“Imagine for a moment a world where cities have become peaceful and serene because cars and buses are whisper quiet.
Houses, even low-income housing units, can pay part of their mortgage costs by the energy they produce. Worldwide forest cover is increasing, and atmospheric CO2 levels are decreasing for the first time in in 200 years. Industrialized countries have reduced resource use by 80% while improving the quality of life. A progressive and active union movement has taken the lead to work with businesses, environmentalists, and government to create ‘just transitions’ for workers as society phases out coal, nuclear energy, and oil. In communities and towns, churches, corporations, and labor groups promote a new living-wage social contract as the least expensive way to ensure the growth and preservation of valuable social capital.”
Nature Capitalism P.Hawken, A.Lovins & L.H.Lovins, ( page 1)
Degrowth
Albert Einstein once said: “We can’t solve problems by using the same thinking we used when we created them.” It is not only that more factors should be factored in when designing the ‘tomorrow street’ for people; the way we think it should serve us and influence our private living spaces should also be examined. We need to ask: How can the street support us as a sustainable society, as individuals? And also, how do we finalize it while controlling the narrative?
In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented their report [1] on the impacts of global warming of 1.5oC as a reaction to the Paris ClimateAgreement. [2] The IPCC report is determining what it will take to hit the Paris Climate Agreement goal, staying at or below 1.5°C, which requires decreasing global greenhouse gas emissions 45% below 2010 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. The bottom line is, it will take extraordinary transitions in transportation, energy, land use, infrastructure and industrial systems to meet this goal in only 12 years.
Degrowth (the opposite of ‘growth’) aims to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means – sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, nature, culture and community. It also means we need to find new creative ways to upgrade lifestyle, while preserving individual privacy, enriching community life, consuming less and using less land. This paper is trying to respond to the challenge.
Ties and Community
To understand something as complex as a street or a community, we need to understand a primary aspect of human interaction and understand (or try to understand) the basics needs behind relationships.
Evolution of ties
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