Pleasantville

Think back to the movie Pleasantville. The world seemed perfect. There were firemen who never had to put out a fire, the basketball team never missed a basket, and no matter how much butter there was on the pancakes they never gained a pound. When you look past the superficial layer of the town, there was one thing about that neighborhood that everyone watching the movie longed for, and that was a sense of community. In the movie, as people would walk down the street it was certain that they would see someone they knew.  There was never a worry because there was always someone looking out for you.

Now think back to your current neighborhood. Do you sometimes feel like your neighbors decide to turn their music up around the time you decide to go to sleep? Maybe your neighborhood is quiet, but you do not know the people walking past you every morning?  For those of you who do know your neighbors do you feel like there are not activities that bring the community together? The recently established Brownsville addresses these issues and more. Realizing that this is the 21^st century and people like to have their personal space, the homes in the neighborhood are not close together. There is a large amount or lawn space allowing you to either sit and enjoy the scenery or invite your neighbors over. The center of the town is in the midst of all the houses. The park, schools, stores and offices are within walking distance of each other. This not only encourages people to interact with each other, but it also lessen the amount or carbon produced by cars. When the day is all said and done you are able to retreat to your homes with your families or go to the park to hear a concert with a few friends. Of course each community would have its problems and that is why we’ve set up a town hall forum that is in the center if the town so that if someone has a problem they can go to the town hall to discuss it. If the problem is within a smaller group such a block of homes, there is a block association that would be able to help solve the problem. If there is a problem with your children at school, we have staff available to meet with you when it best fits you so that our children can get the best of their education.

Think back on men such as Ben Carson and Thomas Aquinas. When Ben Carson was younger he did not do well in school, in fact many of his teachers wrote him off as stupid. However, Ben went on to go to Yale and became a well-known neurosurgeon. The same for Thomas Aquinas, when he was in the university, he never answered any of his teachers’ questions. His nickname was the Dumb Ox. However, whenever someone misspoke about a particular philosophy, Thomas Aquinas was the first to correct them. Aquinas became known as one of the most influential theologians of the Church. All great things have a rough beginning and that is why we have programs set up to help ease the transition as the community gets built up even stronger.

Subliminal Coercion

My ideal community was built in such a way that the most convenient way of doing something was also the ‘ideal’ way. Such as making walking more convenient than driving between home and school, or work.

If people can live more environmentally friendly, or use local goods and services rather than imports, without going out of their way then the goal of my community has been achieved. Thus to get people to do this is less about directly convincing the people, and more about providing the resources and layout of a community that fosters the desired way of life. For example, to convince people to increase their socially connections and to interact with their friends more is a hard concept to implement, but if you give them the technologies of Facebook, Twitter, or SMS, the populace embraces these and your result is achieved, albeit in a somewhat different form.

So in order to have people remember to turn off their lights for example, convince them to install a smart system that, through their cell phone’s GPS or some other tracking device, will automatically turn off house lights when they are not in the vicinity. Mapping programs that will suggest walking as a good option to get from point A to point B, and websites like WHERE.COM that help people become more aware of their local surroundings are all technologies that I believe have potential to change the masses. As an individual in a community, I can help foster others, by writing reviews and rating different local services and outlets in my community on websites where others in the community will be able to see and be influenced by my contributions.

As an engineer, I hope to assist in developing technologies that will allow people to be more environmentally friendly, locally supportive and globally aware. Coming up with ideas for change is relatively easy. The challenge is implementing in such a way that it sticks and grows without being a burden on the community.

By combining well-though community design, and the implementation of appropriate technologies, it is possible, I believe, to create certain changes without ever publicly expressing the desired change. Through this and similar techniques, a community can be formed, over time, into one that is growing more environmentally friendly, locally supportive, and globally aware.