have real problems. Who’s next? Blacks, Latinos, gays, people with piercings and tattoos…?

This isn’t a red vs. blue thing. It’s a hate thing and I’m going to oppose it whenever I see it. The attacks on Obama, Hillary and the left, in general, are all inbounds, but the other stuff is dangerous. Singling out groups of people to be treated as ‘other’ is not ok. BTW, I feel there have been some pretty disgusting things done by the left recently, but that doesn’t mean because I speak out against hateful speech that I sign off on punching hate mongers in the face. Are you ok with someone accusing someone of being a Muslim like it’s something bad?

[Anonymous]

Having worked on both sides of private sector and the public sector – if you don’t have LA’s providing oversight and direction to the public (infrastructure) contracts prior to the RFP process, there won’t be any/many LA contracts to the private sector (who do you think advocates for LA work? Certainly not engineers). And it’s certainly up to debate whether or not contractors provide quality products and innovation. Maybe some but I can’t count how many contractors are willing to pump out crap so they can get onto the next project and get paid. And that’s their bottom line: getting paid. Hopefully a free market exists that would exclude those crappy contractors, but the reality is (even as our President says), we don’t have a free market society. When you work on the public sector side, your bottom line is improving the environment, community, etc. so you tend to ‘own’ the project – you are the Leslie Knopp of the project. You can make the argument that those lofty goals are time consuming and not achievable, but they are worthwhile goals nonetheless. 

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

Dave-thanks for the support. I may have come on stronger than I should have, but I’m just tired of people wrapping themselves up in the flag and claiming to be patriots, while they incite a climate of fear. It’s like you disagreed with your Republican friends and neighbors, but you never looked at each other as enemies.

[Leslie B Wagle]

By the time I answered I didn’t notice the reference close to the top and thought you were just referring to Bob’s overall position(s). We may have a Muslim president some day, and it’s fine with me as that alone doesn’t present a problem. I was reading just today about the uncertainty whether people who had served as our scouts, advisors, translators, etc. in Iraq and other places will still be allowed to come in from the Middle East…and hope P. Trump will sure they get processed through and not left stranded.

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

Bob – I love America just like you do. The difference is that I appreciate the beauty of the diversity that we have. Living and working with people from different countries and faiths has made my life richer. I’ve learned that there are a few bad apples, but overall people want the same thing. They just want to live their lives in peace.

You can say what you want to say about Obama and Trump, I don’t see me getting anywhere with you on that, but I just wanted to make you aware that singling out Muslims is very offensive. I’m really surprised that you’ve been able to go on like you have on this site.

It’s funny but sad at the same time that you feel that you lost your country in some kind of way. No matter how disappointed or disrespected I’ve felt as an American, I’ve always felt that I was a part of this and had a voice. Just out of curiosity, who took your country from you and when did you start believing that it wasn’t great?

[Anonymous]

Oh Craig, you know the answer to that: OBAMA! Right Bob??? But yes it is shocking that this sort of discussion has been floating around Land8’s forums. Bob and I have butted heads on other Land8 threads as well, so his rhetoric is no surprise to me. Don’t worry, if it wasn’t Muslims (btw, did you know Islamic followers consider everyone who believes in the one true God to be muslim? The term “muslim” means the follower of Allah, or the one true God. So guess what, every Christian is also a Muslim), it’d be lazy millenials or brainwashed liberal college kids. 

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

I have a feeling we are going into a boom period as design professionals. Constructions going to be firing on all cylinders for a while building things that we desperately need to build, then there will be another crash. I just hope I can make enough during the boom to make it through the next bust.

[Anonymous]

I think so too – it’s going to be a repeat of the 2000 era boom/bust cycle. Build build build, money money money… and then oh $hit. 

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

After an incredible first week for the new administration, I think we can count on them to dot all the ‘I’s and cross all the ‘T’s. Considering how smoothly things are going, I believe our omnipotent billionaire president knows what’s best for us. Relax Landscape Architects; we can go back to making lots of money building roads in dry creek beds, filling wetlands and clearing old growth forests, just like the good old days. That steward of the land stuff is for snowflakes and there’s money to be made. Spotted Salamanders and Sandpipers be damned, we’re gonna MAGA-USA!

[Anonymous]

🙂 

[andrea valdez]

Yeah, your viewpoint is great it seems! Let’s hope for the best to happen. I am curious to other’s opinion also. Please share here. (not to make a political discussion 😛 🙂 )

[Tosh K]

What I’m seeing: Brexit has caused screeching halts across architecture firms in Britain, seems like we’re taking similar approaches in doing international business; firms are bracing to lose H1B workers, younger US workers seem to be asking for more and doing less to take advantage of that; funded work is continuing / unfunded or funding pending work is slowly being put on hold; clients with businesses friendly to the administration or continuing work, those not friendly are pulling funding out of construction; the hope of deregulation is making our low-end vendors and contractors optimistic they can make better profits on their work; states are going after de-licensure harder.

I’m optimistic that they do push forward infrastructure funding, but it seems their proposing stripping the bills pushed forward by DeLauro et al for the last couple of decades of the areas that LAs work on in favor of engineering heavy projects.

[Laura Sommet]

I was deeply worried the night of the election and am becoming more worried every day as I continue to see Trump and Scott Pruitt’s efforts to issue deep cuts, silence and abolish the EPA while carrying out the wishes of the Koch Brothers and other oil & gas monoliths.  It is disturbing that EPA head is someone of the oil and gas industry who has been sued multiple times by the very organization he is in charge of…It’s like having an arsonist run your local fire department.  I hope and pray that Trump won’t back out of the Paris Climate Agreement or the UN’s measures to combat climate change but it’s not looking too promising.  I understand that the oil and gas industry holds jobs for a lot of people but so does solar and is already a viable industry that is creating jobs everyday (as well as electric cars).  And the solar and wind industry can provide jobs for an infinite amount of time…the Sun isn’t going anywhere anytime soon….fossil fuels have no future.  

I could keep going on and on about how climate change should be the #1 priority to address because uh, hey, we all live on the same planet but all that to say, if we don’t do something now to combat climate change due to fossil fuels, then we will see more extreme weather, i.e. droughts, which will continue to negatively impact our food, our health, and the landscapes we seek to design and create.

[Craig Richmond, RLA]

At first it was funny. Americans were glued to their TV sets waiting for the next laugh. No one believed that the clown car would make it to the White House. It seems like most of the country is just shell shocked right now because we were not prepared for the results of the election. It seems like the right has to be as uncomfortable as everyone else. They couldn’t possibly buy into the crazy ideas and actions that we are seeing from this administration. Do they really believe that we’re going to make this country better by propping up dirty energy, generating chaos throughout the country and pissing on the very things that makes this country great? I doubt it. Eventually they will lead the charge to send the clown show packing. I’ve become optimistic about the future of the US. I think we are living through a national wake up call. The masses are finally seeing what kind of government you get when you don’t take your vote seriously. I’ve learned that I need to do more than just vote.

The only thing is most of the folks who are supposed to be stewards of the land are being surprisingly quiet. That’s right crickets from the LAs.  

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