The initial phase of our Oakland Urban Villages Project has been completed by a team of graduate students in Professor's John Radke's City Planning class at the University of California.

David Schecter, Richard Smith and Jason A. Hayter used GIS- specific geoprecessing to create a base map of the city of Oakland in order to first identify locations with preexisting centers of concentrated social, cultural, and economic activity and to then understand how they are related to underlying topography, water systems and the larger transportation network.

A series of data layers were gathered in the categories of natural features, land uses, infrastructure and demographics. Using the data from the base map, portions of Oakland were identified that have pre-existing special zoning designations for mixed uses. Portions of Oakland that have a large number of variety of land uses were located, as well as locations of multiple intersecting transportation options and extant natural features such as creeks.

Next, weights and measures were assigned to a series of quantifiable, positive attributes that would make for vitality, such as bike lanes, creeks, grocery stores and shopping, schools, multi-family housing, parks, etc.

According to their report, "The analysis showed how combining human-centered attributes of vitality, such as grocery stores and transit options with natural features of vitality such as creeks, results in very different finding than standard planning methods for, say, transit oriented development. While typical planning analysis may call for increased development in locations that have one or two standard attributes, such as a transit station and under- utilized land, analysis of this type suggest more compelling locations for newer, denser, and, most importantly, greener neighborhoods."

"Ecocity" mapping (some are calling it "green" or "community" mapping), we believe, can be a powerful tool for helping cities and citizens access their current situation, evaluate their options, and make informed decisions about the future. Our next step will be to work with the maps and start to take this information out to the public in a series of workshops we are planning for Oakland.

We owe a great deal to David, Richard and Jason for all their hard work and thoughtful attention to this project. A big thanks also goes out to Professor John Radke.

Please join us in celebrating the release of the second edition of EcoCities by Richard Register. Unlike the first edition, the new edition is generously illustrated with Richard's own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.

The festivities will begin on July 14, 7PM, at the GAIA building, 2116 Allston Way, downtown Berkeley, 7th Floor. Food, drink, books, author talk, music, fun, great views of the entire Bay Area from the rooftop!

EcoCities is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth's biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book's insight that the form of the city really matters--and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future.

Contributing statements of endorsement for the book are by Lester Brown, Randy Hayes, Jeff Kenworthy, Hazel Henderson and Jane Goodall.

Please RSVP to Kirstin Miller so that we can get an idea of how many people are coming. kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org or 510 -419-0850 Hope to see you there! Bring friends, new and old!!

Ecocity Builders, along with our partners in the community group Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza, is working to realize a vision for a "green" downtown Berkeley anchored by a pedestrian plaza in the heart of the city featuring a daylighted portion of historic Strawberry Creek. In recent months, the vision has grown stronger and more focused.

The new Berkeley downtown planning committee has settled on a fundamental goal to "create a model 'green' city center that advances environmentally sustainable design and planning practices." Ecocity Builders' Program Director Kirstin Miller and Berkeley hydrologist Gus Yates (also President of CarFree City USA) recently made a formal presentation to the downtown planning committee on Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza's vision for the creek/plaza, along with some initial technical analysis already completed.

Our next step is to form a partnership with the University of California and apply for a grant from the Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund. We are also seeking additional funding sources to finish the final feasibility studies needed, including channel design, plaza design, hydraulics analysis, creek channel vegetation, transportation/traffic mitigation plan, permitting, and a maintenance and safety plan. With these studies complete, we will be able to present feasible design options to the community for their comment and consideration.

If you or someone you know is interested in supporting this project, please contact Kirstin Miller to discuss how you can participate. We absolutely need to finish the studies soon so that we can time the project to coordinate with the University's development plans for the north side of the proposed plaza, should the community decide to support the creek/plaza vision as a preferred option.

For more information about Strawberry Creek Plaza, visit www.strawberrycreekplaza.org. For information about Ecocity Builders' ideas for the larger core downtown area, visit www.ecocitybuilders.org/projects.

To contact Kirstin Miller, email kirstin@ecocitybuilders.org or call her at 510-419-09850.

In late March, Ecocity Builders met with citizens of Willits, CA, to discuss ways in which ecocity tools could be helpful in assisting them in the transition away from dependency on fossil fuels and outside imports towards a truly sustainable community with a local economy.

The day and a half workshop was primarily sponsored by the City of Willits, WELL (Willist Economic LocaLization) and REDI (Renewable Energy Development Institute) with a number of other local groups assisting.

Willits, located in scenic Mendocino County, is a small town with big ambitions. They are serious about getting ready for a world without cheap oil and they are doing something about it. It is a rare case where local government is actively working with community groups and concerned individuals to prepare for a post carbon world.

The citizens of Willits are not avoiding the big, uncomfortable, messy and life changing issues, such as how to reshape the built environment so that it can be powered by alternative energy sources and accessed by two legs instead of two thousand pound machines.

They are applying the ecocity mapping tool, which they are calling "community" mapping, to help chart a course for a future Willits that would save farmland and open space, restore the watershed, and help locate people in walkable centers, carefully designed for maximum energy conservation as well as and social and economic vitality.

These are clearly courageous people! Willits is guiding light to communities seeking ways to chart a course for a healthy future in a coming era that will be so very different from the Age of Oil we are exiting.

You can find out more about WELL at www.willitseconomiclocalization.org

WELL is also an "outpost" of the Post Carbon Institute, an excellent resource on peak oil: www.postcarbon.org

by Richard Register, President, Ecocity Builders

Washington and New Orleans—City of Catastrophic Disaster. The question is, which city—or both? Congressman Earl Blumenauer told me in his office, forget any conspicuous legislation or policy movement on TDRs or other strong measures for ecocities so long as this congress and administration sits in Washington. The trip was off to a rocky start. I’ll be covering both Washington and New Orleans. New Orleans, as you might guess, was a stunning—a staggering experience. I’ll lead into it starting in the Heart of the Beast.

But first my heartfelt thanks to Diana and Arjun Divecha for paying most of the costs of the trip and to Ralph Kratz for additional and very helpful support.

Washington, DC: Congressman Blumenauer sat opposite me, with a wide coffee table between us and two aides with note pads in attendance. His trademark big bow tie and bicycle pin symbolized the real thing of his enthusiasm for the creative solution and the actual several bicycles leaning up against the walls, pushing into some significant percentage of the floor area of the room. Obviously they belonged to him and his staff. As for the staff, they all had various bicycle pins on their shirts, blouses and sweaters too.

I talked about the importance of legislation to support ecocity mapping (like our Oakland initiative), ecological demonstration projects (like our downtown Berkeley Heart of the City/ Strawberry Creek Plaza project) and transfer of development rights (TDR) policies and zoning (which we promote for rolling back sprawl development and reinforcing growing pedestrian centers).

“You know what we do here, don’t you?” he said, and he launched into the difficulties of getting anything done in Washington until the current government is out. What they do in his office is examine up-coming bills with magnifying glasses looking in the nooks and crannies to try to slip in inconspicuous little things that save a little energy here, a little natural area there, a little social justice somewhere else, and just wait, and wait, and wait, like the refugees in Casa Blanca, until something substantial changes.

Ecocity Builders' Board of Director Member Sylvia McLaughlin is known far and wide as the woman who, along with two other University wives, saved San Francisco Bay from being filled in and developed in the 1960s.

Out of that successful campaign was born Save the Bay and BCDC, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Both organizations are still working hard to keep the San Francisco Bay as beautiful and healthy as possible.

Syliva is now throwing her efforts behind the creation of the East Shore Park system. Last year, the first section of the Berkeley Meadow restoration program was completed. Enormous numbers of waterbirds are using the newly created wetlands.

But now, plans to extend the unbroken shoreline park from Emeryville to Richmond are under threat by a heavily financed campaign in Albany to develop a huge commercial mall right in the middle of the Park.

The full potential of the Park would never be realized if a mall splits it in two, destroying coastal vistas, wildlife habitats and recreation areas. The stakes are high--our hopes are even higher! But the outcome depends on you and me.

To find out about how you can help Citizens for East Shore Parks, please call Syliva McLaughlin at 510-848-0699 or visit www.eastshorepark.org.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and encouragement. We are a small organization, but we get a lot done! It is because of the kindness and generosity of people like you that we are able to continue to keep focused and productive in this work.

Enewsletters are not as nice as regular paper newsletters, but they sure are less expensive to send out. If you receive this enewsletter and have not renewed your membership to Ecocity Builders in the past year, please take a few minutes to update your membership. Or, if you are not a member, please consider becoming one, we'd love to have you on board.

Ecocity Builders is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization. You can make a secure fully tax deductible online donation to Ecocity Builders through our website: http://www.ecocitybuilders.org Click on Network for Good link. Or mail your donation to Ecocity Builders, P.O. Box 697, Oakland, CA 94604. Contact Kirstin Miller if you have any questions: 510-419-0850.

email: richard@ecocitybuilders.org

phone: 510 444-4508

web: http://www.ecocitybuilders.org