Ithaca the ecology city

There is no better way to take the pulse of the "other" America to return again and again to Ithaca. There, in that small city ambush between lakes and waterfalls, we started our "green route" for almost year and a half. Here we are closing the circle now in these times of crisis, with one of its most illustrious neighbors checking the possible future path with the ecology city.

     "Choosing a Sustainable Future" is the title of the book by Liz Walker, co-founder of the EcoVillage of Ithaca and explorer of the Arabian initiatives that converge in this vibrant city and "green" than most. While much of the country was mired in recession, social and ecological activism of Ithaca came just at boiling point, as we saw in our last visit.

The ecology city

"This city has become the meeting point for people willing to have another relationship with the land," says Walker. "And in recent years has accentuated what I call the" cluster effect ", thanks to the cooperative spirit and healthy competition. This much we value and support the local economy, and this allowed us to better cope with difficult times. "

       The Ithaca Farmers Market was one of the pioneers among the 5,000 that exist today in American geography. The hugely popular Greenstar was also the cornerstone of healthy food cooperatives. There you can can pay for some with "hours" of Ithaca ("time is money"), the colorful local currency and the ecology. Or subscribe to car sharing system (Ithaca Carshare). Or have the right to universal health insurance (Ithaca Health Alliance). Or make lines of credit and interest to small depositors would be unthinkable in any other place in America (Alternatives Federal Credit Union).

Ithaca, with a progressive tradition that goes back almost to the time of the Cayuga Indians (Liz Walker thinks he sees in them the roots of pacifism, feminism and sustainability), perhaps approaching that any member of the Tea Party disparagingly call a "socialist eco-city."

Socialist eco-city

      "In this country we are experiencing a political and cultural civil war," admits Liz. "Every time there is a larger hole between people who want to live in a manner respectful to the environment and the extreme right wants to eliminate all the environmental protections and the ecology."

      But now that most of the population lives in cities, we have no choice but to seek new models, and proposed this city of just 50,000 inhabitants (half of them students at the prestigious Cornell University or Ithaca College) is certainly encouraging and stimulating.