from Communities Magazine, Spring 2003 by Jacob Corvidae

Reprinted with permission from Communities magazine, a quarterly publication written by, about, and for people interested in ecovillages and all forms of intentional community, cooperation, and shared resources. store.ic.org.

Most ecovillages in North America are rural, or suburban. Only four urban ecovillages are underway right now, and only one has been around for more than a few years: L.A. EcoVillage, founded in 1992. You might expect the others to be in San Francisco or Portland. Instead, theyıre in the Rustbelt: Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit.

Whatıs going on here?

Environmentalists have long recognized the need for green development in cities. Urban density helps preserve farmland and wilderness from human development. It also lends itself to large-scale cooperative ventures, such as public transportation, pedestrian communities, and energy conservation: e.g., heating apartments or whole apartment buildings instead of single-family homes.

So cities are important to environmentalists. But environmentalists are also important to cities. Many of our cities suffer from sprawl, pollution, concentrated poverty, and other fallout from post-industrial development. I think that this is why the urban ecovillage movement is beginning to take off ‹and why itıs emerging in these unexpected places.

L.A. EcoVillage was born from the ı92 riots. The other three are rising out of the devastation wreaked by the collapsing industrial model. It takes ashes to give birth to a phoenix. Abandoned property, unused open space, and a population looking for hope are common in Americaıs Rustbelt cities. Economic hardship makes property inexpensive, cooperative ventures appealing (and sometimes necessary), and new ideas desperately sought and welcomed. In Detroit, for example, the outdated methods of the industrial model have failed, so people must look for something new. This is fertile ground for urban ecovillages.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in rural Missouri has been my training ground for the past six years, both while living there and as a board member. Now Iım in the process of founding an ecovillage in Detroit. Iıve spent a lot of time thinking about how to further the entire movement. To model sustainable living for others, outreach and education are essential. In cities, any local news coverage will reach hundreds of thousands instead of just hundreds or thousands. This is one significant reason urban ecovillages are important to the movement. But itıs just the beginning. Urban ecovillages present a whole new set of opportunities and challenges.

For one, the boundaries of an urban ecovillage are bound to be less defined, geographically and socially. Unlike in rural ecovillages, non-community members are more likely to be in closer contact with the ecovillage and even traveling through the place, and members are less likely to be so inwardly focused, interacting much more often with the mainstream culture around them. This has the advantage of allowing the ecovillage work to reach a wider and more diverse set of people. As a result, urban ecovillages must deal with issues of race in a way that is simply irrelevant to many rural ecovillages. Environmental justice must also play a central role. The disadvantage of these looser boundaries is that they leave an urban ecovillage project more open to the demands of popular culture and expectations. The relative isolation of rural ecovillages may allow more room to fully create a new culture‹a powerful tool for environmental change.

These looser boundaries are both social and geographic, and define some of the likely reality of urban ecovillage development. As a result, I suspect urban ecovillages will have to develop new models for both creating boundaries and crossing over them. Living in an already developed area also makes a big difference for urban ecovillages. Re-use‹retrofitting and rehabilitating existing buildings and using salvaged and found materials‹is likely to be more important than natural building methods, due to the resources available in cities and their more conservative zoning regulations. The limit on natural building methods could discourage some urban ecovillage activists, but for the wealth of supplies available for re-use. Urban settings provide a seemingly endless wonderland of inexpensive and free materials.

For people sensitive to the wonders of nature and the damage humans have done to it, urban living can be discouraging. When farming urban lots, soil and air pollution stop being abstractions and become scary realities. Wildlife populations are already so depleted that our furry and feathered allies arenıt as available for inspiration. Willful ignorance about the universal relevance of ecological issues is evident everywhere you turn. The loneliness and alienation possible in a city of thousands can be devastating, as witnessed by much of literature in the last century.

We need ecovillages, specifically the village part, in cities. Community building is essential for urban environmental and environmental justice work. The challenges require us to create strong social communities to support us through the process of making a positive difference. Those same challenges also provide us with clear goals and inspiration.

Our cities must change. Rural and suburban ecovillages are plowing ahead with their part of the work. Now us city-folk must carry the work into the next phase.