Village Vancouver October 2011 Meetup

At last Sunday's meeting, the West End Transition group came up with the following ideas while visioning what we want our "village" to look like in 2030; as we only had 20 minutes, the list is nowhere near complete!

Transportation

-          Personal vehicles uncommon and traffic restricted to a very few corridors, e.g., Burrard, Davie, Denman, Georgia and Robson streets

-          Communal vehicles

-          Central parking areas off main corridors

-          Other modes of transportation available for people to get to their residences to/from transit or communal parking lots: segways, bicycles, scooters

Zero waste

-          Durable/repairable products

-          Repair shops (electronics, shoes, clothing, furniture)

-          Minimal or no packaging

-          Local fibres for local clothes, re-making clothes

-          Public, communal composting facilities

-          Compost toilets

Reduced consumerism and communal facilities

-          Bike share

-          Communal kitchens

-          Communal household equipment, e.g., dryers, washers, vacuums

-          Lending libraries: clothes, books, tools, electronics

Trade

-          Use local currency

-          Barter systems

Sustainable food

-          Food grown in public spaces, e.g., fruit trees along streets

-          Food growing areas and community gardens (lots more space to do this if there are no private parking spaces!)

-          Organically grown food – no chemical pesticides/fertilizers

Housing

-          Available for everyone

-          Co-housing

-          Facilities and support for people with disabilities and challenges

-          Frequent community and building celebrations and assemblies: to know neighbours

Energy

-          Alternative fuels for buildings, machinery, transportation: geothermal, solar, biofuels

-          Ecofiltration systems

A "mind map" is attached which shows our working document.