If you were to build a city from scratch, using current technology, what would it cost to live there? Scott Adams thinks it would be nearly free, because we know how to build homes that use zero net energy, greenhouses could provide food, etc. His ideas sound rather utopian, but one of the less utopian ones occurred to me a while ago — only I wouldn’t want Astroturf:
Now assume the homes are organized such that they share a common center “grassy” area that is actually artificial turf so you don’t need water and mowing. Every home opens up to the common center, which has security cameras, WiFi, shady areas, dog bathroom areas, and more. This central lawn creates a natural “family” of folks drawn to the common area each evening for fun and recreation. This arrangement exists in some communities and folks rave about the lifestyle, as dogs and kids roam freely from home to home encircling the common open area.
That sort of home configuration takes care of your childcare needs, your pet care needs, and lots of other things that a large “family” handles easily. The neighborhood would be Internet-connected so it would be easy to find someone to watch your kid or dog if needed, for free. My neighborhood is already connected by an email group, so if someone sees a suspicious activity, for example, the entire neighborhood is alerted in minutes.
This is one facet of New Urbanist design, as in the Mueller Community, which sprang up to replace the Austin municipal airport after it closed 16 years ago:
A research team from Texas A&M University polled Mueller residents and what they found was striking. After moving here, respondents said, they spend an average of 90 fewer minutes a week in the car, and most reported higher levels of physical activity.
The poll results seem to validate new-urbanist gospel: good design, like sidewalks, street lighting, extensive trails and parkland, can improve social and physical health. Several mornings a week, a group of retired guys power walk through Mueller.
“We’ve lost weight. We’re certainly more fit than we used to be,” says Don Dozier, a retired accounting professor. He and his wife, Janelle, moved here in 2008 from a conventional subdivision south of Austin that had no sidewalks. “I think probably the main thing is that we have made an incredible number of friends,” he adds.
This social engagement is what a lot of residents mention. Frosty Walker, a retired TV cameraman, recalls the cul-de-sac where he used to live in northwest Austin.
“It was one of those situations that you would come into your house, and if a neighbor came, the garage door went up, the car went in the garage, the garage door went down,” Walker says. “You would see each other and wave every once in a while, and that was pretty much the extent of your relationships.”
You can never be progressive enough, NPR reminds us:
Mueller seems to have it all: electric cars, solar panels, green buildings, walkability and native landscaping. But what happens when one of Austin’s most progressive, welcoming neighborhood confronts racial incidents involving some of its own African-American residents who don’t feel so welcome?
Another Nazi fantasy. Too bad they always come with death camps to weed out the “life not deserving of life.”
PS. Do not be confused. I do mean “Nazi” literally. The Nazis embraced Romanticism, which is an explicit repudiation of the Enlightenment and reason and science, in favor to f feeling and intuition. As such, Nazism had a strong environmentalist tendency that was related to its racist Blood and Soil ideology (modern bioregionalism, localism, Deep Ecology). The sordid story is retold by Anna Branwell (Blood and Soil), Janet Biel and Peter Staudenmaier (Ecofascism), Frank Uekoetter (The Green & the Brown). Recent developments, especially the related animal rights movement, are covered by Luc Ferry (The New Ecological Order).
Well, I don’t know about “Nazi”, but there’s no doubt that there’s a strong authoritarian “eat your spinach, dammit”, big nanny aspect to a lot of New Urbanist plans that I certainly find off-putting.
Hey, what if everybody lived in multi-story apartment blocks with communal bathrooms and some type of cafeteria eating situation? And what if everybody took public transportation back and forth from their jobs and shopping? Why would they have to shop anyway? Maybe people could live in dormitories that were actually attached to their place of work, and there could be shops and places to eat right in the factory? It all sounds so good.
That sounds like college, Space Nookie.
Just make sure someone cleans up the dog and cat mess from the freely roaming animals. You can do it.
They also used to think the high rise “projects” were the solution to the housing “problem”. All those projects gone a long time ago now.
Disaster by the genius urban planners from the start.
More like prison or a Foxconn factory town.
Urban farming is impractical because it takes more than an acre of farmland to feed each person.
Great article on The Problem with Teeny Little Farms.
Bob Sykes: tl;dr Nazis are Commies. Commies are Progressives. QED.
On the topic of artificial turf, I saw some samples at a recent home and garden show that were truly lifelike, and not at all like grandpa’s Astroturf. These divots were little works of art, full of natural-looking variation in texture, color and length of leaf. They can even create gradations of density so that it doesn’t end abruptly like a rug when it comes to the edge of your lawn. I’m thinking of getting some for the large areas under the trees where nothing grows.
Under the trees where nothing grows? Something is growing under those trees: bacteria, worms, lichen, moss, insects, fungi, etc. An unseen universe of growing things supporting the growth of those trees, unlike the totally unnatural lawn your trees hate. All the chemicals taxpayer funded parks and recreation departments pour under trees for the lawns result in weak and short-lived trees, which spread disease throughout the suburbs surrounding them. Go find some forest and see what is growing under the trees. How to kill your trees: cover the area under them with concrete or astroturf.