Shanty Towns

image: Jim Wilson and related article: Cities Deal With Surge in Shantytowns by Jesse McKinley

"Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns."

"Dozens of homeless men and women here have found more organized shelter at the Village of Hope, a collection of 8-by-10-foot storage sheds built by the nonprofit group Poverello House and overseen by Mr. Stack. Planted in a former junkyard behind a chain-link fence, each unit contains two cots, sleeping bags and a solar-powered light."

NYTIMES: Designing Through a Depression, by Allison Arieff

"At its heart, design is about problem-solving, but it’s also about problem-identifying. Instead of creating a need for things, designers can now focus on responding to things we do need. We may have never been confronted with as many problems as we are today; the blame for them can’t be attributed to designers, but many future solutions can — and will be."

Eco-Countries

also see Eco-Cities

While new construction can fashion out new living opportunities that consume less energy...what is being done to create new green meccas in existing built environments?
















The Maldives
Investing just over a billion dollars, this island nation of less than a half a million is seeking to go zero in 10 years.

NY TIMES

Water Rights

In Chile, where water rights are private property and not a public resource, agricultural producers and mining companies siphon off rivers and tap scarce water supplies. Drinking water is trucked into Quillagua because the river that fed this oasis town is contaminated and all but dried up. Photo: Tomas Munita for The New York Times

Who owns the water? In chile it depends on who buys it...the rights that is. In several portions of the country one Spanish company, Endesa, owns 80% (NY Times: Chilean Town Withers in Free Market for Water).

Other countries, such as Australia and here in the Southwest US, water rights are said to be handled with more environmentally and conflict resolutions...

In my backyard, water is a commodity. My house has water rights...a value, that I could sell. And the lawsuits can be found.

"The historic water users and the large water interests of Taos Valley are now involved in what is known as the Abeyta Lawsuit. Included in this lawsuit are: Taos Pueblo, Taos Valley Acequia Association, the Town of Taos, and several mutual domestic water consumer districts. If our water existed in abundance, then the judge could have told everyone to drill deeper long ago. The long term implications for both surface and ground water use are so contentious that this lawsuit has been in court for more than 40 years.

Sources:
Taos Horse Fly: Taos County Water Supplies
Taos Pueblo

Reading:
Cadillac Desert by M. Reisner
Blue Covenant by M. Barlow
Rivers of Empire by D. Worster
Blue Gold by M. Barlow
Water Wars by D. Ward
Whoes Water Is It? by Douglas Jehl
Water Wars by Vandana Shiva
Every Drop for Sale by Jeffrey Rothfeder

Municipal Financing

image: Solar Panels 365

Affording solar panels for the typical American home can cost nearly 50,000$. The money to get those panels usually is covered by some home improvement loan...putting the home owner at risk if they decide to move...usually leaving the panels with the house, while hanging onto the loan.

Municipal Financing sees the implementation of solar panels in a community as a more infrastructural issue: ICC explains:

"Under municipal financing of solar power systems, initial solar power investments are covered by a loan from the city, which is secured by property taxes and paid back over time, generally with interest. The advantage of this system over private borrowing is two-fold. First, any homeowner is eligible (not just those with good credit), and second, the loan repayment obligation attaches to the house, not the individual. This means that if a homeowner invests in a solar power system and then moves, they are no longer covering the cost of the upgrade, but instead the loan repayment obligation passes to any future buyers."

Californians already have this option for increasing their local production of energy...with cities in states such as Texas, Colorado and Virginia tagging along.

Novel idea....treating energy production as real estate...and being financed by the city, it becomes a community investment...as energy that isn't consumed by the individual homes is fed back into the grid...

sources:
Institute for Southern Studies
NYTIMES: Harnessing the Sun, With Help From Cities

other energy sources:
wind: Staten Island Harnessing the Wind