The Vision Thing (Part II)

"We are on the edge of a carbon revolution. Everything is going to change. This will matter to you. … There is no high-carbon future."

–Peter Mandelson, British Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

In many ways, the future is an intensely personal thing. Every person, family, neighborhood, community and region is unique. A one-size-fits all plan for progress would be profoundly unsatisfying. It would impoverish us culturally by stifling invention and ignoring the richness of our diversity.

But what if the many communities engaged in envisioning America’s future, and the many organizations helping them, rallied around a common set of criteria for the society we must build for the 21st century? Not a common blueprint, mind you, but common goals that must be met society-wide if we are to successfully survive the economic, climate and energy crises?

Individuals and communities would invent their own ways to achieve the goals, but common goals would help us achieve necessary national and global objectives. They would guide local investments, including the new infusions of stimulus money going to states and communities for work on energy and climate.

In the bargain, each participating community would become a laboratory and demonstration project for all the others.

What would that common set of goals look like? One list is being considered by the U.S. Green Building Council in its new LEED for Neighborhoods rating system. Neighborhoods win points by fulfilling as many as possible of these criteria:

• Proximity to water and water infrastructure
• Protecting imperiled species
• Conserving water and wetlands
• Conserving farmland
• Avoiding development in floodplains
• Redeveloping brownfields
• Reducing dependence on automobiles
• Creating bicycle networks
• Designing so that housing is near jobs and schools
• Avoiding steep slopes
• Restoring wildlife habitat
• Compact development
• Diversity in uses, housing types and housing affordability
• Walkable streets
• Reducing footprints for parking
• Providing good access to public spaces
• Ensuring accessibility for people of all abilities
• Local food production
• Involving the community in neighborhood development
• Preventing pollution, waste and site disturbance during construction
• Achieving high levels of energy efficiency, water and materials efficiency in buildings
• Reusing historic buildings
• Reducing in urban heat islands
• Achieving good wastewater management and comprehensive waste management

Smart Growth America proposes 10 principles for community development:

1. Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices
2. Mix Land Uses
3. Create a Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices
4. Create Walkable Neighborhoods
5. Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration
6. Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place
7. Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective
8. Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
9. Strengthen and Direct Development Towards Existing Communities
10. Take Advantage of Compact Building Design and Efficient Infrastructure Design

If I were chief advisor to all the architects of our future, my list would be similar in many ways, and tougher in others. It would include these goals: