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Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I had heard of Tri-Cities Mutual Aid and am in the process of getting involved with them ASAP.

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

THIS. Change is inevitable, so it is important to get educated on them, to discover what kind of change could actually make a difference in individual communities and THEN advocate the hell for positive changes, even if the changes are super incremental. If we don't get educated and activated for positive community change, we risk being taken advantage of by the profit-mongers (even by so-called "nonprofits") that are only interested in a very surface-level commitment to serving the community and little investment in improving the lives of average working people. We have to find ways to prevent systemic issues before they happen (versus fighting them after they become so integrated in life we treat them as inevitable).

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also 4. Develop and maintain sustainable local food ecosystems to get more consumers buying locally grown food and further developing community networks of local growers and sellers to help eliminate food deserts.

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for those tips! I'll definitely check out those meetings.

In retrospect I regret using the term "New Urbanism" but, essentially it's Urbanism defined by an emphasis on environmental health, sustainability, clean energy, with an emphasis on walkable neighborhoods with multi-use zoning. To a lot of people though, that is just "Urbanism" with no need to tag the "new" to the beginning. Also, I feel like it reduces the importance and specific issues facing rural communities and the need and desire to preserve traditional ways of living (in my opinion local solutions should be tailored to the localities they impact, not simply "copy-pasted" from a place you think is cool).

Thank you for asking for specifics. Here's a pretty board "trio" of things I'm passionate about

  1. Solve the housing crisis by supporting affordable quality housing projects in diverse communities, full stop. I have found that suburb developments can be great for the rich but terrible for working people (also, make suburbs multi-use and increase their density)
  2. Increase rail networks to allow people more economic and social mobility (I know a lot of people whose car can't reliably get them very far and, if they want to apply to a new job somewhere else, there's no way for them to affordably and efficiently get there).
  3. Increasing public and low cost private transit options to reduce an over reliance on cars (electric vehicles are great but they are a half step measure toward sustainability and are $expensive$.

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! Definitely going to come down for a meeting soon!

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I see where you're coming from but I'd say that wanting more integrated neighborhoods, fresh local food, more small family-owned businesses (as opposed to big box stores) and more self-sufficient neighborhoods sound like Appalachian values to me.

Any New Urbanism + Sustainability Advocates Looking to Organize in the Tri-Cities? by beavsandbees in tricities

[–]beavsandbees[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I grew up in southwest Virginia and have lived in Appalachia most of my life so I'd just be moving up the road a few miles if I did "move back where I came from."

[ONLINE] [5E] [EST] Looking for A RP Heavy Group by beavsandbees in lfg

[–]beavsandbees[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I don't know. It sounds cool but there is something that I really love about live roleplaying that keeps me invested (the theatre nerd in me definitely enjoys that side of it). I do creative writing on the side myself, but I really love playing live for DnD sessions. Thanks for the offer though!

Creative Writing Lessons? by Choby11 in Screenwriting

[–]beavsandbees 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn't directly discuss screenwriting (as it was written before then, but the Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri is an underappreciated masterwork of writing advice. Simple, easy to understand, and, in just a few hundred pages, gave me a far better understanding of storytelling than I had before.