Human Life Project

Personal Transportation Hubs: Supporting Alternative Transportation

2012-01-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Note: This blog post is being written from a U.S. perspective for U.S. cities. We do realize that much can be learned from other countries.

A growing number of reports indicate that some demographics, especially seniors and millennials, are interested in moving back to the city centers. Other reports promote the benefits of such "hot topics" as: increased densities, mixed-used, transit oriented developments, etc.

To support all of this, we should expand our transportation options. Granted, options such as Bus Rapid Transit programs similar to what was implemented in Curitiba and is being started in Chicago and high speed trains are good. Our proposal is to consider creating "Personal Transportation Hubs.”

A Personal Transportation Hub is a shared resource for a group of people. The resource being shared is various transportation vehicles. These could include cars, bikes, scooters, and "electric vehicles" (more on this later). This idea is inspired by some reports indicating that millennials are more interested in renting than owning. With this train of thought, more compact developments could gain space and cost savings by creating a Personal Transportation Hub of shared vehicles. The Personal Transportation Hub would be for members only. The members could reserve and check out any vehicle that is in the Personal Transportation Hub.

Consider, for example, a cohousing development with 40 to 100 units. Traditional design would indicate that 1-2 parting spots are needed per unit with some spaces for visitors. With a Personal Transportation Hub, car sharing could reduce the number of parking spaces per unit by eliminating the need for a second car, or in some cases, their primary car. Thus, there would be space savings, as well as cost savings to residents without the worry of car maintenance or insurance. If managed well, the Personal Transportation Hub could provide the members access to specialty vehicles such as a pickup truck for home chores or a convertible sports car for date nights. Hopefully, each member would indicate their destination to allow others to see this with the hope of encouraging car pooling. For example, consider when someone is going to the grocery store. A senior Personal Transportation Hub member who can no longer drive may be very appreciative of this car pooling opportunity.

Consider again a cohousing development with multiple generations. Considerable space is needed to allow everyone to store their personal adult bikes and especially the kid's bikes. At any one time, only a fraction of the bikes will be in use. Replacing the individual bikes with bike sharing stations will save garage/storage space for the housing development as a whole.

Borrowing from European experience, it would seem that as U.S. cities become more compact that scooters will become more and more acceptable to use. Scooters would then be a natural component within the available transportation options.

The "electric vehicle" inclusion would require changes to our transportation infrastructure as the "electric vehicle" we are referring to is a golf cart. Compared to a gasoline powered car or the new hybrid and fully electric cars, golf carts are inexpensive. The golf carts are also smaller, so it will be easier to find parking than a full size car. The idea is that the golf carts could be used for short trips by a person that is not physically able to use scooters. Consider a senior going to a doctor appointment or grocery store or a mother with kids going to a park or museum (safety improvements would probably be needed for the kids to be passengers in the golf cart).

Currently, U.S. roads do not allow golf carts. The thought is to change current regulations and designs so that the golf carts are allowed. For example, consider a Complete Street-like design. Another, option to consider for retrofitting existing city infrastructure is to convert a road that has one lane in each direction. These roads could easily be converted to have 1, one-way lane for cars with the second lane being dedicated to alternative low-speed vehicles such as the golf carts, low speed scooters, and bikes. Hopefully, these alternative vehicle lanes would be safe enough so that families could also use them for bike riding with young kids.

A consideration with golf carts is inclement weather. One low cost option is a clear plastic "tarp" (specifically designed for golf carts) that goes over the golf cart. This can minimize the effects of rain, but is not overly "pretty" looking and does not help with more sever weather. Doing an internet search, the below hard shell golf cart was found. It this becomes popular, more options would likely become available.

For a properly designed city, essential services such as doctor offices, grocery stores, parks, museums will be in relatively close proximity to where the people live. Thus, the golf cart should be able to easily reach these locations with a single charge. Never-the-less, an associated idea is to put charging stations around town at key locations such as senior centers and parks. The idea is that the city or a private group would pay for the cost of the charging station. Each user would pay for the electricity that they use plus a "connection" fee to help pay for the operating costs. For example, $1 connection fee + 10 cents per kWHr (market rate where we live). Hopefully the local government would be reasonable about the cost. As a reminder about trying to make the transportation more sustainable, having a solar panels attached to the charging station would be a nice option. The charging stations would hopefully have connections for many types of devices from electric cars to golf carts to computers to hand held electronic devices. This should increase the station's use and shorten the payback period.

Mixed-Generational Housing: Seniors and Families with Kids in the City

2012-01-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

Senior housing is usually separate from where families with kids live and yet, seniors and families share surprisingly many common housing and environment design needs¹. Living in the city has advantages such as jobs, transportation options, shopping, parks, entertainment, and services. Unfortunately, the seniors and families typically live outside the urban center and miss out on the urban advantages. The goal of mix-generational housing is two fold: design for the youngest to the oldest resident to live in close proximity to each other and the urban center.

Our first proposal is that there appears to be benefits by co-locating the seniors and families with children. Instead of duplicating services in multiple parts of town, services would be consolidated in one location. The APA briefing paper² reports that the AARP research has shown that seniors do want to live closer to younger people.

From a business case perspective, in addition to the cost savings by combining the similar services, demographic data is indicating that seniors and children will compose almost half of the population in the upcoming years.³ Thus, there should be a good financial case for co-locating the seniors and kids.

To gain additional synergies, such as restaurants that serve the business crowd during the day and the families in the evenings, our second proposal is to locate the mixed-generational housing within the downtown or in close proximity. This will reduce the commute time for the family income earners thereby freeing up more time to spend with the family, creating stronger families. This location choice ties into the growing movement of walkable, transit-oriented communities with the live-work-play mentality.

The resulting representation of the city now looks like:

It should be noted that designing for seniors and families in no way leaves out singles and couples with no children. These demographics will benefit from the design as well.⁴

The Human Life Project® has a list of guiding principles for Mixed-Generational Housing:

• Design for youngest to oldest resident

• Families and senior adults live in close proximity, singles and couples also included

• Provide mixed-income options

• Encourage social interaction with common gathering spaces

• Family-friendly living sized for larger households with safe play areas

• Connection to nature/outdoor spaces

• Multiple transportation options

• Minimize waste and maximize recycling

• Attractive and user-friendly design

• ADA accessibility

• Long-term sustainability

• Green building

• Effective use of resources

• Growing food for residents

Some interesting observations:

The first observation came from a senior focus group. Their comments were that if you design the city for the seniors, you will accommodate everyone else as well. We believe there is significant truth in this perception, but that it is not completely accurate. For us, it seems as though senior-oriented design will result in maybe 80% of family needs being met. For example, seniors can probably be comfortable with a 1-2 bedroom unit. However, families with more than one child will need 3-4 bedrooms. With some foresight and additional planning, senior design can also include the families with children. This should accomplish about 95% of the total design. The last piece to add is the support for singles and couples, which should be a relatively small step to take once the seniors and families are adequately supported.

The second observation has come from trying to research family-friendly cities and more specifically family-friendly design standards. A prominent west coast city undertook a commendable effort to create family-friendly housing. However, a young couple could not find an adequate three bedroom family unit downtown. For example, they said that the size of the children's bedroom was not big enough for a bed and that to them, it seemed more like a home office. Thus, proper design standards are imperative to make sure that developers create housing that will truly meet the needs of the intended residents.

The Human Life Project® has created a vision for a "multi-mixed" housing design concept. Principally, mixed-generational housing offers both senior units and family units. The design concept is very flexible, and can include mixed-use with businesses and supporting services. Preferably, it would be mixed-income as well. Our designs do support efficient use of space and other principles that can lead to cost effective housing as well as adding of amenities for the higher end residents. Another goal is to also include multiple transportation options (mixed-transportation), encouraging walking, bicycling, and public transit.

We envision a number of benefits for this type of design. The first benefit is aging in neighborhood. The concept is that as the person's state in life changes, they can move a very short distance to a more appropriate house. A single young adult may start with a 1 bedroom unit. Once married, they can move to a 2 bedroom unit. As family size expands, the family moves to the larger 3 to 4 bedroom units. Finally, when the couple becomes empty nesters and no longer want to deal with stairs, they can move to one of the ADA assessable units. The concept is that all of these units could be within the same building structure. Consequently, as a person's state in life changes, they have the option to stay in the same neighborhood and retain friends, favorite restaurants, grocery store, bank, place of worship, etc.

The topic of "aging in place" seems to be gaining momentum. We actually would like to dissuade this because of a couple of observations. Aging in place principles would require that the larger family units incorporate ADA accessibility features so that as the parents age, they can still function well. Instead, aging in neighborhood is encouraged. Our proposal is that the ADA features would only be in the senior accessible units, which the person would move to as physical condition changes. Thus, they could cash out some of the equity from larger family unit, move to the smaller assessable unit, and use this extra money to help fund their retirement. The larger family unit is then passed along to the next generation of families with young children. This is a more active approach to addressing generational housing needs rather than stationary.

Another observation in the progression of cities over time is how young families initially move close to schools and then remain in the same house many years after the children graduate. In our town, this has resulted in school neighborhoods with few children. However, housing options are limited for seniors to move within the city. Thus, families with the young children are often forced to live remote from the schools. We think that our proposed design will allow the continual influx of families with young children so that the school enrollment can be maintained.

Another anticipated benefit is for the formation of neighborhood social networks. We are hoping that the design will encourage a high degree of social interaction between the residents which will result in the neighbors helping one another. For example, the family may check in on a senior periodically. The senior could call upon the family once in a while for help with small tasks. The senior in turn can occasionally watch the kids when the parents need to go somewhere.

I would be interested in feedback (scottranville@humanlifeproject.com) on this topic.

What do you think of the two main proposals?

a. Locating seniors and families with children close to one another

b. Locating the seniors/families near the business center

What is the best way for implementing mixed-generational housing?

We are guessing that a combination of "push" and "pull" will likely be needed. Our observations so far is that the concepts are more accepted at the comprehensive plan level for a city rather than changing municipal codes. Thus, some "push" will be needed to encourage cities to change zoning and public policy to move in a direction of uniting the generations within the city by addressing specific housing needs for seniors and families with kids. However, cities do not seem to be in the position to mandate this type of design to developers. On the flip side, urban planners and architects working with developers are in a great position to do some "pulling" to start proposing and implementing multi-generation housing to show feasibility, desirability for residents, and profitability.

The following quotes are from the American Planning Association briefing paper, “Multigenerational Planning: Using smart growth and universal design to link the needs of children and the aging population,” http://www.planning.org/research/family/briefingpapers/multigenerational.htm.

¹ “Older citizens, families with young children, and the young adult population share many common needs, interests, and concerns … safe, walkable neighborhoods, a complete range of services nearby (child care, senior centers, parks, food stores, health care, etc.), an opportunity for civic engagement, affordable and mixed use housing, and adequate transportation options (Lynott et al. 2009).”

² “Unfortunately, most programs for the elderly have been built on the notion of age segregation — in services, housing, and even transportation. Yet recent research by AARP has shown that most aging Americans do not want to live in communities separate from younger people.”

³ “By 2040, the proportion of people over the age of 65 will top 20 percent, and people under the age of 18 will make up almost 23 percent of the population. As result, the oldest and youngest populations combined will make up almost half of all U.S. residents.”

⁴ “Communities built to address the needs of older persons and families are communities that can serve all residents well.”

2011-12-07T15:25:00.000-08:00

Concept design for affordable housing. The picture is for a larger 4 bedroom unit, but smaller units are possible.

This housing style has a preliminary estimate of 50-60% reduction in construction costs compared to a comparably sized traditional stick frame design. Preliminary estimates also indicate a 30% reduction in expected heating costs.

Reshaping Cities 2+

2011-08-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Reshaping Cities 2+ presentation at the Ecocity World Summit 2011 in Montreal confirmed the need and interest for cities to better design for families. Households with 2+ generations is essential for a city's human sustainability.

While many green cities experience a decline in the child population, Denver tops the list of green cities growing the child population. Two case studies show the potential of increasing family households living in Denver: Stapleton development and Benedict Park Place. The core guiding principle for Reshaping Cities 2+ is interdependency. Cities endure over time by designing for the youngest to the oldest resident, acknowledging the interdependency between families, businesses, and natural resources.

The conference was attended by 1,500 delegates from 280 cities and 70 countries.

View PowerPoint Slides for Reshaping Cities 2+
http://humanlifeproject.com/ReshapingCities2Plus.pdf

Ecocity World Summit 2011 Montreal

2011-06-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

Reshaping Cities 2+

On August 24, I will be presenting at the Ecocity World Summit 2011 in Montreal, Canada.

Abstract:

Designing cities for 1 to 2 adults per household is easy. The real challenge is to attract and retain households of more than 2 people. Families raise the next generation of residents, ensuring ecocities endure over time. How can we reshape our cities to better support family households?

Key concepts include reversing sprawl by creating family centers closely tied to a city’s business center, dramatically reducing work commute and resource usage. Family centers are defined by places that encourage a high degree of social interaction such as schools and cultural venues. Daily living components are conveniently clustered together including healthy food access, recreation, and child care. Residential neighborhoods are located near the family center, providing a variety of green housing options with 2+ bedrooms across a spectrum of income levels. People walk and bicycle daily from their residence to the family center as well as the business center. Public transportation is also prominent, providing a viable substitute to the automobile. Design for the youngest to the oldest resident is integral to overall success.

The Denver metropolitan region is an excellent example to show the complexities and possibilities of the business center relationship to its family centers. Inspiring examples include the Stapleton development, America’s largest urban infill project, with approximately half of the residents representing family households with homes designed to conserve 40-70 percent of natural resources. Public transportation is rapidly expanding to connect all metropolitan cities to downtown Denver called FasTracks, one of the largest regional transit programs in North America. The recently launched Denver B-Cycle program combined with a pedestrian and bicycle master plan is a positive shift towards green transportation.

Reshaping cities for 2+ makes it possible for families to live and work in the city.

This session will provide ideas to better support families living and working in the city, reversing urban sprawl and saving resources. Green housing, transportation, and land use are integral to designing the ecocity for families.

Organic Farming Multiplying Crop Yields

2010-07-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

Research is paying off in higher crop yields for organic farming. Catherine Badgley, Associate Professor for the University of Michigan, is demonstrating the potential to feed more people on less land. A local organic farmer in Ann Arbor, Michigan is able to produce 26 tons of fresh produce a year on only 3 acres of land. Research from around the world is showing that organic farming can produce as much as 4 times the amount of food as industrial Western farming practices.

University of Michigan Organic Farming
http://sustainability.umich.edu/content/out-blue-episode-212-organic-farming

Short Walk to Hampstead Community Farm

2010-07-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Can a community really support itself on locally grown food? The Hampstead community is not only growing some of its own food but using the fastest delivery method: walking. Fresh produce is grown at the Hampstead Farm just down the street from the Town Center.

The Hampstead neighborhood development in Montgomery, Alabama is designed by Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company to “meet daily needs within a 5 minute walk.” Daily living needs accessible by a short walk from home include a market, shops, library, recreation center, and even a farm. The one major missing component for families is a school.

View CNN Video on Hampstead

Hampstead Master Plan

Soft Path - Local Food

2010-07-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Food, Inc. Documentary Uncovers Food Industry Practices

After watching the documentary Food, Inc. (http://www.foodincmovie.com/), it inspired us to write this blog posting. Food, Inc. points out that only few companies control the majority of food supply in the U.S. Business practices employed by these companies elevate profits way above the health of their customers and employees. These companies seem to "own" the politicians who also favor the profits of a few CEOs over the health and well being of the citizens.

Food, Inc. makes an interesting point of how local organic farms could be part of the answer to combat the precarious situation in the U.S. food supply chain and the associated related health issues. The concept of locally grown organic food is a great example of a sustainable soft path effort that fits perfectly into the Human Life Project for building family-friendly communities. The local organic food (including fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy, eggs) has a number of advantages such as being healthier, reduced emissions from transporting the food, and supporting the local economy. The previous posts on Agriburbia are another example of locally grown food.

Could a city really produce enough food to support itself? For the moment, consider supplying a city with vegetables for the entire year. Homeowners could plant a small vegetable garden. Apartment dwellers could place plants on their balconies. Those with larger buildings such as corporations and schools could convert their roof to a "green" roof for growing food. City open space could use the Agriburbia concept to convert unused open space including a portion of maintained lawns into a mini vegetable farm.

For this concept to work, it would require residents to change eating habits. Instead of eating "fresh" tomatoes shipped from another nation during the local off season, they would eat local canned tomatoes. From a practical perspective, who is going to plant and harvest the food and then package the extra produce? Community involvement would be essential to its success. Volunteering might be a path to receive free and affordable fresh food.

Does anyone have an example of a city implementing local food ? (last night we found a clip on ccn.com on a city outside of Montgomery Alabama that is doing this successfully - hopefully more on this soon)

Denver Post - Letter to the Editor

2010-06-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

In today's paper (June 11, 2010), the Denver Post printed a letter that we wrote to the editor commenting on the feasibility of residential photovoltaic.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2010/06/10/photovoltaics-are-within-reach-of-homeowners/?source=ARK_eletters

Here is what we sent to the Denver Post:

This is in response to Ellen Schroeder Mackey's "The low-hanging fruit of energy savings" article on June 7.

Mrs. Mackey's article is a nice reminder, but we think that her opening statement that photovoltaics are not within reach of the typical family is outdated. Until recently, we would have agreed as the initial costs were large with a payback period of 15 plus years. However, Colorado recently allowed residential solar leasing. We researched 4 companies in the last few weeks and as a result are beginning a solar lease program. All companies offer a 0 down option with monthly payments approximately equal to your current Xcel monthly payments. However, your monthly payment will stay the same over the next 20 years. With the current yearly Xcel rate increases, this can result in 20 year savings around $9000. We chose the pre-pay option which is more down, payback period of 6 years, but $0 monthly payments and an estimated 20 year savings around $17,000.

Biomarkers as Sustainability Indicators - City Case Study 1

2010-06-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Biomarkers is an ongoing discussion topic to identify key indicators in communities that lead to sustainability. The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) group in the Kansas City area provides an excellent case study. MARC identifies seven green infrastructure indicators for local communities and regional areas.

MARC Seven Green Infrastructure Indicators:

1. Sustainable Land Use: Percent of land in the MARC region that is permeable.

2. Sustainable Economic Development: Annual regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990 baseline.

3. Social Capital Investment: Percent of 3rd graders reading at the 3rd grade level.

4. Financial Well-Being: Percent of population in households with jobs providing self-sufficient level of income.

5. Health: Percent of population that is obese.

6. Safety: Percent of people who feel safe compared to the actual crime rate (change compared to baseline year).

7. Equality of Opportunity: Geographic concentration of poverty.

MARC Indicator Framework Table:

MARC Example Program Indicators:

The full report is at: http://www.greeninfrastructure.net/sites/greeninfrastructure.net/files/MARC_GI_Indicators_Final_Report.pdf

What sustainability indicators are in your community? The Human Life Project® is interested in finding a partner to implement a mechanism to automatically collect and display biomarker information. One thought is that maybe a College Professor with a Ph D student that is looking for a thesis project. As with many efforts, securing some funding is an open topic.

We are also looking for partners to define more biomarkers.

Family Friendly Communities

2010-05-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Let us know what your thoughts are on the question: What characteristics define a family friendly community ?

The American Planning Association conducted a survey on family friendly communities and their results are at: APA Survey Results

Some interesting quotes from the APA presentation:

"Families are the most likely population group to reinvest in their community through time, money, and other forms of civic engagement."

"Families are important to growth, sustainability, and diversity. They build vibrant communities."

From the National League of Cities: “Strong cities are built on a foundation of strong families and empowered neighborhoods that support every child.”

From Jaime Lerner, former three-time mayor of Curitiba, Brazil: “When you start to love the children, you have to love all of the children because if the city can't love those children too, then those children will grow to hate the city. And if they hate the city, they will destroy the city.”

One of the goals of the Human Life Project® is to write down a list of features for the "ideal" family friendly sustainable community. Hopefully we will get to this in the near future, but for the moment, these features will have to be inferred from the other postings.

Sustainable Activities

2010-05-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

In previous posts, sustainable patterns encompass environmentally-friendly practices, socially related practices such as strengthening relationships, and an overall effort to establish healthy living patterns.

What activities do you as an individual or family engage in to be more sustainable?

As we started to compose our list, it was very short but grew in length rapidly. We would encourage you to add one sustainable activity to your lifestyle periodically. For business people, add one sustainable activity each quarter. For families tied to school schedules, add one sustainable activity during the first half of the school year before Christmas, one activity from Christmas to the end of the school year, and finally one activity during the summer break.

Here is our brainstorm list:

Environmentally-friendly practices:

- Replace plastic grocery bags with reusable bags

If you pay attention to adds, you can get bags for free or $1. Our grocery store gives 5 cents credit per reusable bag that is used. Shopping every week, payback on reusable bags can be as soon as 5 months.

- Plant a garden in our yard

We are hoping to reduce our grocery bill and provide healthier food for the family. Preparing the garden did cost some money, but hopefully within a year or two we will have a net saving.

- 100% of our electricity from solar panels on our roof (hopefully near future)

Leasing solar panels is actually more cost effective. As mentioned in a previous post, this can be with 0 or some upfront cost, but the 20 year savings are substantial

- Composting

Reduced our household related landfill contributions in half

- Switched to CFL light bulbs

- Cloth diapers in place of "landfill" diapers (no service, we wash our own diapers)

Our estimated savings per month is $50-60. We do still use disposable diapers when out of the house.

- Converting front yard from grass to xeriscape (still in progress)

- Installed dual flush toilet in main bathroom

Uses 50% less water at .8 gallons instead of the standard 1.6 gallons for most flushes

- Bike for local chores (kids in bike trailer)

- Paid extra fee to electric company to support wind generated electricity

- Traditional Recycling: paper, plastic, metal, glass

- Recycling usable items instead of throwing into trash, take the extra effort to find a friend or family member that can use the item.

For example, an old computer not being used at our house worked well for another family with a young son.

Social Related:

- Mentor engaged couples to help them establish good patterns and improve the changes for a life long marriage

- Eat dinner together as a family almost every night

- Maintain Sunday as a special family day allocated to time together as a family. (avoid making Sunday a chore day)

- Developing and maintaining a network of friends and family

Healthy Patterns/Improve Quality of Life Related:

- Created automation tools for work tasks and established work related process improvements resulting in lower stress and less overtime. This leads to more time with family and improved family life.

- On a personal level, work no or only very little overtime

- Use vacation days

- Avoid food with "bad" ingredients such as artificial coloring, high fructose corn syrup, and artificially preservatives.

- Nursing our baby to help keep her healthier

- Regular exercise

- Not spending more than earn

Sustainable Human LIFE Communities

2010-05-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

The Human Life Project® includes a proposal for building Sustainable Human LIFE Communities. City case studies offer valuable incentives to transform the natural and urban surroundings as well as improve marriages and family life. Environmental incentives are seamlessly integrated with the social needs of the people. The result: our families and communities are more alive and healthy to withstand the inevitable life trials.

Sustainable Human LIFE Communities are eco-friendly and family-friendly. The family is the human gateway to our communities where each new life enters, develops, contributes, and finally leaves behind the shadow of his/her hands. Sustainable patterns endure over time, preserve ecosystems, allow for growth, ensure continuation of human life, strengthen relationships, appreciate life phases, embrace children, improve the human condition, encourage co-responsibility, and enliven social interaction.

The Curved Edge

2010-05-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

Markers inserted in the landscape and urban areas could be a useful tool in detecting and measuring unhealthy patterns. Biomarkers or life markers, strategically located around the curvature of the earth, would assist in encouraging co-responsibility. The Human Life Project® envisions biomarkers monitoring not just the natural surroundings, but expanding into social and urban patterns.

Nature biomarkers encompass land, water, climate, plant and animal life. Social biomarkers might include marriage, children, education, and human life development. Urban biomarkers evaluate transportation, land use, waste, energy, food, and buildings. The combined biomarkers would assist in identifying and establishing healthy living patterns for humanity.

Quality of Human LIFE

2010-05-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

A massive demographic shift is occurring among people moving to urban areas. Paul Hawkins mentions in the introduction to the SustainLane U.S. City Rankings that “every week, over one million people are leaving the country and moving to the city.” Unfortunately, families raising children are pushed to reside an increasing distance from the city center. The Human Life Project® believes that improving quality of life must include a renewed effort to address family households living in urban areas. The community effort is two fold: addressing the physical environment and human rights.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines fundamental areas to improve the human condition including education, jobs, motherhood, and family. The word, everyone, appears 28 times and unites the human family around the world. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted sixty years ago, many of the statements have yet to be fully realized. Thus, the Human Life Project® applies an acronym for LIFE to facilitate improving the human condition: love, investment, family, and everyone.

Welcoming New Residents

2010-05-03T05:54:00.000-07:00

The family is the place where new residents are either welcomed with open arms or turned away. Jaime Lerner, former three-time mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, offers a very real picture of the importance in embracing the children. “When you start to love the children, you have to love all of the children because if the city can't love those children too, then those children will grow to hate the city. And if they hate the city, they will destroy the city.” If a child is not loved from the very beginning, that child may never have the opportunity to be part of a family and the greater community.

The successful characteristics of strong families and communities are outlined with a special emphasis on children. Communities are evaluated based on family household type, youth population, education, and level of care for children. The evidence demonstrates social patterns are essential to building truly sustainable communities.

Individual Human Life Projects

2010-04-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

We are each a unique human life project. Phases of design, inspired by an architect’s design and building process, have remarkable parallels to phases of human life development from concept design during pregnancy to routine maintenance during senior adult years. Each life phase brings a new level of awareness.

The collection of life diagrams leads to appreciating all life’s phases. A life diagram is a graphic snapshot of the most significant days and events in a person’s life, showing the impact over time and emotions experienced. Children, adults, and families are encouraged to make their own life diagram and revisit it every few years. Life diagram’s are helpful to gain incite into sustainable patterns.

Life Diagrams at: http://humanlifeproject.com/diagrams.htm

Life Commitment

2010-04-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

Sustainability of humanity is directly connected to the level of commitment within social relationships. Three levels of commitment are defined by the Human Life Project: compatibility, performance, and life commitment. The compatibility and performance commitment models place certain stipulations on the longevity of the relationship, ending after a period of time. Life commitment is permanent and as a result sustains multiple generations.

The human heart of sustainability beats strongest in the life commitment model as exemplified in marriage and parenthood. Strengthening social relationships at home also reinforces the level of commitment between friends, neighbors, coworkers, as well as the care for the natural and urban surroundings. Learning from past relationship experiences can help guide the next generation towards a life commitment mentality.

Family Gateway

2010-04-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Human Life Project ® introduces the family as the human gateway to our communities. The family gateway provides an identity for each person born, a support structure, and protection for each member. The importance of building a strong family gateway is reinforced by the National League of Cities: “Strong cities are built on a foundation of strong families and empowered neighborhoods that support every child.” Stability of human relationships informs the health of our families and communities.

A closer study of nations around the world reveals troubling population trends; top cities ranked for environmental stewardship are experiencing a decline in the youth population. The proportion of youth to senior adults is a key indicator to determine human sustainability within our social patterns. Families and communities that implore a healthy perspective towards raising children will ensure the continuation of human life.

The MORE Factor

2010-04-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

A prevalent view today equates more people with a greater demand on the earth’s resources. However, demographic trends indicate that families are smaller, yet space allocation for housing continues to climb. Larger homes continue to be built for fewer people and more possessions. The State of the World 2004 report by World Watch Institute shows that the United States, Canada, and Western Europe consume 60 percent of all the world resources, yet only represent 12 percent of the world population. The discussion to allocate provisions is not really about human population growth, but instead, human consumption habits.

Another path does exist to support more people on the earth’s limited resources. The Human Life Project defines The MORE Factor as Mobilizing Ownership in Resource Effectiveness. New technologies and green building practices are emerging that conserve on water, energy, and land. Communities that plan for future growth will experience the freedom to meet, even exceed, the challenges of providing for humanity.

Wonders of the World

2010-04-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon, one of seven Natural Wonders of the World, might appear as a pristine landscape unaffected by technical advances. However, downstream is the Hoover Dam proclaimed as a Man-Made Wonder of the World. Built in five years, the Hoover Dam made the largest reservoir in the United States, storing water and generating hydroelectric power for millions of people. The two Wonders of the World present an intriguing discussion regarding efforts to preserve and sustain life.

The Rocky Mountain Institute states that “unsustainable resource use is one of the most pressing problems of our age.” The idea of human dominance over nature is being replaced with the notion of stewardship for the earth. Building large dams represents the 20th century solution for water management, with the Hoover Dam as the touchstone for this paradigm. Smaller decentralized projects are leading the way for conserving natural resources and meeting human allocated water needs.

The Watershed

2010-04-13T09:18:00.001-07:00

The watershed is essential to understanding the interconnectivity between land, water, and people. John Wesley Powell, the pre-eminent explorer and geologist in the Early American West, left behind a wealth of information on watersheds. Powell’s writings are used as an example to illustrate the human challenges and advantages of working with the natural pattern to sustain our families and communities.

One of the greatest barriers to achieving human sustainability is the preconception that people can gain complete control over surroundings by over-riding the natural system. Working with the natural pattern offers a path to realize authentic progress by multiplying the earth’s limited resources.

The Grand Staircase

2010-04-12T13:22:00.001-07:00

The Grand Staircase is an exceptional metaphor found in nature to demonstrate the importance of linkages. Spanning over miles of dynamic topographic change and millions of years, the Grand Staircase reveals contiguous rock layers in three major National Parks: Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. Visitors typically experience each National Park separately without considering the underlying connection. A similar occurrence happens when discussing human life’s essential aspects.

The journey into understanding sustainable patterns would not be complete without the fundamental social steps which make possible the link of nature to the urban environment.

Book Proposal: Overview

2010-04-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

To help describe some of the Human Life Project® concepts, excerpts from the book proposal will be included in this and subsequent postings.

Literary Agents and Publishers: The Human Life Project® is in the process of sending the book proposal to potential publishers. If this material interests you, let us know.

Human Life Project®: Sustainable Patterns in Our Families and Communities

Communities around the world are actively striving to be sustainable by embracing earth-friendly living practices; however, environmental stewardship alone will not save our communities. The world’s top ranked sustainable and green cities are experiencing an alarming decline in essential segments of the population that uphold the entire community. The Human Life Project® provides a more complete picture of sustainability by linking the natural and urban environment with social relationships. By returning to the roots of human sustainability, communities are designed with the foresight to support each resident from the youngest to the oldest.

Many organizations offer valuable resources encouraging the establishment of green cities or strong families, yet few combine both successfully. Jennifer Ranville’s book, Human Life Project: Sustainable Patterns in Our Families and Communities fills this critical gap by adding the social dimension to the sustainability discussion. Jennifer Ranville is an architect in the green building industry and graduate of the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Architecture, emphasis in environmental design. The Human Life Project® is the result of four years compiling research on the central role of the family in sustaining our communities.

Current books on the market advocate sustainable communities only through conservation of nature, green building, and urban planning strategies. Therefore, the role of the family is limited to reducing household consumption habits by merely embracing green living practices. Connecting the two spheres both challenges and reaffirms commonly held views by the green living audience.

The Human Life Project® begins with the watershed to illustrate the interconnectivity between all forms of life. The knowledge of the natural pattern of land and water working together is then applied to our communities. Jennifer Ranville’s book shows the potential for cities to welcome more people and simultaneously improve the natural surroundings. When considering essential elements to sustain our communities, nature and the family form an interlocking support structure.

The family is a pivotal component today in determining which nations and cities will endure over time. A healthy balance of children to senior adults and a strong family support network are crucial to our human sustainability. Ultimately, the quality of relationships informs the social pattern language for our families and communities. Cities with strong social patterns are positioned well to direct resources that enhance the living experience for all residents.

Soft Path/Cross Disciplinary Solutions/Locally Grown Food

2010-04-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Don, thank you for the link to Agriburbia (http://agriburbia.com/) in your comments on the last blog posting. This is an interesting company that helps communities and individuals implement locally grown food, thereby increasing the standard of living and making the community more sustainable.

Agriburbia also illustrates several Human Life Project® concepts.

1. Promote "soft path" solutions (http://www.rmi.org/) in which smaller, local systems (farming in this example, but could apply to water use, energy production, etc.) are used in place of larger systems. A larger system such as the Hover Dam infrastructure for storing water can have a more negative impact on the ecological system, for example, compared to a series of strategically placed smaller projects.

2. Creative cross disciplinary solutions are essential to solving complex problems such as food supply. While harder to conceptualize and get approval to implement, these solutions can have a greater positive impact on the community as a whole. (For those with engineering backgrounds, think of system engineering vs. component engineering.)

3. Many great solutions are emerging to make better use of limited resources. The Human Life Project® defines The MORE Factor as Mobilizing Ownership in Resource Effectiveness. New technologies and ideas like Agriburbia offer tangible solutions for communities to conserve on water, energy, and land. Communities that plan for future growth will experience the freedom to meet, even exceed, the challenges of providing for humanity.

Don's Original Posting:

http://humanlifeproject.blogspot.com/2010/03/urban-renewal.html#comments

Urban Renewal

2010-03-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Many cities have initiated a variety of steps to renew the inner city. Baltimore was able to pull off a respectable renewal of their waterfront area in the 1990s with the completion of Camden Yard and the Ravens football stadium (http://www.mdoe.org/urbanrenewinnerharb.html). The 16^th Street Mall and LoDo redevelopment in Denver is another success story. Most of these initiatives revolve around replacing or renovating buildings. Detroit's idea of urban renewal is quite radical, replacing buildings with high tech farms.

Article supporting Farming Detroit: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

Article against Farming Detroit: http://www.fastcompany.com/1571975/farming-the-city-in-order-to-save-it-demolishing-density-in-detroit

Article Farming Detroit: http://www.guernicamag.com/spotlight/1182/food_among_the_ruins/

If this idea moves forward, Detroit should consider adopting the Zero Waste Zone concepts that Atlanta has implemented (Zero Waste Zone Blog Entry). In particular, the idea of composting the waste food from restaurants and using this as fertilizer for the urban farms.

What do people think about locally grown food vs. dependence on importing food from other states or internationally?

It seems like all other ideas to revitalize Detroit (for example the casinos) have failed. Do people think that farming could help bring jobs back to Detroit, bring families back to Detroit, and be beneficial to the community?

Biomarkers

2010-03-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/10/real_estate/green_homes_redlight/index.htm?hpt=T2

Here is an interesting article on green residential houses and how appraisers are undervaluing green technology. This results in banks only accepting home loans at a fraction of the construction cost. Thus, without significant money down, people cannot afford the houses. A consequence is that developers are only building with the lowest cost green options. Is this good or bad for the country as a whole?

The last paragraph, especially the last sentence, of the article is the most interesting:

"As more American homeowners green their homes, there will be more and more of a premium paid for green homes," said Ben Kaufman, GreenWork's founder. "I can imagine a miles-per-gallon type sticker on homes for sale and the marketplace will absolutely favor fuel-efficient homes."

The Human Life Project would like to indentify and promote the use of "biomarkers" within communities. Biomarkers would collect data and notify the community of healthy or unhealthy patterns. As a simple example, consider a buoy in the water with a light on top. When the light is green, the water is safe to swim in. When the light is red, the water is not safe to swim in. In the case of green homes, Kaufman's idea of a energy-efficient sticker that comes with the sale of the house offers a biomarker to alert future homeowners.

What biomarkers do people think would make good indicators for the sustainability of the community? For example, categories such as nature might include air quality and renewable energy. Harder to measure categories under social indictors might include family stability, quality of relationships, and effectiveness of community leadership.

Post by the Staff of the Human Life Project

Sliding vs. Deciding

2010-03-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

Dr. Scott Stanley has been doing some interesting research that he calls Sliding vs. Deciding ™ (http://slidingvsdeciding.blogspot.com). The general concept is related to how one moves from a cohabitating relationship to being married. Dr. Stanley states that those that make the conscious decision to get married have a better chance of staying married. Conversely, those that "slide" into marriage are more likely to get a divorce. Thus, the longevity of the relationship is based, in part, on making the conscious decision to be in the relationship, instead of just "going with the flow".

One of the goals of the Human Life Project is to find and implement patterns that lead to building truly sustainable communities. One thought is that long term relationships translates into more stable communities.

In future postings, we will try to discuss "Commitment Levels" and the impact on relationships. For now, do readers of this blog have any thoughts on how committed long term relationships (or lack of commitment) impact the community?

Another interesting thought is applying Sliding vs. Deciding concepts to other aspects of our life. For example:
- Consciously deciding how many hours to work vs. sliding into a situation of working many hours of overtime
- Consciously deciding how much TV time the kids are allowed vs. sliding into the situation in which they watch TV many hours a day

Post by the Staff of the Human Life Project

Handprint Denver

2009-08-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Denver is already benefiting from two existing documents: Blueprint Denver and Greenprint Denver that outline improvements to the urban and natural environment. While not on the drawing boards yet, Handprint Denver would complement by adding the social dimension that sustains the city.

As a starting point, Denver has a number of impressive programs such as: Denver Preschool Program, Denver Health, and Building a Better Denver. Handprint Denver would be instrumental in showcasing existing programs and recommending new social initiatives.

Handprint Denver would have an overriding theme of care for every resident with a special emphasis on addressing the needs of families. The scope of Handprint Denver could encompass education, health care, provisions, safety, and culture.

Goals:
- Improve educational oppertunities for children and youth
- Increase affordable and attractive family housing
- Form neighborhood social networks

Our handprints are integral to the success of Denver and the greater metropolitan region. What additional goals do you think would be important?

Earth Day Zero Waste Household

2009-04-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to have zero waste? In our households, this sounds practically impossible. However, there is hope in that not all waste is garbage. Recoverable products (paper, plastics, and organic material) represent 82 percent of material disposed in landfills according to a CNN article, Downtown Atlanta recycles self into a Zero Waste Zone. While the Zero Waste Zone focuses on businesses, the practice of recycling and composting can be applied to our households. Three ways of separating solid waste will help us empty our trash cans.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/17/gsif.atlanta.zero.waste.zone/index.html

1. Recycle Paper, Plastic, Glass, and Metal

Recycling options are growing fast especially for paper, plastic, glass, and metal. Urban areas admittedly have more convenient options available from curbside pick-up to drop-off locations at local businesses or schools. With a little research, a convenient drop-off location might be just around the corner from your house. Some areas no longer require sorting items, making it easier than ever to recycle. There are companies also offering to recycle printer cartridges and other household electronics.

2. Person to Person Reuse of Household Items

With a little creativity, the remaining products that might be thrown in the trash can be reused around the house or passed along to someone else. Clothing can be shared among families or donated to charity. Socks with holes are useful as cleaning rags. Garage sales and Craigslist are both great ways to find a new home for items that still hold value. Reuse of items at the end of the day simply saves money and helps our neighbor.

3. Composting Food Waste

After recycling food containers and reusing household items, the majority of solid waste remaining in the trash is food scraps as well as summer yard waste including leaves and grass clippings. Composting is a natural process of allowing organic material to decompose over time into a nutrient rich fertilizer used in gardening. There are a variety of options available on the market to compost from a compact container sold at Target that can be stored indoors to rotating barrels placed in the yard. With a sizable yard, composting can be as easy as designating a location to pile the organic material or build your own storage container from wood.

After applying one or more of the three practices, post the amount of waste removed from your trash. How close can you get to zero household waste after applying all three steps?

105 Mayors sign Action Challenge for Childern and Families

2009-04-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

The National League of Cities, through its Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, is celebrating a milestone this month for the number of mayors signing The Majors' Action Challenge for Children and Families. Since the unveiling of the call to action in November 2008, over 100 mayors are committed to improve the outcome for every child by focusing on four key areas: opportunities to learn and grow, a safe neighborhood to call home, a healthy lifestyle and environment, and a financially fit family in which to thrive. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is among the outspoken advocates.

There is an exceptional quote included in the beginning of The Majors' Action Challenge for Children and Families. "Strong cities are built on a foundation of strong families and empowered neighborhoods that support every child. The steps we take to strengthen families and improve the outcomes for children and youth are among the most important investments we make in the health and vibrancy of our communities."

The sustainability of our cities encompasses more than the natural and built environment. The family is an essential contributor to ensure each community endures over time. The Majors' Action Challenge is a positive step towards supporting children and the family.

Check to see if your city's mayor has signed on.
http://www.mayorsforkids.org/mayors.php

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th Anniversery

2008-12-10T12:40:00.000-08:00

If you have never read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, today is your opportunity to view a document that addresses equality for each member of the human family. On December 10, 1948 the United Nations adopted this historic text. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

The core social and political components within society are illuminated. It is interesting to note that the word "everyone" appears twenty-eight times.
Article 25 proclaims that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family..." The family is described in the document as the "natural and fundamental group unit of society" with a right to protection.

The content remains relevant today, with many of the statements yet to be fully realized. What areas outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do you believe are most in need of future attention?

Aligning Green Perspective with Relationships

2008-11-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

There was a recent article on the top ten green tips for Thanksgiving. The first tip recommended staying home. While this may save on energy, there are times when travel is part of reuniting with loved ones. Relationships should take precedence, especially during major holidays. While recycling and reusing material items can be seamlessly integrated into gathers, it is the people that make the gathering memorable. Enjoy this time of year to celebrate with family and friends whether staying at your own home or traveling across the country.

New Human Life Project Website

2008-10-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Look for the new Human Life Project website coming next month at http://www.humanlifeproject.com/. The content provides readers with a concise overview and more specifics on the Human Life Project. There are pages dedicated to sustainability, nature, family, community, and life diagrams. Thank you for all your comments, photos, and continued support.

Life Diagram Summer Workshop Update

2008-09-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Over the summer, fourteen children ranging in age from four to thirteen years old participated in the first series of life diagram workshops. A few adults also made life diagrams and contributed to the initial feedback.

The Human Life Project defines a life diagram as a graphic snapshot of the most significant days and events in each person’s life. There are patterns beginning to develop with the children’s life diagrams. The boys share an elevated interest in outdoor activities including sports, camping, and encounters with wildlife like snakes. Girls frequently mention the birth of siblings, social events with family and friends, and school. Birthdays are popular among the young children. Faith events are also sometimes mentioned. Most of the significant events are clustered within the last few years.

Part of the life diagram exercise is to recall emotion felt for each event, either happy or sad. The children’s experiences typically fall into the happy category with the passing of a grandparent as the most common sad event. Certain experiences within the same family sometimes show mixed emotions. An example is a brother that mentions moving as a happy event with his older sister feeling very sad because of missing neighborhood friends.

Parents are particularly interested in the events that each child found important. One mother made a suggestion to possibly dedicate a wall in a library to display life diagrams. This would be helpful to parents and other children to understand changing perspective by age and see the patterns unfolding.

The individual life diagrams can expand to a family life diagram. Three young married couples made their family life diagram, starting when they first met. This recent idea of family life diagrams opens many new possibilities.

Life Diagrams

2008-07-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

We are each a unique human life project.

A life diagram is a graphic snapshot of the most significant days and events of your life. Each person’s diagram has some commonalities as well as richness in diversity.

Children and adults are encouraged to make a life diagram and revisit every few years. For parents, this could be an instrumental tool to understand your child’s current perspective. It's also a great activity for school age children home for the summer. Adults and teens should gain a greater awareness of important relationships/experiences and their impact over time.

Example life diagrams are shown below as well as a web link to download diagram templates. Young children draw pictures of significant events. Older children/teens list experiences and arrange color coded dots. Adults use a simple Excel format that automatically generates a graphic diagram. A goal for the Human Life Project is to collect the first 50 life diagrams over the summer.

What can we learn from our own life diagram as well as studing other children and adults? What improvements could be made to the current life diagram format?

http://www.humanlifeproject.com/LifeDiagrams.htm

Healthy Sustainable Patterns

2008-06-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Recent bloggers are requesting more background information on the Human Life Project. The human life project links the natural/built environment with the family.

The image at the top right corner is from Bryce Canyon National Park. If you look closer, the rock formation reveals the profile of a face with a family walking through the narrow slot canyon. Environmental groups focus on ensuring our natural surroundings remain intact for future generations. The Human Life Project connects the health of the earth with the level of commitment in human relationships. With the state of our natural surroundings and families rapidly declining, combining the two unites an expansive network of people towards a common goal of sustaining all life.

As an architect and mother, it occurred that we build larger homes for fewer people and more possessions. A cultural shift is taking place by a drop in birth rates across almost every nation in the world. Europe is experiencing the most dramatic population decline. Some environmental groups today view the family as working against living in harmony with nature, as the dedicated unit within society that increases population and rapidly consumes resources. However, the spotlight is now on the family in determining which nations and cities will sustain over time by ensuring the continuation of human life.

Content of the Human Life Project explores sustainable/healthy patterns in three categories: nature, family, and community. Within each category, blog postings focus on a variety of topic areas listed below. Any supporting articles or web links would greatly be appreciated for future discussion. The goal is to identify and implement healthy living patterns both in our families and communities.

Nature: Renewable energy, recycling, natural resources, organic/local food, green products, outdoor living, and recreation

Family: Relationships, human life development, marriage, parenthood, children, fertility, demographics, and population.

Community: Quality of life, sustainable/green communities, green building design, urban planning, transportation, housing, culture, social interaction, and technology.

Family Gateway

2008-06-18T09:51:00.001-07:00

In older European cities, the gateway clearly defined the entrance and doubled as a security checkpoint. Every person passed through the prominent stone structure, articulated with a grand arch flanked by pillars.

The family is the living gateway to our communities. Children enter through parent’s arching arms flanked by relatives, friends, and neighbors. Whether a child is biologically born into a family or adopted, parents contribute to the continuation of human life by opening their door to welcome our newest residents.

A key component of the Human Life Project is exploring community initiatives that reinforce the family support structure. Programs such as First Things First, started by the City of Chattanooga, provide free seminars on marriage and parenthood. New developments in the city, such as Stapleton in Denver, address family-oriented/green neighborhoods by offering mix of housing options with ability to walk/bike to schools and parks. Stapleton development also encourages working/shopping close to home, saving gas and spending more time with family. What are programs in your community that support the family?

Ecocity World Summit 2008 Highlights

2008-06-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

The 7th International Ecocity Conference, located in San Francisco, warmly welcomed over 1,200 attendees from 73 countries. Presentations focused on urban planning for “smart” growth, green architecture, public transportation, renewable energy, climate change, and local food. City leaders also shared importance of social diversity, culture, spirituality, physical health, and family-oriented developments.

Curitiba, Brazil

Keynote address by Jaime Lerner, Former Mayor of Curitiba and architect, shares success stories implementing creative solutions to common city problems. Lerner’s characteristics of a sustainable city include less car use, garbage separation for recycling, living closer to work or working closer to home, and social diversity.

Lerner firmly believes that “innovation is starting.” Without money for subway infrastructure, the idea of “bringing the subway above ground” is realized by inserting boarding tubes at street level for articulated buses traveling in dedicated lanes. Rapid Bus Transit is responsible for 60% of city population using public transportation.

The city-wide recycling program originates in educating the children to separate garbage with instruction by the “family leaves”. Twenty-four hour streets respond to underutilized city areas by opening night markets for families. Curitiba celebrates ethnic diversity by dedicating parks and buildings to each ethnic group. Lerner’s family portrait analogy sums up his leadership philosophy. “You don’t rip your family portrait. Your city is like your family portrait.”

Vancouver, Canada

Brent Toderian, Director of Planning in Vancouver, preaches “livability” and “ecodensity.” Toderian defines livability as density done well. Vancouver’s transportation strategy defies common logic with no highways and no car oriented building of infrastructure in the last twenty years. Yet, it is the only city in North America to reduce commute time. Priority of transportation in the city begins with walking and cycling followed by public transit and movement of goods. Surprising, the single occupant vehicle falls last in transportation hierarchy.

The city has also found space to add 45,000 residents, including 2,700 new children. While many established cities face urban plight of families to suburbs, Toderain boasts that children are back by design and even building a new school to accommodate increase in students. Ecodensity encourages more people to live downtown and walk/cycle frequently. Vancouver’s success has earned a third place ranking in Best Cities in the World, featured article in City Mayors Environment.

Yoff, Africa

The City of Yoff is a growing farming and fishing village near Dakar and host of the 3rd International Ecocity Conference. Village Leader, Serigne Mbaye Dine, outlines their EcoCommunity Program for EcoYoff. Dine speaks of Yoff like a father referring to his family, with sincerity and genuine love.

The first focus area for Yoff’s long-term sustainability plan is culture/spirituality, illuminating the importance of community gatherings and roots that shape their identity. Second is education/training, followed by economy and food security. Population, health, and nutrition addresses physical condition of citizens. Finally, environment and infrastructure as well as habitat offers ways to conserve natural resources and respond to housing needs.

Freiburg, Germany

Wulf Daseking, Director of Planning in Freiburg, begins his presentation by acknowledging the dramatic population decline in Germany and Europe. Daseking refers to the people as the “dinky generation” and “double-income no kids.” Germany has a current population of 82 million, projecting in 25 years only 68 million citizens. The City of Freiburg is a university town with 205,000 residents surrounded by natural beauty with mountains as a backdrop.

Rieselfeld, a new development within city limits, is designed specially for young families. Residences face open space with car free zones for children to play. Structures are not higher than five stories and use 40-60% less energy. The new development also reduces reliance on the car dramatically.

Following the lecture, I spoke with Daseking about whether the child population is growing in his city. He replied, there is “too much green and not enough children.” Dasking did mention the child population is greater than surrounding areas, partially due to the new Rieselfeld development. Planning for families raising children in the city and saving energy should position Freiburg to sustain beyond current momentum of green initiatives.

Nature + Family + Urban Surroundings

2008-04-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

There are groups that offer a valuable template for green cities or strong families, yet few communities succeed in both. Collectively, the three cities featured below offer a plan to transform the natural and urban surroundings as well as improve marriages/family life. The goal of building sustainable communities is elevated by including family relationships and care for all citizens.

Denver, Colorado – Greenprint Denver

The sustainable development plan for the City of Denver focuses on renewable energy, recycling, public transit, parks and planting trees, green buildings, air and water quality, alternative fuel vehicles, urban gardens, landuse and pedestrian-friendly urban centers. Greenprint Denver is an action agenda with set goals such as increasing material recycled in Denver by 50% for 2007, mobilizing a free curbside pick-up program in residential neighborhoods without requiring the sorting of recyclables. As part of FasTracks, a 12-year transit plan, 119 miles of new light rail and commuter rail plus 18 miles of bus rapid transit will connect the Denver Metropolitan area. Denver is listed in the Top Ten Green Cities by The Green Guide and Top Ten Sustainable Cities in the United States by SustainLane.
http://www.greenprintdenver.org/docs/greenprint_report.pdf

Chattanooga, Tennessee – First Things First

In 1997, a group of business leaders gathered to talk about the direction of their city. "We wanted to know how we could really make a difference in Chattanooga," says Hugh O. Maclellan Jr., chairman of the board of the Maclellan Foundation. "We realized that the city's biggest problem was the breakdown of families, and that every part of Chattanooga was being affected by it.” The civic leaders founded First Things First, a community-wide initiative to revitalize the city, beginning with the family.

First Things First (FTF) has three goals: “reduce the number of divorces filed in Hamilton County, reduce out of wedlock pregnancies in the county, and increase sufficient father involvement.” Free weekly classes are offered to singles, engaged couples, married couples, unmarried expectant mothers, and fathers. The FTF Marriage and Family Resource Center is located in the City of Chattanooga, providing books and videos to the public. First Things First equips families with practical skills to have healthy marriages and raise children.
http://firstthings.org/

Curitiba, Brazil – Urban Acupuncture

Jaime Lerner, three-time former mayor of Curitiba and architect, has an innovative approach to urban planning. He uses the term “urban acupuncture” to revitalize “pressure points” within the city. The response produces “positive ripple effects” throughout the community. Lerner is well-known for developing the “bus rapid transit”, a system that transports a similar number of passengers as a subway with far less cost in infrastructure. The system is so successful that bus transit represents 60% of overall travel in Curitiba.

Each person, from the smallest citizen on up, has a role in caring for the city. The recycling program began by educating the children to sort trash at home. Since 1989, the city boasts of 70% voluntary participation. In the poorer areas near the edge of the city, people exchange a bag of trash for a bag of food. The “positive ripple effect” is the health of the people improved with adequate nourishment and cleaner surroundings.

Lerner offers a very real picture of the importance in loving all the children. “When you start to love the children, you have to love all of the children because if the city can't love those children too, then those children will grow to hate the city. And if they hate the city, they will destroy the city.” The feeling of belonging and acceptance is essential in the way children and adults relate to their surroundings. Curitiba is unique compared to other top sustainable cities by embracing the care for all its citizens in conjunction with the natural/urban surroundings.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/index.html