Comments by Moth Lubcke Subscribe

On TOD: Incentivising Time over Dollars

Great article!

In my home city (Adelaide, Aust), the only public transport option for most is a very inefficient bus service. The best example I can provide is that of my wife; with a strong work history in her field, she thought when she moved here from Melbourne, finding a job would be easy. Unfortunately no employer would touch her. That she didn't, at 27, have a licence was seen as an unreliable trait; not because of anything about herself, but solely because she relies on public transport she inherited that stigma.

Having grown up here, it was instinctive to me to make the same assumptions, even though (or probably more so because) I relied on public transport until my late 20s, myself. 

How Adelaide has been left to develop, I think TOD retrofitting would now be impossible, so as fossil fuel costs grow, I think Adelaidians will simply fork it out grudgingly. I'd like to think it would drive people away from sprawl and closer to services which in turn will slightly increase the housing density while open up previous housing space for additional service space, creating mixed use suburbia eventually.

We're moving to Melbourne in the near future and I've had idealistic daydreams of getting rid of the car, but I know I'm kidding myself. Like you, I think I have the duel view of my life - or expected life beyond the relocation.

On Efficiency is Truly Virtuous: Planning Prosperity

Yes; efficiency for efficiency's sake or efficiency for better resource management within boundries.

Too often, the former - efficiency largely abused through ignorance, in my option - is used as an excuse to ignore efficiency altogether (what I've found from the pro-nuclear advocates). It's blatently wrong and to suggest the latter tends to be mocked as being self-defeating (or against the current economic models applied in developed world).

I have a third article (currently available here, but I hope is also picked on on the Sustainable Cities Collective) in which I argue how industry can apply efficiency in a productive way.

I like that you mention "peak fisheries" as that was probably amoung the first natural resources to such a state. Luckily, it can be a regenerating resource - if we seriously look at how it's managed.

I am interested in having a look. I have added you on twitter and will look at your plans when I have a spare moment (busy times at the moment). Transport will have to be one of the biggest changes we make in improving the sustainabilty of growing cities, there's no doubt about that.

On The New American Farming Movement, and Why It's Here to Stay

I couldn't agree more. It is terrible that such a stigma around 'a return to farming' movement, but as you've done here and others have been doing elsewhere (something I too hope to be pushing more in the coming years), it's about a re-eduation. We need a better integration between urban and productive landscapes, that much is clear, but we're so far away from that currently that such activities will attract such criticism. To be truly effective, it would be good to gain greater industry and governmental support.

Personally, I'm very enthusiastic about what can come out of a new wave of ingenuity.

Great article!