An Action Plan

The biggest issue in solving our suburban sprawl problem and redefining community and place is what we should do first. Should politics take care of the issue through zoning changes? Should individuals do something, even though many say individual action would not really make a difference? In truth, I believe we are trapped. Our culture of fearing the wrong things hinders us from making progress; as it was finally brought to the attention with the killing of Trayvon Martin. Trust is something Americans have to develop again. A lack of trust comes from sheltering children and raising them in the gated community mentality, and it is something which will keep us from surviving the post peak-oil period. The way children have been raised since the Baby Boomers became adults keeps the youngest generation unexposed to real problems; this must be fixed. Attention to the proper creation of place will not occur unless there is a paradigm shift in our thinking. Beneficial zoning changings can only be brought to commissioners as a political agenda if there are enough supporters of all ranks. Without a change in zoning, the people, too, will be trapped in their homes, their lifestyles, and their thinking. 

We do not necessarily have to establish brand new communities like Celebration and Seaside, Florida because our current urban situations are too unsustainable, large-scale, and messy to solve. We also should not escape the society we have created or been born into because otherwise we are creating gated communities with another intention. We should try to include as many different Americans as possible in this endeavor to become sustainable. While these planned communities are doing a lot to be self-sufficient and walkable like the New Urbanist settlement, the Kentlands, a lot of us would find the homogeneity and somewhat exclusive environment displeasing or almost too old-fashioned. Through our own initiative, creativity, and knowledge on how to sort through our democracy (the first step is to find a specific problem and solution regarding urban planning, but the conflict must also be present in various places for it to be worth solving), we can restore our communities to be secure, healthy, and pleasurable for a post-peak oil transition. Some environmentalists and active citizens have gone to great lengths to turn their towns into Transition Towns, but this is a bit difficult when your city is as populated, large, and widespread as Miami. When trying to reach out to plenty of citizens for this, we must navigate the proper government level to fix the problem politically and use creative advertising as (on a more personal level) a tool to receive support.