To sign up to become a UAS Team member just complete the introduction form.

At the beginning of the each year UAS’ core team comes together for multiple strategy sessions for realignment and refocusing. One of the outcomes for 2008 was a rearrangement of the main teams that UAS consists of. They are now the Development Team, the Outreach Team (made up of Membership, Website, Newsletter and Events Sub-Teams) and the Mapping the Ecology of the Movement (MEM) Team (see the following for details). It’s obvious that there is much energy surrounding UAS and the momentum is picking up at a rapid pace, but Urban Alliance for Sustainability is counting on dedicated sustainability seekers such as yourself to help integrate and inspire the movement like never before!

A more detailed list of current volunteer opportunities can be found here, and in order for UAS to maintain its momentum, our immediate volunteer priority is to get individuals involved in the Mapping Project. Check out www.uas.coop/mem for more info.
We especially need help with:
• Building relationships with organizations and identifying their resources and core needs
• Analyzing data to recognize overlapping efforts/ unrealized relationships
• Facilitating connections
We’re looking for people who have great networking skills and who can help map these connections. Please contact me at volunteer@uas.coop if you’d like more information.

The Urban Alliance for Sustainability is a blossoming young organization and we rely mostly on the efforts of our volunteers to make things run smoothly. Below are some of the volunteer roles we are currently seeking for a few of our functional teams:

The UAS Development Team is responsible for building the structural components of our organization. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with our implementation tasks, including grant writing, non-profit accounting, and communicating the UAS vision to foundations and other grant making agencies. If you are interested in developing our non-profit with strategic well thought out planning, contact dev-team@uas.coop

Join the UAS Events Team and direct your volunteer energy toward planning, promoting, and hosting some of the most fun and synergistic sustainability events in the Bay Area. We host a monthly Green Movie Night, playshops, Open Space Technology events, and other community building events. We also participate in annual events such as the Green Festival. Contact events-team@uas.coop to get started working with our volunteer team.

Writers, editors, creative people, graphic designers, web developers, IT peeps and systems administrators, are all wanted for our UAS Newsletter Team and the UAS Website Team. We are responsible for producing a monthly on-line newsletter, promoting UAS events, maintaining and improving the UAS website, designing and writing print material, and other professional tasks. Send an email to newsletter-team@uas.coop and let us know how you'd like to help out.

We are just now building the UAS Volunteer Coordination Team and are looking for people excited about recruiting new volunteers and helping orient them to UAS' cooperative structure.

Please click here if you are interested in volunteering with UAS.

UAS has recently partnered with Greenhome.com, the most comprehensive marketplace on the Web for everything eco. And now, every time you buy a product from the UAS Green Home store, Green Home will share a portion of the revenue with our organization.

Green Home thoroughly researches all the products sold on its website, putting every product it carries through a rigorous evaluation process, ensuring each meets its standards. This process requires that manufacturers provide detailed information about each product.

Just as UAS works to help inform the urban community about practical sustainable solutions, Green Home also believes in supporting businesses that are transforming local economies, supporting our health, and protecting our environment.

By making a purchase at UAS' Green Home store, you will be proactively strengthening UAS.

Be sure to check out our store and spread the love: http://uas.greenhome.com/products

Melissa Plotkin: UAS Volunteer CoordinatorGreetings Fellow Sustainability Seekers,

I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself along with the exciting positions that UAS currently has to offer. My name is Melissa Plotkin, although many know me as 'Sweet Melissa' since I recently spent a month on tour with the Allman Brothers representing Rock the Earth, an environmental advocacy nonprofit that partners with the music community. Studying abroad in the beautiful country of Belize helped me realize how strong my passion was for the field of sustainability. I co-founded an Environmental/ Sustainable Development organization at the University in Belize and I became the Recycling Coordinator for the only student environmental organization at Florida State University. I was also employed with the University's Service Learning Program where I helped steer the campus towards a 'greener' institution by working on the Sustainable Campus Committee and Garnet and Gold Goes Green Initiative.

I have only been in San Francisco since early September, so I am still new to the Bay Area. I have grown up in Florida, but it became quite clear to me after only a few days of being out here that the west was my home. I am psyched to be UAS' newest member to the team, the Volunteer Coordinator, and am even more thrilled to get to know each of you who share the enthusiasm that I have and are ready to put forth your energy to help cultivate the movement. Here is a list of volunteer opportunities with UAS, so if you are interested in any, please email me at Melissa@uas.coop for more information.

I look forward to meeting you,

Melissa

Surprisingly, the global economy driven by multinational corporations shares something with most communist government economies: both are highly centralized. Marxist planned economies do it by design, whereas capitalist free markets inevitably become highly centralized due to intense competition and the relentless pursuit of profit. Companies merge in order to survive, leading to fewer but ever larger ones. Sadly, centralized economic planning, whether done by communists or capitalists, has been rather disastrous for both humanity and the planet.

There are generally considered to be three ways to own and manage a business: government ownership, private ownership and cooperative ownership. Ownership is important, because those who own the means of production reap most of the benefits. According to communist dogma, all businesses have to be government owned, and in theory the people get equal shares of the income, but too often this forced equality leads to widespread alienation and lethargy.

According to capitalist dogma, all businesses should be in private hands, and in theory salaries are paid in proportion to the value of the work done by the people involved. However the chief executive officers of many multinational corporations are now paid salaries with stock options that Fortune magazine describes as "outrageous!", on average hundreds of times more than common workers and without any objective measurement of their actual contributions.

What is a Local Economy?

One aspect of a local economy is that every bio-region should strive to produce as much as possible the food its population needs. This simple idea of regional food supply is radically different from today's corporate agriculture. Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith calculated in "The Case Against the Global Economy: And for a Turn Toward the Local" (Sierra Club Books) that food in the US travels an average of 2000 miles before it reaches your plate! The heavy use of fossil fuels in corporate farming and transportation to ship food around the world is unsustainable and contributes to global warming.

It is estimated that one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases is the methane produced by factory farms. The vast lands and enormous quantities of water used to produce cereals for livestock could feed everyone if planted with grains, beans and other crops for human consumption.

Cooperative businesses are another key to a sustainable local economy. Cooperative enterprises - industrial, agricultural, service, consumer and credit - encourage human beings to work together and help to create economic democracy.

The International Cooperative Alliance offers this definition of cooperatives: "A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise." Instead of striving for profits at any cost, cooperative workers produce what people in their community and region need. They require much less advertising, packaging or transportation than the corporate free market.

We often forget that garbage as we know it is actually a very recent invention! Only in the last 150 years or so have humans produced significant quantities of inorganic wastes that do not degrade quickly and naturally.

"Know the area"

The first task of planning a local economy involves the comprehensive study of an area and its people to understand the actual needs and problems. Doing firsthand interviews of inhabitants and leaders is just as important as collecting economic and social data from existing sources. The objective is to understand as much as possible the climate, geography, natural resources, agricultural and industrial potential, energy and water sources, and the education, cultural strengths and spiritual traditions of its various peoples.

Much "development work" in economically undeveloped countries by wealthy foreign "experts" has been badly out of touch with and often rejected by the proposed beneficiaries. Instead successful economic planning must be done by local people, those who reside in and identify with the area, not by outsiders.

This research phase is crucial to success. It is said that "knowledge is power", because it increases one's potential and ability to impact the world and improve it.

"Prepare the Plan"

By analyzing the data collected from research, interviews and personal experiences, one can formulate a workable development plan to achieve full employment and a sustainable economy. Planning must always begin at the local level, from the grassroots, because there are so many differences in terms of geography, climate, natural resources, infrastructure, communities and other factors between places. For this reason, it is not possible to create an effective plan for a large or medium-sized country at once. First one must study and plan at each local level before planning at the state or national levels.

To plan a local economy successfully, we need to raise our consciousness. We are all in the "consciousness-raising business". Every teacher is trying to awaken the student's desire to learn, discover and grow. We are trying to raise consciousness when we speak to individuals about recycling, reducing consumption, good nutrition or a healthy lifestyle. Whenever we inspire people to try to build a better world, we are also raising consciousness. The great educator Paulo Freire called this process conscientization: to authentically dialog with others, to experience their world, while at the same time challenging their beliefs to reach new levels of awareness about justice and exploitation.

The late Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, who led the campaign for human rights in his country during the long military dictatorship from 1964-1985, said, "If I feed the poor, people call me a saint. If I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." Today we all need to ask tough questions like he did. For example, why is there hunger on our planet when the UN calculates that enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,200 calories a day? Why is there poverty, when we could provide the minimum necessities of life to everyone with less than 20 percent of what the world spends on arms? Why are we unable or unwilling to stop pollution, deforestation and global warming, when scientists are warning that we are literally destroying the ability of our planet to support life itself?

"Another world is possible" is the theme of the World Social Forum. I believe there is tremendous power in this shared dream. But it invites the question, "What kind of world do we want?" I give hundreds of talks around the world, but when I ask audiences in Philippines, Poland, Scotland or Brazil, the answers are invariably the same: a world without war, hunger or poverty; with justice and human rights; with ecological protection. The truth is, almost all want the same thing: peace on earth!

Asking tough questions and challenging people to consider alternatives is essential to creating a good plan. As Albert Einstein said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them." A local economy based on local planning can significantly contribute to a better, sustainable world for all.

According to Robert Ricklefs, in his wonderful book appropriately titled Ecology, the study of the science of Ecological Design has two goals: to learn and to apply.

What will learning about ecological design bring to the table? How will we apply what we learn? Ecological design is rooted in attention to context and scale. As our cities grow and become massive conglomerated entities, we are losing sight of context and scale. Solutions to particular problems are best when they are localized, use existing and appropriate resources, and are both predictive and prescriptive.

Consider the tremendous problem of storm-water run-off. Impermeable city streets with aging and often inadequate sewer connections mean that water falls on the city, mixes with the blinding volume of toxins around us every day, and drains not to the water table, which is holding the ground up, but to the rivers, bays, estuaries, lakes, and oceans around our cities. Where is it going to go but back to us in spades?

Chicago, a city with a massive resource appropriate in its context and scale- alleyways- has come up with an ecological design solution for storm run-off: 1,900 miles of alleyways in the city are being sustainably retrofitted by the Chicago Department of Transportation. The Green Alley Program outlines a multi-pronged approach: permeable concrete (made of recycled materials) that allows storm water and snow melt to seep through the pavement into infiltration basins under the alley and then into the water table beneath the city; energy-saving street lighting (which incidentally is safer, as alleys are now better lit); and "high-albedo" pavers which reflect sunlight rather than absorbing it, reducing the city's heat island impact.

The Department of Transportation estimates that the green retrofits cost roughly twice as much as a "traditional" street retrofit. Since none of Chicago's alleys are connected to the sewer system and storm run-off therefore collects in people's backyards and basements, the city figures that the cost of the green retrofits offsets the cost of sewer hook-ups and homeowner insurance claims. That's ecological thinking- an emphasis on long term processes rather than on short term crisis-reaction models. The multi-faceted element of the green alley design speaks to Johnson and Hill's comment about the necessity for interdisciplinary approaches to design problems. What's to stop any city from applying the same kind of thinking?

Speaking of scale, what's to stop you and me from applying the same kind of thinking? We as citizens of one of these countries on the planet are constantly influencing decisions made by politicians and experts through our very actions. Knowing and understanding ecological design principles and processes makes a big difference when you stand before the Board of Supervisors or the city council or the state Senate or the Planning Commission.

Learning and applying ecological knowledge brings us closer to our environment and each other as we begin to understand our interdependence. Interdisciplinary design approaches mean more collaboration between people in various fields: ecologists working with history professors; city planners working with permaculture garden designers; scientists working with philosophers. There isn't an "other" in ecological terms, there is only "us." Humans are animals too, a keystone species, with tremendous capabilities; our only boundaries are ourselves.

For more information about ecological design:

Ecological Design Institute: http://www.ecodesign.org/

Ecology; Robert Ricklefs, 1973; Chiron Press, Massachusetts

Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning; ed. Bart R. Johnson and Kristina Hill, 2002; Island Press, Washington DC

More Books: http://www.ecobooks.com/catalogs/ecodesign.htm

Practicing sustainability has so many aspects that it can be hard to decide what to focus on. As a natural builder I spend a lot of time thinking that I really should be growing food, which seems more urgent since we already have a lot of functional buildings. Or restoring watersheds, since our relationship to water in the landscape is unstable enough without the extra threat of drought as a part of climate change.

I am still building, however. Why? Some statistics: In 1997, according to the U.S commerce department, about 36% of total energy use in the US was consumed in the operation of commercial (16%) and residential (20%) buildings. This figure represents almost 9% of total worldwide energy use for that year. Current construction methods account for 40% of material goods entering the global market The preparation, transport, and handling of clay soil onsite requires about 1% of the energy required for the preparation, transport, and handling of baked brick or reinforced concrete.

Green building refers to all of the practices that try to remedy the problems that these statistics indicate. These practices reduce the impact of construction by using lower-impact materials for construction and by designing buildings to maintain a comfortable indoor climate without relying on constant energy inputs. Many aspects of green building integrate easily into the urban environment: materials and systems are often designed to be direct substitutes for conventional practices, so their implementation doesn't require huge changes in code or awareness.

However, I practice natural building, which could be considered an aspect of green building. The term "natural building" to a non-builder is probably very vague, since "natural" appears to have so many convenient meanings these days that it no longer means anything at all. But "natural building" actually has a fairly specific definition. Natural building refers to a set of techniques that use locally available, unrefined materials as much as possible. What this translates to in practice is the use of local clay soil, straw, sand and gravel, non-industrial wood, and various other biodegradeable and creatively recycled materials. These materials are combined to create wall systems like strawbale, cob, adobe, rammed earth, wattle, and slip straw. As the third statistic above suggests, these types of buildings have the potential to have very low environmental impact indeed: the energy required to move and refine them is much lower than that which is required for most conventional building.

Natural building has historically taken place at the ends of dirt roads in rural counties, and is often stigmatized as being irrelevant to cities (and sometimes as irrelevant in general). This is only to be expected: it's very difficult for a culture to learn a skill that is so foreign to its habits under the full view of prevailing regulations, expectation, and habits. So of course the pioneers went up into the hills or out into the desert, and began investigation on their own terms. This investigation has continued for nearly a couple of decades now, and as a result we now know enough to bring what we have learned into other contexts.

Natural building stands to be very important in urban areas, for both tangible and intangible reasons. We have a lot of existing buildings, but many of them need both maintenance and retrofitting. The simplest way to integrate natural building with existing structures is to apply earth or adobe plasters over existing walls. Having clay-based finishes in the interior of a house has various benefits. Clay has the capacity to balance out interior humidity, as well as softening sound and adding thermal mass to stabilize interior temperature. Clay finishes on all kinds of walls are becoming increasingly common.

More ambitious retrofits include adding whole new rooms using natural materials, or using natural materials to increase the insulation or thermal mass of a building. Judy Knox and Matts Myhrman retrofitted their concrete block house in Tucson by wrapping strawbales around the entire exterior of the building.

But perhaps the greater relevance of natural building to cities is intangible. One of the greatest ecological dangers of cities is that they separate the people who live in them from the direct impact of their actions. This is true of most things that we do in this culture, but the effect is magnified in urban areas. Everything that we use in cities is brought in from elsewhere, and the cost of materials or services usually doesn't reflect the full ecological cost. The result is that there is no good context for evaluating the impacts of your actions. In the absence of a context it is very difficult to make choices to minimize the environmental cost of your life.

Natural building is one of the practices that can restore that context. Because the materials are mostly local, you can see what happens to land when you dig clay out of it or grow straw-producing plants on it, and what happens to a river when you take its sand or gravel. If you live in a city you probably aren't digging your clay out of your backyard, but it doesn't have to come from so far away that you can't observe what happens when it gets dug up.

With natural building you can also directly experience the true energy cost of construction, something that is very difficult to see in a conventional building. In other words, you are taking the raw materials yourself and refining them into a form that is good for building, and you are doing this with whomever you can talk into doing it with you. You therefore experience the effort that it takes not only to screen and mix the clay for cob or adobe or plaster, but also to convince everyone you know to come do the same things, and to feed them, and entertain them so much that they want to come back and do it some more (and more, and more...).

As a general rule, human energy plays the role in natural building that petroleum energy plays in conventional building. Thus natural building is often criticized as being too labor intensive to be practical; but in reality we are just being asked to face the impact that we unknowingly displace onto other people and living things. And if we can find a way to reverse that impact in the urban context, we can do it anywhere.

How can we think about urban land use in a way that enables more people to grow their own food?

Though maybe it isn't practical to think of growing all our food in the city, there are 1822 acres of open residential space in San Francisco according to a recent civic survey, and mild climate, and lots of opportunities to learn about gardening here. What would it mean if more of those available acres were growing veggies that could go to the dinner table, rather than abandoned weeds, or maybe inedible landscaping?

During World War I and II, our country supported urban farming efforts in times of need by planting "Victory Gardens". The government paid citizens to be self sufficient. San Francisco in fact had one of the best "Victory Garden" programs in the country with plots in Golden Gate Park, and in front of city hall, among numerous other places.

It was an impressive show of people growing their own food- consider the numbers: In 1943, 20 million gardens produced 8 million tons of food, collectively 40% of our domestic food supply. That is huge.

Victory Gardens are back, with a slightly new meaning. Inspired by Belgians, whose government reimburses citizens for their food growing efforts, artist Amy Franceschini is exploring if this will work in San Francisco. Victory Gardens today mean community involvement, connection to our environment, and independence from the industrial food system, rather than supporting a war effort.

Three test gardens were installed last year in various microclimates throughout the city; there is a demonstration 300 square foot plot in the Garden for the Environment that shows creative ways one can grow food in small spaces; and fifteen more gardens, at private homes are on the agenda to give away this year.

Currently applications are being reviewed and Blair Randall of The GFE says the public response has been huge. Over 120 applications poured in during the first week alone. The panel that reviews the applications and intends to choose the best representation of diverse San Franciscans includes Raj Patel, author of Starved and Stuffed, among others.

Those that are not among the fifteen who will receive a free starter kit, help setting up, and take a gardeners oath to tend the garden, eat the veggies, and give away or sell surplus, will have the option to buy a starter kit that is being designed. It includes materials to build a raised bed, irrigation supplies, seeds, and soil. Plus there are multiple weekly classes at GFE to support and inspire aspiring gardeners.

Later this summer, there will once again be a garden in front of City Hall. In July, a 15,000 square foot model urban farm will be planted as a project of Slow Food Nation and Victory Gardens, and in September it will be harvested to share with those needing fresh food, and to demonstrate the possibilities of growing food here.

Look around where you live and consider the possibilities. Do you have a corner of a backyard, or a sunny porch? What if everyone grew just a little bit, and bought just a little less?

The Railway Returns

Railway investments are growing because trains are popular. In the US trains are popular even where service is minimal and everyone is supposed to love their cars. Contrary to the mass media story only about half of all Americans live in suburbs, the rest live in cities and small towns; roughly 15% do not drive, and if truth be known many others probably shouldn't be; and about 30% of the population will not get on any airplane. Where frequent and high quality service is available Americans are as likely as any other group to get out of their cars, but they're more likely to do it for a train than a bus.

Passenger service is growing because trains are marketable to travelers and railways are marketable to cities. Cities thrive by mobility, especially pedestrian activity, and they can be strangled by too many cars and parking lots. Trains can also be uncommonly space efficient. One 26 foot wide double-track railway equals a six to eight lane highway in capacity, and far less or no need of parking spaces. Space matters in cities carpeted in pavement covering up to half their land area, in a world where each car represents up to five parking spaces.

While US freight railroads are just beginning to grow, after declining for five decades, even their current ~8% market share represents more tonnage then they carried when they had a 90% plus market share in the 1920s. Track is generally in excellent condition, and several mainlines are now gaining all new tracks to handle up to 100 plus trains per day - equal to 20,000 plus trucks. The industry is a major user of photovoltaics, for signals and switch power, and recently began taking delivery of hybrid locomotives. US made General Electric freight locomotives are a global standard - even China buys them.

The US freight industry generates $600 billion in total revenue. The US passenger travel industry generates $1 trillion in total revenue, 87% of it by highway, 11% by airlines, and all public transportation capturing $40 billion, or 4%, with trains capturing about 1%. Significantly the passenger business is roughly double the size of the freight business.

The passenger industry on the rails today may be tiny nationally, but it's very large on certain routes. Amtrak trains carry more people between Washington and New York than highways and airlines combined, at 60% of total travel. Manhattan's Grand Central Station recently set a record of 75 million passengers a year. Trains in many states, notably California's "San Diegan" and "Capital" services, are frequent and often at capacity. LA's 400 mile rail system is very busy, and like many systems it's attracting real estate developments, one project includes the venue for the Academy Awards, fittingly it's aside the Hollywood subway station.

Railway development is happening world wide and has been since the early seventies, when the SF Bay Area, Washington DC and other world cities built new rail systems. In North America new light rail lines have since been built in Edmonton, Calgary, San Diego, Buffalo, Portland, Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles, Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Jersey City, Houston and Guadalajara; while existing systems have been upgraded in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and San Francisco; while all new heavy rail systems were built in the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, Atlanta, Miami, and Mexico City. There's similar activity everywhere, including new high-speed routes crisscrossing Europe and new rail systems in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, as well as expansion in China and Russia. A new trans-Asian line will soon connect Beijing with London, and another will soon link Spain and Africa. All this activity is paralleled by new railway museums and scenic railways, as well as the restoration of stations, including Grand Central, LA Union and many others.

There are waterways, highways, railways and airways, but the vast majority of freight and passengers are on the highway, and highways are congested almost everywhere. Airports are often at capacity and often handling many short haul flights, precisely the market where rail is ideal. Only one mode can be consistently and economically expanded, while offering dramatic reductions in cost and impacts: railways.

Railways consume less of all resources. Railways cost less than 50% that of automotive infrastructure, so building a railway can save more than it costs. "Double-stack" freightcars typify the efficiency. Invented in the 1980s the concept involves a flatcar with one container sitting in a well between the wheels, with another container on top. Instead of 100 trailers on flatcars the same two crew members now move 200 containers, all within a pathway 26 feet wide. One train replaces 200 trucks and 200 drivers on a pathway at least 75 feet wide.

Suntrain solar rail on Geary StreetDeveloping the Retail Railway

Railways exist and no other system can be expanded rapidly. In North America nearly 200,00 miles of route extend across Canada, the US and Mexico. Today this system does not have sufficient capacity to carry much more freight or passengers, but there is space for second and third tracks. There are also tens of thousands of miles of former railroad rights-of-way, largely ignored or used as trails. Plus, as new trolley lines often demonstrate there is ample space within or aside many highways and boulevards.

According to railway industry averages a mile of track is now worth about $1.5 million. Expanding the existing US system would require roughly 400,000 miles of track; nearly tripling track mileage from 175,000 to 600,000. Track would be added to existing routes, new routes would be added around cities, and several abandoned routes would be rebuilt. Some intercity routes would be high-speed passenger only, but most would carry freight and passenger trains. The track would cost $600 billion.

New stations and trains would also be needed. For simplicity we can assuming stations were self-supporting on retail rents and/or financed by local sources, then the largest purchase is trains. We can use the most most widely applicable type of railcar - a self-propelled 64 passenger coach - to simplify the example. Each coach would be powered by a diesel engine under the floor, as such railcars are powered now, or with a hydrogen fuel-cell power plant using renewable energy and hydrogen. In either case conventional electric motors would drive the axles. No overhead wire, third rail or locomotive would be required and it would use about a quarter the energy of a comparable number of automobiles. Each coach would cost $2 million and we'd need 500,000, say about $1.1 trillion worth.

The total investment, plus track, amounts to $1.7 trillion. Such an investment would be made in increments averaging $115 billion annually over 15 years and spread over 50 states and several dozen cities. Borrowing via conventional bonds would result in annual debt service of $145 billion. Typically such an investment might be split 70-30 between private and public sources. Private sector profits - the cost of money - would be covered by a portion of the fare, which would also cover all staffing, energy and maintenance costs. Public sector debt would be covered by local sales and/or property taxes; the latter from properties developed because the railway was built. Annual debt service on the public investment would be insignificant compared to the larger economy; it would equal less than 2% of total annual automotive expenditures.

This expanded railway system, with say 25,000 stations, would carry all kinds of people making commute, business or recreation trips, and all kinds of freight in all quantities. It would reduce car traffic, truck traffic and short haul air traffic. It might carry three times the freight traffic, at $120 billion, plus $300 billion in new passenger revenue. Railways would generate over 10 times current revenue. If expanded to Canada and Mexico this railway system could reach from Nova Scotia to El Salvador, Miami to Anchorage. It could even be linked to Europe, Asia and Africa via Russia and a bridge or tunnel across the Bering Sea, and via South America via a new route through Panama. Such an expansion would reduce containership traffic considerably.

An investment of a few trillion dollars in US railways would result in annual savings exceeding the annual cost of the investment. Over its 40 year lifetime just one coach worth $2 million would supplant about 1,000 automobiles worth $30 million, and a rail system of such a scale would remove the equivalent of 78 million automobiles from the roads in a given year. This translates to far less of all resources being devoted to transport, far less pollution and the transformation of countless parking lots and garages into far more useful property - or grass. It would save thousands of lives and avoid innumerable injuries, it would cut transportation produced greenhouse gases significantly, and it would make businesses of all kinds much more competitive. Millions of people would arrive on-time.

The money is available. We are already spending it - on driving.

Anyone who's attempted to build any substantial infrastructure would say such a program is impossible, given the bureaucracy involved, in anything less than several decades. But if the Web is used to coordinate development, and computer aided design is used to achieve consensus about every imaginable detail, then it becomes possible to accelerate the process. Given the results, of far less environmental impact and of lower costs for individuals, businesses and government, it would seem the project justifies the most aggressive approval process.

History says we've changed infrastructure in big revolutions several times, with 15 years seemingly the optimum infrastructure revolution time. Again and again the pattern has repeated, with trains, cars, electricity, phones and all manner of infrastructure. The innovation grows slowly for up to 20 years, then suddenly a critical point is reached and the innovation spreads exponentially. That is how infrastructure revolutions happened. The Internet revolution just happened - from nothing to ubiquitous in 15 years.

Infrastructure revolutions often involve far more than just one thing. Railways weren't just single tracks moving stuff or bodies, they were energy, water and communications systems as well. Similarly the Internet isn't just a wire for transmitting raw data, it is also the technologies of mail, documents, games and all media required to use the net. Railways, like the Web, were a utopian network arriving with state-of-the-art technology. The revolution was not merely about mobility, but of how we saw our lives because of the new things we could do.

Building on such precedents a revitalized new railway system could be designed around state-of-the-art contemporary technologies. The new retail railway could be 100% solar powered. An entire railroad, by incorporating photovoltaic cells on railroad ties and roofs, augmented with solar-thermal and wind facilities over railyards, and using hydrogen as a power storage medium, can be powered by the sun. A network of regional railways would not be vulnerable to power outages caused by nature or anyone. Post peak oil prices would be irrelevant, as would oil, coal and nuclear power. Trains would be powered by the wind and the light.

This new railway would be a revelation in mobility. One network capable of moving anyone or anything anywhere in the US, potentially the continent, often at 60 plus miles per hour instead of 30 or less. One system generating thousands of jobs and millions of cultural relationships and uncountable business opportunities. One service where instead of focusing on the highway lanes passengers are talking, or reading or watching the view or a movie or doing e-mail, or working or sleeping or writing or having dinner or dancing in the lounge under the stars. One experience where you might get to know the person in the next seat instead of cursing at the person in the next lane. Trains can be a place to be on the way to a place.

For more information on Suntrain and the railway renaissance please contact Chritopher Swan swantrain@comcast.net.  

Straight outta Oakland- Have you been seeing this group of highly inspired kids riding around the East Bay on bikes that are hand built, colorful, engaging, and exciting? If you haven't, meet the Trunk Boiz, who spawned the world-wide trend known as Scraper Bikes, all while maintaining an active musical career, holding down day jobs, setting up non-profits, being community leaders, and having a great time.

While the Trunk Boiz are spread throughout the East Bay, from Oakland to Richmond and Vallejo, the bike movement that they created and showcased in their YouTube video has gone global. The music video "Scraper Bike" has over 2 million hits, thanks in part to a connection with the Bicycle Film Festival, which gave the group a chance to expose their special brand of bikesmanship to viewers in Japan, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, and beyond. "Scraper Bike" was also nominated in 2007 for YouTube's Best Music Video.

So what is a scraper bike? "The idea came from riding around and seeing scraper cars: old school [mid 1980's-90's] GMC model cars, mostly Buicks, with sound systems and rims that match the paint. They ride around with speakers and play music to promote it. So we did that with bikes," says T.B. member Bay-be Champ. Indeed, scraper bikes are hand-built from donated or salvaged bicycles, painted with matching bodies and tire rims, sporting speaker systems run on mounted battery packs, and the crew ride around at rallies, through the streets, and into your head with their unforgettable "Scraper Bike" anthem blasting.

It doesn't stop with the bikes and the music promotion. The Trunk Boiz are down-to-earth, incredibly dedicated community activists. When asked to define what the Scraper Bike movement means, they say, "It's fun, creative, positive, and educational." Like many urban communities in the late 20th century and into the 21st, there is a lack of opportunity for youth in Oakland, which often leads to increased drug use, behavioral problems, and broken families. "These kids don't got anything to do, so we're trying to interest them in bikes, fixing them and riding them, so they stay out of trouble," says Champ. "Me being 19 and living in the urban community, I see there's not alot of resources for creativity. But bikes are an [opportunity for] expression of that creativity, and that's where Scraper Bikes comes in." The rest of the band, all between the ages of 17 and 22, agrees: "We are community activists. Whenever there's a problem [such as the increase in violent gun crime in Oakland] we get together and say somethin'. Scraper Bikes is getting a group of kids together to voice our opinions," says T.B. member B*Janky. The Trunk Boiz are building bikes to donate to Silence the Violence and recently contributed a scraper bike on behalf of Youth UpRising to the Oakland Museum's Cool Remixed: Bay Area Urban Art and Culture Now exhibit.

The Trunk Boiz are also heavily involved with a bike rally and barbeque on July 13th, 2008 at the Lake Merritt playground in Oakland. The theme of the ride is "Bike for Life: Riding for Peace" and will be held in collaboration with the SF Bike Coalition, Silence the Violence, Books Not Bars, and anybody and everybody in the Bay Area who has a bike, a burning desire to come together for a worthy ideal, and some food for the grill. What better venue for community action than a unity barbeque! Imagine a world where bike cultures and hip-hop cultures come together for the sake of peace and life. In the past few years, Oakland has increased its reputation as a violent, dangerous place to live, but "we changing it. We doing something that people aren't used to, giving it a new vibe. In Oakland, they's a lot more out here than people dying, and we're trying to help change that image. We're not superstars, we're just regular people, doin' this for the kids," says T.B. member 2Deep.

To help make that happen, the Trunk Boiz bring the Scraper Bike mentality not only to bike rallies and music; the group have incorporated a non-profit organization called Super Innovative Teens, which according to B*Janky, is a headquarters for Oakland youth to meet up and work on bikes, as well as house young people with talents and skills in music, art, business, and education, and give them the resources necessary to succeed. The idea is to provide a safe place that becomes a bike youth center, get a dedicated membership together, and be creative with minds and bikes. Of course, the Scraper Bike movement here in the East Bay has spawned start-up community action bike groups in cities around the world who inspire the Boiz with news and updates on their impact: "That's showing some unity."

In Oakland in 2006, there were 36.4 murders for every 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 7 murders per 100,000; robberies, car thefts and aggravated assaults make the situation seem even bleaker. Oakland resident Dame Hooker, interviewed by Kevin Epps for Current.com, says, "It's a cold game out here, man." On the other hand, the soul-utionary thinking of the Trunk Boiz is making a healthy and real impact in the community. "Everything we do is positive... The future is endless," says Champ. B*Janky chimes in: "For real."

For more information on the July 13th Bike for Life: Riding for Peace rally and to register your bike and your group, go to www.scraperbikes.net or call 510-238-8080 x310. The Trunk Boiz are always looking for donations of old bikes, so please email them at scraperbikes@aol.com if you have one or several to give. To book the Trunk Boiz or find some of their funky music to love, please visit www.datrunkboiz.com. Watch the  "Scraper Bike"  video .