Rooftop demonstration gardens, Palais des congrès de Montréal, Canada  

As the founder of the series of events I was assigned a beginning comment. What to say that was important to our growing movement toward healthy cities? I decided that this was something important to say. That is, the conference itself was as important a conversation as can be found and said anywhere in the world today. Its topics must be addressed, and successfully. And, coming from more than 70 countries, those in attendance have an obligation to take this conversation back to and say it out loud and around the world: "These are powerful words that need to be heard, discussed and transformed into action."

We need a sense of proportion and this conference drew the links between something as large as evolution-changing climate change, Peak Oil, resources depletion and species extinction and the largest things human being build, cities. United Nations statistics point out that more than half of humankind lives in cities now. What is cognizant of proportionality is that "cities" are really just part of, if the larger members among, our built collective environments we call home, namely our towns and villages, too. That number about where we live is more like 95%. Very few of us are still hunting and gathering fruits or herding animals, alone on the range or being hermits in a mountain cave. Our built environments are designed around certain universals for shelter, food security, defense, physical access at close proximity to family, friends, economic partners and so on. Though cities, towns and villages differ with scale, geographic location, climate, ecological context and culture certain principles prevail at all scales.

The impacts of cities is approaching the catastrophic due to their redesign in the last 100 years around very cheap and powerful energy and machines. And yet with the power for positive, creative, artistic, scientific, cultural and economic success at their core, the layout and design of cities are key to the health of the future like little if anything else. And so, I said in my opening talk, nothing could be more important than our deliberations over the five days of Ecocity 9.

Gratitude

My next thought: how grateful I am that these conferences are still going on. When I made the commitment late in 1988 to organizing the First International Ecocity Conference in Berkeley, which was held in 1990, I was stepping out into risky territory trusting that the word "First" would be justified by a second real conference and with luck maybe more into the future, a whole series of conferences. The second step in stepping out was in using the word "ecocity" which at the time was not in common parlance. It was an in-house debate back then (and since 1979 when I started using the word) whether it should be spelled eco-city, EcoCity or ecocity. I went for what looked most like a common language word, as if everyone used it in everyday speech: ecocity. But the spelling was a quibble; what matters is its profound meaning: the ecologically healthy city.

And so my greatest gratitude is to our dear friends Jayne Engle-Warnik and Luc Rabouin of the Urban Ecology Center of Montreal who Kirstin Miller and I got to know in Istanbul and Montreal in several trips well before opening night of Ecocity 9. Those two conveners, backed by their organization, took all the risks that are part of the territory of the difficult and intense work of organizing a major conference, "major" in size - and I'd guess this one to have had approximately 1,500 participants - and major in content and relevance for, let's face it, doing good for the planet and into the deep future.

Markus Lewe, Mayor of Munster - the city with the near equivalent of Ecocity Builders' ecocity mapping system built, up and running.

I think back to shortly after the First International Ecocity Conference held in Berkeley to when architect Paul Downton and tree-planting activist Cherie Hoyle decided to organize Ecocity 2 in Adelaide, Australia, their home town. Then, we were off and running. I was delighted! Joan Boaker and Serigne Mbaye Diene then followed with another in the village of Yoff, Senegal just outside of Dakar; then Cleon Ricardo dos Santo and Clovis Ultramari in Curitiba, Brazil; followed by Rusong Wang getting up to number five in Shenzhen, China; then Rajiv Kumar in Bangalore, India. The seventh I again launched with the fun job of inviting speakers and organizing the program while Kirstin Miller, who had joined Ecocity Builders in 1997, co-convened by being the main producer of the entire event, Ecocity 7, San Francisco, California. Then Ecocity 8 in Istanbul produced and hosted by Gunez Nukan and Zubeyde Kavaraz. And lastly, just two weeks ago, Ecocity 9 in Montreal. To all of them we all owe a real debt of gratitude for whatever benefits have come from the series, and I believe they are beginning to be many benefits and quite a serious contribution to a better future.

Next: People. Continued....  

photo gallery

Ecocity Insights

by Jennie Moore,

Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Car Free Journey

By Steve Atlas

Scenic Beauty and More in Ithaca, New York

As autumn approaches, the changing leaves, mountains and lakes exert their special spell. At this time of year, you want a mountain or natural lake escape that is scenic, walkable, and (preferably) away from a big city.

New York State is a magical world, especially during fall. A great choice for a weekend getaway is Ithaca: home of Cornell University, Ithaca College, and much more. Lovers of the outdoors will enjoy Lake Cayuga (one of the Finger Lakes), scenic gorges, Ithaca Falls, and much more. For details about Ithaca attractions and accommodations, go to www.visitithaca.com, or call the Ithaca Visitors' Center at (607) 272-1313 or toll-free (800) 28 Ithaca.

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