I Have a Dream . . .

I woke up in the very early hours of the morning after a very strange series of dreams, and couldn’t go back to sleep for quite a while. Naturally my brain, once awakened, immediately turned to farming, food, and plants. I started fantasizing about ways we could make cities better places to live. I came up with a whole plan for a dream city; mind you, I have zero understanding of urban planning or engineering, so this really is all a fantasy at this point, but I was so entertained by it that I think it prolonged my wakeful period. So I thought perhaps y’all might like to imagine with me, and maybe add to the dream. So then, my series of what if’s.

What if we really did run out of fuel (we will, you know, the only thing we don’t know for sure is WHEN), and all the transportation in the city was divided between light rail, and used vegetable oil fuel? What if EVERY restaurant’s used oil got turned in to fuel?

What if, at the top of every tall building/skyscraper in a city, there was a garden, and a vermicompost box? What if even HALF of all balconies had vegetables growing on them? What if the very very tall buildings had windmills on top?

What if the public parks in cities had public gardens in at least part of them?

What if they stopped spraying pesticides and herbicides everywhere, and chickens could be kept in the parks too, in cute little chicken tractors with little license plates, painted in bright pretty colors? Children could go to the park with their parents, and buy eggs from the public chickens, and everyone could eat the dandelions and chickweed and plantain from the lawns?

What if hospital grounds had amazing gardens where they grew real food to feed people, so that patients in hospitals could actually be nourished?

What if they cut out 6 inches at the edge of every sidewalk lining every street, and put in dirt, and let a fine and flourishing crop of dandelions grow there? How much carbon dioxide would they eat up, and give us back life-giving oxygen? Can you imagine the sight of city streets lined with thick crops of bright yellow flowers, or lush green leaves, or white seed puffballs? Can you imagine how much more friendly the streets would feel?

What if all the landfills started utilizing bioremediation practices? Various kinds of mushrooms and plants that could break down the garbage and heal the ground?

What if, instead of ornamental trees, the cities planted fruit trees fit for the climate zone, and the public could eat freely when the fruit was ripe? Instead of ornamental shrubs, what about berry bushes, if the light is right? Instead of planter boxes full of annuals, what about planter boxes full of culinary and medicinal herbs, or carrots and cabbage?

Is any of this even logistically possible? Could the cities become a bit more productive, and a bit less of a sink-hole for resources? Could they become pleasant places to live? I don’t really know, to be perfectly honest.

I have a whole different scheme for suburbia, much more outlandish and of course most people probably wouldn’t like it. I have to remember that not everyone wants to grow food and raise animals. But it’s awfully nice to dream . . .

So what about you? What are your “what if’s” for green, productive cities? Who wants to play let’s pretend with the crazy chicken lady?