Date: 2005-07-31 09:40 pm (UTC)
Mmmmm. marmota monax has my dream home!

This post hit me close to home, as our landlord just decided to evict us, primarily due to our more sustainable living practices, including my registered Backyard Wildlife Habitat, that he and the grumpy neighbors don't like (though part of it is just that the landlord is a little crazy). So we have to move. I want to move to the "country" and work at home, like I've been dreaming of for years. David, on the other hand, can't decide what he wants. Originally he was all excited about moving to the wilderness, so I'm not entirely sure why he's postponing it now. He periodically mumbles something about life in the country not being as sustanable as being in the city. I say both can be good, if done thoughtfully. Sustainable transportation is clearly a key element. I like to bike, and we discovered a relatively inexpensive electric scooter than can go almost 20 miles on a charge, and I wouold only want to live somewhere that had at least a rudimentary public transit system. We've already got a very small solar power system (powering my computer right now!), and a windmill would be another good addition. Growing much of our own food is also something that we both want, so I'm looking into learning about permaculture, and David's already an expert when it comes to apple orchards (he lived/worked on one for a couple of years). I think a big stumbling block is that he's worried about what he'll do for work.

As for the ideal situation for the civilized world, I would suggest a design with lots of smaller cities scattered around about 5-15 miles apart (in New England, anyway) with very rural areas in between. The cities would be well connected to eachother with commuter and freight trains, lots of car-free roads, and a few all-vehicle roads. Some parts of the rural areas would be preserved for wildlife, while others would be used for farming and recreational use. This design would allow for some dense development while still letting people be near the wilderness and would be idea for efficient public transit. Suburban sprawl would be nearly eliminated. Oh, and the urban areas would also need to be filled with lots of urban nature!

Nova Scotia seems to be looking to doing some rezoning to encourage this kind of "transit hub" development. This policy was part of what encouraged us to buy land there (in a very rural area that is only about 4-5 miles from a fairly dense college town with plenty of public transportation). The government there seems to be very interested in making the province sustainable, which is cool.
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