Thanks for voicing the opposition so tactfully and courageously, Marlo. I'm afraid I won't manage quite as well...
I'd be dead in a month if I lived in "high density" housing with no way out. Period. During the course of this discussion thread I actually tried to imagine myself attempting such a thing and I kept coming back to the same question: "But what would I do with myself?" I'd be exiled from everything I understand, everything I rely on to give my life meaning. As a person who grew up in a dairy and apple farm community, I simply wouldn't know what to do with my days. Living through the transitions of a post peak oil/climate disrupted/economically impoverished world seems much more palatable on my 80 acres located 5 miles from the Commons - which is why I'm here. It's still walking/biking distance from the city and my family will be able to raise most of its own food and network with others choosing to do the same in our low density sprawlish community. Talking this prospect over with my kids and husband at dinner visions of sci-fi nightmares centered on people living cooped up in efficient living circled round the table. Perhaps as George Franz suggests we are all afflicted by American real estate brainwashing or an unjustified earth-killing dose of American Individualism. Whatever. Personally, I think attacking people where they live is a poor opening for a discussion about the future. Giving people a reason/positive motivators to reconstruct their lives that are tied to their well-being in terms of better services, jobs, opportunities to work collectively (like community gardens & kitchens) and security makes more sense. In some important ways I have over the past 12 years seen this taking shape in the City of Ithaca, but, of course, it is often derided as "gentrification" and salvaging homes downtown still carries the stigma of "single-family dwelling" with the proponents of shared walls. Acknowledging that the high density vision is not for everyone, nor is it practical (Who's going to grow the food or supply the wood for the high density crowd?) and that it is dependent on large systems running responsibly would go a long way toward opening up this discussion. It could be argued that it's easier to reduce your footprint and contribute to the well-being of your local community in a rural location, because you and your neighbors have more control over your circumstances. In any case, not everyone's spirit is attuned to becoming bike-riding vegans living in 4 story housing or, conversely, living in the isolation of a rural community growing rutabagas with your extended family on the back acreage, however much "sense" either reality makes. Perhaps it is the limitations of my 20th century upbringing coming to the fore, but I still hold diversity as a key to our collective success when planning for the future and am nervous about one-size-fits-all solutions requiring "If only people would..." as a starting point. -- Katie Quinn-Jacobs Simon St.Laurent wrote: > marlo capoccia wrote: > >> i'm being contrary about this probably because i just can't imagine >> having limited access to rural living. aren't there tons of people >> like me who would feel terribly penned-in not being able to wake up >> in the middle of the night and walk in a field all alone with the >> moon? is that a figment of our imaginations or lack of experience? >> > > Even George's world will, I expect, need farmers and the villages and > hamlets that support them. > > Unless, of course, I've missed something. (And of course, that's fewer > people than currently live outside the city.) > > Thanks, > Simon St.Laurent > http://livingindryden.org/ > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please > visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > > > -- _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
