“Where’s the action?” the gamblers
ask in Guys and Dolls. When it comes to building
local commons institutions, the action is just about
everywhere. Here’s a sampler.
LAND
TRUSTS
I’ve already mentioned the Marin Agricultural Land
Trust and the Pacific Forest Trust. The aim of such
trusts is to shield pieces of land from development or
degradation. They do this by owning land outright, or by
owning easements that restrict how land may be used. Land
trusts aren’t just for the countryside. In Boston,
people in the Dudley Street neighborhood formed one in
1988 to buy vacant land and determine how it could best
serve the community. Today there are six hundred new and
rehabbed homes — all with a cap on resale prices
— plus gardens, a common area, parks, and
playgrounds. These efforts revitalized the neighborhood
without displacing local residents, as would have
happened through private property and gentrification.
SURFACE WATER
TRUSTS
The Oregon Water Trust, founded in 1993, acquires
surface water rights to protect salmon and other fish. So
far it has worked with over three hundred landowners to
put water back into streams, some of which had been
sucked completely dry. Sometimes a water rights seller
forgoes water by switching crops, or by irrigating only
during the spring, when stream flows are ample for
farmers and fish alike. At other times, deals have hinged
on delivering water from a different source, while
leaving it in streams where fish need it. Recently,
similar trusts have sprung up in Montana, Colorado, New
Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Nevada.
GROUNDWATER
TRUSTS
Groundwater, the source of half of America’s
drinking water, is being pumped faster than nature
replenishes it. The problem is especially acute in the
High Plains, where farmers are depleting the Ogallala
Aquifer, and in the Southwest, where many cities face
water shortages. In San Antonio, which gets 99 percent of
its water from the Edwards Aquifer, the Edwards Aquifer
Authority now limits groundwater withdrawals by issuing
permits. A similar trust for the Ogallala Aquifer is a
solution waiting to happen.
COMMUNITY
GARDENS
Turn the corner in Manhattan and you may discover a green
oasis rising from the rubble of a vacant lot. Amid the
bean vines and tomato plants stand sculptures, shrines,
and toolsheds, all on land the gardeners claimed after
buildings had been demolished. New York City is dotted
with 700 community gardens. About 150 of these will
eventually give way to housing, but the rest will
stay.
And it’s not just New York. The American
Community Gardening Association counts seventy major
cities with community gardens. In Seattle, more than
nineteen hundred families raise food in these
neighborhood spaces. In Philadelphia, gardeners save an
estimated $700 each year on food bills. In Boston, the
Food Project produces over 120,000 pounds of vegetables
on twenty-one acres; most of it goes to people in need.
Just as importantly, these gardens turn strangers into
neighbors.
FARMERS’
MARKETS
Until the Civil War, most American cities had public
food markets. In the 1940s, there was a brief resurgence,
as farmers sought better prices and shoppers sought
fresher food. Then came interstate highways,
and the market for seasonal local produce collapsed.
Now these commercial commons are being reestablished.
From Union Square in New York City to San
Francisco’s Ferry Building, city-dwellers are
rediscovering the pleasures of meeting each other and the
people who produce their food. There are now nearly four
thousand farmers’ markets in the fifty states,
double the number that existed ten years ago.
PUBLIC
SPACES
From New York City’s Bryant Park to Portland,
Oregon’s, Pioneer Square to Boston’s Copley
Square, urban plazas are coming back to life. Even
Detroit, which was built by the automobile, is reviving
its downtown by rerouting autos around a new public
square called Campus Martius Park. The park bristles with
life in both summer and winter, and has attracted some
$500 million in new investment to the area. In Portland,
informal groups of neighbors have reclaimed street
intersections. They paint vivid designs on the pavement
to mark the place as their own, and often add
community-building amenities such as produce stands and
play areas.
TIME
BANKS
Helping your neighbor is an American tradition. But as
people relocate more frequently, it’s harder for
them to trust that favors they do will be repaid. Time
banks are one solution. The idea is simplicity itself.
When you help a neighbor for an hour, you earn one
“time dollar.” Then, when you need help, you
can spend your saved dollars. In Brooklyn, New York,
members of an HMO for the elderly use such temporal
currency to help each other with home repairs,
transportation, and companionship. It’s a model
waiting to be replicated.
MUNICIPAL
WI-FI
The Internet is the sidewalk of the twenty-first century,
so it’s not surprising that cities are starting to
build high-speed wireless networks the way they once
built streets. Many operate wireless “hot
zones” that offer free access over dozens of
blocks. In San Francisco and New Orleans, free access may
even be citywide. Other cities, like Philadelphia, are
rolling out low-cost service citywide. ...
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