1/7/13 - First Day of Class

Today was the first day of class in Green Communities (CMP 4380) with Professor Stephen Goldsmith. Part of our grade revolves around some for m of a journal turned in at the end of the semester with a minimum of two entries per week (same number as class periods per week). Some people have done a sketchbook, others have done "scrapbook-like" material, and others have turned in a journal with images they took. I decided that since I have been wanting to blog more I will use this blog as my "journal" for this class and once I get the hang of blogging... I'm hoping to be able to upload pictures, as well.

So, to kick things off...as school begins, I was super excited to see ONLINE (wait for it...) that I didn't have to buy any textbooks for classes this semester. When I came to class I found out I had to buy four books for this one class! When I looked at the titles:

• The Ecology of Place: Planning for Environment, Economy, and Community by Timothy Beatley and Kristy Manning, Island Press

• Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities Timothy Beatley, Island Press 

• Ecological Design (10^th Anniversary Edition) by Sim Van Der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, Island Press 

•   Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities In Balance With Nature by Richard Register, (Revised Edition) Berkeley Hills Press

They don't seem like they'd be super expensive, right? Well, they cost (total) roughly $137 after a 10% student discount at The King's English on 15th & 15th. Before I bought the books here, I had never known of this local bookstore, but my professor recommended them to our class to purchase our books from. I think my professor purposely didn't post the books online before school started so he could request that we purchase them from The King's English - clever. He wanted us to be aware of the importance of putting our money back into the local economy (feeding the economy) to help our communities. He had our books on hold so we didn't have to worry about them being out of stock. I normally buy my books after researching online for the cheapest price on sites such as eBay (where I work). However, it is nice to know that buying at a local bookstore helps my local community thrive, which relates to our discussion in class on the definition of "Green Communities."

 Our class discussion derived this definition of what a Green Community is:

• Environmentally Aware
• Aware of their surroundings - Natural/Not yet touched by or created by man
•    All species cohabitating
• Places that "work for" people AND place
• Symbiosis
• The sun
• Healthy in ALL aspects >>> S.E.E.D. - Social, Environmental, Economic, Design
• Self-reliance
• Import Replacement
• Scale Jumping
• Community that doesn't consume more than it creates
• Local First - A way of thinking
• A green community balances at multiple scales 
• Scale of neighborhood connected to scale of city to scale of state to scale of nation
• Think no borders, just natural systems

In that discussion I learned about transition strategies and how incremental change can create sustainability and resolve the issues of this world. Creating that idea to implement change is key. 

Professor goldsmith showed us an awesome video called, "the Landfill Harmonic film" on YouTube. http://youtu.be/fXynrsrTKbI 

I thought it was amazing that these people in Paraguay  have turned "garbage" in landfills into instruments that can be sold to kids who want to plan an instrument. They normally cannot afford such instruments but now they can play those instruments and own them and enjoy their passion for music. It's amazing to know they are benefiting the local community (the social aspect) by bring people together and removing waste from the environment (the "obvious environmental aspect). Also, by the production and sale of these instruments, you can visualize the economic aspect of this community through he creation of jobs and the distribution of wealth. It's really astounding to think about such a change in thinking and benefit to the community and environment.

S. OCIAL
E. NVIRONMENTAL
E. CONOMIC
D. ESIGN