Milestone...

Some of you may have noticed a new addition to the enVisionReading list on the right side of the page. Indeed it is true, I have successfully made the transition from writer to author.

The book, Towards a Sustainable New Orleans, is available via the major online book merchants (certain advertising agreements prohibit me from telling you exactly which one's they are, but I will say that one is named after a South American river and the other rhymes with Narnes and Boble).

Here is a brief synopsis;

Focusing on the examination of land use and development choices that have been made in New Orleans in the recent past that relate to the economic system of hyper-capitalism, Towards a Sustainable New Orleans proposes a sustainable and equitable redevelopment strategy for the city and the region. Many of these land-use and development choices have placed a majority of the city¿s residents in harm¿s way of a natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated the need for coastal cities to adopt sustainable development plans in order to counteract poor choices made under the hyper-capitalist system. This book proposes a policy framework for the further development and implementation of a sustainable redevelopment plan for the city that utilizes the ideals of environmental justice as an organizing principle. Towards a Sustainable New Orleans is essential reading for designers, planners, government officials as well as people living in coastal areas.

Greenwashing...

Hope.

If you haven't already heard that word expressed a thousand times since November, you're about to experience an unprecedented use of the word.

Yes we can.

A catchy little phrase coined by the first minority elected to the highest office of our nation; ironically also a phrase used by advertisers during one of the NFL Championship games on January 18th (and regardless of which hyper-capitalist entity used this phrase, it's disturbing just the same).

This week will certainly become one of the definitive milestones of America's cultural and social history, but there is a deep seeded problem that can derail progress. Americans expect too much and are unwilling to change their fundamental beliefs in order to facilitate progress and change. All the hope in the world will not change the decisions which are made that are based upon Hyper-Capitalist ideals.

In the Mississippi Delta region, such blindsided hope is preventing our nation from actually correcting many of the planning and development choices made prior to Katrina. President-elect Obama provides hope, but he can not fix everything on his own.

Along the same lines, a riverfront re-development project is beginning to take shape in New Orleans; but as we mentioned previously, the city has no comprehensive plan to adequately address the issues that led to the social, cultural, environmental and economic destruction left in the wake of Katrina.

"Stop raining on the parade!"

"Stop being such a Pollyanna!"

These may be the cries coming from the back of the auditorium, but if we are to hope I ask this question; why not hope for a leader who motivates people to develop equitable and sustainable goals and then implement those goals?

Now, this is not to say that there are not people and groups out there contributing to our equitable and sustainable future (fighting the "good fight", so to speak), but as we have mentioned, our future as a society, culture and community requires a systematic paradigm shift. And the only way to facilitate that shift is to include our national community's consumption habits in that shift.

Hope.

Yes we can.

As the title of this post suggests, I was originally going to simply discuss greenwashing and its lasting effect on our culture and society. However, we will begin that discussion another day and we will see how yet again, everything is connected to everything else.

"It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not. It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though as folly it may appear to those who cling to false hope. Well, let our folly be our cloak, a veil before the eyes of the Enemy!" -The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Where's my Garden City...?

The endgame of comprehensive planning seems as it should be simple and straightforward. You may be asking yourself, why don't we all live in Garden Cities, or some variation of a conglomeration of planning utopias? The answer is simple; Hyper-Capitalism.

There is that hyphenated theoretical construct yet again. Hyper-Capitalism has managed to influence nearly every aspect of our lives, especially in the field of planning and development. The precepts of H/C dictate that any social, cultural, environmental or equitable aspect of any decision should be considered after a profit/loss analysis has been performed.

The examples of this influence are abundant and obvious; the largest being the case of pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans. The planning system and decisions that had been made in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina deliberately placed minority and low-income residents in the potential path of destruction that would result from a catastrophic hurricane event. Planning decisions were made solely based upon their hyper-capitalist merits; translation - how much money would be generated from each development decision made by the city.

Now, in the face of the failure of the hyper-capitalist system, planning agencies are once again turning to the almighty dollar as the motivation for approving projects. Even if the projects being approved threaten to destroy our Nation's architectural and landscape architectural heritage.

I believe totally in a Capitalist System, I only wish that someone would try it. -Frank Lloyd Wright

Patches, patches everywhere...

Over the past few weeks, there has been a fair amount of attention given to the concepts of backyard farming and "victory gardening". Undoubtedly, this focus has a direct correlation to the failure of the American hyper-capitalist system, the rise in unemployment and the normally unassociated costs of purchasing food from a commercial source.

In many urban communities, residents not only grow organic vegetables, but they raise "small flock" chickens, generally numbering less than 10 hens that produce an average of 2 eggs per day per hen. In addition to providing homeowners with fresh, locally produced eggs, the urban chicken proponents use the flocks as educational tools for children.

Recently, there has been significant attention given to the notion that a portion of the White House grounds should be used to grow organic crops, presumably in an effort to promote what has been called the "sustainable food movement".

Here is where the problem with these concepts lies (and I am sure that many people will accuse the author of merely obsessing over semantics while the overall concept is what is more important). Converting your lawn into a victory garden, raising your own chickens and cracking your own eggs is a fine way to save money, but it is not necessarily a sustainable practice.

Is it organic? Yes.

Does it reduce fossil fuel consumption? Yes.

Does it provide educational opportunities for young Americans? Yes.

Does it help support the local economy? No.

Does it address the needs of American farmers who have been run out of business by their government and now by their neighbors? No.

Do a few fragmented patches of organic gardens, chicken coops and rain barrels make for a fully sustainable local and global community? No.

The same phenomenon which threatens to obliterate forests throughout the world is now threatening to derail the entire sustainability movement; fragmentation. When a forest ecosystem is divided into patches, the inhabitants of the forest may find it more difficult to migrate through the ecosystem, thereby reducing their access to food and potential mates (note: this a fairly broad stroke introduction to the concept of complimentary and connected uses, which we will explore in great detail in the coming weeks).

Because of the lack of a comprehensive, complimentary and cohesive sustainable development regulatory structure, the efforts of those involved in the movement are inadvertently creating "patches" of organic and sustainable elements within their local (and eventually global) community.

A prime example which has been receiving a fair amount of national press is the redevelopment of New Orleans. As many of you know, Global Green has been constructing 8 LEEDs certified, "green" architecture homes in a ward of the city. As many of you may not know is that the city government and redevelopment authority do not have a comprehensive plan that allows for the creation of a truly sustainable city. In other words, the only sustainable project occurring in New Orleans are 8 homes built by Global Green and visited by Brad Pitt.

Let us recall the Brundtland definition of sustainable development; "...development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In layman's terms, we are putting the cart before the horse.

Without comprehensive planning, we are threatening to derail the purpose and potential of sustainable development and organic production methods.

Without comprehensive planning we, as a local and global community, are threatening to create communities which will become fragmented, thereby derailing our social and cultural development.

And when we fail to evolve and adapt as a society, we threaten our entire existence.

We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody. -R. Buckminster Fuller

Just the facts...

Election day is less than a fortnight away and the race, which has been seemingly going on forever, is quite close. Here aresome of the facts that I would like to present to you, the readers, to demonstrate which candidate has a clear vision and action plan regarding issues that we are dealing with in our daily battle to further the cause of sustainability and environmental justice.

(Note: These policies and viewpoints are quoted directly from the candidate's websites.)

Obama:

Build More Livable and Sustainable Communities:

• Reform Federal Transportation Funding
• will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account
• re-commit federal resources to public mass transportation projects across the country

Restore the Wetlands:

• preserving our wetlands and supports a broad range of traditional conservation programs including the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the Wetland Reserve Program in the Farm Bill
• will work with local governments to develop the best strategies for protecting and expanding wetlands
• protecting wetlands dates back to his days as a state senator, when he was a cosponsor of the Wetlands Protection Act in Illinois
• will help the Gulf Coast restore the wetlands, marshes and barrier islands that are critical to tamping down the force of hurricanes and serve as critical fish and wildlife habitat

Strengthen Federal Environmental Justice Programs:

• will make environmental justice policies a priority within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• will work to strengthen the EPA Office of Environmental Justice and expand the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program
• will work to provide low-income communities the legal ability to challenge policies and processes that adversely affect the environmental health of low-income and minority communities

Build Healthy Communities:

How a community is designed – including the layout of its roads, buildings and parks – has a huge impact on the health of its residents. For instance, nearly one-third of Americans live in neighborhoods without sidewalks and less than half of our country’s children have a playground within walking distance of their homes. This lack of a safe place to walk and play is a major contributor to the growing numbers of overweight children. Barack Obama introduced the Healthy Places Act to help local governments assess the health impact of new policies and projects, like highways or shopping centers. Once the health impact is determined, the bill gives grant funding and technical assistance to help address potential health problems.

McCain:

Wetlands

• we must develop water resource policies that will protect these important natural assets for the benefit of all
• employing long-term science-based strategies that properly manage strained freshwater resources
• promote polices that will preserve sensitive areas like the Everglades and the Louisiana coastal marshes

Open Space

• Economic development is essential to a strong American economy
• promote responsible growth and encourage state and local officials to implement open space initiatives and establish green corridors within our communities
• will require strengthening federal tools like Land and Water Conservation Fund that emphasizes recreation and the protection of wildlife areas

Yes folks, that's all that Senator McCain talks about in his vision for creating a more sustainable and equitable America. As you can clearly see, McCain's policies are still founded on hyper-capitalist ideals that work against the ideals of sustainability and environmental justice. One of the most important paragraphs in this entry is Obama's views on Building Healthy Communities. Notice in the very first sentence he talks about design.

Can we honestly say that there has been a major political candidate in the past 30-years that has even uttered the word design in reference to the faceless, hyper-capitalist driven sprawl model which America has embraced for so long?

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts." -Abraham Lincoln

The end of hyper-capitalism

The Washington Post is currently reporting that the current financial crisis is the end of "American-style Capitalism"

Proponents of sustainability, specifically those of us who have been theorizing about the link between capitalism and sustainability, have known for some time that the United States has been operating under an economic system that is itself unsustainable. Not surprisingly, the right side of the political spectrum often labels those of us who have warned about over-consumption, corporate greed and the dire need for equity throughout the nation, as "socialists", "communists" or "liberals".

Regardless, it has become glaringly apparent that hyper-capitalism (which is the most appropriate label that we can give to our current economic system which has been encouraging unchecked consumption, greed and disparity to an alarming, unsustainable levels) has finally run its course.

This does not necessarily indicate, however, that we are shifting back to an agrarian, trade-based economy or that we are simply going to abandon over one hundred years of economic evolution simply because the greedy have begun to panic as they can see the end of their selfish, consumptionist lifestyles. We will most likely return to a normal, somewhat sustainable and manageable form of capitalism.

Rhetoric reminds us that "from the ashes a phoenix shall rise", and the current economic crisis is no different than the opportunities which we are presented with following a catastrophic natural disaster. Our return to a normalized capitalist system is a golden opportunity for America to instill an equitable and more sustainable approach to our national lifestyle.

We have seen evidence of the influence that hyper-capitalism has imposed on our nation's social, cultural and environmental planning and development choices. There is no better example of this influence than the inequity that had been fostered in the City of New Orleans for decades, and was placed on international display in the days, weeks, months and years that have followed since Katrina.

The time has come for a new breed of capitalism, one that instills social, economic and ecological equity into our developmental and planning choices (keep in mind that the onset of this downfall can be directly linked to the greed of the mortgage industry and the housing industry).

Sustainability, sustainable development and environmental justice are the concepts that must drive our new brand of American capitalism. A brand that highlights, celebrates and fosters these concepts so that we may live in a truly democratic society.