Start Here

A few months ago, a friend sent me a link to the Endangered Durham blog. If you haven't read it yet, go and do so now, the rest of this can wait. Plus, it's essential background for why this blog exists.

In my opinion, Gary at ED has done a fabulous job of exposing the many ways in which planning and urban development in our little city has gone sadly awry in the past, and continues to be a gigantic mess today. Between the fiascoes of "urban renewal" and an utter failure to incorporate into policy any awareness of the complex interconnections between the "feel" of a place, its history, and its long-term sustainability, the government of Durham today shows little change in its policies or procedures from the "destroy-it-to-maybe-make-it-better" past.

However, it seems as though people all over the city are waking up on their own, determined to create better places in their neighborhoods and to put forth a new vision of what Durham could be. And that's the point from which I begin this blog.

In many of my posts here, I want to take a step into the future, to explore the area and look at what people are doing to make better - and more sustainable - places to live, here in the urban soup of the Bull City. In an ideal future, what could Durham be like? What needs to change to make that happen? And what might happen if we don't change? what does "business as usual" right now mean for Durham's future sustainability in a post-Peak-Oil, global-warming world?

Perhaps most importantly, though, I want in these posts to chronicle my own involvement in the perpetual process of building a better, more sustainable life for myself and my family, here in this urban community. The personal is always political, and all the more so in a world system on the verge of collapse and reorganization. How are my individual decisions affected by the decisions of the community around me? What is my role in the bigger picture? What decisions can I make, what steps can I take, here and now, to help create positive change?

Will it be enough? I don't know. Join me for the journey, if you want, and perhaps we can find out together.