I live in the city of Port Orchard in Washington State. It is a predominately automobile suburban type of neighborhood, largely due to the fact that a large portion of this area is rural in nature. The city of Port Orchard and it surrounding area has a population of 12,959 people as of our last census and has a rough area of 5 square miles (incorporated city limits). I bought my home and lived in Port Orchard for a little over 10 years. I am an active member within my community and neighborhood. Although my home is in a suburban area, we make the most of our home and property by having gardens everywhere and really focus on vertical gardening. We recycle rainwater and try to find alternative uses for items before throwing them out (I have built some really cool things!). I love my city. We have a thriving and growing community of sustainable gardeners and “preppers” who are truly trying to be self sufficient and learn more sustainable practices.
The first city I would like to discuss is Copenhagen. I am completely envious and totally admire their mindset and city planing towards slowing down and increasing the amount bicycling and walking done by its residents. Although my hometown in Port Orchard is largely automobile based, we have a large city center area (located on the waterfront) that would be perfect for a slow speed, pedestrian oriented atmosphere. We do have one small park and some walking paths, but we also have a lot of parking lots and a couple of abandoned buildings on the waterfront as well. These large (and largely unused) lots would make an excellent place for community gardens and parks. With a slower speed and no (or very limited) vehicle traffic in this area, more locally owned businesses would be noticed and visited and the vitality of downtown would be rejuvenated.
The second city I would like to discuss is Detroit. I admit, I do take a largely ecocentric philosophy when viewing things. That being said, I like seeing more green in Detroit. I like seeing how abandoned lots and derelict buildings are being reclaimed by both nature and urban farmers. I love the idea that people are growing their own food and even selling this local food to others in the community. We have a farmers market here, in Port Orchard, but it is not large. We do not have a lot of local farmers providing their goods, instead, we have a lot of craft and food truck style vendors. Some of the produce vendors we have are coming from Eastern Washington, as far as several hundred miles away. If we had more local farmers, our footprint would be smaller, our food fresher and we would make a huge impact on the food miles attached to our produce.
Hi, my name is Dustin Welch. What a small world. My parents live in Port Orchard near Long Lake. It has grown quite a bit since I was a kid, although I don’t think it will ever outgrow its rural nature. It is a beautiful area. My wife and I visited over the holidays from our home in Texas. I had forgotten how green and refreshing the clean air is there.
Hello, my name is Ranee and your blog impressed me. I love the idea of vertical gardening and reuse of rainwater and goods. I am impressed by the point made about reducing footprint and miles on produce if farmers markets thrived. Is your town in one of the areas that is often rainy? Perhaps tents of other covers could be put on walkways to increase foot traffic. Check out my blog at http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/03/16/honesdale-and-future-developments/
Hi Ben! My name is Tawnya and your post caught my eye. I was out in Seattle and Tacoma Washington last summer and I absolutely loved the scenery and landscape there. I compared my hometown, Montoursville, Pa, to the urban farming in Detroit as well. Adversely to Detroit, my hometown is in a suburban area, and there’s a lot of land used for farming. In the same sense it was often hard to access that locally produced food unless we would drive to the farm directly. Similarly to your hometown, most fresh produce sold at the supermarket would come from miles away, creating a carbon footprint. Recently our town opened up a local fare, providing locals with an opportunity to sell homegrown fruits and vegetables, and handcrafted items. They’re also focusing on spreading awareness to the community about the incredible, sustainable impacts of urban gardening. I’m hoping this new farmers market will eventually decrease food miles, convince more people to start growing locally, and ultimately result in a happier, healthier community. I think it would be very beneficial if your community started taking advantage of the abandon lots, and create a few community gardens. This approach could help purify the air, manage rainwater, and provide healthier diets. Thanks for your time. You can find my post here: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/16/module-vii-sustainable-cities/
Sincerely,
Tawnya
Hi Ben, my name is Ryan and link to my blog is here if you are interested: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/17/sustainable-cities-module-7-3/. I also live in a predominantly automobile community. I find it interesting that your hometown is already implementing a variation of urban farming. I would like that to come to my town of Greensburg. Recycling rainwater is also a different way to be more sustainable that I have never really thought of. It sounds like a great way to conserve water if you have a good system set up to harvest it.