It certainly will take a lot of effort, and at least some time. But I don't think it's necessarily as hopeless as you make sound! New urbanism is only just becoming popular, and mostly only with the youngest, hippest folks in the field. Hopefully these kids will go into government first, where they can influence policy. My own city of Somerville has had a couple of great new urbanists in the office for housing and community development, and they have at least turned the otherwise very "old school" city government in a better direction. And the city's Climate Change Committee just helped Somerville build a showpiece LEED certified elementary school in one of the city's poorer neighborhoods. (School Departments are always happy to find new ways to save money for their system, and the people who serve on school committees are often more educated and openminded about new ideas than the general public.)
But yeah it's going to be a while. Recycling took about 25 years to become a relatively common practice. And organic food also took about 30 years to become desirable by the average person. Sustainable development is only in its infancy, but this baby looks like it's going to be a big stong kid! And studies show that, when given the choice, most people will happily choose sustainable living. People really want healthy food, water, efficient transportation, lively communities, etc. It's just a matter of making these things available and "normal".
On a personal note, solar power setups don't have to be expensive. My husband, who's a wiz with the electronic stuff, put a small 80 watt system together or a grand total of about $500. He used closeout stuff, used stuff, and one very inexpensive panel that he finstalled himself (just outside our bedroom window, on and overhang). We didn't get any rebates (I wonder if we could?). It's not at all grid tied, but is that really all that important? Our's powers nearly everything I regularly use electricity for, except a few lights, and the microwave and toaster oven (and I just built a solar oven which works surprisingly well for something made with cardboard boxes, some tin foil, and black paint). The biggest problem with our setup is that our supercheap inverter (an $8 car adaptor) doesn't like compact florescent bulbs, which we use for all our lighting.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: New Urbanism
Date: 2005-08-01 06:01 pm (UTC)But yeah it's going to be a while. Recycling took about 25 years to become a relatively common practice. And organic food also took about 30 years to become desirable by the average person. Sustainable development is only in its infancy, but this baby looks like it's going to be a big stong kid! And studies show that, when given the choice, most people will happily choose sustainable living. People really want healthy food, water, efficient transportation, lively communities, etc. It's just a matter of making these things available and "normal".
On a personal note, solar power setups don't have to be expensive. My husband, who's a wiz with the electronic stuff, put a small 80 watt system together or a grand total of about $500. He used closeout stuff, used stuff, and one very inexpensive panel that he finstalled himself (just outside our bedroom window, on and overhang). We didn't get any rebates (I wonder if we could?). It's not at all grid tied, but is that really all that important? Our's powers nearly everything I regularly use electricity for, except a few lights, and the microwave and toaster oven (and I just built a solar oven which works surprisingly well for something made with cardboard boxes, some tin foil, and black paint). The biggest problem with our setup is that our supercheap inverter (an $8 car adaptor) doesn't like compact florescent bulbs, which we use for all our lighting.