On Re-localization, or Why we're doing this....

There's a direct line between my interest in political ideas and the vegetables on my roof.

Stan Goff has given me more to think about:

Re-localization is not utopianism. It is an initiative — being tried on many fronts and in many ways — to re-design the built environment whenever and wherever possible into something that is more sustainable and more accountable than what we have now (which, btw, is failing very badly and threatening us with a dramatic centralization of authority when the level of suburban anxiety reaches a certain tipping point). This initiative consists of model projects and experiments, or local networks dealing with political issues (there is a policy struggle in Durham right now about whether people may raise laying hens inside the city limits), to regional and inter-regional communications networks who share information and occasionally share work.

After reading far too many wonderful proposals about "What Should Be Done"--made by people who don't have the power, or intent, to act on them--my hope for this year is that we'll be hearing more from people who are Doing Things for themselves.

Bountiful Backyards is one of those stories.