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Our Suburbs Can Be Transformed Into True Communities
Such a pathway is fast becoming one of necessity, not choice.
About 80 per cent of the population -- and an even greater proportion of children -- live in the suburbs, which with a bit of effort can become communities in the true sense of the word, growing some of their food and doing more of their own construction and maintenance.
Of course, some social trends are obstacles to sustainability: family size has shrunk and its instability and mobility have increased. Houses are larger and the land around them smaller. Suburbs are often stripped of community skills, resources and networks. They are largely deserted during the day.
There are hindrances. It is still difficult to obtain a permit to run a small business from home, and even some bylaws make it difficult to have a street party. Other barriers include fences, the lack of appropriate facilities and services and a fear of an inability to deal constructively with conflict. We have become accustomed to alienation from neighbours and even family members and don't question the idea that each of us individually should be economically self-sufficient.
But a sustainable locality can be a better place to live. Housing estates need to be replaced by small, multi-function villages. Think of the vitality of traditional European villages and small towns. Backyards can be shared rather than fenced. A neighbourhood can generate electricity, capture water and feed gardens. Sharing food surpluses is a great way to feel part of a neighbourhood and part of the earth.
Local streets can become commons where children play safely among fruit trees. Primary schools have the potential to expand their role as community hubs by co-locating some essential everyday services nearby.
Such an environment will make strip shops and parks viable again, and walking and cycling will be the normal form of transport. This fosters community connections, reduces environmental footprints and reduces how often and for how long we need to travel. A suburban street full of life and connections is safer. Connecting with neighbours and working and shopping locally can provide resilience in the face of the increasing costs and impact of energy, food and water scarcity.
An obstacle to change is the fear of governments and large corporations that they would lose power and there would be increased pressure on them to become more responsive and adaptive to the diversity of neighbourhoods as one size does not fit all.
Of course there are challenges. For example, it's difficult to learn to work with conflict that is generated as the boundaries between family and neighbourhood blur, but the ability to manage this is vital for a "village" to share in raising children, as we once did.
Experiencing this means our consciousness can never again be locked into a one-village world. Nor do we have to be locked into just being in one place for life. Living more locally can be combined with a multi-level national and global consciousness. But we can't carry such awareness individually; we need access to technology and community to share it.
If this is our path forward, and if I were the young investment adviser I once was, I would put money into redevelopment of the suburbs and even the urban-rural fringe.
Deciding that the city of Melbourne is big enough would take the pressure off going outwards and/or upwards. It could shift energies towards improving the quality of suburban life. Instead of being subsidiary to the inner city, the vision could become more the city as a cluster of villages.
While this vision isn't new, it is now pressing to address the social, economic and environmental challenges we face. It's an opportunity that calls out for local entrepreneurs in partnership with local communities to challenge the barriers and create possibilities along this path.
Such a pathway is increasingly more one of necessity than choice. If we don't make the choice now, it is likely that a changing climate and dwindling fossil fuels and other natural resources will eventually force it upon us.
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Show AllThis article brings up an excellent point, and to add to it, our suburbs happen to be where much of our best soil is. They feature an enormous footprint with their lawns as is, but where those lawns are, gardens can be. Those gardens have the potential for zero food miles. Re-envisioning the suburbs is one of the most important environmental challenges we have right now, with some of the biggest potential gains.
Get a copy of Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway to see what these places could be.
Yes, "Our Suburbs Can Be Transformed Into True Communities" . . . and here's how . . .
http://members.shaw.ca/urbanismo/DTES/DTES.charrette.html
Awesome! There's no end to the possibilities - once we think it might be possible. Dr. Peter Cock's got a great idea, and so does charrette above.
Lots of folks are moving in similar directions, all over. I don't have the answer (none of us do) but here are some thoughts:
http://www.RadicalRelocalization.com
American suburbs invaded Mesopotamia and Afghanistan, and now they harass Pakistan with drones and threaten Iran with nuclear war.
They were over and done with in August 2008.
They always were a blot on world civilization.
Time to say your goodbyes and move on.
NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES in Berkeley and Oakland now has over 1,000 members.
Here's our basic leaflet.
NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES
We Can Grow Food and Community
Here Where we Live
Back Yards, Front Yards, Empty Lots.
If you need help in your garden
We can arrange a volunteer
GARDEN WORK PARTY
Expert advice and perhaps a steady helper
As food prices rise,
We can grow our own good food,
IF WE COOPERATE
NEIGHBOR TO NEIGHBOR
With our skills, land and labor.
Whether or not you have a yard,
We can garden together
If you are interested, call
510-540-1975, or write
Laurenceofberk@aol.com
Tell us where you live so we can connect you.
Include phone & email
level of garden skill, if you have a yard,
And if you need garden help.
And our sign up card.
NEIGHBORHOOD VEGETABLES
Working with our Neighbors to Grow Food
Name ____________________________________
Email ____________________________________
Phone (H) _________________________________
Cell or Work _______________________________
Address or Cross Streets _____________________
________________________ City _____________
Gardening Skill: Some ____ Skilled____
Can Mentor or Help Others? ___ How? __________
Have Land? _____ Surplus produce? _______
Host a Garden Work Party?_____
Tell neighbors about Neigborhood Vegetables? ___
Be on an Organizing Committee? ______
Some of us may work on sustainability on the political or planning level. But it is also necessary to work at the broccoli roots level. One neighborhood at a time. "Growing community one garden bed at a time." Some neighborhoods also want to co-operate on other skills besides gardening.
My slogan for the decade? "If we don't first have a society in which people TALK to each other, our politics are IRRELEVANT.
And here are my suggested:
Tasks of the
Neighborhood Gardening Council
For Food and Community
1. Talk to neighborhood people and sign up those who are interested in co-operative food gardening. Who has a yard? Who can mentor gardening? Who will talk to neighbors or help organize? (All on sign up cards) We can talk one to one, door to door, or through neighborhood organizations, including block clubs, schools with gardens, or community gardens. Record on Excel and group email lists.
2. Find people who want to host one time garden work parties and/or work long term with a few fellow gardeners or mentors in their gardens.
3. Put out the word about garden parties and collaborations so that people will come. Emails, phone calls, door to door, and informing local organizations.
4. Gardening Classes.
5. Decide how to distribute produce.
6. Harvest festivals.
7. Canning or preserving parties.
8. Spread the idea and organizational model to other neighborhoods.
9. Eventually decide if there should be other forms of co-operation beyond gardening. Babysitting, housecleaning, carpentry, or perhaps a general work (and play) exchange system.
Laurence Schechtman
540-1975 Laurenceofberk@aol.com
I'd like to talk to anyone who is organizing neighborhoods, or wants to. You are welcome to call or write.
Yours for Food and Community, Laurence
This article misses the main defect with suburbia - it sprawl and excessively low density, requiring profligrate automobile use, as walking, cycling and public transit are simply neither practical nor at all pleasant for most poeple until a community reaches a certain density - as expressed as floor-area-ratio. The biggest waste of space is, of course, the land required for the cars themselves - setting a vicious cycle of more land needed for multi-lane roadways and parking lots, which necessitates more car use, which necessitated wider roads and larger parking lots.
The European village model is a good one. What makes such villages so desirable is that they are quite densely developed, using mostly townhouse-type residences intimately mixed with small-scale commercial such that all routine day-to-day errands can largely be done on foot. The land thus saved can then be used for local agriculture.
A good study of the problem and the solutions can be found here:
http://www.carfree.com/
"This article misses the main defect with suburbia - it sprawl and excessively low density, requiring profligrate automobile use."
Si senor. As Neruda put it so bluntly in regard to his Chile--automovil criminal.
Especially since August 2008 when oil was $147 per barrel.
Now let's attack Iran and go for $980 per barrel and up (accounting for the collapse of USD as well).
We are talking about Australia. There is a far better public transport infrastructure than in the USA and it is possible to live quite well without a car unless you live in a rural district.
em-y
Well, I live in Australia approx. 35-40 min. drive North of Perth - not a rural area. Yes, there are some buses and trains here but as a non-driver you'll have some trouble to get anywhere unless you live just around a corner from a bus stop or a train station - as there are not many of those not many people do. Of those who live far away from bus stops and have to drive their car to the train station many don't because there are not enough car parks to leave your car in. Even so public transport is crowded and quite expensive (although parking your car downtown is the real rip-off). But maybe coming originally from Europe I suffer from unrealistic expectations...
As for communities, growing food, generating electricity, sharing with neighbours etc... That was exactly our idea when building a solar passive home and establishing a fruit and vegetable garden. We started out on very friendly terms with one neighbour. Vegetarian, interested in healthy food and even growing some of it. Until she had the brilliant idea to get herself a cat. Now her productive garden is gone and we collect cat feces. And cat vomit (I don't know, maybe the cat has to live as a vegetarian, too). And dead birds in the front yard. And so much fur you could build a whole new cat out of it. And we keep replacing dug up seedlings and fruit trees that had their roots exposed and scratched. Repeatedly we've pointed out the problems to the neighbour. But it's a good cat, you know, and she doesn't know what to do. I suppose that's why she didn't do anything and the cat continues to be a pest. There also doesn't seem to be much concern for the honeyeaters (this a person who's looking for alternatives to leather shoes, so cows are not killed on her behalf).
On the other side first a snappy (thank God for the fencing), barking dog and a neighbour unwilling to even say hello. Now, another cat and an air conditioning unit running 24/7 all summer incl. days under 30 degrees (86 Farenheit) and nights where the temperature falls well under 20 degrees (68). Imagine if we had to share the electricity we generate with this household... Plus the unit sits on the roof just a few meters away from our bedroom window which in summer is open at night. It's like living next to a factory - after spending whole day surrounded by that noise you go to bed accompanied by it and - don't sleep. When mentioned the neighbours were polite and promised to look into it, urged us to be patient and accommodating until they have somebody look at the unit. After a technician checked the air-con and approved it as 'normal' all politeness was forgotten and we were told to get lost and get ourselves an air conditioning. We could also complain to the council or who ever, they don't care. There were threats of physical violence as well. We complained and the council established that the noise far exceeds the legal limits. We're not sure yet what will happen now but anyway - how do you establish a community under these circumstances. Most people here really don't care. Many people seem to have some sort of a problem with their neighbours about noise, overhanging trees, pets. Most of these disputes end in war, everyone feels like it's their right to do whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they feel like it and seem not to realise that they're not on a secluded island with no-one else around. Most are not willing to show any consideration and make compromises. The idea of a life with less wastage, smaller footprint, healthier food is dismissed as humbug and those who suggest that are 'greenies', which is almost as bad as 'unaustralian' - here in the Wild West anyway.
Good points. Air conditioning follows the car as the the most destructive aspects of the suburban lifestyle. Where I live, it doen't even, reach 30C most summer days, yet the first day it goes over 22C the AC is turned on. Open the windows? Forget it! They will coll their homes to 20C in summer, then paradoxically heat to 23C in winter. Go figure.
I suspect Australia has reached the levels of suburban decadence of the US in many areas.
I'll hear of suburbanites installing a few solar panels or a mini wind turbine and claim to be saving $70.00 a month on electric bills. By simply not using AC and keeping teh heat low in winter, my electric bills are usually only half of that to begin with!
"I suspect Australia has reached the levels of suburban decadence of the US in many areas."
Oh, yes. And people are prepared to do anything to protect their right to this madness. I'm glad that gun laws are different here or we'd have the same situation as in the US - the levels of aggression in the population are scary.
Anyway, our electric bills after installing the PV panels are approx. AUD 20 per month. (I suspect power is still much cheaper here than in the US.) This with 2 Macs (graphic design business and artistic practices) and a TV (I'm ashamed to say I'm addicted) on for hours every day. But turning off lights you don't need and an instantaneous hot water system, no portable radiant heaters + no air-con helps. A lot.
"They will coll their homes to 20C in summer, then paradoxically heat to 23C in winter."
20C seems very sensible if you consider that many here apparently have their air-cons on 16C. Same with businesses and shops. Crazy.
Good point about the village. I still think there are potential alternatives for transport. Here's an example: http://jpods.com/
The other thing that would need to be fixed would be to mix community centers and commerce into there. The whole idea of residential and commerce being kept separate creates sprawl, even in cities.
For anyone even vaguely interested in this subject, Lewis Mumford's The City In History is strongly suggested.
"Peter Cock?"
The Cubans do it better.
"Co-gardening includes you, your needs and your cultural history. Most of us contribute roots from some other place to the process of growing our roots here. Therefore to be true to ourselves means our gardens often reflect where we have come from as well as where we are. So some of us need more color in our lives than that which Australian plants can. To be good for our soul, gardens need to not only honor the power of the more than human in nature, but also who we are and from where we have come. Our gardens are then more likely to consist of a mixture of plants from all over the world; no problem if we have done our homework about what they are and the nature of their power."
Peter Cock
This bloke is just begging for an Abo Zap of the first magnitude.