Sustainable Urbanism. Ever Heard Of It?

Do you see what I see?

Have you ever noticed how automobile-centric our typical “conventional” cities are? That’s basically the only way we (as city folk) have ever known a city to function. When you think about it, the top priority in a city layout is to serve the drivers.

It makes sense that realistically, people are going to want to take their own mode of transportation — especially if they can afford it — because their route is not going to entirely align with a generalized public transportation route. That makes sense. Plus, moving forward, think of all the people plagued by a newfound germophobia.

I took the bus all the time in college, mainly because the school paid for it, and the routes were pretty standard to get to the places I needed.

Now, I wouldn’t touch a bus with a fifteen foot pole. I don’t want to have anything to do with buses, especially with the lack of attention to public health in some areas of San Francisco.

While traffic may be unavoidable — because let’s face it, lots of people don’t deserve their driver’s licenses — offsetting carbon production can be cut down significantly with the people’s recent attraction to electric vehicles.

How can we fix that?

Naturally, the discussion about companies converting all their cars to electric, renewable energies replacing fossil fuels, and implementing sustainable supply chain management into businesses is inspiring. But then you get hit with the “… by 2035…” LOL. If I know anything about UC Berkeley’s Zero Waste by 2020 goal, this is going to be a sh*t show. Good intentions with poor planning doesn’t amount to anything.

However, ridesharing and/or using public transportation majorly cuts down on traffic by taking up a fraction of the space that 100 individual cars would, and not only that: it also majorly cuts down on carbon emissions caused by each individual car that’s off the road.

It just depends on whether people are capable of adjusting their schedule, effectively inconveniencing themselves, to contribute to a bigger cause.

Smart cities, sustainable cities? Same thing.

Two years ago, I earned my BA in sustainable environmental design (SED) and minor in conservation and resource studies; I also worked to develop community engagement from my role as head of the department of zero waste within student government.

I’ve always been super interested in the concept of sustainable urbanism, which might sound futuristic at this point in time… but honestly, it’s fairly feasible, and is in fact implemented at scale in many cities globally.

So for me, the way I like to envision a futuristic sustainable minded city — first of all, wouldn’t be a super high-tech land of chrome buildings with flying cars. (I feel bad for all the boomers who had that expectation for some reason.)

The way I see it, people in the future will be able to recognize that in order to take a step forward, we need to take a step back. Repurposing materials. Buildings, used and unused, retrofitted with more green infrastructure and sustainable design in order to be the highest efficiency of resources.

Parking lots converted to public green space as a community development benefit, and conversely, cars running on electricity powered by renewable resources which are much more minimally necessary because of the city’s extremely efficient public transit system.

Moreover, instead of developing on new land, buildings should be built upwards instead of outwards.

You will see companies that locally produce products and support fair trade (little to no transportation of items necessary), which offer unique and sturdy/robust items that have circular lifecycles.

Everything in this city is walkable, a key quality of sustainable urbanism, streets are clean and maintained and emphasize bikers and pedestrians over automobiles (slow streets), and restaurants have access to the healthiest, freshest materials to cook food that can be taken to-go or delivered in compostable containers.

For some places in the world, this is already a reality.

So why can’t we have them here, now, in large parts of the United States?

• Aren’t these the basic necessities that we deserve?
• Shouldn’t this idealized civilization be the standard?

Smart eco-cities really make sense in the long run. Setting aside the initial financial burden this would surely claim, this does seem feasible via governmental subsidies, creating business plans to promote local businesses with the expectation that they will do well for the local economy, and in the interest of general public health.

Because honestly, what good are electric cars going to provide when millions of people start to get displaced by catastrophic climate events (looking at you, Texans)?

What are ideas we can circulate now to make contributions toward a smart city focused future?

• Renovate our public transit system. BART, are you kidding me? MUNI, you’re doing alright.

People should be DYING to catch the train or bus to get to where they need to go, but the reality is they’re often behind schedule, riddled with drug users who are actively using drugs which presents a hazardous public health situation, and ultimately poorly maintained. Yeah, I think I’ll take an uber, thanks.

• Speaking of public health, something really needs to be done. Hosting happy and healthy citizens is an imperative goal.

Downtown San Francisco has become a breeding zone for diseases. The worst part is the people here contributing to the downtown’s decrepit state really need help, and there’s little to no programs offered during COVID.

• Support the smaller businesses. Promote locally produced items.

This not only helps circulate the local economy, but also cuts down on carbon production caused by transporting products. I completely understand that often they’re more expensive, which sucks, but they have to make money somehow.

If you can spare it, it’s going to a (hopefully) good cause. Especially with all the techies in this city, we can do it.

What are some actions can we take?

I know there’s a lot going on and it’s hard to prioritize one issue over the other. But I love thinking about creative solutions to these kinds of problems involving sustainability and city planning.

It’s really just staying involved with governmental/city decisions, signing petitions, and voting.

Also recognize that just because things are a certain way now, it doesn’t mean that they have to remain that way. Things don’t just have to “be”.

We can ignite change simply by being aware that there are better opportunities out there for ourselves, and just talk about these topics.

No one is going to be able to point out a problem on their own if they don’t have a reason to.