The action for 350.org’s Moving Planet Day in our community happened on Sunday, September 25th at Liberty Plaza. Over 70 of us gathered together to share our vision of how to move our area away from fossil fuels.
Here’s a look at our vision and proposed action items by issue area (feel free to contribute in the Comments section below):
Overarching questions
- What is our vision for the future of our region re issue area?
- What progress is already happening?
- What steps can we take to achieve our vision?
- What is one thing we can ask our leaders over the coming year?
Housing
- Vision: equality, justice, efficiency, equal access to core resources, self/local sustainability
- Needs:
- vibrant, centralized community areas for gathering
- inclusionary zoning – put core (food, water, energy, housing) services in high density areas
- neighborhood bases services: farming, food, markets, bike repair
- co-ops for: power/energy, food production
- rolling art festivals
- more DIY Home energy improvements and weatherization
Transportation
- Vision: efficient + reliable systems that:
- Reduce need for individual vehicle ownership
- Reduce/eliminate dependence on fossil fuels (also: booming Michigan economy)
- Needs:
- Mechanisms to protect bicycles from vehicles:
- own lanes, barrier walls
- Extensive, interconnected, efficient high speed rail or other public transportation
- Create roadways for non-vehicular traffic only
- Develop walking/bicycling (school) buses
- Public transit
- Maintain downtown transit center
- Make biking safer – more bike lanes!
- More people will bike!
- Culture of calming traffic
- Pedestrian safety signs
- (keep off vegetation)
- More in-city housing
- Relocation assistance for long-distance commuters
- Extend bus lines
- High Line on Huron
Food/Gardens
- Vision: beautiful high density areas that support bountiful local food economy and healthier people.
- Specific: Walk into park, yards, anywhere and not have any fear of toxins
- Needs:
- Centralized community areas for restaurants + groceries
- Neighborhood units that share:
- Garden work, seeds, skills, tools, processing + preservation
- Support cottage food industry
- Passive irrigation training & infrastructure
- Share skills
- Spreading idea of permaculture
- Email group, public demo of it, tours of them
- Teaching about “weeds” and native plants
- Hold a reskilling of food
- Policy: protect water & soul as part of healthy ecosystem (include this as a filter for any decision)
- Allow chicken coops in neighborhoods
- Require them to be safe from dogs, raccoons, etc.
- Buy and eat locally grown food when possible
Education
- Vision: an education system that nurtures community and reaches all levels/types of students and closes the education gap
- Needs:
- Investment in schools/teachers
- Mechanisms for community to support schools + vice versa
- Walking & bicycling “bus” system
- Plus other ways for community members to aid students and get both outdoors
- School gardens, teaching kids about healthy foods, seeing, tasting, and producing the differences
Water
- Vision: Clean drinking water for al in county, ability to swim/recreate in all parts of Huron river
- Needs:
- Invest in WATER ACCESS research
- Build passive irrigation systems
- Ban use of drinking water for toilets, landscaping, etc.
- Invest in water technology research
- Stop the use of herbicides and pesticides that contaminate our water supply.
- more water fountains
- to test our water regularly, find what healing property of the water we have like minerals and also testing level of radiation, what bacteria are there
- Minerals in water can be healing (sulfur), or can make one sick (lead)
- Chemical level, chemical in H2O are linked to Cancer (i.e. lymphoma)
Energy
- Vision: reduced use/reliance on fossil fuels + clean air, less light pollution (see Milky Way from A2)
- Needs:
- Phase out 2-stroke engines (leaf blowers)
- Energy-focused building code (residential and commercial)
- Tax credits/Low interest loans for EE/RE Upgrades
- Local power co-ops
- Neighborhood-scale re-installations
- Increase use of heat pumps — For heating and cooling
- Geothermal — is this the same thing?
- NG Service Stations for larger vehicles
- Transportation = HUGE
- Mass transit w/ community input, land use planning
- Weatherization
- For rental housing programs
- Updating building code to reflect today’s circs (e.g. 2×6 walls)
- *carbon tax- other levelers of playing field
- Strong Dist/Gen, net metering policies
- Promote solar currents at residential scale
- Community adv. to neighborhood scale installment, energy co-ops
- Communicate EE the way we do bond return (% savings per year)
- Buses: investigate technologies
- Assess county land for solar capacity
- Invest in energy storage infrastructure
- Hydro? Is it a low hanging fruit?
- Wiring regs. in building code – examine these for efficiency
- Solar hot water was not cost effective for 7 bldg. condo last year
- How to make it so?
- Create opportunities for large scale residential or muni-owned installations/improvements
- Make LED at carports do-able
While I agree with the general visions you developed, I hope you’ll consider some potential unintended consequences of pursuing the individual needs. For example, reducing light pollution may reduce bike or pedestrian traffic after dark. I feel much less safe biking here at night than I did in a big city where I just moved from. I’m much less likely now to visit friends or go out at night at because I can’t see hazards such as potholes, and vehicles can’t see me well, even if do wear proper clothing and lighting.
Also, where was the event advertised? I didn’t hear about it until I saw this post.