There are sites where you know instinctively that you end up taking root. Places where you feel a special blend with the landscape and the citizens. Corners that you claim as a song of sirens, though you stay away... It was something that experienced Liz Walker when he put the foot in Ithaca (New York State) after completing the Global walk for a Livable World, back in 1990.
Liz had learned from small to see life from the top of a pine tree up to 25 metres, in the backyard of the home of his parents in Vermont. There he distilled SAP progressive America and the community spirit of the Quakers, much before the start to talk about "sustainability". In Peru he became familiar with the "social justice" and later at Birmingham discovered neighborhood life, before also invasion of shopping malls.
In California, and the anti-nuclear movement, he found its raison d ' être as an activist for a time. Until decided to move to practical action, with other 150 "pilgrims" who took United States from coast to coast to convince his compatriots that there is life, full of life, beyond of the rampant consumerism.
Arriving to Itaca, four hours of New York, he had the feeling of having achieved the goal. Concluded the "Odyssey", believed the time to build the "utopia" and forge "this other possible world, more in keeping with my ideas and my values"...
Legend has it that God put his hand through these lands, and left his giant and wet mark in Finger Lakes. The longest "finger" is precisely the Cayuga Lake, that reaches the heart of Ithaca, surrounded by gorges and waterfalls in an incessant flow of water. And beyond where the city merges with the field and forest, perched on a hill and a dirt road that leads to the emblematic name of Rachel Carson (author of "Silent Spring"), Liz Walker and his partner Joan Bokaer sufferers they decided to form what is today known as the Ecovillage of Ithaca, which this week celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The 170 residents of the Ecovillage, distributed in two neighborhoods (Frog and Song), using 40% of the resources of the average American, they supply partially energy with solar panels, they grow much of their food in two farms and allotments, recycled and composted their organic trash, shared transport and reinvent every day that we called community spirit.
Little more than one year ago we are witnessing to the planting of the first tree of the third and final phase (Tree), building small and high, following the model of the "passive house" and with the aim of attracting residents of all pockets. Despite the natural "growth", the project will be fully respectful with the initial idea: focus the human population in the 10% of the space and leave the remaining 90% to green spaces.
In the Ecovillage of Ithaca, the cars are in the barn of the entry and the authentic Kings are the children who campan and pedaling at their leisure. "We came here fleeing the urban nightmare of Phoenix and this has been a reunion with the happiness of the Earth that I remembered from my childhood", attested by Aaron Froehlich, surrounded by their children, David and Ellijah.
Liz Walker also raised here yours, and was not easy to combine family life with his tireless work as a "community organizer", fighting against the windmills of the bureaucracy, ensuring that the project forward without betraying the spirit of consensus... "Tare is arduous and tiring when you decide to go the trodden road. " "But over time we have shown another way to live not only possible, but that already exists... and it works."
But the Ecovillage could not have flourished without the constant interaction with the city of 50,000 people - half of them students, Cornell University of Ithaca College, which is watches or to the distance between hills of oak and Maple... "We were clear from the beginning that we had to open ourselves and share our experiences." "Because what the world needs most is inspiration, and here we have learned to put a few ideas into practice."
In his first book, "Ecovillage at Ithaca", Liz Walker exploring the process of creation of the Ecovillage in a manual which has sailed around the world. In their second and most recent "Choosing a Sustainable Future", its range extends through this small city great, genuine hotbed of all kinds of initiatives.
"I was curious to see how in full recession, social and ecological activism of Ithaca came boiling," it Liz. "Here we value and support the local economy much, and that has enabled us to better faces hard times "".
As Portland, Madison, Berkeley, Boulder or Austin - other required points of reference of the "other" America - Itaca has become the rich honeycomb "for all those who seek a more direct relationship with the Earth". Liz goes back to the times of the Cayuga Indians who left in these forests the seeds of sustainability, pacifism and feminism, as part of its historical legacy.
Itaca very actively climbed on the bandwagon of the "contacultura" of the 1960s, and it shows. The city was strut of cooperativism and ecological agriculture, pioneer of the wave of markets for farmers (5,000 already in United States) that bring the best of the local harvest through the asphalt. Ithaca "hours" also opened the gap in the movement of the money local, propagated from coast to coast. The universal health insurance or special lines of credit for small savers are social "luxuries" that differentiate Ithaca of the majority of American cities.
"Initiatives always attract others and end up creating a"cluster effect"," warns Liz. "There is a mix of cooperation and healthy competition which all we have just benefiting." "And above all there have been local leaders with the capacity for action to change things."
"We say that Ithaca was already a city in"transition"before there is this movement." People are very aware that we live in a very critical time and should evolve into other more sustainable model. We have to learn to grow our food, to ensure us our energy, to be more efficient, does not depend on the car, to share resources, to recover community ties... What we have achieved here can be anywhere in the world. "You just lack, value, vision and persistence".
(Celebrated the 15th meeting of Ecovillage in Los Portales (Sevilla) from 14 to 16 September). More information at http://www.losportales.net/)
@ cfresneda1
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