Green Thinking

Like most Baby Boomers, suburban creations (if they remain as they are) will be reaching retirement age soon. To speed up the retrofitting process in American suburbs will take more than just transforming civic centers and commercial areas. Citizens should receive benefits for thinking and acting sustainably in their activities. To make driving less appealing would require a nationwide effort, beginning with revenue-generating mechanisms placed on all carbon fuels. Therefore, the wealthy might begin to buy hybrid vehicles instead of gas-guzzling luxury SUVs or even switch to biofuel or electric cars. The federal government could take the revenue and use it to support funding for transforming infrastructure to transit-oriented development and works and cross-country railroads, for example, as Al Gore had hoped to accomplish. State and local governments could invest in clean public transit and works as well, such as improved sidewalks and bike paths. Counties like Miami- Dade and "villages" like my own would gradually switch their zoning from Euclidian to Form-based. 

Also, local governments could offer tax incentives to residents who make improvements under the terms of sustainability, such as installing solar panels, xeriscaping or planting vegetable gardens, and switching to more efficient air-conditioning systems or not using air-conditioning at all, benefiting working class citizens as well. On the contrary, those who would go over a certain limit would have to pay a percentage each time they consumed more of a natural resource such as using more energy and water. The government could use this money to further fund local initiatives to improve efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint. Hopefully, this would begin to create awareness for conservation and generate a change in our culture toward long-term green thinking.

(Urbanism and the New Economy)

In order for the United States to become more sustainable, cleaning up the mess is the solution. That does not mean making up for our inefficient cities by building new eco-cities. Dongtan, China, which at the mouth of the Yangtze River is surrounded by organic farms, has energy-efficient buildings, high density to increase walkability, and biofuel, batteries, and hydrogen as power sources, but using such ideas to improve our own. It also does not mean building more planned communities like Celebration and Seaside, Florida, which while they attract residents with their preference in community values over independence, are criticized for being exclusive and too artificial to be livable. Instead, existing cities should be retrofitted and small-towns should be transformed into transition towns.