John W Doerschuk Jr.

Professor Bjoern Hagen

SOS 111/PUP 190: Sustainable Cities

21 April 2019

Envisioning the Sustainable City

Part 1: Briefly describe one of the places where you grew up. (455 words)

1. Where did you grow up and what was it like?

I grew up in rule Texas I moved around amongst smaller farm towns as my dad would

change schools that he taught at. Most of the towns where remote enough that we had to travel

45 miles or more to get to the shopping centers. One of those towns had no real grocery stores

and we had to travel 30 or more miles to get to one. The others had grocery stores and some

shops but we had to travel to get major items and a lot of clothing.

2. What elements in the human or natural environment were important to your daily life?

The outdoors being outside helping with the family garden and going to the river to fish

for catfish. We took great care of our yard and everything that grew in it like the iris flowers and

the other plants that my mother planted.

3. With whom did you interact on a daily basis?

 At one point we lived in a town of 500 or less depending who you asked and all of my

aunts and some of my cousins lived in the area one on a farm the rest in town. So, we walked or

road bikes to their house and went to school and downtown we did not drive everywhere all the

time like we do now everyone knew everyone so we trusted we were safe.

4. Where did you go and how did you get around?

The big trips we made for shopping was monthly especially for food and toiletry items

that we needed that we did not get from the garden and the trips where planed out everywhere we

went we a majority of the time had a reason in other words very little window shopping. We

would drive to town and to church which was not in the same town we lived in either a VW bus,

Chevrolet chevet, or later a dodge dart. But most of the time we walked and road bikes around

town.

5. What, if anything, about your life was sustainable?

Being in a six-person family we would get hand me down cloths we would patch them

when they got damaged and did a lot of thrift store shopping. Another thing we did was we had

an extremely large garden most of the time that supplied more than what we needed. My mother

made her own compost no fertilizers where used just natural ingredients from our yard and

kitchen where used. We did not get in the car and just drive when we went somewhere there was

a plan and a purpose we used bikes and walking as much as we could.

Part 2: Describe your vision of a sustainable city or neighborhood. (837 words)

1. How is this place laid out in terms of streets, buildings, public spaces, parks, homes,

workplaces, and shopping areas?

I envision a town that at its center is just like older towns with Schools, churches, public

spaces, business, shopping centers, and even parks with green spaces. Homes would be centered

around the downtown and when the towns need it due to size centered around shopping areas

that are in the areas that have workplaces and factories. All of the streets would be lined with

green ways and bike paths. The lay out tome would be like a bunch of bullseyes formed like an

interlocking puzzle where all the elements are within a short or manageable distance of where

people work and shop. I can see encouraging larger companies to develop company towns for

the workers to live maybe encouraging them to have housing for management and even rentals

for workers. There would be community gardens and coop/community farms located close in to

the populated areas for fresher food.

2. How do people get around?

People would get around by electric car bicycle or just simply walking with walkways

and greenways along with bike trails available most people would be able to get around. When

they would need to travel further there would be busses that are fueled with natural gas or even
better yet solar and electric. With bike paths and green ways with walk/bike paths all the areas

in the town would be linked to encourage the use of bikes and pedestrian usage.

There would be incentives for green friendly vehicles or for using the bus system where it

is available. The implementation of some type of vehicle inspections to make sure all vehicles

meet standards with emissions including a thorough inspection of the entire exhaust system to

enforce federal standards for not tampering with the exhaust system

3. What types of people live there and how do they interact?

All types of people from varying socioeconomical areas business owners’, workers,

managers, supervisors, everyone mixed in or living within a block or two of each other. There

would be neighborhood watch to enhance ownership in the security of the community. When

people are involved in the communities and if they have shared interest in things like community

gardens and farms there would be more ownership.

There would definitely not be a specific type of person, but part of the housing contract

for rentals and deed restrictions(contingency) for owners would be some type of contribution to

working or contribution to the community gardens. There would be elected and city council

appointed members of the community forming committees that would over see the gardens to

help keep them organized and not let them go to the way side

4. How does the built environment relate to the natural landscape?

 The built environment would be at one with the natural environment in the utilization of

green walls and green roofs. Where ever plants could be grown they would by the streets on the

buildings on street lights everywhere. This could lower the effects of heating due to the roads

and buildings that are built.

Many of the buildings would also be built working with natural elements such as the dirt

(adobe), and local stone that does not require stripping of the land if available. Lots of trees

would line the streets and be placed in kickouts to slow any traffic down and if there is an

interstate it would be located away from the city limits but near enough to access and encourage

business when necessary there will be the need for some balance. These larger roads such as

interstates would be placed as to not interfere in the local environment and natural drainage.

Water ways would maintain their natural flow with little interference with flood zones

kept clear and turned to green zones and parks to allow controlled flooding without damage to

structures as much as possible. The way Singapore did with their water ways as was covered in

the video from our lesson Singapore - Biophilic City.

5. What makes this place sustainable, and do you think it is possible to achieve?

Green environments with community gardens and green spaces help in making it more

sustainable. The use of bike paths and green ways along with proper zoning of structures would

reduce the use of cars and trucks that emit carbon. The less distance you have to travel for food

the less fossil fuels or vehicles in general you need.

 It would be a hard sale to get people to buy in but I believe that it could happen with the

right people and the encouragement. With the proper zoning and building code most of these

things could be accomplished but I can see the use of something like a Municipal Development

District that helps incentivizes businesses to relocate to areas that they are needed. When you

give incentives to business or people you can get quite a bit accomplished to get towards your

end goal.

Part 3: Sustainability Theory (557 words)

1. How does your unique past affect your vision of the future and the way you choose to

live your life today?

When you grow up throwing everything away you are more likely too not recycle and

have a I don’t care attitude when it comes to conserving our resources. If you grow up in an

environment where you recycle reduce and reuse such as many people do because of their

economic status. People in these environments are likely to follow the same path and take care

of their resources much better.

My past of living in a home where my mother raised large gardens and canned as much

as she could has led me to start a small garden and when I did not or do not have a garden my

family has gone to farmers markets and subscribed to food boxes that where raised by a coop and

delivered locally. My mother also recycled everything she could from cardboard to plastics to
metal to cans anything you can think of she has done especially with kitchen scraps. This has led

me to strive to recycle where I can when I do not recycle I have that guilt and get irritated that I

don’t. My mother also handed down cloths from kid to kid to save money and get the maximum

use of all the clothing. We always went to thrift shops and garage sales to get most of our

clothing items. I now regularly go to places like goodwill and thrift shops to get some of my

clothes that I need especially for work. My vision of the future has led be to see the importance

of recycling everything we can. It irritates me to no end that we now throw everything including

electronics away just because something goes wrong instead of repairing them. The fact that

now we over use plastics for everything is a little disheartening a lot of its use is unnecessary

alternatives need to be found.

2. How do human values come into play when people think about sustainability?

People now days are so busy in their everyday lives that they tend to not care or take the

time to think about subjects such as sustainability it is go go go and we don’t slow down enough

to “smell the roses” metaphorically speaking. We as humans need to make it a priority to take

care of our environment and make our world last longer. However, when individuals only care

about their selves they tend to disregard the environment assets that they have and they trash and

destroy the environment. These people shrug their shoulders and say “so what”. But when

someone is taught to take care of what they have and are shown the importance of taking care of

one another they will tend to care about sustainability issues and conserving their resources. So

most of the time the values you are taught or see in action tend to led you down the path of

sustainability whether the impact is small or large or not caring about sustainability.
Sustainability is a way of life that needs to be taken more seriously and engrained more in our

taught human values those that we can affect in our schools and in any other public forum that

we can use to relay its importance.