When I was in my mid-teens, I couldn't wait to get my driver's license. Now I often wish I didn't have one. Back then a driver's license meant being freedom. Now it means Mommy Chauffeur duty: driving kids to school, work, shopping, and other activities.
Some of those are within easy walking distance; most are within cycling distance. But all would require walking or cycling along a busy, narrow road with no sidewalks, few streetlights, and a 55mph speed limit. Not a good place to walk or cycle, especially at night. It's one of many things I'd like to change here locally.
More below the fold....
Window Washing, Part III - Unthinkably Progressive Ideas (Non-Cynical Saturday)
This week Morning Feature took another look at the Overton Window. Thursday we discussed why our party needs both "purists" and "pragmatists" to be effective. Yesterday we considered the Overton Window in terms of two other concepts: the Change/Resistance Rule, and the 40/60 Rule. Most simply, during a short term electoral or legislative debate, we need "pragmatists" who focus on the most progressive candidates and solutions within the current Overton Window. Over the long term, we need "purists" advocating for Radically or even Unthinkably Progressive candidates and solutions, to get more progressive options into the future Overton Window.
Today, as we did when we last looked at the Overton Window, we conclude by offering some Unthinkably Progressive ideas, this time focusing on state and local issues. I've focused on state and local issues this week because many of the most important government actions happen at the state and local levels. While you wouldn't think so to hear the Tenthers in the Tea Party GOP, most of the government decisions that shape our lives happen close to home: from community deed restrictions to city and county zoning, school boards to mass transit to road repairs, state budgets to marriage and most of our criminal and civil statutes.
That's a good thing, by and large. The diversity of decision making allows smaller, more local bodies to respond to specific local needs, and to try different solutions. But when progressives get too focused on national and global issues and overlook state and local issues, we turn state and local government over to conservatives. That can lead to disasters like Florida's Senate Bill 6, which came within one signature of gutting our public schools. Governor Charlie Crist vetoed the bill, but that it reached his desk should be a wake-up call for progressive Democrats in Florida and elsewhere.
A "pretty" but unhealthy community.
My community's Walk Score is a mere 15 on a scale of 0-100. The average community walk score in the U.S. is 49. In my community, as noted above, we have no sidewalks or bicycle paths and few streetlights along the busy, narrow, high-speed road that connects us to local shopping and other businesses. Walking or cycling are healthy for both our bodies and our climate, as they reduce our carbon footprint. But walking or cycling along that road, especially at night, is too risky. I sometimes see young teenagers doing it, but unless they're wearing bright or reflective clothing I often see only their silhouettes against the headlights of oncoming cars. It's a tragedy waiting to happen. They could walk in the high grass farther from the road, but here in South Blogistan there are good reasons not to. Those reasons involve scales or fur and teeth that may include venom or rabies.
The problems don't end with our community walk score. My community has deed restrictions that forbid outside vegetable gardens and clotheslines. They mandate a specific kind of grass and limit our choices of ornamental plants, all of which require supplemental watering. We do use recycled water for irrigation, but even must be rationed because the demand is too high. And the deed restrictions limit solar panels in ways that make them useless for most homes in the community, even if homeowners could afford them. It's a "pretty" community, but it's not as healthy as it should be, for the residents or our environment.
An Unthinkably healthy community.
I'd like to see our county require Walk Scores of 50 or higher for new communities, and implement a program to boost the Walk Scores of existing communities to 50 or higher by the year 2020. Some of that can be done with better zoning. Some can be done with sidewalks and bicycle paths. Some would require creating a mass transit system: vans from neighborhood pickup points to local shopping, where riders could also connect to buses or eventually light rail to nearby cities. It would cost money - though not as much as detractors insist - but it would create jobs and build safer, greener communities.
I'd like to see our community permit vegetable gardens or, better, set aside land for a community vegetable garden. A community garden could make better use of irrigation, and bring neighbors together as we seed and tend our plots and trade our harvests. Home-grown vegetables would make for a more healthful diet, and lower our grocery bills. We should allow clotheslines, which would lower both our carbon footprint and our electricity bills. And we should not only allow but encourage xeriscaping to reduce our community's water demands.
Our community should also permit solar panels to be placed where they will be most effective, which for many homes will be side of the roof facing the street, and our county and state should offer better financing incentives to make solar panels more affordable for homeowners. Our state should also implement something like Germany's successful Feed-In Tariff plan, so homeowners who produce more electricity than they use can sell it at a profit to the local power company.
If all of that were done, we would walk or cycle more, drive less, eat better food, reduce our carbon footprints and water demands, save money on gas, groceries, and electricity bills, and spend more time talking to each other as neighbors. That shouldn't be Unthinkable....
What Unthinkably Progressive ideas do you have for your community or state?
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Happy Saturday!