This article, by Charles Marohn, on The Strong Towns web site, presents a clear and concise perspective on the unsustainable American Dream. As San Antonio considers allocation of funds to be raised in the 2017 municipal bond process, public discussion has never been more important. The past 70 or so years of urban development in San Antonio represents the only pattern most of us are familiar with. We would be better able to make decisions for a more sustainable future if we understand the larger context of our sprawling urbanism. Sprawl is the only urban development pattern most Americans have ever experienced. Please read this, San Antonio. (You might even consider joining in what will undoubtedly be a spectacle of a public forum regarding the bond.)

We often forget that the American pattern of suburban development is an experiment, one that has never been tried anywhere before. We assume it is the natural order because it is what we see all around us. But our own history — let alone a tour of other parts of the world — reveals a different reality. Across cultures, over thousands of years, people have traditionally built places scaled to the individual. It is only in the last two generations that we have scaled places to the automobile.

I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the improvements at the park last week, and was surprised when our former District 1 Council representative, Diego Bernal asked me to join them in the shovel line. “Diego,” as he insists all his constituents refer to him, was the driving force behind the initial bond allocation for the park and subsequently found additional funding that was required to round out the scope of work to include perimeter improvements along North Flores Street. It was rewarding to have been asked to join in for the photo alongside our new District 1 representative Roberto Trevino, another neighbor and CoSA Parks and Recreation.

Through several public meetings, public input managed to help steer the design development of the project. I, along with several other neighbors and professionals, voluntarily advised the neighborhood association, as well as the councilman, on some of the technical and urban design-wise aspects of the improvements. Some of the benefits of citizen involvement included a revisiting of the San Pedro Springs Park Master Plan (abbreviated as it was) with public input, promotion of native plant materials, prevention of construction that would later be required to be removed when future phases of work gets funding, and removal of the existing perimeter sidewalks along North Flores Street where the most popular street parking is.

The new lighting will have LED technology lamping, but in matching “historicizing” lamp poles. Along the new walking trail and around the perimeter of the park, this should provide a visible improvement to the night time atmosphere of the park. The hope is that this near-perimeter fitness trail feature and lighting will attract more activity to the park and health to our neighborhood. The next time bond money becomes available for park improvements, I hope there will be funding for a planning process to update the park master plan and develop a prioritization from public input before the decisions about what will be built next are made.

In 2011 Architecture 2030 launched “2030 Districts” and now a 2030 District is forming in San Antonio. There is a general understanding of energy and sustainability issues at the scale of a building. The interrelationship among all the elements of the built environment is much more difficult to grasp (and measure.) Urban development patterns of buildings, people, plants and ecosystems, pavement, transportation, infrastructure of utilities, etc. make up the whole of urban systems. Urban systems have a great potential for energy savings and can only be dealt with effectively comprehensively, or as a whole. Urban designers, deep-pocketed real estate developers and city planners think and work at this scale, but mostly on a project-by-project or piecemeal basis. Municipal planning agencies don’t have enough power to bring comprehensive planning into its full potential for sustainability progress.

2030 Districts is a private sector-led sustainability initiative on the scale of the city or district. This win-win solution’s theory goes that businesses can be more successful – strengthen their market share – while saving energy, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and developing a more livable city with this higher level of collaboration toward urban sustainability.

Please see the 2030 web site in the link to the right for more background information and come to the AIA San Antonio’s new Center for Architecture on January 9 to join in the local effort for a more sustainable downtown.

Below is an excerpt from 2030districts.org:

Across the United States, 2030 Districts are being formed to meet the energy, water and vehicle emissions targets called for by Architecture 2030 in the 2030 Challenge for Planning.

Through unique public/private partnerships, property owners and managers are coming together with local governments, businesses, and community stakeholders to provide a business model for urban sustainability through collaboration, leveraged financing, and shared resources. Together, they are developing and implementing creative strategies, best practices, and verification methods for measuring progress towards a common goal.

Established in Seattle, 2030 Districts are at the forefront of regional – and national – grassroots efforts to create strong environmental partnerships, coalitions, and collaboration around ambitious, measurable and achievable goals.