Options for cities

[Ludi]

Here ya go, some options for cities (posted multiple times already, but I guess it never hurts to rehash):

http://www.solviva.com/Greyburg_Greendale.htm

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

http://www.thevenusproject.com/

What are some others?

[Ferretlover]

Interesting. There was an item on CNN this morning about city gardens "springing up" in different places. The one they concentrated on was in Atlanta. The man "operating" four (at the current time) gardens; he said that kids were surprised to see what food looked like when it was growing. Sad.

[vtsnowedin]

A nice diversion from watching Japan go through a" Unplanned uncontrolled, spontaneous , instantaneous dis-assembly" ( nuc speak for an explosion). I'm trying to do some "sugaring" in three feet of melting snow so I only had time to skim it while I came in to eat lunch, Forgive me if I missed something in plain sight.
I can see plenty of examples of Greyburg the problems are well known.
Are there any real examples of Greenburg as of yet and how do they compare to the vision put forward in the piece.
Back to the snow shoes. check back with you later.
First V or Canada geese flew over today. They might want to hold up a while on Lake Champlain. north of there they are going to get cold tootsies when they land.

[Ludi]

Are there any real examples of Greenburg as of yet and how do they compare to the vision put forward in the piece.

I don't know of any of town or city size. Greendales so far seem to be extremely small, on the intentional community scale, not more than a few hundred residents and generally are more rural than town-or-city-like.

[Narz]

Greendale looks pretty nice. If I were Bill Gates I'd buy up a crappy portion of LA and build it (hopefully at a profit eventually).

[Ludi]

Food production for the city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng

I hope more people will contribute ideas. My focus tends to be on food, so my contributions to this thread will tend to be about growing things, less about other technologies.

[Ferretlover]

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[vtsnowedin]

Food production for the city: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9CCxdkOng

I hope more people will contribute ideas. My focus tends to be on food, so my contributions to this thread will tend to be about growing things, less about other technologies.

Yes we are a world of specialist. My specialty is building a really long lasting road for the money spent, but in doing that I often have to deal with utilities, water ,gas , sewer, phone. electricity, etc that share the Rights of Way with the highway. Getting enough stuff into and out of a city is quite a task even with cheap abundant energy. Building a Greenville is an interesting project. I'm not sure it can be done for a cost the proposed residents would be willing to pay today. Post peak oil I expect the demand curve to change dramatically

[Ludi]

Yes we are a world of specialist. My specialty is building a really long lasting road for the money spent,

Growing food is not my specialty, in fact, I'm not very good at it! Which might be why I'm so interested in it and hope to learn more.

Regarding what you say about people not being willing to pay for Greenville, that's a serious problem. We're passing a lot of the costs on to future generations - what's it called - "externalities" - environmental damage that's just not included in the costs of conventional practices. I'm not sure how we might deal with it in the present time. Maybe we can't. Maybe someone else here has some ideas about how we can!

[vtsnowedin]

I hope more people will contribute ideas. My focus tends to be on food, so my contributions to this thread will tend to be about growing things, less about other technologies.

Instead of wasting time of growing food and all that stuff you got to buy and all that hard work how bout a green city where food is cheap and plentiful like the link below.


http://www.vegasbuffets.com/

That' wonderful Timmac, base all your planning for the future on the continued availability of freebies at an entertainment center where people waste their excess income hoping to score a win and a babe. If the economy goes toes up for whatever reason this will be the last place to go under. better get in line they start serving in thirty minutes.

[Ludi]

Please don't crap in this thread.

Take your crap elsewhere.

[vtsnowedin]

[Growing food is not my specialty, in fact, I'm not very good at it! Which might be why I'm so interested in it and hope to learn more.

I expect that both you and I will get much better at growing our own food in the near future out of neccesity. Having thought about it and experimented with it I think we will both be in a pretty good position compared to the average Joe that has never planted a seed and thinks peas come in a can.

[Ludi]

But that leaves me very concerned about the average Joe. I'm afraid I'm not able to just dismiss him. I think as a person who has some interest toward alternatives I might have an obligation to help other folks who don't. But that's just my own perspective.

[vtsnowedin]

But that leaves me very concerned about the average Joe. I'm afraid I'm not able to just dismiss him. I think as a person who has some interest toward alternatives I might have an obligation to help other folks who don't. But that's just my own perspective.

Some hard choices are before us. There are only a certain number of Joes and their Jills plus children you can feed depending on how good you get at the food growing business. Some Joes can be shown the way and they will do their own work and take care of themselves after the time it takes to grow a first crop if land is available. Others will not realise that things have changed and feel entitled to a share of your crops even though they have done nothing to help you grow said crop. Will you feed them or send them down the road at the point of a shotgun? If your a softy and feed them you will stave along with them before spring. if you send them down the road they may figure it out and find their own supply or they may get angry and come back and try to take what is yours by force. In Japan today there is almost no looting, Texas and Vermont are not Japan.

[Ludi]

Will you feed them or send them down the road at the point of a shotgun? .

Shotgun is not an option for me personally, though it may be for you and others.

Let's please try to stay on topic, which is "options for cities", not "how to protect your doomstead".

[vtsnowedin]

Will you feed them or send them down the road at the point of a shotgun? .

Shotgun is not an option for me personally, though it may be for you and others.

Let's please try to stay on topic, which is "options for cities", not "how to protect your doomstead".

OK I'll work on that.

[Ludi]

OK I'll work on that.

I know, it's hard for us who don't live in cities! But a lot of people do!

[Ludi]

Chinese eco-city proposal: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007 ... city_x.htm

The British design firm hired by SIIC to design Dongtan says the city will be practical and commercially sensible — high-tech, economically vibrant, a model for urban planners everywhere — not a green utopian boondoggle.

Dongtan, China's Flagship Ecocity Project, R.I.P.: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01 ... gri-la.php

Plans for Dongtan began to falter in 2006, when Shanghai's former mayor Chen Liangyu - Dongtan's most enthusiastic supporter - was arrested for "property-related fraud." In the wake of the scandal, China's Communist Party reorganized the city's leadership and planning structure, leaving Dongtan orphaned.

Since then, the project's permits have lapsed, and the global economic situation has put a damper on construction projects worldwide. On Chongming Island, a number of high-rise apartment buildings have gone up, marketed as green buildings, but using few of the innovative ideas that were part of the original Dongtan design.

[Plantagenet]

As population continues to grow, cities will continue to become increasingly overcrowded and dysfunctional.

The solution to to problems of cities caused by overpopulation is not to just keep building new cities.

[Ludi]

As population continues to grow, cities will continue to become increasingly overcrowded and dysfunctional.

The solution to to problems of cities caused by overpopulation is not to just keep building new cities.

What are some options you can suggest besides not building more cities? That is, what can you suggest to solve the problems of cities?