Demonstrations on how to make these sustainable modifications in an affordable, plausible and inspiring way are unfortunately not widely available. Beyond basic eco-retrofitting, where are the new models of suburban dwelling that are built with pollution, water shortage, waste equals food, solar energy, large middle class populations, radical homemaking (men and women who have chosen to make family, community, social justice and the health of the planet the governing principles of their lives), globalization, affordability and live/work/play in mind? Again we lack the tactile demonstrations. There are no newly conceived prototypes in our neighborhoods that we can experience; that we can touch, feel and breathe in how a new model of suburban life might be like.
Nasser claims in USA Today (2008) that, “For good or bad, the USA's suburbs have become a living laboratory for the world. Developing countries contending with explosive population growth and economic expansion are looking here for hints about how to manage growing cities”. Perhaps suburban neighborhoods could use that global influence and export American designs that take into account the constrictions and realities of the 21st Century world? Much-needed local demonstrations could be models for communities around the globe, having an impact on global warming at both the local and global scale.
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