equatorjournal: Ebba, 1970"s. “The good life depends on intimacy and small numbers.&r
equatorjournal: Ebba, 1970"s. “The good life depends on intimacy and small numbers.” - Aristotle. “Briones was once a small, peaceful community of farmers and fishermen, retired people and commuters, and a haven for poets, artisans, and counter-cultural activists. But in the early 1970s, a giant oil spill polluted its shores and a state imposed multimillion-dollar sewage system threatened its tranquillity. Orville Schell, one of the elected officials of the town, describes in his personal and eloquent journal the efforts of these people to defend their town by building an ecolog ically viable community. The town began to plan nonpolluting waste disposal systems, to experiment with new regulations to control runaway land speculation, to promote alternative energy sources such as the sun and the wind. But these bold innovations often brought fierce opposition from state, federal, and county agencies. The townspeople had to fight to build ingenious forms of low-cost housing that violated the bureaucratic health codes. They organized against a massive highway-building program which would have led to an enormous development program. Though Briones is a unique town, its people are dealing with the general issues of ecology, energy, and unlimited growth which confront us all today.” From “The town that fought to save itself” by Orville Schell, 1976.https://www.instagram.com/p/CdyoIqWNZLn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI= -- source link