There's not enough countryside to go around. The next step is not exurbanite. The next step is humane cities. Since this species invented cities we've wanted to swarm there, and forget the fucking farm. There are architects and designers who are working on what makes for inhabitable cities. (How to Mutate and Take Over the World, by R.U. Sirius and St. Jude).
When I read those words a few years ago (yes that book was already ancient when I picked it up), I thought immediately of Portland. New York City might be the most "sustainable" of US cities, but when people all over this country think of a "livable" city, many (most?) think of Portland.
Since the "back to the land" movement of the 60s, many ecologically minded people have fled the cities, but as St. Jude points out, "the land" is a scarce resource. Not to mention the impact that millions of urbanites descending on the wild would have.
For the past couple decades, at least, Portland has served as a test-bed for sustainable and livable urban development - from mixed use, walkable commercial development to grassroots movements like the City Repair Project. But as early adopters, were also finding the bugs in the systems. Sustainability is an on-going project, but livability may have succeeded too well.
Local publications are awash in articles about the influx the "creative class" – young professionals lured in by Portland's purported livability. The more conscientious articles note the negative effects of gentrification, but as of yet I've seen few, if any, suggestions for actionable improvement. So Portland sprawls, the much touted urban growth boundaries are tested, and many people are pushed to the outer suburbs.
So as Portland swells, how can we maintain our environmental and cultural ideals?
I'm afraid I have little to offer with regards to the question of gentrification at the moment. Hopefully, World Changing Portland grows we'll have many productive conversations about this subject. I'd like to point you towards the Eugene based movement Food Not Lawns.
Food Not Lawns is a book, web site, and workshop series dedicated to what could be called DIY Permaculture. Not only do they provide information on turning your yard into a garden, they offer advice on starting community gardens, gardening in unusual spaces, and many other matters of sustainability.
By promoting more intelligent use of space wasted on lawns, we can promote bioregionalism without sprawl or requiring radical change to the physical landscape.
What, then, are the next steps? Indoor, apartment based gardening? More "green collar jobs" to promote economic growth?
How about it, Portland? What else can we do to make and keep Portland the place we wan to live?
