Personal Manifesto Brainstorm
Freedom leads to Agency leads to Empowerment
The possibility for agency increases with freedom. I believe we should supplement peoples’ or places’ lack in freedom of certain kinds with other paths to freedom; freedom of — freedom of movement, the freedom of options, freedom from — freedom from persecution, freedom from harm.
Networks: Physical green networks, networks of movement, networks of interaction. The grid of our typical cities is creatively restraining. I think using networks of movement that break the grid help engage our minds and take us out of autopilot. I think less predictability entices more awareness of self and surroundings. It is less monotonous and it encourages more dynamic flows of behavior and discovery.
Perpetual motion machines — the idea of the perpetual motion machine is that one built system would tap into the pre existing conditions of another system and the natural system would feed a chain reaction that self-sustains. A machine can only produce as much energy as it consumes, and energy spreads out and is lost in the process, so more energy input is always needed from an external source. Examples include water/wind mills, solar. Also, harnessing wasted energy, using less energy.
The Clothesline Community — microgrids and microgrid-esque ideas
The city can incentivize micro lifestyle adjustments. Small things: clotheslines (instead of dryers), energy-saving appliances, rainwater collection systems, adjusting your own indoor microclimates with fans, clothing or windows, solar panels, personal composting methods, soil ammending and carbon sequestration. These can be managed with apps on our phones to monitor personal energy expenditures, similar to a Fitbit or Apple’s screentime reporting. Public systems include trash collection, storm water and waste water, electric, gas, city lighting, street cleaning, and mail delivery. Maybe these can be altered in a way to function with more efficiency and to raise community awareness. For example, rain gardens on sidewalks to sink and filter water before impervious systems reroute it. Incentives to not producing a full can’s worth of trash by collection time, like a compost buy-back program or administering trashcans that recycle industrial composting products (which currently have to be sent to special centers by the consumer). Or even a district-wide subscription program to some designed, durable and reuseable standard to-go container program, where food-related businesses, the consumer, and the trash collection with the city are all working together to reuse food and beverage to-go containers. We are issued a single trash can by the city and yet we throw away mountains of single use garbage all the time, so maybe a solution to this is worth considering.
I also think every neighborhood should have a central park with a network of green walkways leading to it, access to drinkable water, and some kind of small business spaces associated nearby. Ideally this park would have community garden plots and be gifted to the local community to manage on a small scale. Food trucks or something accessible to people of all income levels would be ideal business opportunities if not enough space is available for brick and mortar businesses. I keep thinking about above-ground and below-ground lately too. Perhaps something similar to the Sand Dune Parking garage could be a solution. With access to amenities like restrooms, food and drink, wifi, and transportation below, a community space with the utmost freedom of land use could be built above. Maybe a structure from these spaces could benefit the surrounding neighborhood’s microgrid.
