On Thu, 8/14/08, Jon Bosak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
How do you propose to implement your two billion dollar plan for Ithaca given the strong likelihood that financial, energy, and material resources will dramatically decrease over the rest of the century? It's not a plan. Iit's one person's vision for addressing the fact that we as a society are using up the worlds' resources at a rate of 6-7 times the rate that is generally recognized as being environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Given the strong likelihood that financial, energy, and material resources will dramatically decrease over the rest of the century, as you point out, how can we afford to go on the way we are going? You can take it or leave it. I frankly care less one way or another. I have been implementing it on a personal level for almost two decades. I live in a smaller than average older home in the city within easy walking, bus or bicycle distance of 90 percent of my destinations, a home that I have modernized to meet the housing needs of a contemporary 4-person household, utilizing in the process building materials recycled from the house itself as well as a dozen different other sources, and in the process making it energy efficient and soundproof against the 20,000-plus cars and trucks that pass it in a given day. This fall if things fall into place I will further implement the plan with what may be the first retrofitting of an older home in the city to convert to geothermal. I'm not doing it because it's going to save me any money, but because it's the environmentally responsible thing to do. The budgets of Tompkins County and the Ithaca City School District will together amount to over $2 billion over just the next decade, anyway. Why not divert some of that expense to investment in a more compact sustainable city? Rather than question the investment needed to convert Ithaca to a more sustainable city I think the more pertinent questions you should be asking are more along the lines of: 1) how all those commuters I referenced in my previous post will be able to afford the nearly $300 million they will be shelling out to Big Oil and Big Auto over the next decade; or 2) how they are going to be able to afford to maintain their existing homes as all those modern building materials with 15-20 year lifespans start to fail; or 3) how are our municipal governments going to be able to maintain close to 200 miles of streets and roads, and other services and infrastructure required to support the existing suburban sprawl given, as you've said, the strong likelihood that financial, energy, and material resources will dramatically decrease over the rest of the century. Finally, it's not my plan to implement anyway. I don't live in the Town of Ulysses, or the Town of Ithaca, or the Town of Dryden, or the Town of Caroline, or the Town of Lansing, or the Town of Enfield, or the Town of Newfield, or the Town of Danby, or the Town of Groton, or the villages of Trumansburg, Lansing, Cayuga Heights, Groton, Newfield or Dryden, or in Seneca County, Schuyler County, Tioga County, Chemung County, Cortland County or Cayuga County. It's their communities, so I'll let them decide whether they are serious about living in a sustainable society or not. Any other questions? George Frantz _______________________________________________ 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
