Chapter 4: In which Malcolm helps kill some industries (Part 3/3)


Here again to complain about the formatting issues on FF . net. For a much better reading experience, please read this update on AO3:

bit . ly/ao3strategist4


Training had gone on with only a few hitches for the Athenians: Malcolm had guided young campers through an obstacle course, during which a daughter of Hebe had lost 15% of her hair to some spinning rods. (*Ahem*, Rhode.) Annabeth had taught Sophie, Zeke, and non-Athenian novices some hand-to-hand combat, resulting in only two minor accidental stabbings. And Claire and Conrad had managed to hold their own in a match against Clarisse and Frank—at least until Conrad re-injured his thigh tripping over Frank scurrying around in beaver form. Percy and Alicia, however, had fared best, the lucky ducks; one-on-one sword-training lessons for Alicia were always chill, and Percy's oversight guaranteed that she was also just as much a Michelin Man in the arena.

Over lunch reflections with his family, Malcolm figured it had been a fruitful hour and half. According to Conrad, Claire had made progress in reaching her lifting records. (They hushed her grumblings that she still hadn't matched her old self.) And, with Conrad confined to archery (his least favorite sport but Claire's favorite—which Malcolm still suspected wasn't a coincidence), the twins had only dawdled so much when Annabeth had suggested Claire share her archery know-how with him. Small wins.

On top of that, almost all the young trainees seemed to have outperformed their past selves, including Zeke, who was really beginning to master knife flips, and Alicia, who for once hadn't dug in her heels when Annabeth asked her to run laps with her and Sophie. Sophie herself, with Malcolm's prodding, had done better at voicing critique to their little sister.

Now, belly full of kale tabbouleh, Malcolm restarted his work brain with the easy stuff. As he reviewed updated population projections, new changes to the tax policy proposals, and accompanying revenue estimates, a notification popped up from Kevin Huang at Public Inquiries.

Kevin: Do you want to tackle this lol

Kevin had attached an email from a local NGO. The email, demanding to keep rents fixed, was laced with accusations that City Council would kick tenants to the curb by getting chummy with real estate developers and landlords.

After sending a "lol sure" Kevin's way, Malcolm thought out a response. How would he explain this to Alicia?

The New Athens City Council, he wrote, understands that housing affordability is a concern to many residents. It is precisely because of this concern that City Council will not implement rent control.

Based on our research, rent control benefits only residents in rent-controlled units and harms all other residents. In this case, a scheme to eat the rich unfortunately not only fails to feed the poor; it just as well steals from the poor, too.

First, because rent control creates scarcity in the rental market, it raises housing costs over the long term, which especially harms young people and future residents.

Second, evidence from cities with rent control, such as New York City, shows that people with higher incomes will continue to live in rent-controlled units that would have otherwise eventually been rented by people with lower incomes. This arbitrary misallocation of housing is not simply inefficient but also unfair. It is also difficult to fix.

Third, research from the US and Sweden shows that rent control lowers housing quality and can lead to gentrification, ethnic and social segregation, and more street crime.

All these outcomes are in direct opposition to City Council's efforts to guarantee access to safe, inclusive, and affordable shelter to every resident.

Under the New Athens Housing Plan, City Council is working hard to ensure that our housing policies work not just for the arbitrary first tenants of New Athens but also for young people and future residents, particularly those with lower incomes.

The Housing Plan is in line with the expert advice of virtually all economists, regardless of their political leanings. We can take it from the libertarian Milton Friedman:

"Rent control is a law that supposedly is passed to help the people who are in housing. And it does help those who are in current housing. But the effect of rent control is to create scarcity, and to make it difficult for other people to get housing."

or from the socialist economist Assar Lindbeck:

"Next to bombing, rent control seems in many cases to be the most efficient technique so far known for destroying cities."

Along with demand-side policies (such as instituting liveable wages and introducing programs allowing reduced down payment for low-income residents), City Council is focusing on supply-side solutions (such as banning single-family zoning and implementing other zoning bylaws that help create high-density residences). Although supply-side measures do not have a directly visible impact on housing affordability, they are more effective over the long term. We are also working to establish increases in property taxes for a second simultaneous home and those thereafter.

We will be rigorously studying the impacts of the Housing Plan and making adjustments if need be.

We appreciate your engagement on these topics…

In went the rest of his standard closing.

Malcolm refrained from shading politicians who cared more about winning votes than ensuring long-run wellbeing. He'd also just leave landlords and real estate developers out of this, lest that prompt another email.

Malcolm hit send and scrolled to a letter on public safety and militarization. Clarisse had already approved a drafted response mentioning New Athens's cash bail policies (or a ban thereof); the city's refusal to require residents from signing sworn affidavits when filing complaints (to encourage the fearful to come forward); and the introduction of body-worn cameras (which could indeed be sped up, Clarisse implied, if people wanted a poorly implemented system).

The constituent at least had some faith in the city's plans to track misconduct and put in place a system to decertify and punish such members. It was a welcome comment to see, considering that Malcolm was typically only being forwarded complaints.

There was, however, another ranty section Clarisse hadn't yet gotten to and sent his way—four whole paragraphs that really could've been boiled down to a few sentences: Why are you spending so much on weapons for the police force? Calling it "security" doesn't make it better.

Malcolm quickly typed out a short response about some unique particulars about the city's approach. He mentioned conclusions from public consultation, and also inserted a couple paragraphs he'd presciently prepared, with findings from La Rue (2014) and La Rue and Pace-Robinson (2016). He mentioned as well that the security team's mandate included managing life-threatening monster attacks, so, of course, they'd be armed—as was every other resident to begin with.

Sending the response back to Clarisse, he chugged some water and turned to a media request. Malcolm skimmed through the article.

City councillors approve fourth major bid for Aeon and Esperanza, sparking further conflict of interest concerns

New Athens, not even officially open, has already raised concerns from to-be residents about its accountability practices.

On Friday, July 8th, City Council approved a fourth project proposed by the joint venture comprised by Aeon Architecture and Esperanza Engineering, which are owned by Annabeth Chase and Leo Valdez, respectively. (Each company has won two bids individually and two together.)

Ms. Chase is the half-sister of City Planner and City Manager Malcolm Pace, who also oversees the city finances. Mr. Valdez is the half-brother of Maaza Vulcan, who heads the Department of Infrastructure. (Valdez is Greek. Maaza is Roman.) According to sources from Camp Half-Blood, Mr. Valdez is also a long-time friend of Mr. Pace.

The project sought by the city, destined for the east of New Athens, includes the design and construction of three residential buildings, a shopping mall, a library, a recreational center, and an office building that will also house the New Athens Innovation Hub.

The public cost of Aeon and Esperanza's proposal exceeded every other bid—even costing over 30% more than some competing bids.

Some prospective residents are demanding explanationsas to why city councillors keep choosing Aeon and Esperanza over nine other architecture and construction companies offering lower bids.

Annabeth Chase is quoted as saying, "It's evident why Aeon and Esperanza won [the bids]. We offered the most value for money within the city's budget." She made no further comments.

Mr. Valdez appeared to clap back at critics in several tweets on Monday:

"Remind me again which architect the GODS picked to redesign Olympus and the Palace of Atlantis. ?¬タン

"No one beats Esperanza on safety, innovation, and speed."

Not all residents are convinced. "Where is the accountability?" demands a resident who has asked not to be named. "We can't just trust or rely on self-regulation, especially when councillors are enriching their family and friends. These approvals are sounding alarm bells for corruption, which is also more common among mega developments."

Another resident adds, "There ought to be a rule here that not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done. I actually think the project looks good, but the conflict of interest makes me wonder otherwise."

Some residents are calling for public housing and public infrastructure to eliminate instances of potential conflicts of interest and regulatory capture.

We have reached out to the City Council. Representatives insist that no conflict of interest rules were breached. Ms. Maaza and Mr. Pace have yet to comment.

It was a fair take, Malcolm thought. Though uninformed. Or purposely misleading.

Legal had already preemptively covered their asses and added that six other architectural and construction companies had also received contracts—not that the article had mentioned that. Yet anyway.

Meanwhile, Maaza's team had included a response about needing to partner with the private sector to provide good-quality developments so that the government could focus on avoiding infrastructure gaps and other issues. Her team had also drafted a joint statement for both her and Malcolm, which he just had to okay:

Thank you for raising these valid concerns. We appreciate your dedication to ensuring accountability…

Blah blah blah…

Neither of us were involved in the decision-making processes of any approvals involving Aeon and Esperanza. As the City Council has previously noted, in anticipation of a potential conflict of interest, all applicants submitted proposals anonymously…

Et cetera, et cetera…

From the public documents we saw after the decision was announced, it is clear why the Aeon-Esperanza venture was offered this project. In this case, the companies' private interests aligned most with the public interest. Compared to the other applications, the Aeon-Esperanza proposal satisfied far more of the city's (publicly announced) social and environmental objectives, with a bid merely 11% higher than the average. The proposal included the most low-income housing units and had, by far, the most ambitious commitment to the city's net-zero targets.

Notably, Aeon and Esperanza's application was the only one that meaningfully considered emissions from the production of building materials; that proposed alternatives to traditional steel and concrete; and that pledged to use materials that capture emissions rather than produce them. While these features were not required by the city, they offer benefits in line with the city's goals. No other application offered New Athens as great a chance to accelerate the growth of our cleantech sector—an added bonus that councillors allocated funding for, from the New Athens Cleantech Fund.

For those reasons, we think New Athenians can and should be proud of the City Council's decision.

Malcolm was happy enough with that, but suggested adding a parenthetical for further clarification:

(Steel and concrete manufacturing are typically CO₂- and energy-intensive activities. Steel is typically made from coal, and cement requires a lot of energy to be manufactured. Together, these materials contribute to about 16% of the world's CO₂ emissions.)

He checked over the whole response again for spelling errors and found none. Thank the gods for autocorrect. Text-to-speech functionality also indicated nothing off. Finally, he sent off the draft to Marcella's team to confirm the GHG stat. Hopefully, that would be the end of that.

The next request on his plate was a letter from a constituent. The communications team had said they didn't know how to respond.

Interest piqued, Malcolm opened the attachment.

While humanity is degenerating—

That already made his head flinch back.

this city should be led by someone with true conscience of privilege and someone with lived experiences of the struggles of marginalized peoples, not another cis, straight, white, neoliberal, capitalist, centrist male with a rich lawyer daddy who fed him access to an Ivy off a silver spoon.

His brows rose with each word.

He had to at least give it to them. The comment was packed impressively. But alas…

Wrong on five counts, misleading on three. Score: 5.25/12. Try again later, he wrote.

Perhaps he could also say that his economist father raked in far bigger bucks as compared to his rich lawyer daddy. And that his rich lawyer daddy still did a lot of pro-bono work and was privileged enough to do so because of said economist.

Why couldn't that have been this person's guess?

Ha.

This city should ideally be home to residents who don't assume from the get-go that higher-income earners are W—

Nah. Too petty. Who was to say they even knew the whole picture? So, Malcolm laughed to himself before deleting all his text. Instead, he typed:

I think many people wanted me as city planner and chief policymaker because they knew I wanted to fix issues that your message indicates concern you, too. Come to a town hall if you'd like. I think you'll find that we agree on more things than you might think,* so I'd look forward to clearing up some misconceptions and collaborating with you in more productive discussions.

* E.g.: frankly, I think it sucks that there are dozens of colleges where students from the wealthiest 1% outnumber those from the bottom 60%. I know I've benefited from that unfairness ever since my father and I joined the right family. None of my former neighbors in West Side Chicago got the privileges I was afforded. (For that matter, neither did my "rich lawyer daddy", who also could've told you that.)

Okay. So maybe he wasn't above being a little snarky.

Malcolm debated the honesty and the overall ethics of his response. Northwestern was far from sucky…. Still, how many years had it taken to pay off a whole BA and 1.5 JDs from there? And who was it anyway who wiped it out? Would it also lead to more trust or just more resentment to admit—albeit implicitly—what income bracket his parents currently fell under?

Not for the first time, Malcolm wondered to himself how many people had voted for him simply because of who his parents were. Any of the three. All of the three. There must've been some.

Momentarily taking offense that someone didn't like him and that others might've for reasons he didn't prefer, Malcolm realized he really didn't give a hoot. There were more productive things to focus on.


He felt guilty enough that the same thought occurred to him on the way back to Cabin Six when Alicia, with her furrowed brows and adorable head tilt, asked him things like: 'Why do boys have beards?' and 'Do any animals cook or flavor their food?' and 'If mortals have one or two dozen senses, how many do demigods have?'

After providing satisfactory enough responses to her questions and struggling through her physics inquiries that Annabeth really would've been better placed to answer, he left Alicia at the coffee table in front of him for some more non-screen free play. He already had his own rather trivial questions heckling his brain.

Occupying a desk in the cabin library, Malcolm's fingers fidgeted over his keyboard. If he wanted to more objectively understand… her… without so obviously…

Malcolm typed: atlantis trade agreement

From what the results told him, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Atlantic Partnership was an agreement centuries in the making, with past and potential signatories spanning nearly all parts of the ocean. While calling for greater movement of workers, goods, and services, the agreement mandated equal rights and equal pay, and tied manufacturing-induced pollution border adjustments to monetary aid for communities in need. It took all of him to refrain from reading further than that.

From there, Malcolm directed himself to the treaties and general history of the island of Rhódos. He figured if the sea nymph in question was considered a personification of her island, then, well…

Malcolm clicked the first link and scanned through paragraphs:

capital of the Dodecanese… fourth-largest island in Greece… dominant naval power… major Greek trading center… control over the Aegean… Alexandria—

He backed up.

Taxes received in harbor fees indicate Alexandria was one of its major trading partners. Rhodes operated as the middleman for the trade between Alexandria and ports in Europe…

Eyes glazing, his mind conjured an image of Rhode lounging on a chaise while sipping diluted wine and tipping her head back to munch on a bunch of grapes—while on a matching chaise opposite her sat a short, stocky dude with curly, dark blond hair, mindlessly swirling his goblet of wine, neat. Malcolm could picture a set of exuberant mismatched eyes—one dark brown, one blue—and the remark: "Oh my gods! I still remember those elephants. You had to be there, Rhódē. Seriously, they were… epic!"

"Oh, I'm sure," Rhode would say, sighing perhaps from their repeated conversation, the power of Helios's summer rays, or the relief from the breeze drifting through the slits of her chiton jumpsuit.

"Parmeníon was a beast. The way he led the pezhétairos…." her companion would say. "I mean, he was totally wrong about attacking at night, but there was no way we would've won without him. Ah, I miss the old dude…. I mean, legit, Darius just yeeted outta there. And I don't blame Parmeníon for letting him escape. It was hilarious."

Was that how their chats had gone? More or less?

Anyway…

Malcolm dove back into the wormhole. He found that Rhódos's partnership with Alexandria had lasted until Demetrius attempted to siege the island over Rhódos's friendly relations with Ptolemy I. He read about how Rhódos had managed to maintain treaties of peace and neutrality with other empires, which helped protect its economy. And he learned that it was Rhódos that had begun to establish formal codes of maritime behavior, as far back as 900 BCE. Every finding sparked half a dozen questions, but he forced himself to follow the text.

There was stuff on Rhódos's expansion to Caria and Lycia in Asia Minor, along with parts of what became Sicily and France. He also saw a mention of Rhódos's control over grain trade in the Mediterranean. And then some info on how the island got flack for supporting Perseus in 168 BCE, then later received Cato's support and avoided war with Rome.

Based on what he read, it seemed to Malcolm that, along with being a naval and mercantile power with many friends, Rhódos's economic success might have also stemmed from its domestic social policies; liturgies on the island had apparently redistributed wealth and created opportunities for the poor. Additionally, Rhódos had boasted prominent schools of philosophy, science, literature, and rhetoric, and also housed experts in history, geography, and architecture. The island had also been a cultural center of art, home to celebrated painters and sculptors, and its monetary standard had even influenced coinage in many eastern Mediterranean states and polities.

Accompanying the text was a collection of photos of coins—Helios's face embossed on the obverse, with a rose on the reverse.

And then Malcolm was reading too much about coinage and amphorae. Not exactly what he was looking for.

Perusing more pages, he amassed half a dozen unopened tabs at hints to Rhode's potential activities in and around the US.

Out of curiosity, he opened mortal encyclopedias. The records proved to be pretty worthless after his primary round of research.

Olympian news was only slightly less useful. The latest articles mentioning Rhódos was the tribute to Helios that Apollo had made earlier today. As in the past several years, Apollo graciously shared July 13th, the last day of the Ludi Apollinares, with his now-faded predecessor. Up on Olympus, Apollo acknowledged the Haleion Games on Rhódos that had come before the Romans' Ludi. He tipped his wreath to Helios for ideating the quadriga combo of four horses to a chariot…. Blah blah blah…. He thanked Helios and his worshippers for a temple, situated on the island most sacred to the titan. He pledged support to mortals for some rebuilding proposals…. Blah blah blah….

Time for a reroute.

Malcolm subtly reangled his computer a smidge, dimmed the brightness of his screen, and gingerly typed out five letters. He cringed as he hit enter.

Photos popped up. He scrolled past those with only a moment's hesitation.

In terms of current events, Rhode had recently made an appearance at Olympus Fashion Week and had given a speech last month in the Gulf of Mexico to call for greater efforts in tackling ocean acidification.

But in terms of historical information, there was less on her than what he'd found about Rhódos itself. There were no images of anything but her island, and the only real difference was that the encyclopedia entry on Rhode mentioned eight children: Elektryone (a daughter highly respected among mortals) and the Heliadai (seven sons with expertise in seafaring and astrology). They were all gone by now, though. And then there was yet more on Helios and his other consorts and kids.

And that… was it.

He wondered what happened to the records from millennia ago. And where were all the statues of her in Greece? All the temples, the artworks?

Malcolm searched for them.

All the top results were about the Colossus of Rhodes: the tallest statue that had ever been made at the time and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Rhodians had cleverly raised funds for the Colossus by selling the remains of the military equipment that Demetrius had left behind after his failed siege. Malcolm knew the story well. Of course, the Colossus wasn't even of her. It was of her husband. And that, Malcolm saw, was apparently the mortal reconstruction plan Apollo was supporting.

Malcolm searched again for artworks—this time, omitting searches of the Colossus. He hoped what he was looking for wouldn't be hidden in those axed results.

He came across the Aphrodite of Rhodes, a marble statue found on the island, depicting the goddess of love in a bath—and then did a lot more digging. Eventually, he found a 19th-century oil painting by Sir Frederic Leighton of what could've been some random couple embracing each other. Helios and Rhodes, it was titled. In Tate's collection, but not even on display in their galleries. Maybe it didn't matter. Aside from the long, dark hair, Leighton's illustration barely resembled her.

Malcolm searched for altars.

There were temples and shrines around Rhódos that had been made for Helios. Then there was the Acropolis of Rhodes, which seemed promising. Yet, the temples on the Acropolis were dedicated to only Zeus, Athena, Artemis, and, as had been mentioned by the god himself today, Apollo. The closest Malcolm got was a cave sanctuary for an unnamed water spirit.

"The fuck?"

White noise of pencil on paper ceased abruptly as Alicia stared at him.

"Sorry."

Setting aside the brewing question of how Athena had managed to get a temple on the island of Poseidon's apparent favorite child (Membership in the Delian League, perhaps?), Malcolm sat up, determined to end his hunt.

Alas, no artworks and no temples to Rhode. Had she somehow taken to Islamic-like practices and explicitly forbidden any iconography of her?

But no, that wasn't how the Greeks worked; that wasn't how gods gained power and kept from fading. Sure, she probably didn't need that, considering that Kymopoleia seemed blessed enough by her parentage without anyone's worship. But still. Why would someone with the arrogance to rival that of ancient Romans oppose such gifts?

Then again, what if the lack of statues and artworks was the very point? That Rhode didn't need any of that, because she knew she was powerful enough?

Be that as it may, Malcolm thought, that theory didn't explain the decisions of the ancient mortals, who could just have worshipped whomever they wished to.

For some moments, he simply sat among his thirty-odd tabs, stewing in bewilderment and disgust. As he leaned, his chair squeaked, snapping his mind to his physical reality, where Alicia continued her coloring in front of him.

Next to open books on ornithology and melittology, probably loaned to her from Ainsleigh, Alicia remained deep in concentration as she guided her yellow colored pencil within striped ovals.

Two thoughts fused into one.

He remembered Angelou's boast:

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

What were the lines that preceded those?

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Malcolm faltered at the memory of the view from there: shin on the grass, blue sky overhead, and— And thank the gods Percy wasn't here to watch him again.

He thought again about their chat last night. The panic and pride of just being there still lingered under his skin. And he recalled the moment when he'd goaded her… and she'd prodded back with a special challenge for him. He'd have to feel that thrill again.

But how to get from here to there? There was too wide an abyss. Too few proper excuses.

His mind buzzed with ideas. And with his gaze locked on Alicia, the stepping stones materialized.

Malcolm sat up and leaned forward. "What'cha working on, Allie? You drawing for fun? Are you making Annabeth another pretty picture for her birthday? Oh, or are you gifting your nice art to someone else? They do make pretty presents."

Alicia glanced at him. "No, it's just for fun." She got back to coloring.

Twenty more strokes for the current stripe. Forty more into the next—

"Oh!" Alicia squealed. "Oh, maybe we could do some art for Rhode! You know, for her birthday! She's doing something with an art school, right?"

Malcolm gave her a lengthy moment's pause and then dropped his jaw. "You know, that's a really good idea."

Alicia beamed toothily.

Ah, kids.