City Repair - Permaculture for Urban Spaces

Peak Moment 76: What happens when citizens apply permaculture principles to a city grid? They create friendly places within the grid that invite people to come together. Mark Lakeman, co-founder of Portland, Oregon's City Repair Project describes these "creative intervention" projects as placemaking at its best. People learn to work together, build trust and have fun. The results, from painted intersections to cob benches and other organic structures, invite people "to inhabit the planet on our own terms" rather than the imposed grid-locked culture of the city. [www.cityrepair.org]

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• permaculture
• city
• repair
• portland
• oregon
• sustainability

[MaxwellsDemon2000]

Thanks for those videos! More!

[peakmoment]

Glad you're watching. Tell us what you want more of, too.

[CorvetteTeaser]

Guys you have a long way to go!

[peakmoment]

how do you mean?

[jdaviescoates]

Very cool, but he is incapable of describing concrete project! Luckily I know people who do similar things in London so I could image what he was on about, and towards the end the start showing more pictures so people get the idea.

[peakmoment]

Wonderfully painted street intersections, cob benches, kiosks, small gardens are examples of the projects people are working on.

[Tidnull]

people are realizing money is a tool of many tools. it is a way of obtaining, but we have so many free resources that dont hurt anything or any person. just today i foraged a meal; the only thing i sacrificed was convenience. so what? at least i have a direct relationship with my work and the product of my work, and i enjoy foraging, rather than spending time at a job where i get a coupon to buy food from miles away.

[EAFolta]

Skip the sociological mishmash, and skip to the parts about the project itself.

[jakebarnes28]

Interesting. What would be an intriguing analog present, and successful for many decades, is Mackinac Island. Of course, I am well aware of the unique nature of this tourist retreat, but it is also a real place inhabited by real people who do real things - all without cars. I wonder if it could be possible to create a new place - maybe by reclaiming old places - using a wholly new economic system not based on present mega-capitalism? Small mom & pops, barter "currency", urban horticulture?

[randomlaughingman]

just so those not evil realise the extent of how fucked things are - the day after i wrote that, the scum that are my parents deliberately had yet more trees in a garden they shouldn't be allowed to have, multilated and very reduced.

the enemy does exactly the things it believes will kill the soul the most, and harm those who won't put up with scum like them being able to exist.

it is no coincidence.

[randomlaughingman]

they are evil, but they've become required for most people - that's why the whole system that built roads and uses resources to make (an incredibly wasteful economic system) the vehicles, and deliberately selected the least-sustainable most-polluting fuels, is so evil. they could have waited and made vehicles that didn't pollute, aren't noisy, and fly - so no nature would be destroyed to lay roads over, and no nature destroyed to mine for materials to supply the whole mess.

[randomlaughingman]

one thing built-up places have to do is leave plants to grow in their real shapes. there's so much hate and fear of nature, and constant laying of poisons and cutting back and mutilating plants and trees, therefore destroying the micro-climates and little ecosystems left.

we need more plants growing up the sides of buildings and window boxes too, and reclaiming already-dead urban areas for city farms and permagardens.

[markeSeattle]

I do not think cars are evil, they are necessary for modern life, in fact my neighbor and I are trying to purchase a used electric car to share for local trips, however harmonizing neighborhoods with reduced car intrusion is a reasonable compromise.

[markeSeattle]

In a few places in Seattle local neighbors have successfully replaced a residential street with a common garden. There is still emergency vehicle access and parking at each end of the street. There was one such project 4 blocks north of our home. In Google Earth, fly to 3rd Ave NW / NW 60th Street, Seattle, WA. and look east.

[MaxwellsDemon2000]

Sustainable housing! :-)

[estoboy29]

great going iv also come up with a idea. please check out my video its about changing our world at the greatest point we need to act now please also leave a comment of ideas of your own we really need to start thinking!!!