|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
The EcoVillage and the virtues By Mandy Metcalf Neighborhood residents are creating a new plan for the future in the environmentally-friendly community in Cleveland called the Cleveland EcoVillage. The EcoVillage, centered around the W.65 th–Lorain–EcoVillage Rapid Station in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood just west of Ohio City, is the kind of place that offers front porches, walkable streets, and hope for society. It is becoming a place which helps people live in harmony with their ecological and social values. In the EcoVillage it is now convenient to live without a car and to grow organic food in the community garden. It is easy to get to know neighbors and to get help and support for environmentally-friendly living through the EcoVillage Community Advisory Committee. The completion of the green W. 58 th St. EcoVillage Townhomes has triggered additional private market-rate green housing and interest in EcoVillage projects. As we plan for the future it is helpful to think about the philosophy behind urban ecovillage living. The network of ecovillages around the world provides opportunities for people to live sustainable, low-impact lives and to pursue a better quality of life. Some ecovillages promote the rural ideal of self-sufficiency within an intentional community: growing your own food, building your own homes, producing your own energy, caring for your own children and elderly, treating your own waste, and meeting all your own needs within a small community of people. The advantage to self-sufficiency is that the community’s impacts on the earth are known and simple and controllable. There is no need to worry about contributing to global warming by heating your home if you know you made your own wind-powered electricity, and there is no need to worry about the effects of pesticides and energy consumption used to ship your vegetables across the country if you know you grew them in your own backyard. Rural self-sufficiency vs. urban interdependence In contrast to rural self-sufficiency is urban interdependence. Living in the city is about being dependent on people other than your immediate family and community to get where you want to go, keep your children safe, and to care for you when you are sick and troubled. City economies are very complex and jobs are very specialized. Urban interdependence allows an artist to focus on creating art and not growing food and building shelter. Urban interdependence allows doctors to focus on cures for rare diseases, high-tech companies to focus on new wind power technologies, community organizers to fight injustice, and politicians to work for peace. Urban interdependence allows people to pursue a variety of unique and satisfying fields of work. There are other advantages to the urban situation of being dependent on others. Cities encourage us to look at ourselves as connected to a larger society and world beyond our immediate families and social groups. Cities foster the open minds and new conversations that are a necessary requirement for a sustainable world. The complexity of urban life promotes creativity and culture, but it also makes it difficult to think about the impacts of what you eat and how you travel and how the things you buy are made. Cities provide a lot of choices. The challenge for an urban ecovillage is to help its residents make ecologically responsible choices about what to buy, to what extent to be self-sufficient, and upon whom to depend. The great advantage of an urban ecovillage is that living in the city can be very sustainable and beneficial to the environment if the right choices are made. In cities we can provide efficient public transportation that reduces our need for oil. In cities we can provide energy-efficient housing and wastewater and stormwater treatment. In cities we can collectively demand and buy environmentally friendly products. In cities we can create lively and beautiful neighborhoods where people can walk and gather. By redeveloping cities we can reduce the pressures for suburban sprawl, which is the biggest environmental problem facing Northeast Ohio. As the Cleveland EcoVillage looks ahead to 2005 and beyond, we will embrace the idea of urban interdependence and all the potential it offers. We’ll be planning for greenspace improvements at Zone Recreation Center, possible alternative energy projects, streetscape improvements on Lorain Avenue and W. 65 th St., incentives for residents to weatherize their homes and ride the Rapid, and for future development and preservation of affordable housing. We will continue to explore innovative ways that life in the city can be good for people and for the earth. To contribute to the conversation about the future of the Cleveland EcoVillage, or for help in finding a place to live in the EcoVillage, please email or call 216-961-4242.
EcoCity Cleveland
|
The great advantage of an urban ecovillage is that living in the city can be very sustainable and beneficial to the environment if the right choices are made. In cities we can provide efficient public transportation that reduces our need for oil. In cities we can provide energy-efficient housing and wastewater and stormwater treatment. In cities we can collectively demand and buy environmentally friendly products. In cities we can create lively and beautiful neighborhoods where people can walk and gather. By redeveloping cities we can reduce the pressures for suburban sprawl, which is the biggest environmental problem facing Northeast Ohio.
|
||||
