Editor: 

Larry Robinson says that Sebastopol is more sustainable than most communities in the U.S., but he admits that in the long run we live in an unsustainable economy and culture. We should take a clue from the the Center for the Art's latest exhibit on Impermanence. Instead of trying to fight change, accept that nothing is going to stay the same.

It is a little disappointing to see that despite all the talk about making the Northeast Area more walkable, the planner's conceptual drawing (Sonoma West 2/14/08) shows a very wide street, tiny sidewalks and a car stuck in the middle of the picture. It looks like a 1990's vision for a suburban shopping village. Not very inspiring to me. Our car culture is one of the least sustainable parts of our economy. Doubling the price of gas in the past four years shows that it's not going to be business as usual for very long.

Energy is the most impermanent of resources. We have been riding an oil bonanza for more than four generations.  But even the most optimistic scenarios foresee oil shortages and probably sooner than we think. How will we live when we run low on this amazing stuff? Not only driving, but also the electric grid (which runs on dwindling sources of natural gas), water pumping and sewage treatment may become less sustainable.  Are we building a City that will survive these kind of changes? No easy answers. But I would expect a clearer vision from one of our most sustainable cities.

How about reducing car access, keeping open a railway option to connect with Santa Rosa, making a creekside park and a covered farmer's market and artisan booth area? Flexible, small scale developments may be more sustainable than grand schemes in the changing times ahead.

- Peter Schurch, Sebastopol