Infrastructure of Sustainability

This article from earlier in the month appeared in the Courier-Journal. The article on the drought in California is relevant to us, here in New Albany, for a number of reasons: 1. evidence of climate change 2. noteworthy during the week of earth Day 3. validates the logic and exigencies of localism, independent businesses and sustainable communities.

Governor Jerry Brown has imposed sanctions to curtail the use of water in California. The arid state has long been on a knife's edge balanced between verdancy and drought. The great movie, Chinatown, showed through believable fiction, how desperately business interests coveted abundant water. In our part of the country, we worry through bothersome dry spells, but the rains usually come in sufficient volume to bail out farmers and we seldom need to resort to heavy conservation measures to help us through those spells.

For me this particular passage from the article is the money shot:

Retail price spikes are unlikely because of the drought, however. Only a small portion of what shoppers pay is based on what farmers get for their crops -- shipping, handling, packaging and marketing expenses are collectively bigger. Plus, food prices are often set on a global scale of supply and demand, so in a vast world marketplace, California's drought may not be a big factor, Sumner says.

People in California are scrambling to adjust to what seems like the new reality. They are taking steps to dial back water usage through more use of native plants rather than trying to have emerald green lawns. Farm workers are being bounced out by the reduced crop yields. People are beginning to envision a future where a less hospitable climate will erase discrete ecosystems, and place stress on wildlife in general.

Around here, locally, in our own backyards, in our daily routines in our small Midwest city, we can begin, and many have begun, to envision a future where, ' Only a small portion of what shoppers pay is based on what farmers get for their crops' may become a relic of a wasteful, unsustainable past. A friend of mine owns and operates a market that sells a wide range of locally grown produce. His store is open year round, but is naturally more well-stocked during spring, summer and early fall. All the items he sells comes from within a radius of 150 miles. The very nature of his business helps local growers become stronger. Those growers help stand against the collapse of local economies undermined by lost manufacturing jobs, and the devastation that trend has wrought on our economy. The concentration of food production in meteorologically vulnerable parts of the nation makes no sense when we see the ravages of drought in California. Where next will the comfortable past be 180ed into a new reality?

My friend's store doesn't appear to be a ticket to Easy Street. On the contrary, it is a tough, uphill battle trying to push people out of a rut of buying long-distance, insecticide-laden, produce from mega-farms. His produce isn't cheap, but as the article points out, under what passes for conventional agriculture today, only a small portion of the cost of produce goes to the farmer who produced it. Under the model my friend's producers follow, they earn more for their work, and so can more likely be a sustainable player in building a sustainable system, less vulnerable to capricious weather patterns, which  obviously, is better for all of us. In a real sense, these producers are fighting for our futures as much as their own.  They are helping to build a new infrastructure of sustainability.

Locally grown, or locally produced agricultural products are perhaps more easily perceived as part of a strong, healthy locality. But, in countless other commercial transactions we have the chance to, step by step, build a more vibrant, sustainable locality. These strong, varied, vibrant, prosperous localities are the infrastructure of sustainability. We can take steps here and now to make our own region more responsible, sustainable, and prosperous, by looking at how our daily commercial activities relate to, and affect our planet, which is truly our locality; New Albany's just a Zip Code.

Jeopardy--New Albany Style

Contestant number 1 (Lysistrata):  I'll take "Big Yellow Taxi" for $800, Alex.

Alex Trebek:  It's two photo clues... Johnny?

 

 

Lysistrata: The old Street Department Headquarters, demolished in 1999.

Alex Trebek: In the form of a question, please.

Lysistrata: What is the old Street Department headquarters demolished in 1999?

Alex Trebek: Sorry...(contestant number 2) Sylvan?

Sylvan:  What is the northern-most historical structure in downtown New Albany facing demolition by neglect?

Alex Trebek: Sorry...(contestant number 3)Damian?

Damian: What is an abject failure in the pursuit of preservation of historic structures in New Albany?

Alex Trebek:  No, sorry players, the correct answer is, 'What is the next most likely historic structure in New Albany to fall victim to the Culbertson Avenue jinx?'
Just a note for future reference, we would have accepted either jinx, or curse, in that question.

Stay tuned. We'll be right back with Double Jeopardy. All I can say is, watch out.

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If another game, instead of Jeopardy, say, What If,  were played, the possible scenarios are limited only by imagination and vision.

I'll throw out a few what ifs:

What if it were converted to a public art space under the auspices of the Parks Department, sort of like the Studio 2000 program tried here, successfully, I might add, in 2005 and 2006?

What if it were used as a transitional shelter for disrupted families; those needing temporary shelter, refuge from abusive relationships, day services such as credit counseling, drug rehabilitation, or any of the myriad programs which help the disaffected get back on their feet?

What if, as community artist David Thrasher suggested, Fairview Cemetery were to be complemented by a sculpture garden; and this building were the locus of an accompanying exhibit, or repository of information about the magnificent reliquary art in the graveyard?

What if this property were swapped with the current headquarters of the Harvest Homecoming? The current HH HQ, being closer to the heart of downtown, could possibly be better incorporated into the commerce of the downtown district, thus helping to boost the revival of the downtown.

What if...?

The list is much longer than I've written, and as I said, limited only by imagination and vision.

 

Food for Thought

The city of New Albany has a poor public transit system. Most less-than-major cities in the United States have poor transit systems. All scientists, save disreputable shills, believe we must do something about the degradation of the atmosphere in order to pull back from the brink.

A viable public transit system allows people to move about their communities for work, commerce, involvement in those communities.

The Indiana Supreme Court has shown, perhaps inadvertently, how smallish cities can have viable public transit systems.

The New Albany Floyd County School System spends over $5 million annually to bus students to school. Urban schools are closed, while distantly located schools make walking to school a near impossibility. Such an arrangement undermines dense, sustainable neighborhoods; neighborhoods which would benefit from a viable public transit system, and which are the hallmark of a walkable, livable city.

Why not have an arrangement between the school system and TARC which uses TARC buses rather than school buses to transport students to and from school? The children would be transported to their schools, and back home; the cost of unitary-use buses, drivers and equipment, could be deducted from the school budget; the costs could be shifted to subsidized transit fare tickets. In place of the unitary-use, yellow buses, the community would have a viable, well-patronized system the whole community could use to become less auto-centric. The students riding the buses would gain a familiarity with the bus system, giving them greater mobility within the community, as the community builds a more sustainable future.