"The End of Suburbia" screening. A recap of the film and attendees.

"The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?"

See the Official Site for In: http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

"The End of Suburbia" promo trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHr8OzaloLM

Hello all;

I attended "The End of Suburbia" screening last night.  The lecture hall was full.  A lot of interest, many students from planning department, and probably 20 community members + one guy recruiting for Greenpeace.  Somewhat forced/tense discussion afterwards.  It was brought up that we are currently having a cheap supply of natural gas which may extend the viability of suburbia for some time, but because the methods to extract it (fracking) are extreme, it seems that we are still going to have  an energy crisis, just a little further down the road.  An officer of the Smart Growth club stated that she thinks we will gradually transition to more local living over the next 30-50 years, which bears evidence that the students may not see the issue as urgent, and that we have a lifetime to handle the transition.  The 2004 film states that we have reached peak oil and hence, we are in the crisis/transition right now…that we cannot grow (sprawl) anymore because the "cheap" resources have been depleted.  Our current/ongoing economic collapse is bearing evidence to the contraction of resources.  I found a good short article connecting the dots between job loss, lack of growth and peak oil: http://peakoil.com/consumption/why-going-back-to-normal-is-no-longer-an-option-for-the-american-economy-and-where-were-headed-now/  

A state planner for Salisbury named Keith Lackie mentioned to the audience that "we need more planners."  I told him that I was a jobless architect and that possibly the current economic crisis, in reality, is our transition from peak oil, because shortly after gas prices hit $4 a gallon, the economy tanked.  I mentioned our efforts to start a transition town movement and that our first project might be to make Salisbury more bike-able.  In terms of aesthetics, he told me that Salisbury's main challenge in becoming a beautiful place to live is that 70% of the city's housing is rentals.  He spends most of his work day as a planner focusing on water management and infrastructure issues.  The bus system is run by a tri-county organization.  I looked at the Shore transit website and discovered that it would cost me  a dollar less to take the bus from Delmar to SBY than to drive, but it would take an hour!  It would take three hours to get to Ocean City via shore transit- that's half the day- what agony!  Check out the trip planner on their website: http://www.shoretransit.org/Home.aspx

Sincerely,

Rebecca