Sharon Astyk and the Right to Live Sustainably

[LizM - Site Moderator]

Sharon Astyk is one of my favorite thinkers on resilience and sustainability. She brings it down to the ground where it belongs. In this blog she covers what we need to get sustainability working in our neighborhoods. It's going to take more than canning, kale and clotheslines. It's going to take getting involved at the municipal level as an organized group and at a national level. Many of the things that make living in the burbs potentially sustainable - are actually illegal at this time. Our towns are built for cars. Our lawns are there as a display of status in an area when water is scarce  and will become more so.

 

Between HOAs , neighbors, city rules and lack of precedent it can be tough to get through these processes alone. Take heart you are not alone.

 

For the last several years I've been working on the invention of "Urban and Suburban Right-to-Farm Laws" and have had some notable successes including a legal conference on the idea and a few municipalities that have implemented them. This is one of the reasons I think this is so incredibly important - zoning presumptions simply can't be allowed to prevent people from using less and meeting their own needs.

From Sharon's Blog Taming the Zoning Monster- Casaubon's Book on Science Blogs

 

In the comments - let us know what kinds of issues you've run into in your town and how you are hoping to address the conflicts which naturally arise when you become a pathfinder.

 

Sharon Astyk is the author of: