le_.,.-- ,-._ / ' ...,, , --· I .J i ~' ,1 I I , I . I I In the past 30 to 40 years, Americans have separated work from home so that we have in effect doubled the amount of space, heat, light and sewage facilities we need. We have also greatly increased transportation needs for commuting to work and shopping, while needing police to watch over the places we just left. Curren~ ~,:iilu,,e and other multiple uses of land and buildings. Yet, serving local needs provides local jobs and income. The establishment of offices and light "cottage industry" in presently primarily residential areas-as long as it does not pollute or otherwise burden the neighborhood-should have substantial benefits in terms of energy savings, livening up neighborhoods and in family life. You don't need day care if either or both the parents can work at home. lie ~~~~ are an important aspect of changing land use-the old "Mom and Pop" grocery stores which had just about everything you needed, next to the thriving small bakery, the wooden furniture studio, and the town ~a,ll and library. How much more alive and vital it would be tf each neighborhood had its own particular flair and c~aracter due to its localized, largely self-reliant economy. Thts can be true of the inner city neighborhoods or the small r~ral towns_. We have so long relied on driving to ide~ti~al-)o~kmg shopp_mg centers to buy identical brands that 1t 1s d1fficul~ to dtstmguish different parts of the count:Y_, much less d1ffe:ent parts of a city, from each other. In addttton, those franchises, as opposed to locally-owned businesses, drain money out of the community into the larger financial centers-usually out of state. ,. ; •• --~:-;~- ... ":.------: ' ~.._, es are happening today in different places that add up to a good and POSSIBLE vision of what our Schatz's drawings, like Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, show what some of these ideas could be like Our future will obviously be different from this, but being able to visualize some of the possibilities focus our energy onto bringing good futures into being. ere of the new San Francisco can perhaps best be seen in tbe fact that, down Market Street and some no-zp run. Tbese had earlier, at great expense, been put into huge culverts underground, as is usual in ns spent even more to bring them up to ground level again. So now on this major boulevard you may of little falls, with water gurgling and splashing, and channels lined with rocks, trees, bamboos, ferns. be minnows in the water-though how they are kept safe from marauding children and cats, I cannot From Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach, Banyan Tree Books, 1975 1517 Francisco Street, Berkeley, California 94703, $2.75 ,. Have you ever thought how much it .... , • would change things in a city to let ~ '11.1111. ..__ _ ■lo■o■s■e■a-ll ■th■e-p■a■ve■d■•■o■v■er-c■re■e■k■s■?--_,• { ,Ct~~ ,~- ' '\' • '"'--'-- '<" ' ~ • ' :c " .. ' ' ' • ~~# I ) Q C b 'schools don't have to be in big, red bric)( buildings! The Philadelphia Parkway program has classes taught by chemists in professional labs, bankers in conference rooms, and ;.~~~~mh h li iflft'Y on th se~ilities- making public facilities less specialized- can save energy and materials in countless ways and help make the city more vital. If, as we hope, much more business happens on a smaller scale out of houses and neighborhoods, there may well be scores of high-rise offices where learning activities can be scattered in among residences and manufacturing uses. There's also the whole important area of ~ )£atltlislg - productive instead of consumptive learning- for all ages. It can work with a carpenter or an architect, for an eight-year-old or an octagenarian. Yellow Pages of Learning Resources, Richard Saul Wurman, Editor, 1972, $1.95 from: Group for Environmental Education 1214 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107 Philadelphia Parkway Program Information Officer Parkway Program c/o Franklin Institute 20th Street and Parkway .._ Philadelphia, PA 1910 3 II non-renewable resources we do not recycle are a loss of our material wealth. We cannot afford to waste anything or throw it away. Remember, there is no "away"!! 50% of the total energy cost of new products can be saved when paper is recycled, and 98% of the total energy cost of aluminum could be saved. If the entire U.S. were to switch to returnable bottles and cans, as Oregon and Vermont have, it would add 130,000 jobs, cut consumer costs by $1.4 billion and would reduce national energy use by .05%- eliminating the need for three nuclear power plants. *It'simportantto ~--~- -"~has possible. Just as old clothes can be handed on till they make nice patchwork quilts and rugs, old buildings can be turned into exciting spaces for living and working. If buildings have to be torn down, there is much in them that can be recycled. Most cities have places where you can buy salvaged materials. In some cases, zoning, code and/or insurance regulations and lending practices make it difficult to recycle old buildings, but they represent a vast resource in cities and rural areas alike. * As energy and material costs rise, urban solid waste programs dependent on high amounts of energy and machinery are becoming uneconomical to operate, while those based on human skills are beginning to have an advantage. Labor-intensive systems are also more easily able to adjust·as different materials change in value. Many materials which do not have much market value at any one time (like now!) can be stockpiled until prices rise. ~attheSOIIIIOO - the household or business- is the most efficient and economical means of recycling. lt is a process that only takes a few seconds at that small scale, yet it also makes it possible to compost organic matter for reuse on the family or office garden. Multiple-section trash bins for home use are now being designed and marketed, while the Ore Plan type of neighborhood collection system pro,·ides a good model for labor-intensive recycling (see January 1976 RAIN). • Another good idea, which has been successfully tried in Minne.:folis. is to establish lea' U)tll • operations. In 1972, Hennepin County began depositing all the leaves they had collected from their regular fall street clean-up in a large unused lot. In the sprin~ the resulting compost was given away to residents free of charge. emember how nice it is to sit in a Sidewa1kcat~ in Europe and watch the people go by? Take a look at Bernard Rudolphsky's Strl'ets for People (Doubleday, 1969) to sec how citv streets can be used. Beautiful photographs from Italy, Japan and the Middle Eas~. In many cities the regulations affecting these practices need to he changed- fewer cars will hdp make the tmosph<.'r<.' more pleasant, too. © April 1976 RAIN Magazine 2270 N.\V. ln-ing, Portland, OR 97210
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz