THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY BLUEPRINT FORECAST 2008

One wonders what the collection of well-intentioned people who are involved with a “blueprint” formulation; see as a collective future vision for this Great Valley. Is it a vision or a concept or is it a misunderstanding of Utopia vs. Eutopia?

The word "utopia" comes from the Greek for "no place" or "nowhere." Utopian thought is meant to describe a vision of a better future society -- but one beyond our grasp.

“Eutopia” is a vision of a preferable place -- but one with a bridge that gets us from here to there. Visions of a better society don't attract a critical mass of people. Only future visions with visible urban design alternatives that are measured and evaluated can become a viable bridge. This bridge has to be clearly outlined. That is a lesson we all have yet to learn. My observation of the current process is one of jumping a chasm from the present status quo to utopia without a bridge to get to "Eutopia".

The San Joaquin Valley Blueprint not just a vision thing. It's also a bridge thing. Maybe it is time to write a forecast for things to happen this year!

Again the overarching principles for envisioning future regional settlements are the primary question. The answer is urban design first. Without alternative physically designed virtual scenarios that engage a written story line substantiating the metrics of energy consumption inputs versus green house gas emissions all “futures” cannot be substantiated for sustainability.

PRINCIPLE ONE: - How do we clean the air to present a life giving purity to Great Valley dwellers and all organic products?

PRINCIPLE TWO: - What water shortages will grip Great Valley citizens over the next planning years? How do we provide sufficient water for each household to prevent a “water war” between Northern and Southern Californians?

PRINCIPLE THREE: - How do we ensure agricultural food and fiber production, accommodating the bio diversity of the Great Valley, both of imported seeds, genetically altered seeds, as well as, indigenous flora and fauna?

PRINCIPLE FOUR: - How will we provide energy via electricity in a network of self sufficiency that will not be open to brownouts? How do we create a communication technology that presents safety against “hacking” and “duplication “ of private documents? How can such records be filed for future urban dwellers?

PRINCIPLE SIX: - How will we accommodate forecasted population growth in the Great Valley and offer better mobility for both people and goods?

PRINCIPLE SEVEN: - How does the Great Valley efficiently use it’s own natural resources to build future settlement structures?

PRINCIPLE EIGHT: - How are all our consumptive products handled in order to reduce waste?

PRINCIPLE NINE: - How do we swiftly give citizens protection in the way of security, safety and justice with meaningful actions? How do we prepare also for natural disaster and/or terrorism? How will we accommodate evacuating citizens from a Isabella dam break or our California coastal edges if flooded?

PRINCIPLE TEN: - How do we accommodate our urban design of settlements to best balance man-made structure with that of Nature?

PRINCIPLE ELEVEN: - The wealth – poverty gap is widening between the rural, city and suburban citizens. How do we stabilize both work and/or jobs with a base value for sustainability?

PRINCIPLE TWELVE: -How do we make decisions for unanimity in such a democracy of building sustainable places? More decisions will possibly be made by nonhuman entities." Technologies are increasing the complexity of our lives and human workers' competency is not keeping pace well enough to avoid disasters due to human error," pushing us toward "electronically enabled teams in networks, robots with artificial intelligence, and other no carbon life-forms". Our education and transmission of wisdom about these matters demands citizens who will make financial, health, educational, and even political decisions for us with or without computer Internet communication capabilities.

PRINCIPLE THIRTEEN:- The final principle in this abbreviated forecast, is the question of adopting new technologies to continue building these better places. How this is done, presented and evaluated in a flexibility of context and sequence, will be a way proffer a sustainable urban future.

"The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps." - Benjamin Disraeli

Graham Kaye-Eddie

Master Urban Designer