Transition Town, for when the oil is gone

BY AIMEE MCADAMS

Imagine for a moment Powderhorn neighborhood in the not so distant future; five, ten, maybe 15 years from now. Powderhorn Park is the vibrant center of the community. Part of the park has been transformed into an enormous community garden. Fruit and nut trees abound. Several folks are fishing in the clear, clean lake. The park building hosts community meetings

as well as community theater and art shows. There is a community kitchen
where people preserve food together. Cooking classes are held throughout the year. The park building has a tool library where anyone in Powderhorn can check out a rototiller, a saw, a snowblower or other items that people need (but don’t use often enough to justify everyone having one).

Climbing up out of the park, you meander through the streets of Powderhorn neighborhood. People are out walking, biking, heading somewhere in an electric vehicle or tending their gardens— and there are gardens—everywhere! Vegetables and herbs and fruit in front yards, back yards and the boulevards. There are signs in the windows of many houses advertising

furniture-making services, sewing, home canned products, help for pruning
trees, computer trouble-shooting, cleaning services, photography—everything you can imagine!

Looking up you see solar panels on many homes and even a few small wind turbines. The collected energy is enough for all the energy needs of the neighborhood. People also compost and collect water with rain barrels and rain gardens. In this neighborhood everyone has something to offer, everyone is involved—it is a progressive, cooperative and creative community.

Now imagine this is also the case in Corcoran, Longfellow, Seward and across all of Minneapolis. This is the dream of many people in the Transition Town movement. Transition Towns is an idea that came out of England about five years ago. It is a way for communities to create resiliency and sustainability in the face of peak oil and climate change. “We live on a finite planet with finite resources and we’re using them fast,” explains Carolyn Carr, a Longfellow resident. “We can’t wait for someone else to solve this. We can’t wait for cap and trade or for anything else the government might try. We have to start doing this ourselves. This will take the reorganizing of our communities.”

But first it takes education: education about peak oil, climate change, how these will affect us, and what can be done. Sarah McCarthy, another Longfellow resident, had her awakening to these issues when she saw the movie “The End of Suburbia.” “I went into a tailspin for a couple weeks after seeing that,” she says. “I looked at everything in my life and I saw—my pens are made of oil! My contacts are made of oil! So much is made from oil. People keep saying we just have to invent a new technology or find a new fuel source and it will be OK. But really the problem is that we’re dependent on finite resources.”

“Transition Towns,” says Carr, “is about how we re-localize our communities—how we can use less or no fossilized fuels.” According to Seward resident Alex Strachota, it’s also a social movement. He explains: “The most pressing issue folks involved with the movement are pursuing is: ‘How do we build social capital?’ We can’t solve any ‘wicked problems’ independently, or by the dictate of large institutions. It will take the networking of vast amounts of people engaged in positive and proactive activities.” Carr adds, “If we don’t imagine this future, we won’t reach it.”

More and more people in the Twin Cities, and especially South Minneapolis, are imagining this future and are starting to take action.

Several Corcoran neighbors have been meeting since December and have created a Transition Town Initiative called Corcoran GROWS (Grass Roots Opens Ways of Sustainability). They held a Neighborhood Sustainability Resource Fair on Feb. 27. About 100 people came throughout the day to learn about backyard food production, chicken and bee raising, solar heating, home energy efficiency, bartering, public art, permaculture and more.

Powderhorn launched its Transition involvement on March 1 with a well-attended meeting at the PPNA office. The 35 attendees were presented with this question: When sourcing things from far away becomes difficult, what can we do in Powderhorn? What would things look and feel like here? After reflecting for a few minutes, the ideas and creative energy began flowing. People talked about tool lending libraries; sustainable local energy; more community gardens; communal spaces; local food; waste awareness; local manufacturing; sharing resources; and more.

There are several Transition groups meeting regularly. One group has been meeting for a year, every Wednesday at Blue Moon Café on Lake Street. Bob Walser, a regular attender, says the group has no agenda. “It’s networking for people who share concerns about climate change and peak oil. We’re on the same page at these meetings. No one looks at you like you grew a second head if you mention peak oil.” Conversa-tions flow freely about whatever Transition-related topics people want to talk about that day. Future meetings will undoubtedly touch on the progress of Transition groups in Corcoran, Powderhorn, Longfellow, Phillips and the greater metro area.

“In practical terms,” says Strachota, “I hope this movement, or at least the mentality of the movement, will allow the people on my block to get to know one another better, and moreover, get to know one another’s needs and wants. When we realize the needs of our neighbors, we tend to realize the wealth of skills, talents, resources and human potential as well. Because of the immediacy of our neighbors’ needs, we not only find we have hyper-local resources to satisfy those needs, but we are compelled by empathy to act. In this way, proximity breeds compassion and solidarity, which is itself the beginnings of a new human society, economy and environmental consciousness.”

You can find information about the weekly Transition Twin Cities meetings here: www.transitiontc.org.