Farrell's Legacy?

Nenshi & Big Idea on Poverty

@Nenshi & Big Idea on Poverty: #YYC GDP from #UrbanAg is 0%. 100,000 empty acres of land. We consume 4Billion+ Food items/year. #yyccc

#1 Barrier 2 imagineCalgary Targets? These guys get my vote...

City of Calgary Law Department

Anyone keeping an eye on imagineCalgary Targets know they are being missed like the Flames miss the playoffs.

Solution? To begin, City Council has to take these targets seriously and become actively involved in implementing imagineCalgary. At first glance it seems logical, but the idea of placing imagineCalgary in the hands of the Orwellian Office of Sustainability is deeply flawed. A combination of bureaucracy, lack of vision (ironically), inability to truly fathom the task at hand & lack of conviction have rendered this added layer of administration ineffectual.

Add to the mix a draconian and inflexible law department, and we get a recipe for moving at a snail's pace.

Ultimately, the responsibility rests with our elected officials.

Another suggestion is to revisit the targets and update/revise them to 2011 standards via crowdsourcing and citizen engagement, which is the process that led to their creation in the first place.

Whatever direction is taken, we are losing serious ground on a vision that was, at one time, the envy of municipalities across the globe.

But, as we all know, we can make up that lost ground by acknowledging there are challenges and then addressing the issue with resolve.

Avoiding the #epicfail tag is going to require substantial diligence by all involved.

KidsFarm Institute Inc is a registered society in Alberta

Local Food Trinity/Trifecta: Agrarian Urbanism, Food Policy Council & LIFA: Land Inventory Food Assessment

Local Food Trinity/Trifecta:

1. Agrarian Urbanism
2. Food Policy Council
3. LIFA: Land Inventory Food Assessment

Every North American community should have these three concepts/principles represented in their pursuit of community sustainability.

Mayor Nenshi "I support the Urban Chicken Pilot Project"

Mayor Nenshi, at the time a candidate for Mayor, attended the CFPC Food & Sustainability Mayor's Forum on World Food Day, Saturday, 16OCT10.

With less than 24 hours before the 2010 Calgary Civic Election, Mayor Nenshi stated that he supported an Urban Chicken Pilot Project. Now, this does not, by any stretch, suggest that he supports Urban Chickens, but he does support knowledge based data gathering on the issue.

Jump forward to June 2011 and the City of Calgary (#yyccc on twitter) Legal Department is still pursuing the prosecution of an Urban Chicken owner, Paul Hughes (me). The legal department is now directly contravening multiple imagineCalgary targets, including 6 specific food targets. The hole the City of Calgary Legal Department (and as an extension, Calgary City Council) is digging gets deeper and deeper.

Add to the mix the concept of urban, periurban and rural agrarian/agricultural urbanism transects (thx Ald. Gian Carra), Article 25 of the UNHRD, Sections 1 & 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom and The City of Calgary Council's own CSPS034 Fair Calgary Policy, and the YYCCC Legal Department is essentially stepping into an ambush, except there are signs everywhere indicating that it is an ambush... which means they are precariously disconnected from their own policy, legislation, governance targets and society.

Solution?

1. Drop the charges against Hughes (me),
2. Resurrect the Urban Chicken Pilot Project that was so skillfully constructed by Bylaw Director Bill Bruce and his staff,
3. Pursue the facts of Urban Chickens and Urban Agriculture,
4. Immediately implement imagineCalgary Food Targets
5. Adopt Urban Ag Zoning Codes
6. Support the Calgary Community Farm Initiiative
7. Amend the draconian Community Gardening policy
8. Support the efforts of citizens working on the Land Inventory Food Assessment, LIFA
9. Catalogue all municipal land and create the conditions for citizens to easily access these areas for local food production
10. Allow the 80% of Brownfields that were formerly gas stations to be used for temporary Food Retailing, ie Farmers' Markets
11. Plant that garden at Old City Hall

We shall see how progressive our elected officials are.

Sprawl Repair Manual

Sprawl Repair Manual on Facebook

Sprawl remains the prevailing growth pattern across Canada & the United States, even though experts in planning, economics and environmental issues have long denounced it as wasteful, inefficient, and unsustainable. Sprawl is a principal cause of lost open space and natural habitat as well as increases in air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, infrastructure costs, and even obesity. It also plays a primary role in the housing meltdown plaguing the nation. But is it possible to repair sprawling suburbs and create more livable, robust, and eco-sensitive communities where they do not now exist? This new book answers with a resounding "yes" and provides a toolbox of creative approaches for doing just that.

The Sprawl Repair Manual offers comprehensive guidance for transforming fragmented, isolated and car-dependent development into "complete communities." Polemical as well as practical, the manual is designed to equip readers - from professional planners, designers, and developers to regulators and concerned citizens - with strategies drawn from two decades of successful repair projects.

In contrast to sprawl - characterized by an abundance of congested highways, strip development, and gated cul-de-sac subdivisions - complete communities are diverse in terms of uses, transportation options, and population. They are walkable, with most daily needs close by.

There is a wealth of research and literature explaining the origins and problems of suburban sprawl, as well as the urgent need to repair it. However, the Sprawl Repair Manual is the first book to provide a step-by-step design, regulatory, and implementation process. From the scale of the region to the building - turning subdivisions into walkable neighborhoods, shopping centers and malls into town centers, and more - today's sprawl can be saved. Readers who have despaired of ever being able to "take back the suburbs" will find heartening news between the covers of this first-of-its-kind book.