Creating A Preferred Present and Future Jan Spencer

Conversation with Ole Ersson is an episode from my radio program Creating A Preferred Future.  Creating A Preferred Future describes principles, ideals plus real life  people and projects that point the way towards a preferred future where  humans live within the boundaries of the natural world and the primary  goal of society is to bring out the best in positive human potential.   Creating A Preferred Future is a convergence of economics,  permaculture, sociology, urban land use, personal and community uplift  and care for the natural world.  Topics of interest include economics,  allies and assets in the community, wisdom of the world's great  spiritual traditions, social and economic literacy, pushing back on  cars, eco villages and much more.  Best to listen to the podcast in  order,, 1, 2, 3, 4,,,,,,,thanks.

Kailash Eco Village, in Portland, Oregon  is an outstanding example of repurposing a run down urban  property. The cute Hawaiian themed 32 unit complex from the 60's had  degenerated into poor infrastructure conditions with bad drug deal  shootouts in the parking lot . Ole and wife Maitri saw great potential  ten years ago. Now the site is a thriving market rate eco village, the place has  become pioneer of social/economic/environmental paradigm shift. This conversation touches on life at Kailash - aspects of resident self management,  depaving, affordability, reducing eco footprints, engagement with the  surrounding neighborhood, food production, social cohesion, personal and  community benefits and much more. Kailash Eco Village points the way towards a preferred present and future. 

You can find more related info on my website, suburbanpermaculture.org with links to youtube presentations, video of my quarter acre property and much more.  Feel free to contact me via my website.

Critique of Capitalism and The Consumer Culture is an episode from my radio program Creating A Preferred Future. Creating A Preferred Future describes principles, ideals plus real life people and projects that point the way towards a preferred future where humans live within the boundaries of the natural world and the primary goal of society is to bring out the best in positive human potential.  Creating A Preferred Future is a convergence of economics, permaculture, sociology, urban land use, personal and community uplift and care for the natural world.  Topics of interest include economics, allies and assets in the community, wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, social and economic literacy, pushing back on cars, eco villages and much more.  Best to listen to the podcast in order,, 1, 2, 3, 4,,,,,,,thanks.

The Critique of Capitalism is a deconstruction of the myths of capitalism. Capitalism is  described as a cargo cult and the consumer culture is explained as one  of history's most successful examples of social engineering.  The magic  hand, economic efficiency, informed choice and the market place are discounted as shallow myths that are all part of an economic system that  is hard wired to be dishonest because of the reality of external  costs.  The price we pay does not tell an honest story about how the great majority of the products or services we buy damage public health and the natural world regarding how they are produced, used and disposed of.

You can find more related info on my website, suburbanpermaculture.org with links to youtube presentations, video of my quarter acre property and much more.  Feel free to contact me via my website.

Transforming a suburban property is an episode from my radio program Creating A Preferred Future. Creating A Preferred Future describes principles, ideals plus real life people and projects that point the way towards a preferred future where humans live within the boundaries of the natural world and the primary goal of society is to bring out the best in positive human potential.  Creating A Preferred Future is a convergence of economics, permaculture, sociology, urban land use, personal and community uplift and care for the natural world.  Topics of interest include economics, allies and assets in the community, wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions, social and economic literacy, pushing back on cars, eco villages and much more.  Best to listen to the podcast in order,, 1, 2, 3, 4,,,,,,,thanks. 

This episode, Transformation of a Suburban Property, describes 21 years of making big changes to a quarter acre suburban property in Eugene, Oregon.  The grassy front and back yards are now all garden.  There is edible landscaping all over, 15 fruit and nut trees, brambles, grapes, kiwi and more.  The driveway is gone.  The garage turned into a living space, the south side patio is now a 350 ft sq sun room that helps heat the house on sunny cool days, there is a 6500 gal rain water system and a 400 ft sq passive solar ADU in the back yard.

Literally thousands of people have visited over the years to see what a suburban property can become with a purposeful combination of time and money.  The place is an educational resource for the entire community, a preview of what a preferred future might look like with much smaller eco footprints and the ideal of building community cohesion and taking care of more basic needs closer to home.

You can find more related info on my website, suburbanpermaculture.org with links to youtube presentations, video of my quarter acre property and much more.  Feel free to contact me via my website.

This podcast is focused on reclaiming  public space for bikes, pedestrians and community culture. Cars and  their highways, roads, streets and parking infrastructure occupy up to  half the land surface in an urban area. Cars create pollution, noise,  they run over people and cause immense levels of property damage. They  are a large part of climate change. They degrade community culture. Cars  are the perfect example of economic super sizing. The more the excess,  the more the profits. Trillions spent on cars and car infrastructure  mean lost opportunities for healthy investments in green and resilient  homes and communities. 

We will take a look at 3 aborted freeways in the  US and then a "menu" of actions for pushing back on cars in the US  ranging from critical mass bike rides and "parking day" to Sunday  Streets in Eugene, San Francisco's Parklet Program and the Community  Plaza Program in New York City with its banner project - making much of  Times Square car free.  

The image illustrates a super block in Barcelona, Spain.  An industrial scale approach to pushing back on cars now in use in Barcelona. 

For more related paradigm shift podcasts and links to youtube videos, go to suburbanpermaculture.org

This is a high performance interview with University of Oregon Professor Marc Schlossberg. Marc has a keen interest in "active transportation." Thats biking and walking. In the interview he identifies the many benefits to be gained by moving away from cars. The interview touches on social engineering - our car culture is a virtual essential part of our lifestyles and leaves most people with a difficult time imagining life without a car. Marc describes taking his classes to Holland and Denmark to see what life can be like with far less reliance on cars and also rhapsodizes the joy of safe and social biking even in the middle of large cities such as Utrecht and Copenhagen. Marc describes how his students took classroom learning into the community to design a new protected bike path to be built in 2020 from downtown Eugene to campus. The interview contains many anecdotal stories and reveals the strong passion Marc has for transforming our communities. 

The foto is taken in southeast Arizona.  The view in the distance includes Montezuma Pass, 2 miles north of the border with Mexico, 20 miles west of Bisbee.

This panel includes Bob Randall, a permaculture well known in Houston, Texas; Lois Arkin, founder Los Angeles Eco Village; Jim Schenk, founder, Enright Ridge, Urban Eco Village, Cincinnati; Jan Spencer, suburbanpermaculture.org, Eugene, Oregon.

The panelists describe their thoughts of the greatest challenges facing humanity and then, what they are doing in their own communities on behalf of paradigm shift.  Finally, the panel has lively discussion with each other. The content touches on urban food systems, eco villages, transforming suburbia, climate change, "changing rather than shifting", Joe Biden's agenda, turning an auto repair property into a community center, the proposed Climate Corp, moving paradigm shift ideas out to a wider audience and much more. 

The conversation focus is on real life actions for creating a socieity and economy that fits within the boundaries of the natural world and brings out the best in positive human potential.