Community

Missoula is a vibrant place to live, work and raise a family.

Mayor John Engen wants it to be such a place 100 years from now, too.

"There’s a lot of emphasis now on taming the automobile and emphasizing walking and biking. It’s all part of creating a place that people want to be," says Marya Morris of the American Planning Association.

By belief and action, the Ranneys and Turner provide a gift for us all — evidence that America’s communities can be more social, more beautiful, more environmentally friendly than standard development, yet still work economically.

With gas prices well above $6 per gallon across much of the continent, Vauban is striking a chord in Western Europe as communities encourage people to be less car-dependent.

Whatever the choice, it must not be false advertising. One person at the September meeting said, "We should say something unique — (but) that is true — about the city.”

To guide the citizens in using the technology, the City produced a 5 minute video showing how to download Google Earth, load the plan and view the results.

"There is so much effort that goes into designing and building this one small thing, this single green building," he says. "The same amount of effort goes into planning two square miles of regular neighborhood, and that will serve us for the next 200 years. [The focus on individual buildings] just doesn’t make any sense."

“Sometimes we get stuck bringing diversity down to just race,” said organizer Emily Yaksitch. “Race is important, but diversity is a lot of things.”

This marks the one year anniversary of our bi-monthly newsletter. We hope that you find it a useful tool to keep informed of our work throughout the year. We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions.

Retiring Baby Boomers are eschewing traditional golf and resort retirement communities for more authentic ‘community’ experiences in dense urban centers, small towns, and even rural farms.