FROM THE TAILGATE
Sage advice from the trenches
By Ron Jones
The Dream Renewed
It’s as much a part of who we are as apple pie and the Fourth of July. Long before the Declaration of Independence was signed, people made the difficult and dangerous decision to leave their circumstances behind and make new homes here in pursuit of freedom, security, and prosperity. Historically, a stable home has been the cornerstone of the American Dream. More than basic shelter, our homes have been the vessels that carried our hopes and ambitions, providing the promise of fi nancial security and the opportunity to own a home— and build wealth.
More than a decade ago I listened as a high-ranking government official recounted the story of how his immigrant grandfather had worked three jobs, how his grand-mother had medicated her husband’s bleeding feet during his few hours of rest at night, how they had sacrificed everything but the barest of necessities, all so they could save enough to get into their own home, a dream that they could never have achieved in the land of their birth.
Millions of families dreamed the dream and saw the promise fulfilled, but then we watched as it slipped away for many. Our golden goose was plucked right before our eyes, and, in fact, we had a hand in the deconstruction of the dream we had cherished for so long. It’s easy to point fingers at mis-guided public policies, less than honest lending practices, a building industry intoxicated by record short-term profits, and a roaring economy juiced with cheap energy, lax performance standards, and the endless stream of luxury products.
What we may be less ready to address is our own seemingly insatiable desire for bigger, sexier, ever more impressive monuments to ourselves, boasting glamorous gadgetry to impress our friends, greater volumes of space than we can realistically use, and an ungoverned, growing appetite for energy, water, raw materials, and resources with little or no concern for the waste stream that is a by-product of all that consumption or to what the long-term costs of conditioning, maintaining, insuring, and meeting the tax burdens of that space are.
We have realized the sudden, shocking consequences of the “throwaway” house and the taking of fast bucks in the feeding frenzy of the “flip that real estate” market. We now are sharing the bitter harvest of devaluing home ownership to the point where it makes more sense for property owners to walk away rather than shoulder the load for the long haul. It won’t be easy, but we can dream the dream again, only it can’t be the same one. This time the dream needs to retain a bit of modesty, a little humility. It needs to account for the impacts on the natural environment, on our precious resources, on long-term affordability, and on human health.
The dream will only be realistic again if we can exercise some restraint, if we can wean ourselves from the notion that it is acceptable to build great communities only to then aban- don them, and that we end our practice of habitually consum- ing irreplaceable natural places. The dream needs to be built on a foundation of quality, not quantity. We should still dare to dream, only this time, let’s make certain that it is one we can pass on to our grandchildren.
72
GreenBuilder 11.2010
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