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Ben Engelke

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Build a 100%, fully self-sustaining community that would provide for 1000 people. 5000? 10000?

No matter the cost. Build a community that doesn't rely on oil or any other finite natural resource. Granted this will require some of those finite resources to complete, but calculate what goes in compared to what the final product is. Fully sustainable living for a thousand people. Sign me up.

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    Jun 28 2013: There is such a community already existing. It provides for 7-billion people. It is planet Earth. (Please note I did NOT say it was being utilized in an optimum manner. . . all I said was that it currently exists).
  • Jun 26 2013: I used to agree with you, but after considering it for a year or two ---the idea is unfeasible. Some elements are practical, others doom the community to failure. Consider the great city-states of the renaissance-Venice, Genoa, etc. These cities flourished because of trade, not being self sustaining. The arts, letters, religious reformation, and architecture came about with the flow of people from other regions.

    A community of 10,000 people each with a specific role will become stagnant over time. How many of each profession do you need? How many musicians, artists, building trades, butchers, bakers, bankers, real estate agents make a community self sustaining? If you try to create a community that has the best teachers, brightest students you could create an elite community where the housekeepers can't afford to live there-Think Celebration, Fl or Palo Alto. If the community can't produce enough wages for everyone it could collapse into a ghost town.

    Create that community around a high school. 10,000 people will have approximately 600 15-18 year olds, a midsize AA high school. Get that community to trade with themselves, create the necessary local retail. Get your teachers, firemen, and policemen to live in the community they service. Create an area that artists as well as engineers can thrive, musicians can make a living, and a few " products' can be exported from the community. Push for land use rules that push for density so walking, biking, and mass transit is viable. Make that high school district a growing economic zone with elements that attract people-great school, job availability, and quality of life.

    IT will be easier to recreate a community that already has diversity versus building it from scratch.
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    Jun 25 2013: We're a small gang that are starting this project here in Sweden.

    Have you heard of OpenSourceEcology? http://opensourceecology.org/

  • Jun 27 2013: I suggest you view this talk:


    Towards the end McDonough describes a project involving large sustainable cities. I am not sure whether they are completely self-sustaining, but I think that they mostly are.
  • Jun 26 2013: Haha yes what a fabulous idea for the eco friendly millionaires out there who would be the only people that could actually afford something like that and even then their quality of life would be less than if they didn't live eco friendly so it would be very unpopular. Now how about the government do this? even a worse idea because then you would be taking away millions upon millions of dollars that would be going to tax cuts hospitals schools ect ect.
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    Jun 25 2013: check out the venus project, and Resourced Based Economy's. the abolishment of money as we know it, and the new path to removing the corrupt that have reigned for far to long on this planet. The end of master and servant ideology, except for in the bedroom... :0)
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      Jun 26 2013: .
      "Money" makes greed.
      Greed makes invalid (harmful) happiness.
      Invalid happiness makes all kinds of evil,
      including unsustainability.

      (from Be Happy Validly!)