America’s Unheralded Gift to Tourism Will Soon Turn 50

[Above: Historic balconies of the New Orleans French Quarter survive modern development pressures. Photo: Jonathan Tourtellot]

So It’s Time to Herald It: The Preservation Act

Picture what the French Quarter of New Orleans would be like with an expressway slashing along the banks of the Mississippi right next to it. Imagine the impact on this popular tourist destination. Yet that’s what some Louisiana state and city planners proposed in the 1940s. The idea of a Riverview Expressway next to the Quarter remained a contentious topic for many years, a direct threat to some of the city’s iconic buildings and its most famous neighborhood.

It didn’t happen, in large part thanks to the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which marks its 50th anniversary next year. Drafted with the help of the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and signed by President Lyndon Johnson on October 15, 1966, the Act created the National Register for Historic Places, established State Historic Preservation Offices, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), Section 106 reviews, and more.

President Johnson signed the NHPA into law on October 15, 1966

President Johnson signed the NHPA into law on October 15, 1966

The Act’s Section 106 process, which requires that Federal funding of a project initiate consultation with “interested parties,” gave Riverfront Expressway opponents a platform to stop plans for constructing the highway. The ACHP investigated and recommended against it. In the late 1960’s, the Federal Department of Transportation subsequently reversed funding approval for the road, and the proposal died.

Over the past 49 years, the Act has enabled revitalization and transformation of communities from coast to coast by establishing the legal framework and incentives to preserve historic buildings, landscapes, and archaeological sites, most often generating benefits for and from tourism. Focused on 2016, the Preservation50 program is the United States’ collaborative four-year effort to celebrate and leverage the NHPA’s first five decades and to assure a vibrant future for historic preservation in America.

Take the Mount Vernon Historic District of Baltimore, Maryland for example. Comprising 40 blocks in the center of the city, the district was originally a trendy, desirable, architecturally diverse neighborhood. By the 1960s, though, it was at risk of urban decay or demolition.

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P50-2Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and with many of its historic buildings now repurposed, Mount Vernon has found new life as a Baltimore cultural center. Visitors can easily reach the neighborhood by public transportation and tour the Walter’s Art Museum, one of the city’s best-known attractions, as well as various galleries and one of the earliest monuments to George Washington.

U.S. overseas territories as well have reaped benefits from the Act. In Puerto Rico, home to a number of Spanish forts dating from the 16th century, many of the buildings making up the San Juan National Historic Site—inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1983—had been compromised by natural disasters and poor reconstruction efforts. Based on a National Park Service plan, the sites went through a Section 106 review, and now the preservation techniques being used on the walls are held up as a worldwide model for using modern technologies to preserve historic resources. Restoration of the historic forts ensures that the sites will continue to bring tourists to Puerto Rico well into the future.

As 2016 approaches, history lovers are gearing up for a slate of programs and initiatives  including contests, roundtable discussions, commemorative events, and more, all aimed at revealing the value that historic preservation delivers to the American people.

Join the Preservation50 Celebration!

Since 1966, the NHPA has generated widespread social and economic impacts. It stabilizes neighborhoods and downtowns, contributes to public education, attracts investment, creates jobs, generates tax revenues, supports small business and affordable housing, and powers America’s lucrative heritage tourism industry. Under the Act, publicly owned historic properties from community landmarks to national parks support community pride and identity, foster a variety of public uses, and contribute to local and regional economies through their operation and maintenance.

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Now Preservation50 is gearing up to engage the public with a vibrant agenda of programs in 2016 to celebrate the Act’s 50th anniversary, from public events to children’s coloring books to a Leadership Development Platform. The goal is to grow a community that will lead preservation in the next 50 years.

Please join us! Become a Working Group volunteer, donate, plan a local anniversary celebration, and engage with us on social media. Visit www.preservation50.org and connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Development Endangers Med Diet Foods

Above: Manolis Beehives in Crete. Photo by Nikki Rose

Everyone knows that the Mediterranean Diet is good for you. We can see that in the fine health of people who have spent their lives eating this way, and esteemed doctors have backed that up with data. But this wholesome way of life is at risk in the place where it began.

The premise of the Mediterranean Diet originated in Crete shortly after World War II, resulting in “The Seven Countries Study.” The basic findings were that some people in Crete lived long, healthy lives because of what they ate (and did not eat) during those hard times. There was no laboratory food, chemical agriculture or mass tourism yet. The only option was fresh and local food, which I call Real and Safe Food (RSF). But things have changed.

Mass Tourism Endangers Mediterranean Diet Foods

When I moved to my grandmother’s homeland of Crete 16 years ago, some communities were importing the Worst of the West at warp speed. Generic forms of holiday making (mass tourism) swept through entire regions, leaving virtually no trace of local life. It didn’t happen gradually enough for residents to determine how to stop the heritage bulldozers. Many people anticipated a better future. But mass tourism affected the way most of my neighbors wanted to live and eat.

Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries Study Tour. Photo by Nikki Rose

Mass Tourism, Malia, Crete, Greece.

Society was moving from subsistence farming/bartering to a world created by multinational corporations and public agencies that served them. Young Greeks wanted what the tourists had – vacations abroad, pizza and beer. The older Greeks wanted their children to have a better education, because their traditional lifestyle was no longer viable. So my neighbors bought into this fast-track system (unwittingly or not) in exchange for their pristine environment and what it provided – RSF.

Crete’s RSF is at risk, and so is the population’s health: the rates of diabetes and heart disease are rising because residents have accepted corporate laboratory food from seed to table. Greek farmers and artisan food producers are rarely invited to speak in international forums, but the truth cannot be told without their voices.

My first concern is, who is thinking about what Crete really needs right now? We need to hear from the people who actually know and are implementing solutions. For more than half a century, public agencies have been appeasing industries that have not served citizens well. Their promotion of Crete’s cuisine or tourism in the countryside is not comforting unless agencies and industries have a plan to protect it first.

Now we have another heritage invader: All-inclusive hotels are on the rise, causing sudden death to local businesses. These compounds typically import 90% of their products, including food. The hoteliers’ excuse is that there is no consistency in local products. Are delectable local tomatoes too good for their customers?

On the ground in Crete, I work with many specialists in organic farming, viticulture, heirloom seed saving, traditional cuisine, botany-ecology, ecotourism, archaeology. Their stories tell about the lack of support for producers of RSF, the lack of protection of biodiversity where our precious wild greens and medicinal plants (horta) comes from.

Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries Study Tour. Photo by Nikki Rose

Chef Mavrakis, Collecting Horta, Crete

Now that our cuisine and nature is “news,” we have the threat of mass tourism operators infiltrating our countryside with caravans of tourists in jeeps or 50 pax buses (they don’t call them people) on their programs entitled, “Authentic Crete.” It’s just the decades-old destructive system invading our priceless heritage.

Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries Study Tour. Photo by Nikki Rose

Chef Dimitris Mavrakis Preparing Horta (Wild Greens)

So when it was time for me to share my knowledge about Cretan Cuisine at a recent conference, I began by sharing my favorite recipe: conservation. Conservation of our priceless ingredients is what we need now more than ever.

Both the local and global community benefit from RSF. UNESCO declared the Mediterranean Diet an “intangible cultural heritage.” While that is admirable, protecting the source of life of all species on Earth cannot be “intangible.” It must be Real. People accomplished this for thousands of years before the advent of chemical agriculture and mass tourism. There are still many people who know how to accomplish this today.

Ask the Producers Themselves What They Need

Instead of the mindset that we are supporting our RSF providers, let’s consider accepting their support. Let’s ask our RSF providers how we can make it easier for them to:

  • Train and support more sustainable organic farmers, vintners, small-scale fishers, and artisan food producers
  • Break down the barriers to success – fixed pricing, taxes, distribution, export laws
  • Create incentives (real living wages and training) to produce and distribute high-quality sustainable organic and sustainably harvested products
  • Collaborate with lodgers, restaurateurs, chefs and cooks supporting those above
  • Sustain and create more bona fide eco-agritourism initiatives (not just a place to stay in the middle of nowhere)
  • Collaborate with archaeologists striving to protect our heritage and share their knowledge about lessons learned and ignored
  • Collaborate with ecologists and support conservation initiatives

Once we accomplish the above, we can honestly celebrate our priceless “Mediterranean Cuisine.”

Related Video presentation by Nikki Rose on Crete trends in tourism, food, and farming, at the National Hellenic Museum, Chicago, 2013

Related Article “What’s the Mediterranean Diet…and who is on it anyway?

More info about Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries