Photo of Wednesday, December 18: Water Shortage?

San Diego roofs and streets are rainwater collection devices, and currently most of that water is drained away rather than stored for later use. That need not be. By improving the design of our streets, houses, lives, etc--we'd probably not need desal or piped water from NorCal.

Back in September Brad Lancaster gave a presentation on rainwater harvesting right here in San Diego!

I encourage you to share your own photos here about how San Diego or Tijuana urban design could be improved. Ask me how.

SD Sunday Streets LinkedIn group

[Car-free events] are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through.

Please join the new LinkedIn Group called "San Diego Sunday Streets." We are trying to gather local support for this exciting movement going on in cities across the US.

Car-free events have been very successful in several cities, from Bogota's Ciclovía, to New York's Summer Streets 2008, to San Francisco's Sunday Streets. The events are good for surrounding shops and eateries that might otherwise be slow on Sundays. They are also a creative use of public space, helping residents and visitors to imagine uses for the streetscape beyond simply moving traffic through. A Sunday Streets program in San Diego would benefit the city in a variety of ways.

Here's the URL to join:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1496767

We hope that LinkedIn will provide enough contacts in the business and government communities that we can begin to connect with them, so feel free to invite others!

rough SD Permaculture update

Mike T. is planning to visit in December and will be presenting on permaculture to his brother's high school class. He asked if I knew of any great pc demo sites in the area. Besides the wonderful new farm at city college, I don't--but tried to answer any way. Posting from my phone. [bad links fixed with computer]

--

The only new sites I've become aware of since you left: the city college urban farm: a must-see: http://www.sdcity.edu/esc , and girosol.org [http://www.girasolbaja.org/] (? Look up giro sol. I tried contacting them, got no reply. The workshop leaders were from Portland, if it happened). Missed the permacultureconvergence.org (socal ? See links from quailsprings if that's wrong), but heard there are now efforts to organize an sd-tj permaculture gathering this year. Marcia Boruta may be more in the know. She got Brad Lancaster here. . .

Deer park monastery would be another site, progressing fast: monks were at Brad's talk--brother stream and brother vu(?) (rain).

Then there are the other pieces: edible sd mag (haven't seen it, ediblesandiego.com ), the new city heights farmers market, chollas & 54th garden (groundbreaking 10/21).

Alias b's house is in a wonderful spot, nicest I've experienced in sd in fact (camped there), and a very good example of cobbling things together and figuring out problems: grey water, chickens, compost tea bubbler, banana basin (whatever it's called). Showing a great return on 3-4 months effort (~same time as city college farm).

AB's also had to deal with social challenges of pc. . . partner not as into all the experimentation and change. . .but that may be having a happier resolution.

and the restaurant side: the linkery, the local food plate I heard one was putting together.

and you may have seen it: looks like Ellee's getting FNL in gear for another conference.

Julie O's work on the 6th and Quince garden, balboa park.

and who knows what all's been going on with "north coastal food not lawns"--check with rachel of the solana center.

and I just heard of (searching for volunteer ops on americorps.org) a socal city repair variant: aclaparks.org

it's great you'll be here to shake things up. Josh R ( quakingaspenpermaculture.blogspot.com ) is another permie who returns here in december.

may post parts of this to various of the blogs I started. . .

peace,

Colin

Bicycle Advocacy Lecture

Got this link to a Bicycle Advocacy lecture from the Xtracycle Yahoo group (who are pretty militantly carfree folks from all over the country who ride Xtracycles, longtail bikes with serious cargo capacity).

It features "Carfree John" Pucher, professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers, speaking to a group in Vancouver B.C. He is an entertaining speaker, and he covers the things that Europe does right to encourage cycling. (Interesting point: Europeans haven't always been into cycling. From 1950 to 1970 they went heavily toward the car, then realized their mistake, and many countries have gone heavily toward the bike since 1970. They had to create a bike culture -- it didn't just always exist.)

http://www.sfu.ca/city/city_pgm_video020.htm

(Hope the link works -- it was loading slow just now. Maybe it's overloaded with bike advocates!)

--Larry

Future visioning for San Diego: some local examples -- know of any others?

We got to re-introducing ourselves on the sdishmael list, and Chet Fagin shared the following.

"future" (photo: carf)

[. . .] I live in San Diego with my wife and 2 year old daughter.
I joined the list mainly because I am concerned about where humanity is headed and about its long term survival. I wrote a piece earlier this year (inspired by Ishmael of course) called "Four Generations" which theorizes where we'll be 4 generations from now. I've referred to it as a "thinly veiled manifesto wrapped in a science fiction story". I consider it a work in progress so I'll be starting a blog soon to continue the conversation.
Meanwhile, if you're interested to read, you can download it here. I certainly welcome your feedback.

- Chet

My response (which began a short email and led to this post!):

Chet,
Thank you for sharing this!

"The more you do, the more your mind will shift, and the more you’ll discover."

That is a beautiful view. I've been following a general feeling of beauty / aesthetic sense / sense of what is right (sort of summed up by "carfreeness") where it leads me for many years now, and my mind shift continues to take me more interesting places.

I don't want to get wrapped up in commenting on your presentation--

I think it is more important to encourage everyone who can take it on to practice the kind of long visioning you model here (following the lead of The Long Now Foundation & Stephen Covey's 8th habit).

"Some things don't change at all" was my last attempt at the theme.

The breadth of your manifesto reminded me of Arth's The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems.

It is also nice for us to celebrate ourselves as local authors, enlivening and visioning our local future, instead of, say, always looking to the Bay Area, Cascadia, etc.

A local example of a well-published author practicing future visioning is Vernor Vinge's SD County-set Rainbows End, the entire text of which is online. (What a sentence! but I don't want to spend all night revising). I found his vision both life-changing--in how it affected my view of personal use of technology--and, regarding future transit and industry, conservative.

Hmm. And my two cents on your presentation (only since you wrote, "I certainly welcome your feedback."):

1. You give us an odd, unexplainable scenario right off the bat (a good device for encouraging us to read on), but, as far as I can tell in my quick read, it is never resolved or elaborated on!
   
2. Maybe differentiate the voices more--perhaps with more description interspersed with the dialog, since, for me, sometimes the voices ran together.

So, do any of you have more local future visioning projects to share? Literary, visual, or otherwise?

And, Larry, I love that you're helping keep this blog alive, and that you're finding pictures for your posts! So I scrounged up a photo for this post too.
Peace,

Wild Salad Bowl

Saw this article on Grist, about using weeds and invasive species for food. Wondering if the same thing could work for our local California wild mustard?

Anyone have any good recipes?

Photo by Lars Jensen, who also has stunning photos of other San Diego locations, including Anza-Borrego.

Speak Out for Real Renewable Energy

Interested in getting real renewable and clean energy alternatives for San Diego? Then hie ye to Borrego Springs on Monday, to tell the California Public Utilities Commission to reject the Sunrise Powerlink boondoggle and to pursue instead the alternatives recommended in the San Diego Smart Energy 2020 report. Two separate hearings start at 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

One activist is running 50 miles to the meeting. Another is hiking from the mountains to the desert and then hitch-hiking the last few miles. However you get there, we hope to see you.

Full details are on the Desert Protective Council's Sunrise Powerlink page, or check the running commentary at www.desertblog.net.