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These does are affecting urban areas of California, not just wilderness. 100 feet of urban California real estate costs substantially more than the house - hou

by asah 8y ago

These does are affecting urban areas of California, not just wilderness. 100 feet of urban California real estate costs substantially more than the house - houses are often built right up to the property line, and lots are measured in sqft, not acres.

gnud 8y ago
Presumably, if space is that expensive, there's not vegetation next to your house, but another house.
nostrademons 8y ago
The article mentions that as a problem. Dense urban areas have a compensating advantage, though: it's much more economically efficient to set up a firebreak and prevent the fire from reaching 100,000 residents in a densely-packed neighborhood, than it is to set up a perimeter around the one wealthy person's home built in the middle of the forest. The article seems to be suggest (but doesn't explicitly state) a policy like this: "Use public resources to provide a fire protection around the urban growth boundary of major cities, but if you're a homeowner outside that boundary, you're on your own. Design your structure to survive a fire in the surrounding wilderness. We won't suppress fires within the wilderness anymore." In other words, instead of shooting for containment, where the firefighters attempt to control the size of the fire and eventually put it out, they just let the wilderness burn periodically and protect habitation. The added benefit of this is that once the brush is cleared out, future wildfires will be less strong, since there's less fuel. Also makes sense in economic free-market terms, where public resources are used only when they can defend many properties at much lower cost than the property owners defending them themselves, and property owners who are not situated to benefit from these efficiencies of scale are responsible for defending their own property.
kbenson 8y ago
Just about every street plus sidewalks is well over 30 feet. The question is whether there is shrubbery or trees at the edge of the street that provides a much shorter path between homes. My home was built in a new division 2014, and it requires low maintenance front yards (all wood chips and plants/shrubs), and came with a young tree in the front yard and young trees planted on the other side of the sidewalk easement, so eventually it will be very easy for a fire to spread. I live in Santa Rosa.

by asah 8y ago

gnud 8y ago

Presumably, if space is that expensive, there's not vegetation next to your house, but another house.

nostrademons 8y ago

The article mentions that as a problem. Dense urban areas have a compensating advantage, though: it's much more economically efficient to set up a firebreak and prevent the fire from reaching 100,000 residents in a densely-packed neighborhood, than it is to set up a perimeter around the one wealthy person's home built in the middle of the forest. The article seems to be suggest (but doesn't explicitly state) a policy like this: "Use public resources to provide a fire protection around the urban growth boundary of major cities, but if you're a homeowner outside that boundary, you're on your own. Design your structure to survive a fire in the surrounding wilderness. We won't suppress fires within the wilderness anymore." In other words, instead of shooting for containment, where the firefighters attempt to control the size of the fire and eventually put it out, they just let the wilderness burn periodically and protect habitation. The added benefit of this is that once the brush is cleared out, future wildfires will be less strong, since there's less fuel. Also makes sense in economic free-market terms, where public resources are used only when they can defend many properties at much lower cost than the property owners defending them themselves, and property owners who are not situated to benefit from these efficiencies of scale are responsible for defending their own property.

kbenson 8y ago

Just about every street plus sidewalks is well over 30 feet. The question is whether there is shrubbery or trees at the edge of the street that provides a much shorter path between homes. My home was built in a new division 2014, and it requires low maintenance front yards (all wood chips and plants/shrubs), and came with a young tree in the front yard and young trees planted on the other side of the sidewalk easement, so eventually it will be very easy for a fire to spread. I live in Santa Rosa.