Welcome to Geary Greens! First, we invite you to experience the words, emotions, and actions that inspired the vision and lifestyle for our post carbon city.
Next, step into our site! Located on a 9 acre plot of land on the corner of transit corridors Geary and Masonic Street, Geary Greens sits in the center of the greater urban San Francisco and represents a perfect blend between nature and the built environment. Our new urban form is both self sustaining and resilient to thrive in a climate changed future.
Geary Greens: More than Just a Residence
An Annual Report by GG Community Representative, Kelly Cook
Geary Greens is not only a place to live, but also a place that lives. The residents of Geary Greens strive to support and promote the health of our community by valuing the individual wellbeing of our neighbors equally to the collective wellbeing of the community environment. This mission poses the challenge of reversing the historical view of communities as places separate from the individuals who inhabit them. This cultural expectation is challenged in Geary Greens: we evaluate the health of the structures and systems of our community the same as we would the health of a human being. We have identified parallels in the biological functions of a human body to the functions of the general Geary Greens community, and we have found that this is an excellent guide for assessing the health of our neighborhood. As with any human body, Geary Greens contains many crucial physical and social attributes that keep it functioning at its most efficient and productive levels.
The human body has many complex and acute aspects of its anatomy, but the aspect that keeps it all together is the structural groundwork underlying it. The skeleton of bones is the foundation on which the rest of the muscles, organs, blood, and everything else are built. Without the skeleton, the body would not be capable of doing any of the same things, and it would serve an entirely different purpose. Similarly, we could not rightly call Geary Greens a community without its infrastructure. The buildings in which we reside and conduct our daily business and the pathways on which we walk and ride our bikes are the supports to all the social institutions that allow us to call ourselves a neighborhood. If we find that the built structures are wearing down we immediately get together to mend it, like we would to address a broken bone.
In addition to having a primary structure, the body has a very complex internal control panel known as the nervous system that is managed by the brain. In Geary Greens, our entire way of life would be moot if not for our energy resources. In this way, energy is the brain of our community that enables all of it to function the way we intended it. We rely a lot on passive solar energy for our buildings, but we also employ photovoltaic solar panels and wind power on our roofs to supply the electricity we need for lights, battery chargers, and other electronics that support many of the activities in which we take part, which range from computing data on a computer to cooking dinner for the family after sunset. In the body the brain sends signals to all the other bodily parts and systems so that they operate correctly, and so we too must ensure that the nervous system of our community is always up to par. We look after our energy technology to guarantee that it runs precisely and efficiently, and that the “nervous signals” it send to our energy resources are being met by our needs.
Besides the nervous system, the immune system is particularly significant because it constantly makes sure that the body is healthy. Human bodies must have certain stable conditions in order to maintain their health. Their temperatures must stay at an average of about 98.6̊ F, kidneys must work to filter out the water and toxins that the body does not need, and lungs must be present to filter oxygen breathed in. The immune system assures that all these systems are working in order to guarantee the stability of the body’s biology.
The immune system for Geary Greens is less active that in body, and more intrinsic in the design of our community. We are able to evaluate the health of our community systems by assessing their predictability. For example, we know that Geary Greens in healthful when the weather varies according to the proper seasons, and the plants and herbs in our gardens grow during the same times year by year. Without knowing that water will be available during the rainy season, and that wind will blow at a certain time of the day, our neighborhood would not be able to work the way it currently does. Essentially, our community immune system is strongly tied into climatic stability. Thus, the very basis of our efforts to maintain our collective health is to preserve our independence from fossil fuels and rely on renewable and innovative ways to foster good standards of living for ourselves. Geary Greens’ very existence depends on our post-carbon lifestyle. We embody concepts of zero waste, renewable energy, and local resilience, and adapt them to our everyday lives so that we can sustain our community structures for decades.
Perhaps the highest profile organ in the body is the heart. The heart is the foundation of the circulatory system that pumps blood and life throughout the body. Correspondingly, the Geary Greens community only subsists due to the many wonderful people who reside in and use the spaces built on the land. The heart of Geary Greens, the factor that has influenced the way the area is designed and how the people interact, is the ideal of strong community relationships. It is this neighborly bond that fosters the functionality of our city systems and spaces, and the means by which post-carbon efficiency and benefit can be maintained.
Finally, it is only due to one organ that the body can run all of its many complex systems while maintain organization and control: skin. Skin protects the vulnerable inner parts of the body from getting infected, and it prevents all of the blood circulating in the body from getting out and threatening the life of the person. The “skin” of Geary Greens is its commitment to and maintenance of environmental sustainability. Without systems that do not generate waste, the Geary Greens community would suffer greatly in the long-term. Unsustainable behavior like polluting the air has a very negative impact over the long-term. Though a single cut on a person’s arm will not kill them, slowly increasing the number of cuts that a person has over time and not allowing those wounds to close up will slowly drain that individual of their vitality. We do not want to threaten the vitality of our community either short-term or long-term. Thus, we avoid any environmentally unsustainable behavior at all costs. We value the health of our bodies, and thus we value the health of our residence.
Geary Greens
by Luke Amaru
I would like to introduce you to my alter-eco, Lucia. She is a post carbon gal living in the urban neighborhood of Geary Greens, within the vibrant city we now know as San Francisco, California. Lucia is 27 and works with a design team as their lead Reclaim Environmental Architect. The year is 2050 and life is at full tilt, swinging with creativity, innovation and fun, without one drop of FOSSIL FUELS. Here is a peak into her daily life.
Ocotber 23, 2050
At dawn the neighborhood begins to stir. We savor every moment of gifted light. One of the tenants of our lifestyle is to use the least amount of stored or created energy as possible. In the mornings I am immediately drawn to walk out the door and collect herbs for my breakfast. Simmering precious olive oil with fresh herbs always awakens my senses.
I watch the glowing orange yoke sizzle on the pan and linger on a memory of my grandmother telling me how she used to but all of her food at large grocery stores, driving to and from the house. Those days are long gone in Geary Greens. My eggs come from the coop within a stones throw from my front porch. All of our fruits and vegetables are grown within the community and we pick up our grains, oils and the rare animal products at the import shop on Revival lane. With eggs in hand I step out onto the porch, facing east for a breakfast salutation to the sun. My mind is wandering from dreams to the day ahead, quilting a patchwork schedule full of friends, workshops, meals, city excursions, work and play. Mavis next door whistles a sweet hello and we share a knowing smile. It’s Tuesday, our day to help out at the farm. We have a rotating schedule so that all community members participate in growing the food the fuels and nourishes us.
The neighborhood is full of life. Children are running down the path on their way to school, neighbors calling out greetings and folks stopping by the community garden to pluck apples off the tree. The Gravensteins look like golden ornaments cascading over the garden wall. There is a soft rustle of leaves as a gentle pacific breeze lifts the sun higher into the sky. Time for work.
The main promenade meanders through the neighborhoods and loops down to Main street where I share an office with several friends and neighbors. I am an architect by trade but in Geary Greens you become more than a professional, you also become practical. Learning skills from baking to goat milking. So although I am an architect, my title could also include: aptitude for animal husbandry, experienced food preservationist, and bread wizard, amongst others.
I can hear a faint plucking of a Berimbau coming from the town square. Must investigate. As I get closer I recognize Joao from Barrio East, the neighborhood over the hill. He is performing Capoiera for this month’s public cultural event series. This Sunday he is giving a workshop at the community pavilion and I can’t miss it! The graceful Brazilian dance is rich with history, a combination of martial art, fighting and elegant movements. As I walk towards the office I pause for a moment, the sound of the Berimbau echoes off the cobblestones. I close my eyes to imagine the two capoeiristas facing off, narrowing their gaze, calm, with such sincerity and focus, yet the ability to burst into smile on the turn of a dime.
At the office, James is helping me with a remodel of a neighboring high school. They need a more efficient grey water system and have also hired me to improve their passive solar capabilities. James is an engineer and specializes in water systems. I am so thankful he has joined our office hub because he is invaluable not just as a colleague but he certainly contributes to the social dynamic of our space.
Our office is an open floor plan with several small conference rooms. We share electronics and resources as well as monitor energy and water use with the entire building. Our offices are designed to maximize passive solar, creating seasonal work days aligned with the sun. The open plan also encourages cross-pollination of ideas and mediums. We have recruited many of the village designers, and city planners so that we can use time and space most efficiently. We are finished at about three today, the days are beginning to get shorter, and everyone has a community work-share to participate in this afternoon. Autumn may be my favorite season. Work days are short and sweet, we are blessed with sunshine, yet still find ourselves and our plants cradled in beloved fog in the early morning hours. Fog is a vital element for irrigating our crops, the GG engineers have built an elaborate catchment system that contributes 10% of our annual water consumption.
On my way home I drop in at the farm for couple hours. The dahlias are in bloom and I can see the royal magenta beet tops are just beginning to push their way through our rich earth. Julia, the farm manager, master botanist and shoe repair Queen, is humming a tune from my childhood. It has become our unofficial garden party motto “Idleness is good for none, work's how I get my fun. Idleness is good for none work's how I get things done.” Not entirely true but nostalgic nonetheless, I join in. On my way out I grab a bushel of greens for dinner and check off my hours on the work chart, noting the posting on the bulletin board about tomorrow morning’s yoga class at Cypress Library.
The sun is slowly slipping down the horizon, and I am looking forward to having dinner with my housemates Carlos and Amy. As I approach the house I can see candles flickering on the dining room table. Nearly all the lights are off except for street lights powered by Pavegen.
Last week there was a couple of days of rain and Jeff hinted earlier that he might go mushroom foraging in Golden Gate park today. As I get closer the smell of chanterelles and garlic is unmistakable. Just before I step in the door I think, this is as good as it gets.
Check out the brochure for Geary Greens to get a taste of life in our post-carbon community.
Student Life at Geary Greens
by : Allison Richer
April 11th, 2050
Today was a typically pleasant day. The weather was not too hot, not too cold – gotta love San Francisco’s mild climate. I woke up with the sun to get ready for school. Boy, do I love the sunshine warming my face through the windows in the morning. It doesn’t get any better than that. The hens have recently started laying eggs again with the onset of spring, so each household was given a dozen or so in their CSA package. I grabbed some kale and tomatoes from the garden in front of the house and made myself an omelet for breakfast. Delicious! I didn’t really have enough time for a shower, though, so I skipped it and headed straight for school.
It’s funny because it’s not even a long walk to the University but I always seem to be running late. I don’t know where the time goes in the morning. I guess it’s easy to lose track when I’m constantly running in to everyone from the neighborhood as soon as I step out the door- even if it is just to pick tomatoes. It’s great to chat and all, but sometimes I really need to get going, you know? I think Richard from next door could talk my ear off for hours if I let him, and always going on about the same things. He means well anyway. I don’t think he has much family and he never married. That’s why the whole neighborhood is throwing him a party for his 45th birthday next week. Wouldn’t want to leave him alone on such a special day.
Anyway, school was fun today. We’ve been working with the Mission Creek Watershed Restoration Project to help out with water quality sampling. It’s really great to be outside learning hands on. It was such a long day, though. We had to sample six sites! Luckily we have all gotten to the point where procedures run relatively smoothly. Well almost all of us… Speaking of always running late, I am going to have to cut this entry short. It’s my turn to help out with the block party dinner tonight so I need to head over to the kitchen. I was supposed to get there before the sun went down and it’s already getting dark. Not sure what we’re having tonight but I am so hungry I don’t even care. Until next time!
April 20th, 2050
The days have been getting longer and I love it because it makes me feel like I have so much more time. Paula held a workshop on rug making that I was lucky enough to attend late in the morning. Almost half of the group included visitors from other parts of the city so I enjoyed chatting with some new people. Paula is a fantastic teacher, too. It’s amazing the patterns you can fashion with a pile of dingy fabric scraps and a latch hook. We designed some pretty great rugs if I do say so myself. I was tempted to rip up my curtains and bed sheets so I could make another one but Paula talked me out of it, of course. She reminded me how much more fun it would be to wait until a new crop of scraps accumulates on its own. Anyway the cats love it. I should take a picture of it now before every inch is embedded with fur. Our new cat is quite the shedder. Little white hairs everywhere!
After the rug session I made my way to school to check on our fecal coliform samples in the lab. We test for fecal coliforms because fecal contamination could be a potential health risk for those exposed to the water. The whole point of the watershed restoration is to provide safe habitat and freshwater for native wildlife and residents so it is a fundamental part of our research, though not always a favorite to conduct. The second day of incubation is always the worst. So many positive tubes growing smelly bacteria waiting to fill up the microbial waste bucket. The odor might possibly be the foulest thing I have ever inhaled. That’s science I guess. After I leave I’m always so paranoid I accidentally contaminated myself. Not a fun prospect. I avoided eating for several hours just to be safe. It wasn’t until I ran into Dan and Johnny picking up some wine from the import kiosk that I even considered food. They were on their way to a block party put on by the eastern neighborhood, which meant tables of delicious food, live music and dancing, and general merriment lasting through sundown into the night. I just got home, in fact, and I’m so ready to get into bed. Fun can be so exhausting! I guess I better get some rest since tomorrow is my day to help out in the neighborhood garden. Manual labor so early in the morning requires sleep. Good night!
May 10th, 2050
It’s been a while since I’ve written in here. Mostly I have just been busy with school as the semester comes to a close. I’m really looking forward to summertime. Luckily we’ve had a good amount of rain this year so we will probably be able to make it through the summer with our rainwater storage and not have to import from the Westside Groundwater Basin. We’re all so used to conserving anyway. The last couple years have been so dry, but this March it rained practically every day, which helped rejuvenate our underground tanks after the winter storms ended. Plus, we’ll have the summer fog to supplement. It’s crazy when I think about how wasteful older generations were with such a precious resource. I’m so thankful to not be living that way.
Anyway, I love summer because it means festival time in Geary Greens. We’ve got the Annual Revival Contest coming up next month. I’m not entering but I vote for Richard every year. He doesn’t usually win, but he has some great ideas. Last year he took an olden broken gas grill he found in the junk store and turned it into a planter box. Cute, huh? Speaking of Richard, I told him I would come by and help him with his gardening. He hurt his back the other day and has been having trouble bending over. Just getting up to the roof is a struggle for him. It’s important that as a community we all share the responsibility of taking care of each other. Right now it’s his time of need so I should head next door, but I’ll try to make time to write in here again soon.
