The (Mis) Managment of the Rio de Flag; Food Justice and Social Vulnerabilities of the Southside Neighborhood

​

Matt Muchna - April 5, 2018

(Southside 1960’s, MNA Archives)

Questions

Q1: Who are the stakeholders in the Rio Project?

​

Q2: Are the Southside residents recognized in the Rio Project’s planning documents?

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

500 Year Floodplain

The Southside

100 Year Floodplain

NAU

Downtown

Rio de Flag historically floods every 1-13 years

​

Recorded Floods: 1888, 1896, 1903, 1916, 1920, 1923, 1937, 1938*, 1950, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1993**, and 1995 (Hendrick 2002).

​

* 1938 (in terms of discharge)

​

​

Flooding in Flagstaff, 1903

​

Rio de Flag historically floods every 1-13 years

​

Recorded Floods: 1888, 1896, 1903, 1916, 1920, 1923, 1937, 1938*, 1950, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1993**, and 1995 (Hendrick 2002).

​

* 1938 (in terms of discharge)

** 1993 (in terms of volume)

​

Southside Flooding, 1993

​

Rio de Flag historically floods every 1-13 years

​

Recorded Floods: 1888, 1896, 1903, 1916, 1920, 1923, 1937, 1938*, 1950, 1963, 1966, 1973, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1993**, and 1995 (Hendrick 2002).

​

* 1938 (in terms of discharge)

** 1993 (in terms of volume)

​

Continental Estates Area, 1993

​

Rio Moved… 1892 - 1901

Theories to why it was rerouted:

​

• City fathers moved the Rio to prevent flooding in the commercial downtown (N. of tracks).

​

• Lumber yards were flooding, therefore the lumber companies moved it.

​

• To prevent flooding in the new P.J. Brannen’s upper-middle class subdivision (approved in 1894).

Rio Moved… 1892 - 1901

New channel constructed:

​

• 2800ft shallow and narrow trench was built.

​

• Southeast from Cottage Ave to the head of a small existing tributary near O’Leary and Ashurst St.

​

• The new channel was said to have intensified residential flooding 1896- 1938 in Downtown, Southside, and even today.

​

Literature

​

​

​

“Flood Justice” Case Studies:

Hurricane Katrina – Social Floods; Before the

flood waters hit (Fussell et al. 2010)

Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River, – Urban Flood Management (Schuelke 2014)

​

Environmental Justice – (Cole & Foster 2001, Bullard & Wright 1983, Hurley 1995, Walker 2009)

​

Kinnickinnic River, 2012 (Sustainable City Network 2012)

“Harold One Feather of the Standing Rock Sioux, participates in the Clean Up the Mines protest outside of the EPA.” (Danika Worthington of Cronkite News, 2016)

(Southside Plan, 2005).

Southside Neighborhood was a multi ethnic community comprised of Native, Basque, Asian, Hispanic and African American Peoples.

(Cline Special Collections)

The Rio and Southside

​

• Segregation
• South Beaver Elementary and Dunbar School
• Wilson Rileys and Sturgeon Cromer desegregate Flagstaff’s school’s in 1952

​

​

• FEMA Floodplain Restrictions
• Federally mandated flood insurance
• 50/50 renovations rule
• New buildings must be fit floodplain regulations

(Southside Plan 2005)

The Great Migration; 1916 - 1970

“…. was one of the largest and most rapid mass internal movements in history—perhaps the greatest not caused by the immediate threat of execution or starvation.” - Nicholas Lemann, 1991

• 6 Million African Americans moved away from the South
• A pull of urbanization and push of a new life amidst a Jim Crow South
• Green Book locations as a guiding light:
• La Posada, Winslow
• Motel Du Beau, Flagstaff
• Fray Marcos de Niza Hotel, Williams

​

​

​

(Cline Special Collections)

(Upfront NYT, 2016)

Ollie Mae Contrell (1931-2014)

She was born July 29, 1931 to Simmie and Mary Taylor Beckhum in McNary, Arizona.

Ollie was a long time resident of Flagstaff.

Ollie was a member if the Eastern Stars, Elks Lodge, the NAACP, and First Missionary Baptist Church in Southside

Ollie Mae Contrell (1931-2014)

​

“They won't even fix up nothin’ (in Southside), I don't care how much tax you pay. Look at the roads out there. You don't even have sidewalks. And the city councilmen, they don't care. They're puttin' trees down (Route) 66, beautifyin' it. We don't need no more trees, we got too many trees here now.”(Cline Special Collections: Ollie Mae Cottrell)

​

The Southside in 2010 (US Census)

2018 Southside

::

(Raw gis layer created by Brandon DeLucas at the City of Flagstaff, 2018)

​

Gentrification

If the Rio Project is completed…

• Removal of floodplain status
• Decreases building regulations
• Increases property values
• Stimulates urban redevelopment

​

(The Hub rendering, AZ Daily Sun 2016)

​

​

​

If and when the Rio Project is completed, it will remove the floodplain as well as increase gentrification.

​

​

(Rio de Flag Flooding June 2016, photo by Tom Bean Photography)

Approach: Use vs Exchange Value (Logan and Molotch, 1987)

Use Value -

A place with intrinsic value

​

Ex: a home, community center, or multigenerational plot of land.

​

​

Exchange Value -

A market value held over space

​

Ex: rent costs, real estate, and investments

​

​

Approach: Continued… Growth Machines (Logan and Molotch, 1987)

• When certain actors, such as politicians, investors, and governments, act together to develop urban space

​

• Top down hierarchical structure allows for value-free development, where structural speculators are widely free of any connection or concern with the place or culture in which they are developing

​

• The shape of cities and the distribution of their peoples— not due to an interpersonal market or geographic necessities, but to social actions, including opportunistic dealing

​

• Economic growth does not necessarily promote public good

​

Questions

Q1: Who are the stakeholders in the Rio Project?

​

Q2: Are the Southside residents recognized in the Rio Project’s planning documents?

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholders: “Those groups without whose support the organization (or project) would cease to exist”

(Stanford Research Institute 1963)

​

​

​

Public

• The City of Flagstaff (COF)
• Northern Arizona University (NAU)
• United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

​

Private

• Building Investors - Such as Landmark Properties, the Hub, Hope Construction.
• Friends of the Rio de Flag 501(c)(3)
• Southside Community Association (SCA)
• Realtors - Such as Linton Properties
• Southside Homeowners
• Southside Residents
• Southside Business Owners

Stakeholder List

City of Flagstaff: Definitive Stakeholder (7)

​

Northern Arizona University: Dominant Stakeholder (4)

​

Southside Business Owners: Discretionary Stakeholder (2)

​

Southside Residents: Involuntary Stakeholders

​

(Mitchell et al., 1997)

Document Analysis

USACE

​

• Feasibility Report (2000)

​

• Economic Revaluation Report (2011)

​

• Limited Reevaluation Report (2013)

City of Flagstaff

​

• The Southside Plan (2005)

​

• Rio de Flag Flood Control Project for March (2013)

​

• Rio de Flag Flood Control Design Concept Project Report (2014)

Keywords

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

​

​

1993 Residential Flooding

1993 Residential Flooding

Key Findings:

1) A lack of collaboration between stakeholders has closed possible local funding channels to remove the floodplain veil.

2) United States Army Corps of Engineers plans and urban flood management documents do not recognize social vulnerabilities - The minority voices of the Southside residents have not been heard in the Rio Project.

3) Regardless of the Rio Project, gentrification and local flooding will continue to be an issue for the Southside community.

​

WHAT IS BEING DONE?

​

​

• The City is updating the Southside Neighborhood Planning

​

• 1M in funding to Complete Designs for Flood Control Project

​

• Friends of the Rio’s EPA Small Grant

​

• Greater Watershed Management Plan

​

• 2018 Ballot question for an increased sales tax to pay for flood control project removed… “community needs more knowledge on the issue.”

​

​

What is being done?

Why is this urgent?

​

• Risk of catastrophic flood

• $916M in Flood Damage

• 1,500 structures impacted

• Life/Health/Safety Issue

• 100% Design

• Federal funding timeline (every year, Benefit Cost Ratio)

• Election opportunity every 2 years

• Elimination of floodplain &

mandatory flood insurance

​

(James Duval, Nov 2017)

Ways to Get Involved

Take the City's Southside Neighborhood Plan Survey (and the Rio survey while you’re at it!): www.flagstaff.az.gov/fcf

​

Follow Friends of the Rio de Flag for updates, events and other information about the Rio.

​

If you live in the Southside, attend the Southside Community Association meetings 3rd Thursdays at 6:00pm: 203 E. Brannen (Murdoch Center).

Citations

Bullard, R., & Wright, B. H. 1987. “Environmentalism and the Politics of Equity: Emergent Trends in the Black Community.” Mid-American Review of Sociology: 21-37.

Cline Special Collections. Northern Arizona University, Cline Library Online Data Base. Retrieved (http://library.nau.edu/speccoll/)

Cole, L., & Foster, S. 2001. From the Ground Up Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement. New York: New York University Press.

Du Bois, W.E.B. 2014. The Souls of Black folk (3rd ed.). New York: Modern Library.

Friends of the Rio de Flag, 2016. “Resources Page.” Retrieved (http://www.friendsoftherio deflag.org /resources.html)

Fussell, E., Sastry, N., & VanLandingham, M. 2010. “Who Returned to New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina?” Retrieved February 15, 2016(http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2010/katrina.aspx)

Guthrie, R. (2013). “The Historic Southside Mural Project: Pedagogical Art and Community Empowerment in Desegregated Neighborhoods.” International Journal of Social, Political, and Community Agendas in the Arts, 7(2)

Harvey, D. 2012. Rebel cities: From the right to the city to the urban revolution. New York: Verso.

Holub, Lucas. 2002. “Rio de Flag Faces Reengineering.” The Lumberjack, Oct 31, 2002 Retrieved (http://www.lumberjackonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/10/31 /3dc0b83dba85a)

Hurley, A. 1995. Environmental Inequalities Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Kellner, D. (2008). “Critical Culture Review of Media” New York City, New York.

Lipsitz, G. 2011. How Racism Takes Place. Philadelphia: Temple University Press

Logan, J., & Molotch, H. 1987. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

​

Citations

Marx, K., & Engels, F. 1859. A contribution to the critique of political economy, 1.

Massey, D., & Denton, N. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. 1997. “Toward a theory of stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts.” Academy of management review, 22(4): 853-886.

Paradis, Thomas W. 2003. Theme Town: A Geography of Landscape and Community in Flagstaff, Arizona. New York: Universe.Rio de Flag Flood Control Project 2013. “Washington D.C. Legistlative Trip.” Community Development Division 2013. Presented to city council February 26, 2013. Community Development Division 2014. Presented to city council on June 3. 2014.

“Rio de Flag: Flow.” Retrieved March 01, 2016 (http://www2.nau.edu/~gaud/RiodeFlag/flow.htm)

Ritzer, G., 2010. Contemporary Social Theory and its Classical Roots: The Basics. 3^rd edition. New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, INC.

Schuelke, N. 2014. “Addressing Flood Risk along Milkwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River.” University of Wisconsin-Milkwaukee.

The Southside Plan 2005. Strategies for Development. The City of Flagstaff, Arizona. Final Plan, April 25, 2015 retrieved (http://www.flagstaff.az.gov/Document Center/View/10951)

United Church of Christ. Commission for Racial Justice, 1987. Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites. Public Data Access.

United States Army Core of Engineers. 2000. Rio de Flag Flagstaff, Arizona

United States Army Core of Engineers. Feasibility Report and Final Environmental IMP ACT Statement. 2000. Los Angeles District.

United States Army Core of Engineers. 2013. Rio de Flag Flagstaff, Arizona

United States Army Core of Engineers. 2013. Limited Reevaluation Report.

United States Army Core of Engineers. 2016. Civil Works Program: Rio de Flag. Los Angeles District.

United States Census, 2010. American Fact Finder: Flagstaff, Track Data - 8.

​

​

​

Questions?

Matt Muchna

mjmuchna@gmail.com

(928) 533-6767