I wrote about our visit to Ann Arbor and how that city was making conscious efforts to be sustainable. While there are cities going this route there are others that seem to just keep going with the “tried and true” approach. This means they are not making any major changes and keep growing without taking sustainability into account. One of these cities is Kansas City, Missouri, my beloved hometown.
One of the great things about Kansas City is that you have to drive if you want to get anywhere; okay that was pure sarcasm. It is really awful actually. It seems very spread out and the culture there doesn’t really accept walking or biking as a mode of transportation. You also often have to take a highway to get around within the suburbs and Kansas City itself. Most people drive to their job, with the average commute being 20 minutes (20 highway minutes mind you). There is bus transportation but it is minimal in the suburbs (where a mass amount of the population lives). There is no light rail system, previous plans have been turned down thus far.
Kansas City isn’t the only place like this, many suburbs and metropolises are just as guilty. The issue is not one city doing minimal sustainable actions, but most of America doing the minimum. Cities are practically green washing by spouting the sustainable actions they are creating, but those actions are often very small scale and will not make the entire city sustainable. Making the entire city sustainable is what needs to happen, not just small scale communities. We need to downsize and make our cities sustainable. This means changing food, water, energy, and transportation systems. It means making each city sustainable by itself. Being able to make their own economy, grow their own food, and create their own power for their energy consumption. I feel this is the way we need to go, but we have a long way to get there with major changes needing to take place. I know this might be a drastic way of looking at the future but I honestly believe it is where it needs to go.