Sustainable Democracy

To create such communities like you’re describing, wouldn’t you have to directly influence “The Man?” Personally, I don’t have the resources or the influence to ensure that my community is re-zoned, etc.

Comment from Myku in response to The Sidestep

Most of my ideas for building sustainable communities do rely on avoiding taking the powers that be head on. I still stand by that belief, but this question certainly bring up the question of how to do that.

My personal vision looks at targeting communities that are as close to the ideal situation as possible. I have some ideas of what to do after that point, but there are large holes in them.

The idea would be to either attract investment capital to the area for alternative business models that are built on small work group dynamics. In many ways this is the model Gore created and uses (teams of 150 people at max on a product or line). This, of course, works much better if there happens to be a local industry that is easily marketable… unfortunately most small communities are what they are because they lack these things.

However when working in a small community, it does tend to be rather easy to get involved in local politics and help direct change in a positive way. So even if you are not attracting investors you can work with local leaders in both politics and business to work with more of the community and try new things. Luckily there are many places where business leaders are happy to benefit their town. They know the people there and already know what they do to help the community grow will also directly benefit the business in the long run.

By working with this very small systems they do start to attract attention of bigger fish who do have much more influence that many of us lower on the ladder lack.

For the those brave enough to take then man head on though, there is plenty of inspiration available. Majora Carter took on New York and won. Her passion is to “Green the Ghetto” and is actively pursuing that project through her organization Sustainable South Bronx. It took aggressive pursuit of grant money, but it this shows that a grass roots movement can begin the process of sustainable redevelopment even against the biggest odds and the most entrenched systems.

So even without having a great deal of pull you can do more than just create a dent in the wall if you have the passion to pursue sustainable change.

So what are your ideas? Do you think making broader economic change in a small community or making civic changes in a large city is a better path to sustainable success?