INVOLVING ALL IN TRANSFORMING CITIES: THE NEW AMERICAN DREAM
I took this picture while flying into Sea-Tac airport, some 30 miles south of Seattle’s downtown. Similar developments stretch to the east and north. Only the natural barrier of Puget Sound stops the sprawl to the west.
Current projections state that the Puget Sound region will grow from 4 to 6 million people in the next decades, all while we face imperative needs to reduce our C02 emissions and build more reliant neighborhoods. Current land use habits will extend the sprawl further in all directions. Though alarm bells have been going off for decades we continue to ignore the warnings, but the time has come to find a better way forward. The Growth Management Act is a Washington state law from 1990 that requires local governments to manage growth, protect nature, and designate urban boundaries. Despite this law, our region results in what you see in the image above. Other parts of the country are even worse off.
People living in sprawling neighborhoods are utterly dependent on cars to get to shops, schools, offices, and factories. We drive to refuge in nature and leisure activities. We covet the ‘backyard’, for its greenery, privacy, and peace. But surrounding those oases, we have covered the land with hard surfaces, made it impossible for animals to migrate, made it hard to build communities, and contributed to the climate emergency. The backyard, even if it is a place of sanctity, is surrounded by asphalt and CO2 emissions. And we are driving ourselves crazy endlessly commuting.
In February of this year, I put out the invitation to hold a series of conversations about what to do about sprawl. Seven individuals — two architects, a long-range planner, a writer, a conservation biologist, and two organizational leadership experts —joined me in an ad-hoc think tank about this pressing issue.
Our discussions were wide-ranging, but I wanted to share several highlights of our conversations:
We realize that design professionals and elected officials, in spite of their best efforts, are not effective combatants to sprawl. Yes, we have shining examples of green architecture. Incredible progress continues to be made in many sectors that provide hope for the future.
One of my think-tank colleagues, Alan Hart, the founder of VIA Architects with offices in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco, who had a professional career dedicated to making sustainable cities stated: “I have had some successes, but they have had limited effect in changing the catastrophic course human sentiment and urban growth is presently on.” **Just before posting this blog, I received the very sad news that Alan passed away on December 29th. I will miss him and our great discussions.
Dan Leahy, a leadership consultant from Seattle, cautions us that when it comes to change, we also need to help each other deal with the “loss” of what we had - our comfortable habits and routines.
Melissa Shumake, Washington state long-range planner, observes that movies show people who succeed in moving from bustling vibrant cities into secluded and private properties. The unstated assumption is that the American dream is to be far away from communities. Privacy becomes a status symbol.
Jonathan Appelbaum is a conservation biologist from San Diego, and he urges us to envision a future with natural corridors for animal migration.
John Roche teaches film at a high school in Vermont and wants to engage his students in making short films depicting their ideas for the future.
Sara Murdoch, organizational anthropologist from Los Angeles, insists we lead with a positive vision of the future because we are all tired of the depressing news cycle which permeates all our lives.
Peg Staeheli, planner and landscape architect with the SvR Design Company, speaks about the numbing and soul-draining normality of sprawl she experienced while driving through the country to visit her family.
I shared my conviction that people need to be involved. The best way to spur involvement is to combine the knowledge of specialists - planners, architects, green energy experts, ecologists, etc. - with the ‘wisdom of the masses’, who digest new information and apply it to their everyday lives.
We agreed that we need a new imagination to pull us forward. And this imagination is just a starting point for numerous local actions that bring the “future into now”. What is the new American dream and what is our role in it? What can we do about it today? When we, the people, don’t own the vision, we fight it. Our small group finds hope in people courageous enough to think through the consequences of everyday acts, and to adjust their habits accordingly.
We urge planners, architects, artists, developers, and real estate professionals to state unequivocally that we must find alternatives to sprawl. But, we all have parts to play and contributions to make. No bystanders. It just may be the fastest way to create an exciting, creative, and participatory change.
You can read the document in full on our website. The draft will undoubtedly evolve over time.