Think tank

You cant complain if YOU choose to live far away from your work is what Im saying. Because there is accomodation available its just you dont want to be near town even though you could afford to be. If you actually owned a house nearer town it might be older but you could do it up to make it liveable. All the new retirement villages are apartment style now because older retired people just dont want to live with their families. Yes they can have pets. And a guest. And they are maintained by dedicated staff.

If they are in a good location and looked after its fine and the oldies socialise with each other.
 
I did a permaculture course for the auckland region.
We did lots of design and problem solving.

My background is not design at all...we had most of our lectures in an architects studios but we learned to think like designers. The one thing designers always do is brainstorm and think of ideas and then analyse them and rethink them again. When we get feedback we continue to think of ways to improve our design before we even turn the soil.

Its highly collaborative. We then use models and test out our design.

Now one thing that they talked a lot about was retrofitting suburbia. This has been trialed in places like Melbourne australia which has an increasingly high density population, as baby boomers age their 3 bedroom suburban family homes are no longer being used for that purpose...the children have flown the nest, they are no longer in school which was the entire reason parents buy suburban homes to be in school zones.

So what is happening to these homes? Are people still living in functioning communities? Are schools the centre of these communities? I would say more than any other place, even churches, schools are the centre of everyday life for most young families.
 
Lanolin said:
Thats a lie that nobody lives in New York city because my cousin does, he lives near wall street. And he had a family, although only one son. They lived in an apartment and I dont think it was bad when I visited. They actually had nice apartments there. Some People actually do live in cities. They have parks where you can play, you can walk to school, and you have restaurants and shops you can walk to. Its just noiser, but the city is not just office blocks and slums.
Click to expand...

Lanolin, you really need to work on some of your social skills. There really is no need to call anyone a liar. Maybe something like "rtm3039, I am not sure you are correct, as there are people that live in New York." Of course some people live in the city; both Miami and New York. There are apartments in down town Miami, which are reserved for the ultra rich, or ultra pool. I assume, from the way you write your comments, that you live in a small village. I live in a metropolis . Our school system has a budget of $5.1 billion and our HQ (where my office is) houses well over 3,000 employees. As with any large city, there are neighborhoods within them; however, these neighborhoods have decayed to the point where people lock their doors and windows before the sun sets and spend the night hoping to live to see another day. If you wanted to live in a "good location" and in the city, you have to be prepared to pay some serious money just to rent:

Rent Miami.JPG

I like, and appreciate, your "mom and pop" view of how to solve some issues, but that really does not apply well to areas like a town with a population of close to 3 million people. Your entire country has a population of around 4.8 million, which is just slightly more than my town alone.

Here is the best perspective I can give you. Downtown Miami is approximately 3.8 square miles. It is the center of a county that is 2,431 square miles. By center of the county, I mean that it houses the seat of government (both for the city and the county), and is home to our banking, finance, cultural arts, etc, centers. It appears that around 92,000 people actually live in the city with a county population of 2,752 million (2017 stats). The best I was able to find on how many people work in downtown Miami is from 2016 and it is 234,976.

Now, there are well established neighborhood closer to downtown Miami than were I live, but there really is limited space and housing in these neighborhoods. In fact, I know a large number of people that work in downtown Miami but live in the surrounding county of Broward. Their commute is even greater. We do have a mass transit system, (Metrorail) but is just sucks. The last article I read on this was titled: “Call it Metrofail: How to waste 20 hours a week riding the rails in Miami”

Anyway, to sum it all up, a solution to urban plight does not come in a “one size fits all.” Or, in more biblical terms, you can’t make an Eden out of a Gomorrah. You have a beautiful vision, but one that is just not realistic for a major city in a really large country. We have 50 states in the US, and 25 of them have a larger population than your entire country; with Florida being the 3rd most populated state in the country (California and Texas being number 1 and 2 and New York being 4th). In fact, since 2010, Florida's population has grown by around 2.8 million. This is like having one-half of New Zealand move to Florida in 9 years. So this is what we have to deal with:

traffic.JPG

And this is what I woke up to today:

1.JPG2.JPG3.JPG4.JPG5.JPG6.JPG7.JPG8.JPG
 
rtm3039 said:
Lanolin, you really need to work on some of your social skills. There really is no need to call anyone a liar. Maybe something like "rtm3039, I am not sure you are correct, as there are people that live in New York." Of course some people live in the city; both Miami and New York. There are apartments in down town Miami, which are reserved for the ultra rich, or ultra pool. I assume, from the way you write your comments, that you live in a small village. I live in a metropolis . Our school system has a budget of $5.1 billion and our HQ (where my office is) houses well over 3,000 employees. As with any large city, there are neighborhoods within them; however, these neighborhoods have decayed to the point where people lock their doors and windows before the sun sets and spend the night hoping to live to see another day. If you wanted to live in a "good location" and in the city, you have to be prepared to pay some serious money just to rent:

View attachment 4334

I like, and appreciate, your "mom and pop" view of how to solve some issues, but that really does not apply well to areas like a town with a population of close to 3 million people. Your entire country has a population of around 4.8 million, which is just slightly more than my town alone.

Here is the best perspective I can give you. Downtown Miami is approximately 3.8 square miles. It is the center of a county that is 2,431 square miles. By center of the county, I mean that it houses the seat of government (both for the city and the county), and is home to our banking, finance, cultural arts, etc, centers. It appears that around 92,000 people actually live in the city with a county population of 2,752 million (2017 stats). The best I was able to find on how many people work in downtown Miami is from 2016 and it is 234,976.

Now, there are well established neighborhood closer to downtown Miami than were I live, but there really is limited space and housing in these neighborhoods. In fact, I know a large number of people that work in downtown Miami but live in the surrounding county of Broward. Their commute is even greater. We do have a mass transit system, (Metrorail) but is just sucks. The last article I read on this was titled: “Call it Metrofail: How to waste 20 hours a week riding the rails in Miami”

Anyway, to sum it all up, a solution to urban plight does not come in a “one size fits all.” Or, in more biblical terms, you can’t make an Eden out of a Gomorrah. You have a beautiful vision, but one that is just not realistic for a major city in a really large country. We have 50 states in the US, and 25 of them have a larger population than your entire country; with Florida being the 3rd most populated state in the country (California and Texas being number 1 and 2 and New York being 4th). In fact, since 2010, Florida's population has grown by around 2.8 million. This is like having one-half of New Zealand move to Florida in 9 years. So this is what we have to deal with:

View attachment 4335

And this is what I woke up to today:

View attachment 4336View attachment 4337View attachment 4338View attachment 4339View attachment 4340View attachment 4341View attachment 4342View attachment 4343
Click to expand...
On the other hand, at the expense of my long daily commute, by present issue is how long will these people be holding this yard sale and when will get off my lawn so I can cut the grass and pressure clean the drive-way?

yard sale.JPG
 
Until everything is sold rtm, be patient. There are more imprtant things to do than cut lawns and clean driveways. Im sorry but you kinda come across as arrogant and me me me.
 
Auckland is the biggest city in nz but we only have a total population of 4 million people in the entire country.

2 million of which live in auckland. We probably just like. Village to you but its huge for anyone else.
Also we dont have moms and pops businesses like americans do. . Many of us live in extended families as it takes a village to raise a child. So we think bigger than just a nuclear household.

Im just thinking of things to improve for MY town, doesnt mean it can apply to yours. YOu start out with your own community and neighbourhood first. I stated at the start of this thread not to criticise others peoples thinking and then you just started doing it anyway. Thats rude to me. Sorry.
 
As for eden out of gommorah, why do you live there RTM? If its gomorrah didnt God tell Lot to leave?

So why do you keep going back?

Just wondering.

I was watching this dvd about the eden project, its a place in Cornwall. Its quite interesting. They made a garden out of an old quarry clay pit. We have our own eden, next to Mt Eden. Also made out of an old quarry and dumping ground. Now its full of lush plants. Called Eden Garden. The lady who used to manage it has now created her own garden further north, went up for a visit, she made an entre bush garden out of bare paddocks. Its beautiful.
 
The other place i read about was in the Bronx up in nyc. They have a project thats rolled out in schools called the Green Bronx Machine. Google it, its quite inspiring.
 
Listen rtm, maybe cos you dont directly live in the areas of urban decay deosnt mean you meant to turn a blind eye to them. Just do what you can, but often people just add to the problem and dont realise that by their own lifestyle they arent helping improving things. The whole city of detroit collapsed and went bankrupt because they based the economy on cars.

Now the intersting thing tahst happening is with the old building in ruins, plants and gardens are creeping in , taking over and people are actually GARDENING it.

This also happned in cuba. The oil trade stopped because of the embargo and they had to all grow their own food. After three years they could all feed themselves, and they banded together to walk and cycle. It was tough but they did and and now people say we wont ever go back to the way things used to be.
 
My thoughts for miami. Ok you rtm know better than anyone what its like to live there and you know the problems you are facing. Traffic and crime, reputation for vice. But you also have a vibrant tropic culture, sunshine, amd lots of retired people move down there for the sun with time on their hands to make a real difference. My challenge to you is to think of ways to improve your community and neighbourhood.

You have a big lawn where it seems people are gathering...thats great, you have a communiity right there. Are there enough public parks and places for people to go and enjoy the palm trees within walking distance? The apartment blocks in your picture, why not start greening them up with vines and windowboxes?
 
Rtm Im sorry about the bad things happening in your part of the world. Its sure sounds scary seeing you do need to have security surrounding your churches it almost sounds like living in a warzone or on shankill road where they had people shooting each other in northern ireland and terrorists and the whole town was divided.

We are having similar problems lately in my town with homeless, the newer, younger homeless becoming more desperate and agressive, its not safe to leave your car in the carpark around church anymore. Its hever been safe to walk round alone at night, but now you need to have your wits about you. The drug problem is increasing. I dont know people are getting these drugs into the country cos we certainly dont grow heroin here. (Although there is marijuana) but stuff like P and crystal meth, and synthetic herbal highs, where is all that coming from??

I think more prayer is needed. I read someones idea in the paper that more state house are needed, like they built in the 1930s when there werent enough homes for everyone. Im not sure that all housing projects work, unless those homes are well maintained and not just the cheapest, shoddiest buildings people can bang up that turn into slums later on. But the thing is, there might be enough housing its just holiday homes are sitting empty while people cant afford them.

What do you think? Can habitat for humanity really help or is this ambulance at bottom of cliff. I could easily be homeless... it could happen to anyone. When youve paid for electricy and bills and rent some people cant afford to feed their families. Its really sad.
 
Well the big news of the week was there was a huge fire at one of the sky city conventions centres in town that closed the cbd for days. Just when I was planning a school trip there to visit the library.

So we are planning to go another day another week when everything is back to normal. It was chaos. Library was closed and people were told not to go into town to work.

This weekend trains are not running so people need to take rail bus, it has to be on the long weekend that they do this. I have caught the rail bus before and it takes even longer to get home, if you plan to go into town be prepared to come home around midnight you cant just go home when you want to if catching public transport.

My thoughts are, if the trains and buses cant run on time, there needs to be more of them. More people have been using uber taxis now which are a bit of a godsend for some when a taxi into some places can set you back $50. Also the lime scooters, after they had been safety approved have made some differences in town. Otherwise get on your bike.

An e bike would be a good option for many people, if you rode it often enough it would pay for itself. I dont have one, and it would take me an hour or two to ride into town on a non e bike. There needs to be an easy way to register a bicylce o think, the more people get on their bikes the more power the transport authorities have to make decent cycleways.
 
Ok my think tank idea doesnt seem to work, Im a bit sad about that, whenever I have an idea, theres always sometone who tries to shoot it down rather than actually coming up with ideas of their own.

:-(

The whole point of a think tank is for everyone to be free to come up with ideas, not to criticise other peoples ideas!!! Some people actually dont get this. I am not here to argue with anyone.
 
Hmm silence.

I put a suggestions box in the library. The children asked me what a suggestion is. I said go look it up in the dictionary, and we read the meaning and it said 'an idea for consideration'.

I gave them some examples of ideas they could have...something they could do in the library, books they might want to order that we dont have, etc. Any idea that they have, write it down. They also may win a prize if they enter.

Now I dont have that many suggestions, but I am not going to pull them out and say in front of them THAT IS JUST NOT GONNA WORK.
 
I am going to try again. I thought I posted explicit instructions in my OP but it seems people dont even bother to read the first post.

Its like when i tell children to be quiet in the library and a minute later they all being loud and noisy again. Sigh. Nobody listens to me.
 
I had another brainwave.

This could potentially stop the trashing of our rivers and prevent obesity at the same time.

Ban supermarket trolleys. as they are always being stolen and dumped in our creek. Why, God knows, but if the supermarkets did not even have trolleys it would solve that problem. You can only buy so much you can carry or you bring your own basket or trolley.

I think that would prevent obesity because who buys so much food they cant even carry it themselves. what a waste. every other shop you dont need a trolley. I see people buy too much food and half of it goes in the bin anyway they cant eat it all. plus all the packaging! Even at the markets people bring their own bags and trolleys why should they need such a huge trolley at the supermarket it just encourages people to binge eat and binge spend.
 
Lanolin said:
I had another brainwave.

This could potentially stop the trashing of our rivers and prevent obesity at the same time.

Ban supermarket trolleys. as they are always being stolen and dumped in our creek. Why, God knows, but if the supermarkets did not even have trolleys it would solve that problem. You can only buy so much you can carry or you bring your own basket or trolley.

I think that would prevent obesity because who buys so much food they cant even carry it themselves. what a waste. every other shop you dont need a trolley. I see people buy too much food and half of it goes in the bin anyway they cant eat it all. plus all the packaging! Even at the markets people bring their own bags and trolleys why should they need such a huge trolley at the supermarket it just encourages people to binge eat and binge spend.
Click to expand...
Good morning. I see what you are saying; however, having raised five kids and only going to the grocery store once a month, we usually needed two "trollies" and several unscheduled trips back to the market.
 
I think you can do click and collect now.
You also probably need to go to the grocery store more often, like once or twice a week. That means more exercise. How do you ever have fresh food if you only buy once a month? Thats not really healthy to have month old food. Bread goes stale within a day!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top