Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cars and Parking

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Apr 15, 2026, at 11:17 AM, Bill Mania/US/IsCoHo via Cohousing-L 
> <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Allow me to add a few more:
> 
> - How does the resource consumption and carbon footprint of LLMs compare
>  to our continued addiction to private automobiles?

Transportation is a big problem that varies according to location (rural or 
city), public transportaton ( non existing or a full system with multiple 
options), age and capability of the population, etc. Cars in some form are 
always going to be a part of the big picture.

One approach is to avoid car dependence for getting to work or things that are 
needed daily.

My personal gut reaction is to seeing privately owned cars parking on 
publically owned land. We all have to pay for maintenance, cleaning, and 
replacement of all that asphalt.

> - What about our animal-product heavy diet?

There is so much evidence on each side of that argument that it seems clear 
that different people need different diets. The evidence changes every month as 
new research is reported. The resolution probably includes all of us being 
closer to the source of our food and how it is grown.  It isn’t chemical.

> - What about our behavior of replacing still-functional phones and
>  computers with newer models?

A biggie. My personal question on this is why buy a throw away PC instead of 
buying a Mac which lasts years longer and does more? The Minimalists discuss 
this regularly — not the Mac issue but the “How much does technology really 
contribute to our lives?”

A personal example from today: I have scheduled the return of a desk chair to 
Amazon three times with nothing happening. Nothing on their site to correct 
this. I could only reschedule. I finally went to Perplexity and asked how make 
contact with a real person who could fix this. In 3 seconds, maybe 5, 
Perplexity spelled out in plain, detailed, unambiguous English the several ways 
to do it. The link in case you need it:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-do-i-contact-amazon-about-jrJoJpABQ4SiInIA8zgh1g

(I don’t know who long that link lasts.)

For years I was so frustrated by Adobe’s help pages that I used Google to find 
what I needed. I finally stopped using Adobe products. 

But the more I use it, I believe AI is here to stay. But I’m reconsidering the 
other things that just sit in my apartment "in case.” A regular sized cooktop 
and oven, a microwave, a counter top oven, electric waffle maker, and electric 
teapot. A refrigerator and a separate ice cream maker. A landline, a smart 
phone, a laptop, a internet enabled TV, and I think I need a large screen for 
the laptop. Why not use the TV? It’s huge and allows 4 separate pictures at a 
time.

Ramblng on. Sorry.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD
Founding member and 25 year resident in Takoma Village, Washington DC