SEWAGE Composting Toilets, edited by Joyce Theios, 1978, free frpm: Lane County Office of Appropriate Technology .125 East 8th Ave. Eugene, OR 97401 A handbook for Lane County Residents who wish to explore alternatives to flush toilets. Gives regulations and permit information for that county in addition to general information about types of toilets, problems, costs, health aspects, resources. A good model for other communities wishing to encourage im-_ plementation of a.t. -LS IH~ ~~ November 1978 RAIN Page 9 ENERGY Citizens' Energy Directory, Jan Simpson, 1978, 152 pp., $7.50 from: Ci~izens' En\ergy Project 1413 K Street, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Residential Energy Uses, Current Housing Reports, Series H-123, Housing Division, Bureau of the Census, 1978, Stock Number 003-024-01554-4, from: • Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washi!lgton, DC 20402 Here's a·large, state-by-state directory of organizations that are involved in energy issues, from citizen action, conservation, a. t. and anti-nuclear groups to small industries, architects, and consultants, to government offices, educational and research-institutes. Each organization's ac_tivities, publications and contact persons are noted, and all groups are cross-indexed in the directory's several appendices. A useful resourc.~ for energy activists and networkers. -SA Groups Involved in the Anti-Nuclear Movement, 1978, 6 pp., $1.00 including postage from: To look back on the U.S. energy-use trajectory of the past few decades can be a d1zzying experience. This simple _ 8-page fold-out lays out a piece of that picture in depicting changing patterns of energy use by Ainerican households from 1940 on. Three ·color,U.S. maps documenting Primary Home Heating Fuels by CQunty (1950-60-70) are particularly revealing of the shifts in regional energy use-from the remarkable decline of wood-heating in the Southeast to the increased dependence on electricity in the Northwest and Sunspark Press Box 389 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 -Tennessee Valley. Until the positiv~ trends afoot become retrievable data this visual aid makes it clear how ' much we have to change. -SA ' Granny-Flats and Duplex-Pensions The July-August '78 Ways and Means had a report on a program in Victoria, Australia, to build "Granny-Flatsn-small, efficient living units for elderly residents on the property of the older citizen's children. A great idea in itself, but even more it points out the social impacts of our restrictive singlefamily-residence-only zoning prac_tices. Many of our multibedroom, two-bath residences can be built (or converted) to divide up into a smaller house and an attached apartmentallowing a less expensive home for small families, ability to expand as a family grows, and then to later rent out unused space as children grow up and move away. It would make possible for older families and individuals to get rental income, have other people close by, and younger people around to shovel snow and make repairs. Duplex houses used to be. (and should be) a common and wise kind of pension fund. (A California study-Rainbook, p. 48-showed that p-µblic pension funds could obtain better returns by investing in housing than.in corporate stocks. Better yet, cut out the middleman and make it 'possible for people to do so directly themselves!) Duplexes provide a more secure income source for re.tiremerit t~_an many pension funds and also provide a better kind of rental housing than most apartment houses. Having the owner living in the other half of a duplex always seems to ensure better maintenance and upkeep for the renter, and better treatment of the rentaJ unit for the owner. Granny flats and duplexes are socially good housing patterns, wise investment;, and a good. way to convert oyersized housing to better use pattern~ ~sour energy glut _bottoms out. All that is required_i's a zoning change to allow owner-occupied .twofamily housing in prese_nt R:1 zoning areas. -TB • J
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