Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Tornadoes and acre plots

[Mbembe (Mbembe]

loren [at] wombat.net (Loren Davidson) wrote:

>Your idea makes any kind of public transit impossible.  Transit requires
>10-12 families per acre to be profitable

Perhaps in the current state of mass transit this is true. Perhaps, also, an
alternative may become available for those of us that prefer to live in the
country, or in small towns. After all, it's not just about what is, but what
can be.

>by the year 2000 there will only be 1/4 acre of arable land per person

This sounds like an issue of population control, family planning... and then
there's the matter of factory farming of animals, poor farming practices
generally worldwide, rapacious consumerism, and... I could go on. Somehow, I
just don't think that folks wanting to live on an acre or more is a problem,
especially as there will be natural economic and personal interest limits on
how many will choose that way. 

I'm not making a case here for suburbia, gated communities, etc. Consider the
use to which the land is put, the context of the community within the larger
community around it. There's a lot more to right use of land than transit
considerations.

>1-5 acres per family for everyone is unsustainable.

It will never happen anyway. Anyway, I bristle at the idea of any one
prescription for "everybody". People live such different lives, have such
different aspirations. Let a thousand flowers bloom! Country folk! City folk!
What-the-folk!

Jim Schliestett