This article points out the incredible power of human ingenuity. As I keep taking steps toward sustainable lifestyles, I run into all manner of inner limiting belief systems. A major one is “Don’t Make Mistakes”. The correct answer is rewarded in school. But check out the learning from Gaviotas. Try stuff, learn from “the mistakes”…. genuis appears through trial and error. So Go For It!!! There aren’t mistakes, they are the path to amazing.
It became clear to us that most of the successes at Gaviotas were not a result of brilliant planning but of a trial and error process, replete with wrong turns and detours.
Gaviotas showed us that there is not an orchestrated march toward a finished product—there is only the process, the unpredictable evolution of strategies and ideas… READ MORE >>
Here’s the givens…a walkable, green lifestyle. ”5 minute living”, is how the Sonoma guy refers to it.
Now add the amenities you’d like to have in your neighborhood. Make it so compelling you’d move in! The beauty of the situation is you’re not alone. You share your ideas, your inspirations. Others share theirs. Together, we can make sustainable real! READ MORE >>
Continued from Part 2…An Interactive Website and a Brochure are the 1st elements of the map to the Sustainable Urban Village!
The idea of the brochure, is as I come across people who might want to submit their ideas, I can leave them with some info, the guidelines and a reminder. And something they can pass on to a friend.
Another interact tool I’m conjuring up works off of Zoomify. The idea is the viewer can zoom into a site plan, look around, and click on points of interest (“hot spots” in Zoomify speak), and more info comes up. So it’s like a narrative, a walkthru. This is very useful.
Al Moore's St Mikes center section
A year or so ago, the City of Santa Fe commissioned seven planners/architects to come up with their ideas on how St Michaels Drive could be remodeled. My experience, standing looking at each of these site plans was pretty empty. A couple of days later, one of the architects, Al Moore, gave me a verbal tour through his ideas, and the neighborhood came alive…It was a fabulous place to live…sexy, contemporary architecture, a fun creative environment.
So here’s my idea…not only would Al provide a written tour with Zoomify, but other viewers could take Al’s layout, and change the names/functions of the buildings. You could create a whole ‘nother mix of commercial businesses and services using the same layout. Or you could invite your friends, classmates, or fellow employees to participate, and together another Village mix would be created. Name em, post em to the website, and everyone can vote on their favorites!… READ MORE >>
All together now… ”We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine…We all live in a yellow…”
I’ve embarked on this adventure that leads, I fully believe, to the promised land, the gold at the end of the rainbow, the treasure…Sustainable Urban Villages. I bought this map from a guy in the alley…. the story unfolds from Part 1…
Yar Maties, we be in the hunt for the Sustainable Gold!
The Map, as best as I can read it, says we’re starting with Stories from a Sustainable Future.
Over a short meeting in Seth’s office, he offered to make Sustainable Urban Villages the theme of an entire issue (40 or 48 pages). I immediately saw the opportunity: we could get the word out across North Central New Mexico… one of those “Yar Mates, thar she blows!” moments…
I’ve put a draft of a brochure together. The front panel reads:
What if You Could Design Your Thriving, Alive, Resilient, and Sustainable Future?
What Would Make the Design of Your Neighborhood So Compelling, You’d Move In?!… READ MORE >>
As I’m gathering the images for this post, the kick off of the Map to the Sustainable Gold, the sound track kicks in… I’m hearing the theme to Gilligan’s Island. Please feel free to insert your favorite sea shanty! Hey, how bout “Yellow Submarine!”
Yar Mates!, we be in the hunt for Sustainable Living!
The Map, as best as I can read it, says we’re starting with Stories from a Sustainable Future.
If the stories are compelling enough, and the stories are from people who want to move into a Sustainable Urban Village, all the stakeholders will stay committed and persevere to the end! There’s that’s my theory, anyway.
The treasure needs to really compelling, as all manner of monsters may come roiling out of the depths!
If the landowners, investors, Architects, planners, city policy persons, the secondary mortgage market, etc can see the value, they too will add their creativity to make this SUV real… READ MORE >>
How do you capture lightning in a bottle? Human ingenuity is the greatest asset we have, and since the times call for innovation on all levels, I’m saying it’s time to tap the lightning.
tapping into the power...human ingenuity
This Sustainable Urban Village I am proposing, needs a governance system that’s built on human ingenuity and innovation. Check out this video on Dynamic Governance… and imagine feeling similarly about your neighbors, as these people feel about their fellow employees.
Even though businesses are the subject, why wouldn’t these dynamics transfer to a neighborhood where all the residents and businesses are organized around a great, sustainable place to live and work? Sign me up!!!… READ MORE >>
The artists move into the industrial, run down part of town. Rents are cheap, spaces are big. Cafes and bars start to open. The area becomes hip, creativity is flowing…and the lawyers move in. Nice restaurants and high end clothing stores open up.
Get 'em while they're hot!
The prices skyrocket. The artists are forced to move out, the Soul fades…ah, but it’s a good investment! The Condos pop up, get ‘em while they’re hot!
There are so many parts to this scenario that irk me, I don’t know where to begin!
First off, who created the value of this highly desirable place? I’d say the artists. I’d also say the suburbs are so boring, people are starved for soul, a “realness” with vibrant, alive streets. So we as a society get some of the credit, in a reverse kind of way.
The next think that irks me is how, in our mad rush for a great place to live, we end up doing great damage to the very thing we love; … READ MORE >>
Museum Place Lofts & Townhouses were finished in 2003 in Portland’s Cultural District. The development has 140 apartments atop and behind a Safeway grocery store.
Safeway has thrown away its clothes!!! Naked Thursdays!! Come as you are!
Yes, I’m babbling…I just learned Safeway in Washington DC has two mixed use redevelopments cooking. Starting with community input sessions, Safeway partners up with a builder and is creating mixed use properties. They’re, in effect, adding residential on top of their grocery stores!!! Well, Duh!!
I’m taking steps to create a dense, mixed use, deeply affordable, thriving neighborhood redevelopment in Santa Fe. So when SAFEWAY!!! goes mixed use, I don’t feel like such a pie-in-the-sky Utopian. Damn straight, I’m a pragmatic developer of sustainable neighborhoods!!
One of these Safeways is going to have 150 apartments and 10-15 townhouses above the new Safeway. Another has 486 apartments and is going to be 17 stories tall, again above the new Safeway and underground parking.
It takes a certain number of residents to make the neighborhood commerical successful. Underground parking is expensive. The numbers have to work.
In Santa Fe, we don’t have the traditions of medium high rises to make the densities successful. Our challenge is to have enough buildings with 2-4 stories above commercial and community services on the bottom floor, so the streets become lively with neighbors going about their daily tasks.
Safeway’s experience partnering with housing developers and working with residents through the zoning process has allowed the company to align itself with public officials who are looking to fashion their neighborhoods as more walkable, urban and environmentally friendly.
This is contrast to Wal-Mart, which is looking to sell more groceries and open at least four stores in the District, but is fending off protests. Developing mixed-use projects is more complex work than simply rehabilitating grocery stores, but Tim Baker, vice president of eastern division real estate for Safeway, said company officials have begun meeting with residents about plans to redevelop the property into a mixed-use project. Baker, who used to work for Wal-Mart, said it pays off. “The way we look at it is, we can get an even better project that way,” he said.
Safeway… who would have thought?? They’re going for a huge private label organic food line, and now mixed use redevelopments. Quoting Arlo at Woodstock “New York threw away its clothes!!”
So come on people. Raise your voices, envision your future sustainable! Together we can make sustainable real!!
I woke up this morning, freaking out. Doubting myself…I’ve oversold the opportunity…I’m proposing this community organizing path around a sustainable neighborhood demonstration site, and there is no funding.
It’s like I’m organizing a road trip and have enough money to get to Lubbock. I need to ask my fellow travelers if they’ll chip in before we head out to New York.
The other thing that comes to my mind is this sign I’ve seen on the wall at local businesses…
“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”
So I sat myself down and mapped the road ahead, and figured out when the money needs to show up. I’ve been bootstrapping it out of pocket, but there comes a time for dinero….
“What” you might be saying, “is he talking about…specifically?!!”… READ MORE >>
Foundation Investing and Your Vision of Sustainable Neighborhoods
Foundations grant 5% of their assets and invest 95%. As I understand it, the branch of the foundation that invests has very little connection to the branch that makes grants. In fact, sometimes their actions are running against each other.
The beauty of socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable neighborhoods, is they meet both objectives! The social mission of empowering, resilient, health lifestyles, uplifting, poverty busting, social justice, ecologically sound, and local economic development all gets handled in ”mixed use, mixed income neighborhoods with lifelong learning and open space” .
The investment mission gets handled in creating large opportunities for investing in real, lasting values!
So… submit your ideas, your vision of the sustainable life you want to be living. As the needs aggregate, the existing market demand for sustainable neighborhoods becomes more apparent. Once the construction industry, from builders to banks to investors, finally accepts the go-go days are gone, they will become more open to this new form of community based in real, lasting values. National foundations will have something to invest in that meets their asset needs. And their funding branch will see their missions move forward.
Your vision of your desired future sustainable lifestyle and billions of foundation $$$ assets ….A match made in heaven!!…
