“Most of us town-and-city dwellers spend our days pounding hard, paved ground. But in Giethoorn, Holland, residents float through canals. Built without roads, a series of waterways and bridges connect the town’s 2,400 residents. This incredible aquatic infrastructure has even earned the town the nickname “Little Venice.” We have to admit, a life without asphalt, gridlock and the DMV sounds pretty enchanting.”
Community
Walkable Cities by Janette Sadik Khan (New Urbanism) NYC
New York City has greatly expanded their bike lanes, high speed bus lanes and in general made the city much more pedestrian friendly. Janette Sadik-Khan was the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) from 2007-2013.
Mount Athos – World’s Largest Off-Grid Community
Mount Athos is a thousand year old network of monasteries and hermit huts in the Mediterranean. Amazing bit of history.
A Whole Town Runs On Solar, Uses Gray Water…In the Middle of a Wildlife Preserve
“This town is trying to model a new kind of independent housing community that actually protects endangered environments and creates income for its residents at the same time.”
Creating the World We Want to Live In
As Buckminster Fuller so poignantly said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Panchayat Academy: Training Leaders to Create Self-reliant Sustainable Villages
Lots of people agree how great Gandhi was, but how many seriously try to follow in his footsteps? Rangaswamy Elango is a doer, not just a dreamer. He has managed in a few short years to completely turn around his village. Kuthambakkam, Elango’s home town, is now widely regarded as a model village for rural India. Elango’s goal is networking with other village leaders to create “economies of permanence” or local self-reliant sustainable villages in India. His story is very inspiring, so much so that I seriously considered moving to his village to learn more.