The Crazy Man and the Cars

[jordan179]

Once upon a time I knew a crazy man who wanted to abolish automobiles.

He wasn’t really crazy, of course, and he didn’t want to “abolish” automobiles in the sense of destroying every car in existence and forbidding their further manufacture.  He was an supporter of the “car-free” movement, which advocates a return to living in the urban cores

Comments

[gothelittle]

This is excellent. I'd like to add a slightly different perspective that, in time, sends us to the same conclusion as yours

[gothelittle]

The other part of our post-industrial society is the Internet. Specifically, the ease of ordering from a distance. Now, we've been able to order from a catalog by phone for a long time now, with four to six weeks for delivery time. Now, however, a well-designed setup of warehouses plus schedule efficiency (aided by computers!) can bring you your goods in days, or less. In addition, the slow reformation of our economy based on Internet usage has opened up increasing numbers of Internet-related jobs that can be performed at a computer anywhere in the country. Why drive into the office when you can telecommute from a small office at home? Why get the kids into the car and head out to the grocery store when you can just get Peapod delivery later that day? Shop at your own convenience... have your goods delivered to your door

[headnoises]

Especially if folks pitch in to get the house-well on a small area, so the houses are in easy walking and playing distance.

[jsl32]

i know people living this way. it, uh, isn't like that.

[gothelittle]

I know several groups of people living that way and am moving in that direction myself. And yes, it, uh, is like that.

[jsl32]

competing anecdata! and no, it's not like that in Cascadia (Pacific Northwest bioregion).

[gothelittle]

I live in New England. I am a member of a few homeschool groups, some of them nationwide, and follow several blogs whose writers span the globe. Most of them are concentrated down the Eastern Seaboard with others in the Northern Midwest and a few in California. Anecdotal, yes, but widespread

[cutelildrow]

...increasing incidences of suburban couples fighting to be permitted to build vegetable gardens in their front yards as well.

A reflection of that trend you mention is the misconception of a vegetable garden as ugly looking, and there being lots and lots of advice on how to get the vegetable garden you want while 'disguising' the vegetables as ornamentals, or planting them in ways that give you both pretty and practical.

The postage-stamp gardening is incredibly popular, as is seen by trellis vegetable gardening / 'vertical gardening', soil-in-tube gardens, windowbox vegetable growing, and even small scale back yard hydrofarms with fish AND greens, with the wastewater from the fish going to feed the gardens, and so on.

I'd adore nothing more than to be able to start my own gardens and keep them fully sustainable (because, if nothing else, they can help with one's budget!) and because, having had a large flock of chickens before, we saved lots of money on eggs, and the chooks were pretty good at fertilizing our garden.

[gothelittle]

I'll be honest.. they have a point. The way the classic yard patch vegetable garden is done here is pretty ugly, and there are lots better ways of doing it. People just kind of buy plants and plunk them down in rows, sometimes staking the wobbly ones, sometimes just letting them flop. There are lots better ways of doing it, like planting scrambles among uprights, or taller ones in back, or just planting in a curve instead of a straight line, or putting up decorative edging instead of stakes and chicken wire

[cutelildrow]

*sighs in longing at the lovely gardens*

...when I own my own house and land.

[gothelittle]

When I do get a vegetable garden in again, I plan to do like the American Indian tribes in my area who *didn't* practice slash-and-burn agriculture and plant the Three Sisters - maize (corn), pole beans, and squash

[cutelildrow]

It would depend on the climate of the area we eventually settle in (no fixed plans yet) since Australia has a nice wide range of climate, from tropical; searingly hot desert, something in between and Tasmania, which, I'm told, isn't too different from European climates.

[gothelittle]

The curious thing about these new sustainable living folk is that they are increasingly conservative. Back in the '60's and '70's, the Mother Earth movement was largely liberal and on the fringes, though a few things (like peasant blouses made from unbleached muslin and deerskin moccasins) made it further into the mainstream. Now, however, conservatives are finding their own way into the environmental movement, and changing it to meet their needs

[cutelildrow]

On the whole, these new conservative environmentalists are more interested in saving money and energy than following fads or feeling good about their work. They are ruthless in evaluating methods and choosing the ones that *work*. A recent study showed that conservatives would not choose energy-saving lightbulbs if the bulbs were priced significantly more expensively than non-energy efficient bulbs, while liberals were more likely to pick the energy efficient bulbs regardless of price.Oh definitely, especially with saving money and energy being the motivation for being more 'environmentally friendly.' I'd be keen though to have solar panels to help defray the electric bills; there are some good (and actually efficient, I'm told) combos that are popular here in Australia that I've been noticing - the ones that help power water heating tanks and the ones that power the airconditioners. My mum and dad in law have a grey-water cistern and I think a rainwater one. Back in the Philippines, we did consider gathering up rainwater in drums for