A Scarcity of Imagination

While having a chat over a few beers with a young city planner last night, I came to some rather disheartening conclusions about the state of the imagination among our bureaucratic class in America. I realize it may not be fair to generalize on the basis of one person in one small town, but the lack of overall transformation and demand for reform in all cities nation-wide has me convinced that she represents a greater trend in the planning and public administration field.

I have seen this same resistance to innovation in people who run non-profits who are under or just at thirty years of age. They have a lot of energy and intelligence, but no vision, no drive, no thirst for lasting, systemic change. Granted, it requires a lot of research and broad-mindedness to envision public policies or economic development plans that do not conform with the trajectory of the past six decades of fossil-fueled growth . . . but with the current recession and the absolute lack of vision from the political class, I keep hoping for real alternatives from people in my own generation, only to receive a resounding "NO!" in response.

So many wonderful innovations are beginning to manifest across the U.S., mostly in those regions with the largest share of economic distress, that I can't help seeing why a place like Southern Oregon couldn't find something to emulate in these new approaches. Local currencies, regional foodsheds, staunch resistance to franchises and box stores, property laws that allow squatters to improve abandoned property, co-ops, street festivals, marijuana dispensaries, micro-wind/solar/hydro operations, rooftop gardens, film screenings, bikeshares--the list goes on and on.

But when people in a place of effective power--especially those born past 1980--assume the position of the older generation, saying such measures are "impractical," "difficult," or "too idealistic," then where do we stand?

When groups devoted to localizing the economy and food system cannot create a compelling argument for needing to do so, then what good is that organization?

A socially, culturally, and economically depressed former timber town such as I've lived in for the past two years has ample models of cities facing similar distress who are re-designing themselves out of their current dysfunction. Detroit. New Orleans. Galesburg, Illinois. Even Cleveland, Ohio.

It would be really wonderful if a young person in a position of relative authority with the city or the group devoted to all things local would take on a Transition Initiative that attempted to localize the economy not from a standpoint of "creating jobs," but from necessity. Whether or not the innovative approaches taking off across the country are practical does not seem to be a consideration for the people undertaking them; the fact that in the current economic and ecological climate a localized economy is vital to a healthy, human future appears to be sufficient unto itself.