Phase One: the Conversation

The Barricades go up tonight!

Okay, just Kidding. Phase One of Car Free Mile End is a little more subtle and more sophisticated. The cars will continue to roll down St. Viateur – for now.

As of today, we begin to hash out the details of the project, for which we are seeking help from you, the public. Without you, Phase One (the Conversation) will surely stall. Please allow me to take a few moments to outline what I think this dialogue must entail.

As always, we must work in context: Global Warming is not going away. It’s a huge problem that is largely unattended to by all manner of government. We cannot wait for their action for meaningful progress on this. Instead, projects like CFME, provide opportunity to accomplish something ourselves on this front.

Not unrelated to the issue of climate change is the pending crunch in energy supply known as Peak Oil. With every day that passes this becomes less controversial and hopefully a little better understood (there are many excellent web resources, click here for one). This problem can be summed up as the historic period at which oil production begins to fall from one day to the next, which translates into the industry’s inability to meet growing global demand. While the science and numbers are fairly complicated, the implications are relatively clear and important: It stands to impede the plausibility of perpetual economic growth. As with Global Warming, reduction of our use of fossil fuels is a huge part of the solution.

These two major global issues together should be enough to compel all nations, communities and individuals to seek new ways of going about their business; to move away from carbon-intensive, fossil fuel dependent activities, and to pursue alternative living arrangements.

Fortunately alternatives and precedents exist. We’ve got to keep them alive in conversation and eventually in practice, lest they be smothered by the status quo. Only through increased demand for alternatives will there be enough incentive for providers (both public and private) to pony-up for investment in alternatives for the future.

There is also the benefit of individual ingenuity and inventiveness. The more we rely on hand-on creativity and learned technical skills for solving the problems that come with excessive use of cars, the more resilient we may become as a community.

Car Free Mile End must exist as a forum for sharing ideas and advocating for alternative possibilities. As such the urban design of the car-free St. Viateur Ouest we envision will prove to be the best it can possibly be. Now is the time for your input. Let the brainstorming begin!