Agenda for a Shrinking Planet

A discussion of personal choices and public policy options that address the population boom and resource crash we face in the next 30 years, with an emphasis on what you can do in your life today. [Delivered as a talk at the True Nature Country Fair in Barnardsville, North Carolina, Sept. 26, 2009] – Cecil [...]

A recent talk about local food, water and fuel

[click on the header to see the video]

Peak oil and Asheville’s future

I’ve been thinking about the coming decline in oil availability this morning. This reflection has been spurred by a note from Jim Barton on Twitter concerning a soon-to-be-released book about how we can successfully cope with the shift to a post-petroleum economy.

Addressing mental health

While mental health treatment and support are primarily state and federal issues (in terms of funding), city government can address a vital link in dealing with mental health issues via our police department. About 10 percent of police calls concern situations triggered by mental health issues. That means that officers trained in dealing with such [...]

Commonsense community security

No one seems to have a meaningful handle on where our economy is headed. Comparisons to past recessions or depressions may carry some weight, or maybe not—conditions are different, the world is more crowded, the credit markets have changed in scope, and resource availability has fallen to name just a few obvious changes. What we [...]

Local solutions for local needs

Local trade is gaining currency across the country as a rational response to the spreading economic collapse. Even macro-economists like Paul Krugman, generally focused on national and international finance and production, have noted that local economies matter. The easiest local supply lines to envision involve food because we already have the ingredients (land and water) [...]

Four days to save

At the Asheville City Council annual retreat (in January) the subject of global climate change came up but was quickly set aside as an issue that the city would not be able to tackle this year. Wrong. Climate change is happening, faster than most models predicted just a year or so ago. New York Times [...]

The Downtown Master Plan

My brief critique:
1. I question the creation of a separate management entity.

2. I question the imposition of a new downtown tax.

3. I don’t understand the height exceptions in the Appendix.

4. Reading the original plan I saw more gloss than substance. But the final plan seems to meaningfully address serious design issues and advocate a form-based approach that could favorably affect our city’s future development.

5. Any new plan should reasonably include mandatory review and mandatory compliance with planning guidelines; however, NC state law only permits mandatory compliance rules in historic districts. There are two ways to approach this … [to read more, click the header]