A Vision of Sustainable SuburbiaImagine you live in a town of about 10,000 residents. The town is laid out in three concentric density rings:
High density in the center. Here live the extroverts, the gregarious folks, the ones who love being right in the middle of the action.
Medium density. Most of us will probably want to live here. It's quieter and calmer, with more green space.
Low density, ranging from 4 to 10 households per acre. Even quieter and calmer, with a closer connection to permaculture and wildlife corridors. But more expensive to own. (This is Pattern 29 from the book 'A Pattern Language'.)
Imagine shops, studios and workplaces conveniently located in all three density rings, making it possible for many to walk to work and walk to most of their routine shopping. A mirror of biodiversity.
Imagine all the buildings heated, cooled and powered by solar energy (with connected buildings, built to PassivHaus standards, this is easily done).
Imagine a public transit line running through the center, possibly light rail, electric powered, with stops within walking distance of every home and public gathering place.
Imagine no cars in this town, and only pedestrian streets wide enough for emergency vehicles. Imagine a system similar to Zip cars for occasional trips to places not accessible by public transport.
Imagine that young children can safely walk and bike anywhere in this town!
Imagine nearly all food produced in the permaculture zones surrounding the town, as well as in commercial scale greenhouses in all density rings. Imagine picking your own fruits and vegetables in these fragrant greenhouses, irrigation systems trickling like fountains, some birds singing in the rafters.
Imagine a network of community facilitators who help residents learn the skills needed to live in true community. Imagine how connected you'll feel to as many neighbors as you want. Imagine a growing sense of daily (non-denominational) spirituality in action.
Imagine carbon levels in Earth's atmosphere dropping back down below 350 ppm as a result of your zero emissions life in this town. Imagine how good you'll feel knowing you're doing your part to leave a better world for your children, grandchildren, and all who follow after you.
What will it take to move from existing sprawl to this sustainable vision?
Build some connected dwellings in each of the density rings, providing homes for folks now living in sprawl.
Dismantle the now-empty sprawl homes, remove the excess roads and parking lots, decontaminate the soil for growing food.
Continue this process until sprawl is gone.
What are the barriers to this?
Very few folks now living in suburban sprawl are willing to let into their minds and hearts that a lifestyle they believe in is incredibly destructive and is not deeply satisfying.
Current suburban zoning bylaws generally prohibit sustainable densities and mixed uses.
A huge part of the corporate US economy is based on sprawl and promotes sprawl.
Funding would be required to start this process.
What strategies might work to get the process started?
There's a story told about Thich Nhat Hanh. Some of his devotees came to him and asked, "Master, what must we do to help stop the Earth-destroying actions we see all around us every day?" He replied, "All one must do is hear the sound of Earth crying."
My question to readers is: How can we do that? I know quite a few people who participate in Earth-based activities, such as sweat lodges and vision questing. I know people who belong to faith communities with a covenant to work toward ecological sustainability. I know people who belong to local sustainability groups. Yet by and large none of these folks are taking any significant steps to reduce thier carbon emissions and move toward sustainable lives. They only talk the talk.
For a while I beleived I could create a video series, modeled after Chris Martenson's 'Crash Course', that would beautifully offer the above vision and then show why sprawl is so destructive. But I've lost faith in the power of video to change sprawl. I beleive the change needed must begin on the level of heart and spirit, not mind.
I'm in a place of not knowing how to proceed. I'm willing to devote my life to morphing sprawl into sustainability. But how?
I welcome your comments!
ReplyDeleteJim I love the vision you're describing, and recognize I'm not doing enough to get there. For me the question is how do we overcome the "inconvenience" of change. Is something needed which will overwhelm the inertia and reluctance to give up our (comfortable and self-indulgent)lifestyles?
ReplyDeleteOn another note, one phrase caught my attention:
"Imagine a network of community facilitators who help residents learn the skills needed to live in true community."
There's something here that's a little discomfiting for me. Could "community facilitators" be read as "programmers" who keep residents in line? I don't think that's what you mean, but it does leave me wondering what exactly you are picturing.
Thanks David. Good points.
ReplyDeleteObviously something is needed to make the shift from where we are now to daily lives that are more fulfilling and that allow carbon levels in the air to start back down to a safe level.
One "something" is for suburbia to hit bottom. By that I mean for energy costs to rise above what most can pay. For example, if the annual heating cost for a suburban house is $4626 now, in 20 years at 20% inflation the annual cost will be $147,791. Now that we're past peak oil, 20% inflation on energy costs may be conservative.
When I calculated the total annual energy cost for that case study house, inflated at 20% for 20 years, the total cost for the 20th year was $353,232. I don't see incomes increasing at that rate, do you?
Should that scenario occur, suburban sprawl homes would become essentially worthless. Unable to sell them, owners would have little option but to just walk away. Those folks would happily sacrifice their so-called suburban convenience for a home with essentially zero energy costs!
Which brings up the question of just how convenient suburbia actually is. Certainly not convenient for Mother Earth and her living beings and systems, who are suffering deeply from sprawl. Certainly not for the commuters spending two or more hours on their daily commutes. Certainly not for the children and elders who are isolated out there in sprawl. Hard for me to think of anything that really is convenient about suburban sprawl.
Another way of stating the goal of this blog is 'to raise the bottom'. What strategies can we create to enable a smoother transition? There must be ways!
Glad you asked about 'community facilitators'. My own experience growing up and living as an adult in suburbia is that I lack the skills needed to live in community. Buffered from my neighbors there on my half-acre lot, I didn't need community skills. Never needed to learn how to handle confrontation. Never needed to learn how to build an extended family of choice. Were I to be dropped into a community living situation today, I'd want help and support in learning those skills. That's the role I see for the facilitator.
I see privacy as very important. I don't want to be engaged in community all day every day! People vary in how much and how often they want community. I see that as an essential freedom. I definitely don't want anyone trying to keep me 'in line'.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteWhy hobble your argument with the term “suburb” on the masthead? “Suburb” is hardly redeemed by the adjective “sustainable.” Suburb is too fallen a term and ushers in all manner of vices to be excluded. What you describe as the suburbs replacement is not a suburb but a combination of city, suburb and exurb. Why not the term “town,” which you also employ in describing the ideal setting. Thus, “Sustainable Town” not “Sustainable Suburb.”
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? A culture or its dwellings? A series of radical and revolutionary steps would have to precede the life of these sustainable towns. For starters, the Western culture of excess would first have to be swept away – a small matter.
After a radical revolution of mores, your town might become a possibility. Until then we can only design it on paper while other brave souls, perhaps in a new Third Party, perhaps in monasteries, perhaps in the streets, effect those preliminary changes of the culture and the economy.
John in Ottawa
John, I absolutely agree the vision I sketched was a town, not a suburb. My target audience lives in suburbia and is open to the need for sustainability. I'm afraid if I change my masthead to SUSTAINABLE TOWNS I will not attract them to this dialogue. Unfortunatley, among US suburbanites, "town" connotes a rather undesirable living situation. I plan to post illustrations to sidestep this semantic issue.
ReplyDeleteWhat other specific radical and revolutionary steps do you envision?
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful vision! What do you think about the Transition US movement and would you want your blog link posted to Transition Massachusetts (of which I'm a member)?
be well,
Carol
Carol, thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes! I’d love if you would list my blog at whatever Transition US site you have access to.
I was an early adopter of Rob’s Transition Town idea: I bought his online digital ‘book’ when it first became available. My primary thought about it is: the first town Rob & his students worked with, in Ireland I think it was, had a rather small population. Rob & his students got almost every resident on board with the discussion and back-planning. I believe that is necessary. My (admittedly uninformed) impression of the 60+ Transition Towns in the US is that only a tiny handful of folks have written transition plans for their towns; plans that have no clout, and that have extremely little buy-in on the part of the general population, which continues on with their high-carbon footprint lives, stuck in denial. How to get enough buy-in to at least approach a tipping point?
Hi Jim,
ReplyDeleteI recently read (wish I could find the citation) that it takes 35 years for newly built "green," "sustainable" --and by that I think the writer did mean zero-carbon footprint-- houses to "payback." Now of course without more detail, it's not worth arguing with such a claim. But it does suggest to me important questions about the feasibility (economically at the very least) and desirability (EROI?) of building these sustainable dwelling areas you describe.
Thoughts?
Wendy, I like your comment so much I decided to respond with a new post: EROI.
ReplyDeleteJim, in reponse to your EROI posting...
ReplyDeleteGreat to begin the day with you. Your friend in Duxbury has nailed it. I mused yesterday, reflecting on your earlier entry, at the core is a renewed commitment to community. I sometimes ask the kids, as we pass litter on the side of the road (they’re always a bit embarrassed and perplexed as I stop to pick it up), how large is your family, how broadly do you define what is yours and what you take responsibility for... my home, my yard, my street, my village, my department, my world? The threshold in understanding to be crossed is big, huge. Is there anyone out there modelling for us the goal in a manner which is compelling and attractive on a number of levels? Jim, can you introduce us to communities which already exist and are thriving?
Best, Thierry