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| <back | home How to turn your Neighborhood into an Eco-Hood! by Linda Buzzell-Saltzman What the heck is an Eco-Hood? Susan DeFreitas, in an E magazine article reprinted in issue 55 of HopeDance (http://www.hopedance.org/new/issues/55/article14.html), defines an EcoHood as “a Permaculture retrofit of a mid- to low-income neighborhood with a high potential for ecological sustainability.” But I think this retrofit can be done in any neighborhood. One of Permaculture’s basic recommendations is to start any project with a Needs and Resources Inventory. So if you’re interested in turning your neighborhood into an Eco-Hood, that’s a good first step. Begin with your own home (“Zone Zero” in Pc parlance). Start with the Resources List. What resources do you have to share with others? These could be anything other people might need or could use: surplus food from your garden, balcony pots or fruit trees, equipment or tools you could share, skills, information, compost, transportation, stuff in your garage or closets you no longer use, whatever. Take your time with this list. Every day or so, you may realize you have something else that could be added to the list. Next, start a Needs List. What needs do you have for things you either don’t have or would like to get from greener and/or closer sources? Maybe you could use a daybed, a kitchen table, avocadoes in season (no room for a tree) flowers, child-care, a haircut, a greywater system, alternative energy, a green remodel, etc. Once you’ve taken your own inventory, you’re ready to approach others who already live in your neighborhood or who might be interested in moving to your neighborhood. Start by approaching a few neighbors and offering to share your resources. Perhaps you bring over some flowers, fruit, veggies or eggs and end up having coffee at a neighbor’s kitchen table. Once you’ve opened the door this way, you could explain your vision for the neighborhood, with neighbors sharing resources. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we shared things, saving us all money?” Start with the easy stuff: home-grown food and crafts are usually welcome. If your neighbors seem open to it, you can offer to swap. Perhaps they have an orange or avocado tree they never harvest because they’re too busy. You could offer to harvest the tree for a portion of the crop. This is what a neighbor of ours did. He heard that the people across from him were going to cut down their tangerine tree as it was “too messy” with fallen fruit. He approached them and offered to solve the problem a different way. He now takes care of the tree, picks the fruit for them, delivers a nice basket to their door and takes half the crop home for his own use! Everyone’s happy, everyone’s saving money plus a valuable fruit tree is healthier than ever. And no fossil fuel is being used to ship oranges from elsewhere to the local market where our neighbors used to buy them. It’s hard to believe, but many people think fruit from their yards is too “dirty” to eat and prefer to buy it at the supermarket! Community building events can help strengthen the links between neighbors. A garage sale followed by a potluck – these are things that build the social context for Eco-Hood to evolve. Eventually you could have a meeting at your house, with refreshments (very important — food is bonding!) where people could discuss the idea of Eco-Hood and feel part of the creation. It won’t work if it’s just your idea that you try to impose on your neighbors. They have to buy into the vision and get excited about it too for this to work. At the meeting, invite neighbors to tell each other about the items on their needs lists, plus any resources they might have to share. Collective thinking can often come up with good ideas to solve the needs. You need baby-sitting? My son or daughter needs a way to earn money. This sounds so basic, doesn’t it? Everybody used to live like this. And yet in so many neighborhoods, people are totally isolated from each other and only come together in emergencies – and maybe not even then. This is also a good time to talk about neighborhood needs as well as individual household needs. Are people concerned about street traffic, graffiti or the usual concerns of neighborhood associations? Sharing what other neighborhoods have done to become more sustainable could be appropriate here. Perhaps you could pass around an article on City Repair (www.cityrepair.org)… From a Permaculture point of view, it’s also interesting to explore “outside influencing energies” – things that impact the neighborhood from outside. Fire danger, earthquakes, landslides, crime problems, government issues, water shortages, high heating costs, contaminated creeks, lack of affordable housing, etc – all grist for the Eco-Hood mill to discuss and for how to mitigate problems at the local-neighborhood level. A pal of mine got together a group of her neighbors and they painted an ugly suburban wall along a busy street and then planted trees and vines to cover it. Simple stuff, but powerful community medicine. If your neighbors seem open to it, you might also take the next step and discuss the mega-“outside influencing energies” like the end of cheap oil or global climate change and involve everyone in relying less on outside sources of energy, focusing on local solutions to energy, food and product needs. Another possible action: recruit like-minded friends to move into your apartment building or neighborhood, so you have a set of shared values as a base for further community connection. The basic idea of Eco-Hood is to move away from the traditional American idea of independence (which is a myth anyway). Each home isn’t an island. It’s part of an ecosystem. So our goal in creating an Eco-Hood isn’t self-sufficiency but rather interdependence. For inspiration, I recommend The Earth Charter, a “declaration of interdependence” and a great document to explore as you turn your neighborhood into an Eco-Hood. Resources http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3066www.azpermaculture.org www.sbpermaculturenetwork.org www.cityrepair.org www.uvm.edu/~bcmiles/vtfs2005/ www.hopedance.org/new/issues/55/article14.html www.earthcharter.org Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren (2002) Superbia: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods by Dan Chiras, Dave Wann (2004) Permaculture Activist, Winter 2005-6 Issue, “Urban Permaculture” Psychotherapist Linda Buzzell-Saltzman, M.A., M.F.T. is the founder of the International Association for Ecotherapy (applied ecopsychology) at http://thoughtoffering.blogs.com/ecotherapy She has recently taken the Permaculture Design course and is interested in community ecotherapy and in assisting individuals and communities in the transition to sustainable living. She is a Fellow at For the Future (www.forthefuture.org) <back | top^ |