A DARKER VISION OF THE FUTURE

I was picking up the paper yesterday when the store clerk and one of our Burlington city council members got into some speculation on a new future for Chittenden County. It was
a darker vision maybe the snow and freezing temperatures had something to do with their mood - images of half finished McMansions in Williston and Colchester came to mind. Derelict Costcos, becoming re-tasked as open barns with sheep, and chickens ‘free-ranging’ over their gutted interiors. How difficult would it be to jerry-rig a boutique kiosk on Burlington’s Church Street or the newly cashless ATM’s to shelter the new homeless? What will Vermont look like is the question every state rep and senator is asking as they were trying to visualize how our lives will change.

I’m thinking there’ll be no new big construction for a few years. The real-estate boom caught in mid-stride has left open foundation holes in Winooski and South Burlington. Those could be turned into root cellars and grazing sites for urban flocks. I’m reminded of the rooftops of Fez, Morocco where families house their goats at night – could happen in the new Cascade Falls condos in Winooski. We’d just have to assign someone to hose out the elevators every morning and evening.

Houses will show less paint, more peel. Color schemes will reflect what’s on sale rather than a determined aesthetic. With the credit crunch – Vermont may literally be ‘frozen’ in time and the clothes we bought last year will stay with us for several more. City zoning in Burlington will change to accommodate a family cow, several chickens and a spring lamb in the backyard or tethered to the green belt – no need to mow or fertilize lawns anymore. The neighborhood farmers markets will include a small site (isolated to protect the vegans) for the sale and purchase of livestock.

People make do and can get quite inventive about it. For the last ten years I’ve lived in a state of low anxiety over the loss of green space in the city – but no longer – vacant areas will stay vacant space now and become vegetable gardens again. Many Vermonters work several jobs to ‘afford the lifestyle’ of living in a pastoral setting, now we’ll add several seasonal jobs too for ‘pin money’.
In a year all the Starbucks will be gone.
What will eating local mean in the new Vermont winter?
To what ends will environmentalists be driven when they can’t heat their homes or feed their families?