[SustainableTompkins] Density & Crime, etc.

[Tony Del Plato]

Well said Katie.
Tony Del Plato

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 8:41 AM, Katie Quinn-Jacobs <kqj at quinn-jacobs.org>
wrote:

> Thanks for voicing the opposition so tactfully and courageously, Marlo.
> I'm afraid I won't manage quite as well...
>
> I'd be dead in a month if I lived in "high density" housing with no way
> out.  Period.  During the course of this discussion thread I actually
> tried to imagine myself attempting such a thing and I kept coming back
> to the same question:  "But what would I do with myself?"  I'd be exiled
> from everything I understand, everything I rely on to give my life
> meaning.  As a person who grew up in a dairy and apple farm community, I
> simply wouldn't know what to do with my days.  Living through the
> transitions of a post peak oil/climate disrupted/economically
> impoverished world seems much more palatable on my 80 acres located 5
> miles from the Commons - which is why I'm here.  It's still
> walking/biking distance from the city and my family will be able to
> raise most of its own food and network with others choosing to do the
> same in our low density sprawlish community.
>
> Talking this prospect over with my kids and husband at dinner visions of
> sci-fi nightmares centered on people living cooped up in efficient
> living circled round the table. Perhaps as George Franz suggests we are
> all afflicted by American real estate brainwashing or an unjustified
> earth-killing dose of American Individualism.  Whatever.  Personally, I
> think attacking people where they live is a poor opening for a
> discussion about the future.  Giving people a reason/positive motivators
> to reconstruct their lives that are tied to their well-being in terms of
> better services, jobs, opportunities to work collectively (like
> community gardens & kitchens) and security makes more sense.  In some
> important ways I have over the past 12 years seen this taking shape in
> the City of Ithaca, but, of course, it is often derided as
> "gentrification" and salvaging homes downtown still carries the stigma
> of "single-family dwelling" with the proponents of shared walls.
>
> Acknowledging that the high density vision is not for everyone, nor is
> it practical (Who's going to grow the food or supply the wood for the
> high density crowd?) and that it is dependent on large systems running
> responsibly would go a long way toward opening up this discussion.  It
> could be argued that it's easier to reduce your footprint and contribute
> to the well-being of your local community in a rural location, because
> you and your neighbors have more control over your circumstances.  In
> any case, not everyone's spirit is attuned to becoming bike-riding
> vegans living in 4 story housing or, conversely, living in the isolation
> of a rural community growing rutabagas with your extended family on the
> back acreage, however much "sense" either reality makes.  Perhaps it is
> the limitations of my 20th century upbringing coming to the fore, but I
> still hold diversity as a key to our collective success when planning
> for the future and am nervous about one-size-fits-all solutions
> requiring "If only people would..." as a starting point.
>
> -- Katie Quinn-Jacobs
>
>
>
> Simon St.Laurent wrote:
> > marlo capoccia wrote:
> >
> >> i'm being contrary about this probably because i just can't imagine
> >> having limited access to rural living.  aren't there tons of people
> >> like me who would feel terribly penned-in not being able to wake up
> >> in the middle of the night and walk in a field all alone with the
> >> moon?  is that a figment of our imaginations or lack of experience?
> >>
> >
> > Even George's world will, I expect, need farmers and the villages and
> > hamlets that support them.
> >
> > Unless, of course, I've missed something.  (And of course, that's fewer
> > people than currently live outside the city.)
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Simon St.Laurent
> > http://livingindryden.org/
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