[p2p-research] Fwd: Ecocities Emerging - July 2010 Issue

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kirstin Miller and Richard Register <kirstin at ecocitybuilders.org>
Date: Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 1:35 AM
Subject: Ecocities Emerging - July 2010 Issue
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com


    Link to webpage version of this newsletter
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs072/1100594
<http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001MtBt-olyudmWc1fbwgPZy7TjY3X86OsznoTG90P0MKjxi94qA1Rt3XphmYO3ugVaeI9rb8HQjdk_KERBvHBWXtz_bCEnhF32iGc3jzmF52EicseXxwn0Yw%3D%3D>
       [image: scene]
"Bicycle Flyway" - illustration by Richard Register

   Ecocities Emerging
To support humanity's transition into the Ecozoic Era
Ecocity Builders
July 2010

Greetings,

Welcome to the July 2010 edition of Ecocities Emerging, an initiative of
Ecocity Builders and the International Ecocity Conference Series.

Justice is a concept of great importance to all of us working for a better
world. It is fundamental to theories of social order. Studies show that the
sense of justice may be instinctual to our nature. Today, calls for justice
are getting louder - calls for social justice, climate justice,
environmental justice, economic justice, the list goes on.

But in a world already sorely out of balance, with globalization
transcendent, and with corporations controlling much of the world's
resources and distribution systems, in some circumstances it can be
difficult to know from whom to demand justice. The gap between the "haves"
and "have nots" is getting more disproportional; unraveling the causes of
fundamental injustices can lead to truths some of us would rather not face.

Simply put, in order for us "haves" to maintain our current gigantic
physical and ecological footprints (which we have come to think of as
"normal"), corporations must keep drilling, blasting, digging and ripping
and the people and animals who get in the way of these operations will
continue to be silenced, bought off, poisoned, killed or enslaved. These
companies aren't ruining the environment for their own amusement. Unless
there is a profit to be made there is no business - and unless there are
buyers for their products no such business for that reason too.

It's doubly scary because studies also show that despite an inner sense of
fairness, we also have a tendency to ignore facts that would require us to
give something up or change. The make or break point for our collective
futures and those of our children will likely come down to whether or not
the world's currently comfortable, the "haves", can muster up the will to
consciously redefine what "normal" looks like.

The ecocity vision, we believe, holds a world of promise in that regard.
Attaining that vision, however, will require changing, giving some things
up, and rebuilding our built environment to fit a renewable energy future. A
daunting task, maybe impossible, but just maybe not.

Sincerely,

[image: signature]

Kirstin Miller for Ecocity Builders

Ecocity Builders
339 15th Street, Suite 208
Oakland CA 94612 USA
www.ecocitybuilders.org<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUw0pcIlDF94h8pad5i28M04Xvzk0ZJLHMnQqljtF_-E_zdkDPS8ZwVr8W_bGHB89hlcfRQGxcYmUH1V381smTHRXy6refHIwo7dwB7CGeZpw==>

 [image: sm.ecb]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUw0pcIlDF94h8pad5i28M04Xvzk0ZJLHMnQqljtF_-E_zdkDPS8ZwVr8W_bGHB89hlcfRQGxcYmUH1V381smTHRXy6refHIwo7dwB7CGeZpw==>
Keeper of the International Ecocity Conference Series
Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping cities,
towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural systems.

[image: facebook.jpg]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTW6QVOutIDxYX9Y29Pmsf3kl1pJQk6-z9oVUCXExeTnCJnQUsGjyhurrQhksA86XSGv5abAjGxjCMM-2jWvQFU1rkHFC1qmtsMVLRRuh97z2J2GZDOfheNVxViRgb21RA3STpqgheyCt_54p_q00wAU15KOpB90I1Z1b8fYCPsvwMFY3tx9i9rNKKX78NVp3_c=>


The Ecozoic Era refers to a vision, first promoted by cosmologist Thomas
Berry, of an emerging epoch when humanity lives in a mutually enriching
relationship with the larger community of life on Earth.

Will we be able to make the transition in time to retain a biosphere healthy
enough to regenerate living systems now under extreme stress? Our role in
exploring ecocities is to clarify a vision of cities that can. And then go
out and build them. There is no way to be certain we will succeed, but our
position is that there's no time to just sit around and wonder about it: now
is time for action.

Maybe one day all cities will be ecocities.

     We need a New Science of Physical Economics
by RICHARD REGISTER

It's time we put economics into some sort of physical scientific context
that makes sense. Economists have drifted off into a disconnected world
where, blinded by massive amounts of money and mystery, they see themselves
as a kind of high priesthood calling the shots for practically everything,
then saying they were blindsided by the debacle in the real estate world and
the up-trading in wildly irresponsible and, strictly honest to say, greedy
derivatives. And now they are fumbling around trying to decide which theory
to apply to address the world deficit situation and spreading
underemployment - among a number of other deadly serious things. Meantime
they seem to have no idea whatsoever what to actually build physically and
thus they are not developing anything like a strategy for a recovery that
actually fits the situation on our oh-so physical planet Earth at this time
of its Great Recession.

Some of us, if not economists, knew something was profoundly wrong with
overvalued real estate sometime around 2005 or 2006; it seemed utterly
obvious. Meanwhile the economists kept pumping the bubble for higher returns
to those with money to invest and for themselves in the Priesthood. From our
supposedly naïve non-economist point of view, myself and my friends, it was
simply a little common sense.

It has to be more scientific than that. But common sense is a good start.
Get real in regard to physics, geology, chemistry, biology, ecology and
psychology: "Hello Science. People calling. Is anyone listening?"

>From Ecological Economics to just plain Physical Economics

We already have environmental economists, ecological economists,
bioecological economists and so on, described in various places as "fields
of academic research." Why then have they failed to focus clearly on what we
need to build just plain physically and why have they failed to identify the
largest thing humans build - cities - as the foundation for solving many of
our most intractable environmental and societal problems? Why has concern
for "sustainable development" barely scratched the surface of ecocity
design, planning and development, much less identified urban layout and
design as the key factors in facilitating or working against a wide range of
technologies and lifestyles?

Perhaps the entire enterprise to date has been a little too academic and
separate from the world of real steel, stone and mortar, energy, food and
transport. Perhaps even ecologically conscientious economics needs a good
dose not just of math, physics and ecology but also engineering,
architecture, industrial design, technological development and business
administration and, not to leave out, the development incentives and
disincentives of zoning and codes, taxes and politics. Physicists and
students of aerodynamics are not enough to build airplanes - you need those
other guys too.

Where it starts in terms of the conditions we find ourselves in, on this
planet at least, is with the massive flow of solar energy into our physical
economy, mainly through plants, chlorophyll and soil at about 2.5% energy
conversion efficiency, through 80% efficient passive heating and about 20%
efficient solar electricity, all available with some serious investment. The
sun's been with us a long time so we have two basic energy resources of
enormous scale, one is the energy flow of solar income and the other is
solar energy savings in the form of the fossil fuels. Solar income energy is
a pretty benign source and fossil fuels are tricky as we are beginning to
see with the Gulf Oil Spill, climate change and other disasters that range
from the catastrophic to apocalyptic. There's a big hint here for a
transition in thinking starting with physical economics: invest in solar and
its derivative: wind; begin disinvesting in fossil fuels at the same time.

Another very large consideration is the mineral and metals savings account
of the planet. If we don't recycle these they will become ever more scarce
through rusting and frittering away in small item dispersion lost to any
economically viable recovery in the longer range future. In practical terms
that means we need to build a physical environment, mainly our cities, to
run on about 1/10th the energy and 1/5th the land, which is proposed by a
discipline closer to science than today's economics, that of ecological city
and town design and planning. A super efficient built environment, the
collective home the vast majority of us live in, also makes assiduous
recycling possible.

The largest physical thing to consider is the built environment. What is it
we actually build and what does that determine in terms of technologies and
lifestyles? We should know we are in trouble when Brazil plows under virgin
forests for ethanol road fuel, when India manufactures and promotes the
cheap car called the Nano for its 1.2 billion people
hurtling about enclosed in false security while 100,000 are killed in car
accidents every year there as the Nano leaves the starting gate, when the
Russian Government announces it has purchased 2.5 million acres of land to
turn into car-dependent scattered development and when a Chinese gentleman
sharing a cab with me in Beijing in his country of almost 1.4 billion people
said, "Well if I can't have a car how can I get a wife?" Those four
countries together represent 2.7 billion people hankering to live the
car-city lifestyle of Americans when there are 9 times as many of them on
the Earth as Americans. And Americans are trying to figure out how to have
better cars rather than figure out that the car is part of a whole system
like any other living complex organism and better cars promote more sprawl
and dependence on cheap energy - which is going away as we begin pursuing
this new idea of an economics rooted in physical realities.

Another very large factor passed over by the nervous is graduated income and
property taxes. It is scientifically obvious that you have to go where the
ore is to get copper, where the sun, wind or fossil fuels are to get energy
in serious quantity. Similarly, following recent courageous suggestions by
Jeffrey Sachs in the July 2010 Scientific American and recent comments by
Hillary Clinton of all people, not known as a major economics theorist, you
have to turn to taxing the rich - seriously. Not the middle class and the
poor but the rich. The rich have convinced the poor and middle class to
think "more taxes" means them. Smart trick, but that's not the idea here:
graduated income tax with the rich paying their share of what society and
environment helped them make. That's where the stored wealth to build a
better world is and physical economics, if not today's mainstream
economists, would identify and prioritize that very genuine resource
instantly.

What would the tax money be invested in? As placed in high priority above,
befitting the enormous scale of the enterprise, reshaping cities as
ecocities, cities for people not cars, and getting on with renewable energy
development along with the radical energy conservation of ecocities.

Limits and Hard Work

Let's not forget the two big ones this articles physical economics* zeros in
on as highest priorities of all: the reality of limits and the value of hard
work. In the face of all the other supposedly "hard science," a grand
compliment macroeconomists quest most passionately since they are true
believers seeking their own version of Einstein's elusive General Field
Theory, and with it, should they attain it, thinking themselves absolutely
certain, economics promotes the wildly off base and destructive notion that
constant growth is the only healthy state of the economy. It is finally time
for economists to join the crowd in the real "hard sciences" that recognize
the infinite growth in a limited environment is as dreamy as lead to gold
and the perpetual motion machine. I won't even try to defend that statement.

And finally how do you think it is the Chinese went from famine and poverty
in one generation to a stunningly productive, gigantic economy passing the
United States in a number of ways? They work like demons, typically two to
four hours more a day than Americans, they earn less money per hour
outcompeting their competition, there are many more of them and they work on
savings and investments instead of borrowing and betting on infinite growth
like the real estate derivatives gamblers. Some might say its because they
have a centrally planned economy but they also have some of the wildest of
capitalism's enclaves as big as whole countries. All those things are not
rocket science or the latest fad in marco economic's byzantine and ever
changing formulas. They are pretty simple, standard old school, straight
forward economics and represent very physical work. They also represent an
excellent example of limits as the country is drawing down its soils, water
and minerals and wiping out its biodiversity at a withering rate,
transforming all that into pollution generated where the products are made
and launched toward the United States and other debtor, high consumption
nations.

I recently attended the Second International Degrowth Conference in
Barcelona, Spain. I agreed completely with their consensus belief that
constant growth is doomed or we are. I agreed that GDP, with it's
destructive activities recorded on the positive side of the economic ledger
- neglecting damage to the Earth, people and biosphere, even climate system
of the planet - is a truly dumb, dated and destructive measure. And it is
even intriguing that, as a number of their speakers advocated, if we worked
four days a week instead of five or more, we would have far less
unemployment and we'd be consuming less, giving the earth just a small
amount more breathing room. But listening to the "relax our way into the
future growing our own vegetables, renouncing specialization, and having
much more time just to enjoy life" I just had to say, "Is this the way to
save a planet in real distress?" Who ever faced a crisis, from escaping a
sinking ship or burning house, fighting a war or struggling for survival in
an environment of real poverty...by taking it easy?

Are climate change, species extinctions and eroding energy and mineral
resource a real condition loose in the world today or not? So I think it is
time to gird our loins for a real race to the finish and take hard work
serious for survival reasons as well as in recognition of some sort of
economics that makes sense. I believe that the threats confirmed by
practically all legitimate scientists these days is a physical reality and I
believe we need an economics based firmly in that ever-so physical
conviction.

Put all the above together with reasonably prudent money management in
basically traditional ways and you have the outlines of a new science we
might call physical economics.

*We are aware Lyndon LaRouche and others use the term "physical economics"
in similar critiques of economic policies but note many differences as well
including the typical economists' omission of city design and layout and
relevant policy.

Richard Register <ecocity at igc.org> is Founder and President of Ecocity
Builders and author of Ecocities, Rebuilding Cities in Balance With Nature.
    How street music is making the planet cooler
by SVEN EBERLEIN
Originally posted at: A World of
Words<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTV4-f82T6O5f41w6Mea94PUCT2k_EyLpFxjY7rhaBoH5SrOO3-aSBOVhyKtDq8GOoE2OO3m1o12bgrhMu1X88pDUgGFLQwmOnbc0wAmU3CMylXRZrju-Jtu>

[image: sven1.jpg]

While it's important to understand the science and statistics behind climate
change, the solutions are often not as linear as we'd like to believe. All
the graphs and numbers are symbolic of how we humans have chosen to live and
move about the planet. Sure, we must get the kinds of laws and regulations
that will reduce carbon emissions. Ultimately though, we can only attain
sustainable physical levels of CO2 if we can shift our perception of what it
means to live a meaningful life on planet Earth.

Music is a window into the human soul. It expresses our hopes and dreams, as
well as our fears and wounds. The way we relate to music reflects the way we
view the world. Lately I've been inspired by a lot of spontaneous, stripped
down transmissions of music, and it occurred to me that street musicians may
hold one of the keys to a cooler climate.

Watching Rihanna perform her over the top smoke bomb spectacle on American
Idol last week, I couldn't help but wonder just how much energy it took for
this empty display of mass entertainment. From moving big rigs full of gear
and powering the smoke machines to thousands of fans driving to the
auditorium and millions of TV sets lit up across the country, the amount of
fossil fuels burned for this one performer to croak "Oh Baby I'm a Rockstar"
over and over must have equaled what entire countries in the developing
world consume on any given night.

Read on<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTU_0G8C1BV7-ug97XMoyIivHrR6XlFOrWpbpTXfznbs8c-PNUUhZbfcyZYTIR5gQ-RTkaa4haCiSLijkn1VtP1xsz2IIStNUUvna1PxJ72_gXSFzborUc917RdBhupizdqiFshUuV2_6g==>
    [image: chinacityplayground]


SAVE THE DATE!
August 22-26, 2011
Palais des congrès de Montréal, Canada

Hosted by Urban Ecology Montréal, Ecocity World Summit 2011 will build on
work of past Ecocity World Summits while adding new conference themes,
participatory methods, and projects that will last beyond the life of the
conference. Detailed conference content and design will be developed in
collaboration with local and international partners, making sure that the
particular urban ecological expertise of Montréal is highlighted.

Website<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTXozozojqpiD3QLNrkmxBpbk57-rcbSLNhfNc1gJWT-NXdNyCTaLNwM-m1Ex_RY4PS7XUMPXJXTQQK150OMr42cXbQ4LkBDg9JXQj7coqyhb7_U0CtiJf7L3SK6ufqS1r1ktQZ1V7YYZg==>
    *Car Free Journey*
by Steve Atlas

[image: walking]
Today, I want to suggest an inexpensive alternative to driving to the beach:
commuter trains.

Many metropolitan areas (primarily on the east coast, but also in Chicago,
San Diego, and Los Angeles), provide commuter rail service at big discounts
from Amtrak. For example, both Metrolink (from Los Angeles) and Coastal
(from San Diego) offer train service to Oceanside, CA. From the station,
it's a short walk to beaches and nearby places to stay.

On the east coast, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and
Washington,D.C./Baltimore (weekdays only for MARC between Baltimore and
Washington) provide excellent and affordable commuter rail. If you crave a
beach visit and live near Boston, you can take a commuter train to
Providence, RI--7 days a week, and take a RIPTA public bus to several
beaches. (For more details, visit
http://carfreeamerica.com<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTWD8eYys-5F-tioc3kegaQXird4BwHeeReh6ZT7NmqQF5oTfNruFOlIMNyxiOcgSFB7c4ugKtWUCkdo_5LguSr0t7_rJO8HkfvF-oJReGEiXQ==>,
and request the free report about South County Beaches.)
>From New York City, both the Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit
offer one-day beach trips, as well as many other day outings.

>From Philadelphia, take a SEPTA commuter train (except Sunday) to
Wilmington. From Wilmington, DART (Delaware's public transit authority)
offers an express bus to Rehoboth Beach every Saturday and Sunday during the
summer. The one-day round trip to the beach is under $10.

If you live near Chicago, take a look at last months's Car Free Journey and
learn hot you can enjoy a one-day outing on METRA's South Shore line to
Indiana Dunes State Park.

If you are in Washington, D.C. during the week, take MARC's Brunswick Line
to Harper's Ferry, West VA. (afternoons only), stay at the Hilltop House
(check to be sure it's open), and spend a day hiking the Appalachian Trail
and visit the nearby historical national park. The following morning, take a
MARC commuter train back to Washington.

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for future columns, e-mail me
at steveatlas45 at yahoo.com. I'd love to hear from you.
___________
Steve Atlas's e-book, Car Free at the Beach (2010 edition) is now available.
For more information, and a free report about South County RI beaches, visit
http://carfreeamerica.com<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTWD8eYys-5F-tioc3kegaQXird4BwHeeReh6ZT7NmqQF5oTfNruFOlIMNyxiOcgSFB7c4ugKtWUCkdo_5LguSr0t7_rJO8HkfvF-oJReGEiXQ==>
.


     JOIN ECOCITY BUILDERS

 Ecocity Builders is a non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping
cities, towns and villages for long-term health of human and natural
systems. Join us and help rebuild cities in balance with nature.

CLICK HERE<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUZn4A-ChuX4wCYScXvNhGhxGNTYHELo2DH_ipz93IRL-4UjjbYEmnXJIFfUl0hvCeFojnj0ZWqbcWNCUjZymzuhKTh5ipyEOsGLs131tQG2KXow62Hohi9vV2UQqXFZOk=>TO
JOIN
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[image: sm.ecb]



  *"The problem is the present design of cities only a few stories high,
stretching outward in unwieldy sprawl for miles. As a result of their
sprawl, they literally transform the earth, turn farms into parking lots and
waste enormous amounts of time and energy transporting people, goods and
services over their expanses. My solution is urban implosion rather than
explosion."
-Paolo Soleri

www.arcosanti.org<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTVeGyBtg8WFjQK4Io3LgGqwi5JgVB8RHQYDBb-BYULEvQ0YwD9zOZ_HGbV_UC2RWRoFyMVlubEMC36i-7MKwgIWViy-5WXNWrBX507reeMBIw==>
*  *Ecocity Builders' Calendar

2010
*

August 17 - 20
Chengde, China
The 4th International Ecocity
Forum<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTXPWXq-pp5N1uvqxW-bdm3FrxGurB2emQdHDyjn9lUqluszoY272-LwhjUeEJg2ci6PLJzBb7qRcNs8XgY1NjH9gpd2he5kpXnJI47dU1DVMJNU_JcinSRN>
Eccocity Builders' Executive Director Kirstin Miller to present the
International Ecocity Standards Project

October 4-7
Vancouver, Canada
Gaining Ground Presents: Eco Logical, The Power of Green Cities to Shape the
Future<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTVYSyiOPBKx_7BxSVCiiJ0f4A_4XAOzkLaRQlQI387B65SEsb2LmbCa5UR3YkI4WJ_7RShUnYHely4nJaywJ9j7NARjtI-Zr1ET17igdBDyWQi7RQLdVX2M>
Ecocity Builders and the International Ecocity Standards Project will
present and lead a facilitated workshop

October 6-7
Incheon, Korea
"Future of Cities"<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTVfKo9CDXPyL0rh_Qd5ETUowLzANT_rFzLSTpU3MkD5poSJl_JAuc09PQQ83DQdGJwUIo5p3X8B98PDDRVXU6AMLHU37e18oMiIoWL7yZm16JF0Fu3p3HcyAiTnkhKd3EQ=>ICLEI
World Congress
Richard Register will give a plenary presentation

Fall Semester, UC Berkeley Extension
"Ecological Cities"
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTVQxLiNRybolpw1BC6UjYWcjftKEn1TGIsjePFAYYdznYcEsGSrghsv95uaesnveGb2tthT2NRtCHOYpSG3KIe4Kh08crzZ_WqUDoBv9gQtWzfIzRl1Kj508-8Gs6F7HR_5nhZg8oRoww==>taught
by Kirstin Miller, Executive Director, Ecocity Builders

2011

Ecocity World Summit, the 9th International Ecocity
Conference<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUqiOD4BE019o6D8BMtlr1Oht-Xg_ARdmbPJguWjVRVl_mplWmAoyMGOzgTwZJ9Kn6aiEg5CNkh7Q28rhejXzDkDyWgkzpwLBf1_SJ90y0DUA==>
August 22-26, 2011
Palais des congrès de Montréal, Canada

Hosted by Urban Ecology Montréal, Ecocity World Summit 2011 will build on
work of past Ecocity World Summits while adding new conference themes,
participatory methods, and projects that will last beyond the life of the
conference. Detailed conference content and design will be developed in
collaboration with local and international partners, making sure that the
particular urban ecological expertise of Montréal is highlighted.
    41 years or 41 miles?
by ERIC COREY FREED
Originally posted at: KBB
Collective<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUa8ImYhFwvWVQy1uNpubjdGFUgA9CQ3CcNs2ynuj3QsPZRG-pcidHXh46cB_0CL_3gmtZGtwtpxJaCt4bEa5ge0e1wFMh2mtbV9BwB57Z2_Er07XmWljDmfi6rTlVYHTno5jfwt-LDAA==>

How our dependence on oil has negatively affected our built environment

As the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig nears its
three-month anniversary (on July 20th), the public is still waiting to see
how the story will end. More importantly, the world is waiting to see how
the worst environmental catastrophe in history is going to change America's
self-admitted addiction to oil.

[image: gulf.jpg]

SOURCE: NASA

The date July 20th shares the day with another anniversary. Just 41 years
earlier, Man first set foot on the Moon in an impressive display of how
technology can propel humanity to reach our highest achievements. The
exploded rig, located just 41 miles off the coast, reminds us how technology
can demonstrate the limits of humanity.

In light of the facts that have emerged over the last few months, it's
almost surprising an accident of this scale hadn't occurred sooner. You've
no doubt heard about the corrupt regulators at the Minerals Management
Service (MMS)<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTVvEs3jLmOFo7WGIMNjzgbn9BzijxBkK5Yu3Ic6zvS6EHQmGUfPgn33vxSN4hBOeI2Xqw0LKYia2wtHPTnGTWCcbZ-FoESHeXdeY-Ex-txZsyJcOJ6PFcEyqpXmF5yMVJxxfBj4CkM3At55T9Jh3g5ivQfxc6I7FquQhLggFzr1eg==>,
the horrific and shocking safety track record of
BP<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTWjrVCugEHUba-qwODTBvz36SUnesAmhT6JLrlrpcW7DV5SlGdnLBO5L_ZuR0bDJfzBgURi-VqKNI9R6nzErX8uF9HOhw_I2tjovXH9NDL1jIMv3sVvdduRg9Pqdo0KtfS5CHrzBztyNmM-8xvKT4JjtlzfUeiTvUR6YeaCdyUYR7Ev6ghs0jx4OTb9806DJTc=>,
and the cost-cutting risks taken in the construction of the well
itself<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTXXs9Km7vCsyjG-gflesH-ZBSUdjqNWUO4S4SLqxPXFZedsZLzZrNSJpBHQyEKrX_LqK-bqSVG5Ihg-mLzrlYUraypiV4Hxa8-WFNb4FpfMCxDBmS4Rsn4NBfWnGTkREnrKVhyj4y3zC3tteNt2__Uhz5XdaFIm2YIBsPjhIHtpLopQCpo5dXoo>
.

The disaster at the Deepwater Horizon that left 11 men dead and continues to
pour millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico is the final act in
the story of our adolescence. This could be the ultimate sign that our way
of life has to change if we are to survive. If any good can come out of the
irreparable damage done to the water, the Gulf Coast economy, or the
wildlife itself, we must change our relationship with oil.

read on<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTX1L-SZ7DVpM5UESPptuN2ta5Vweolr7Puulo8xmNIv74CZpRZ6bUsEqg1Vm1yFg0D83mY9_Y409qHh7_oouhmWfYNolf06aPCkIvege_C7DMt2Os-aBOK8mdQZTRxrWf8ZslDo1Tb2QQ==>

    [image: wsj.com]

A Talking Head Dreams of a Perfect City
Osaka's robot-run parking lots mixed with the Minneapolis lakefront; a
musician's fantasy metropolis
By DAVID BYRNE
Originally published in the Wall Street
Journal<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103549554630&s=12359&e=001-joVvEQpTTUrZ78dY-Tf_h__kBTDRtbNB6PthT6tepAz3x68J6ENEW9P11eAiAfLREwJcTJSbOs0gu3NlsNI8omoBXvfnixYd4tF_qjzZYS5uGXOyZV5Hfnv3OdHSM3i47fr50MzJtr-fYHwsbGVFNb6_2nmiMeNiO3VjZfJrMjJBc1x3IOpekU6yq8YrxOJ>

[image: byrne.jpg]

New Orleans on a rainy day.  National Geographic Stock

There's an old joke that you know you're in heaven if the cooks are Italian
and the engineering is German. If it's the other way around you're in hell.
In an attempt to conjure up a perfect city, I imagine a place that is a
mash-up of the best qualities of a host of cities. The permutations are
endless. Maybe I'd take the nightlife of New York in a setting like Sydney's
with bars like those in Barcelona and cuisine from Singapore served in
outdoor restaurants like those in Mexico City. Or I could layer the sense of
humor in Spain over the civic accommodation and elegance of Kyoto. Of
course, it's not really possible to cherry pick like this-mainly because a
city's qualities cannot thrive out of context. A place's cuisine and
architecture and language are all somehow interwoven. But one can dream.


[image: byrne1.jpg]

 The author in Budapest.     Natalie Kuhn


As someone who has used a bicycle to get around New York for about 30 years
I've watched the city-mainly Manhattan, where I live-change for better and
for worse. During this time I started to take a full-size folding bike with
me when I traveled so I got to experience other cities as a cyclist as well.
Seeing cities from on top of a bike is both pleasurable and instructive. On
a bike one sees a lot more than from a freeway, and often it's just as fast
as car traffic in many towns.

A "livable city" means vastly different things for many people. In Hong Kong
it might mean that your family is in a comfortable apartment while you play
in the exciting mercantile world in a glass tower overlooking the harbor. In
Dallas livability might mean that you live near an expressway that isn't
jammed up, at least not all the time, and your car runs most days. For some
it might mean super fast Wi-Fi, the possibility of lucky and lucrative
business opportunities and plenty of strip clubs. If that's what rocks your
boat then try Houston, though to me that city, oil money made physically
manifest, is my worst nightmare.
Here are some things that make a city livable for me:

Size
A city can't be too small. Size guarantees anonymity-if you make an
embarrassing mistake in a large city, and it's not on the cover of the Post,
you can probably try again. The generous attitude towards failure that big
cities afford is invaluable-it's how things get created. In a small town
everyone knows about your failures, so you are more careful about what you
might attempt. Every time I visit San Francisco I ask out loud "Why don't I
live here? Why do I choose to live in a place that is harder, tougher and,
well, not as beautiful?" The locals often reply, "You don't want to live
here. It looks like a city, but it's really a small village. Everyone knows
what you're doing" Oh, OK. If you say so. It's still beautiful.

Density
If a city doesn't have sufficient density, as in L.A., then strange things
happen. It's human nature for us to look at one another- we're social
animals after all. But when the urban situation causes the distance between
us to increase and our interactions to be less frequent we have to use novel
means to attract attention: big hair, skimpy clothes and plastic surgery. We
become walking billboards.

Sensibility and attitude
New Yorkers are viewed as being tough as nails, no-nonsense but with hearts
of gold-or maybe just gold-plated. This might not be the sensibility I would
choose if I had a choice. The people of Glasgow, where most of my relatives
live, are working class, blunt and free of pretenses. (They see their sister
city Edinburgh as putting on airs). Their sense of humor can be scathing,
though I find it hilarious. There's a wicked sense of humor associated with
Berlin as well-Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder and Helmut Newton all shared
this dark and sometimes transgressive sensibility. New Orleans is a city
where people make eye contact. There's a more open sensuality there as well.
I'd take that in my perfect city, minus some of the other aspects of that
town, such as its tragic poverty, corruption, and crime.



[image: byrne3.jpg]
Rush hour at a Tokyo subway station.            Alamy

Security
Travelers return from Japan with tales of someone having left their phone or
bag on the subway or even on the street and then returning to find the phone
or bag exactly where they left it, sometimes the next day. I'd like to live
in a city where the citizens trust one another that much- though I suspect
that's the result of Japan being a more or less homogenized society, which
has its drawbacks as well. But security can exist in the West. For example
in parts of New York's West Village, as author Jane Jacobs pointed out, the
streets are rarely abandoned and there are almost always some locals hanging
out, so everyone sees a little bit of what's going on. The community has
eyes and ears, and everyone behaves accordingly. In my perfect city I'd feel
that sense of neighborliness-that people weren't in my business, but that I
would be a familiar sight, as they would be to me.

Chaos and danger
To some, security means rigid order and strict rules. I do believe we do
need some laws and rules to guide and reign us in a bit, and I don't just
mean traffic lights and pooper scooper mandates. But there's a certain
attractiveness to New Orleans, Mexico City or Naples-where you get the sense
that though some order exists, it's an order of a fluid and flexible nature.
Sometimes too flexible, but a little bit of that sense of excitement and
possibility is something I'd wish for in a city. A little touch of chaos and
danger makes a city sexy.

Human scale
Scale is important. In London people hang out in Soho, Covent Garden,
Mayfair and other areas of mostly low buildings packed closely together. The
City (their financial district), like the downtown in many American cities,
is full of tall offices and it empties out at night. It isn't that bustling
in the daytime either. Some sort of compromise might be more ideal-the tall
towers mixed in with the modest-sized shops and restaurants.

Parking
To be honest, available parking doesn't matter to me. Parking lots and
structures are dead real estate-they bring no life into a city and I'd be
happy if there were a lot fewer of them in New York. It would be a pain in
the neck for a lot of drivers, but unless they can be hidden underground, as
they are often in Japan, lots and parking structures are simply dead zones,
which hurt the businesses around them. In Japan parking structures are
skinny, no wider than a large car, and a robotic system files the cars away.
The Italian cities of Florence, Modena, Ferrara, where parking is pretty
much relegated to the fringes of the town, are vibrant, though their appeal
to pedestrians has turned some of them into tourist hubs.


[image: byrne6.jpg]
Berlin's Unter den Linden.                              Alamy

Boulevards
If boulevards aren't too wide, like 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires, they can
serve to break the monotonous pattern of streets and blocks, let sunlight
in, and function as a landmark (so you know where you are). And if they are
lined with trees and beautiful buildings of different types, they can even
be pleasant. Park Avenue, Manhattan's widest boulevard, doesn't cut it. The
green in the middle is lovely but inaccessible, and the endless sameness of
giant apartment or office buildings with little else to break the rhythm
inspires the eye and mind to glaze over. Berlin has some great boulevards.
Karl Marx Allee, a massive boulevard in former East Germany, has outdoor
cafes, wide sidewalks and weird Soviet era fountains and movie theaters. It
threatens to go beyond a comfortable scale, but the business in the little
shops along the street helps hold that in check.

Mixed use
This is a Jane Jacobs phrase. A perfect city is where different things are
going on, relatively close to each other, at different times of the day. A
city isn't a strip of hotels and restaurants on a glorious beach; it's a
place where there are restaurants and hotels, but also little stores,
fashion boutiques, schools, houses, offices, temples and banks. The healthy
neighborhood doesn't empty out at 6 p.m., as most of downtown L.A. does. In
my perfect city there would always be something going on nearby.


[image: byrne5.jpg]Revelers at Tennants Bar in Glasgow.            Alamy

Public spaces
In my perfect city there are ample public spaces-parks (not just vacant
land, but common areas that people pass through and use), plazas (not just
slabs in front of corporate towers) and, if possible, public access to the
waterfront (if there is one). We don't necessarily need massive acreage in
our parks. Bigger is not always better, but we do need periodic breaks from
buildings. Industry abandoned the waterfronts over previous decades, and as
the docks and the industry that went with them moved elsewhere our cities
have begun to reclaim these areas-river walks (look how many people use
Manhattan's Hudson River paths!), lakefronts (the beautiful Minneapolis
lakefront paths eventually lead all the way to the Mississippi!), beaches
and seashores. In some seaside towns there is no public access to the sea,
which to me seems a self-injuring situation. In my perfect city there would
be public access to all these areas.

The perfect city isn't static. It's evolving and ever changing, and its laws
and structure allow that to happen. Neighborhoods change, clubs close and
others open, yuppies move in and move out-as long as there is a mix of some
sort, then business districts and neighborhoods stay healthy even if they're
not what they once were. My perfect city isn't fixed, it doesn't actually
exist, and I like it that way.

-David Byrne is a musician and founding member of the band Talking Heads.
His book "Bicycle Diaries" was published by Viking in 2009.

    *Principal Features of an Ecocity
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