Victoria Region Transition Initiative
Today (January 14) in class, we had Michelle Colussi to transition communities. Michelle demonstrated the concept of transition communities / towns, which to me are a larger form of community engagement.
Transition towns help to bring communities together, to reduce dependence on outside sources, so that the towns/communities can become self-sufficient.
I came across this YouTube video of the man who popularized (I believe) transition town movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0
The town that is featured in the video is Totness, in South West England. The town is a center for new age thinkers, arts, music and alternative health, not unlike our vary own Victoria.
In the video, Rob Hopkins discusses transition towns and reducing our dependency on oil. While I think it’s a good idea to start to become less dependant on oil, we (society) certainly can’t remove the necessity of oil.
I do like the concept presented in the video of the local currency to be used in local shops. I feel that will strengthen a community, which comes back to the notion of community engagement.
Unfortunately, the video did not show much else; the viewers are encouraged to purchase the “transition handbook” which I cannot afford.
The other guest we had in class today was Mara Jernigan from Fairburn Farms. http://www.fairburnfarm.bc.ca/. She presented a previously unknown concept to me, one of slow food or cittaslow. I think on paper this is a good idea, to have locally grown food, and towns built upon a small community idea, where everything is local and sustainable, however, in reality, I don’t think this idea can work.
Mara came from Cowichan Bay, which is Canada’s first slow city. According to a 2006 census, the population of Cowichan Bay is 1,361, which lends itself to the fact that it is host to Canada’s first slow city.
In my not so humble opinion, a city with a larger population, 5000 or more, cannot be a slow city. People are too spread out, there are too many different cultures (depending on location) and different ages. Cowachin Bay seems to be a uniform conglomeration of middle aged northern Europeans, who no doubt share the same ideas, to resist change and live in a little utopia.
For a large city, even one the size of Victoria, the citta slow movement wouldn’t work. There is no way a community that large, with a population of appx 300,000 for the CRD, and 80,000 for Victoria proper, can sustain itself.
That is why I believe citta slow is good on paper, but a flunk in reality.
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SO Matthew, let's see the goods!
ReplyDeletethe goods are out there now, Rick
ReplyDelete"While I think it’s a good idea to start to become less dependant on oil, we (society) certainly can’t remove the necessity of oil." Actually, we can remove the necessity of oil... our society didn't always run on fossil fuels and may not continue to either. Or we could take ht natural step approach and say that we can contribute as much fossil carbon into the atmosphere as can be sequestered per year. This is going to be a tough challenge for us and we won;t have the excuse of saying that we didn't know that we needed to do these things!
ReplyDeleteRegarding your comments about CittaSlow, the idea that it won't work because we're "too spread out, there are too many different cultures (depending on location) and different ages" may not hold. While we are now too spread out in places, the legacy of cheap oil and cars from 50 years ago, there is no reason why we can't increase density and move closer in again, in a fashion that would have been much more familiar to our ancestors. Big cities like New York or London, where people live in high densities, are in some ways wonderful places to live and perhaps we move towards 'slow neighbourhoods' in that casw!