RE: an ecovillage is a carfree village

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>
> Your vision is a beautiful one!
THanks, and yours too certainly. But i believe that there are out there much
more visions around this idea of car free ecovillage. It would be great if
this list would enable the development many visions and many projects.

>
> Do you have a place in mind?
Well i am thinking about a place in Spain. but nothing to talk about yet. I
think that this list should be in a first step an exploration of ideas. and
later a support for an actual development. I do not think we are ready yet.
but let us call all the people we could for a search of potential people
interested, politicians; train or bus companies interested. But to have a
real group getting on the spot we are too early, i think it is already
really great if this list supports the process, no?
>
> Do you intend to stay in Portugal?
I am ready to move if necessary.
>
>
> I don't think I have the desire to initiate a carfree ecovillage project
> by my self, but I believe I would be an eager and capable assistant to
> whoever decides to take this on.
I would like to initiate this with others, but i am still unsure of how to
do it. I hope that this list can help to find it out. I have been thinking
about this for quite some time . but only now i am thinking that i should
get going: this is still the beginning for me, even if in a way i am already
living in a carfree minivillage, 2 km from village and bus station, 20 km
from Lisbon. I do not have an access road, and no car (but 3 bikes, one
trailer, one taxi-tandem)and we have carfree neighbors (one because of money
shortage and for ecology, the others because there is no space for a road).
What about you did you develop thing yet?

in general it would be great to know what has been going on in this area of
intentionally car-free villages. Do you know of other people dealing with
this idea? and real sites?

>
> Let me know what help you would like, as well as some of the climate
> details of any locations you consider.
If one or more places develop, it would be great to invite people to help. I
guess right now it would be great if we could work together to get this list
starting. Especially you seem to know much about lists. Although  i find
important to decide if this list has Europe or America as final main
objective. I am already overwelmed by the size of Europe! and the problem is
much different in Europe for example because car-free villages existed not
so long time ago.

>
> Do we need to start searching for a location first?
This should be done in parralel to our discussions
I would begin by defining our goals
look for all information on what has already been done
and get info on past experiences, problems and solutions
I still think that a village should have a face to face base, people
meeting. it should be based on a strong link with the locality. This is
where a listserve discussion has limits; We can only help the process

and important question during the last conference: was there discussions on
the topic of car-free ecovillages?
>
> Jan (from Vienna) at the conference said that there were abandoned
> villages in Spain, where it was possible to move to, and after you've been
> there so long, or made certain improvements, that you have a "right" to
> stay there indefinitely.
>
> That sounds too good to be true, but some stories I've heard of people
> restoring villages in Italy seem similar.

I am sure there are lots of places like this. the problem is to find a place
compatible with car-freeness and available
>
> If it is true, we'd still need to have legal control over any roads
> to/from the village, so we could shut them down/make them car-free.
It could be great to think about all possible cases. but shuting roads is
real difficult. a public public path passes near our house, there is hardly
space for a car, but the authoritires do not agree that we put a sign to
stop cars. In US that would be different because there are rarely public
right of ways. it would be interesting to know about the legality of closing
public path from cars, but leaving it open to bikes, trailers,
pedestrians... and what about motorbikes and these horrible things with four
wheels.

>
> If we do not have a rail link to our village, and if there are roads of
> some kind beyond footpaths/ox trails, It seems that we should be clear
> what will be allowed on them.
>
> Also, it would be nice to be sure we won't run afoul of things like the US
> ADA (Disabilities) act-- preferably some place where such laws do not
> exist and are not likely to be enacted. I.e., will we have to deal with
> building codes, and if so what are they?
>
> Croatia also seems nice-
>
> Let me be clear that I'm not terribly interested in having a huge impact
> in larger society, but I am interested in making things nice for
> myself--so I'm thinking along the lines of an Amish community, but with a
> different sort of religion :) I do hope to have a decent internet
> connection though!

I would find important to keep the vision very open. Far from me is the idea
of getting into a sort of religion!! no but more seriously, i think that we
should keep a wide vision at this point. I am personnally very interested in
having some positive impact on society, but making things nice for us is
important .


> Tamera in Portugal:
> http://www.tamera.org/english/index.html
i know it. interesting but there are cars and it is hard to do without.

We should contact GEN on this specifik topic

>
> I recommend reading _Cultural Creatives_. It expresses that there is a
> "spiritual" / consciousness development aspect to what we're
> undertaking... especially when you start talking about using human power
> because you prefer to. Some places like damanhur and kalikalos go into the
> spiritual / personal development more than I'm inclined to- but it will be
> good to ask what the unifying ideas behind our work shall be-- the
> unifying ideas will need to go somewhat beyond simple car-freeness, I
> think.
Well i actually have the book. If there is spirituality i personnaly prefer
it to be a personal affair. ANd the definition is unclear. As unifying
ideas, aren't reducing our impacts, harmony with nature, and nice quality of
life enough? I think that carfreeness can hold people together because
problem solving requires cooperation.

the mention ecovillage should be enough to defined it self as carfree, but
the reality is different!

best greetings
Soif