Open Source Suburbs
Juror summary: Suggests creatively harnessing the "open source" properties of transparency, collaboration, and quality in order to provide incentives for residents to behave in more environmentally-friendly ways while revitalizing downtowns.
Suburbs once meant freedom from chaotic, cramped cities. Now, freedom isn’t found in escaping chaos, but in accessing it. Modern life thrives on access to information; access to friends, collaborators, and peers; and access to the means to shape the way we live.
Open source suburbs restore the sense of possibility that was once synonymous with suburban life. We illustrate this concept in the village of Patchogue, NY, on the border between rural Long Island and New York City’s commuter suburbs. As an open source suburb, Patchogue would reveal its attractions, industries, and natural features to its residents, visitors, and workers. It would seek collaboration in creating a thriving, sustainable local economy. Through transparency and collaboration, it would ensure the quality of its development in the future.
A local food production center would take advantage of a growing local foods movement and create a shared space that is visible to the public. Design standards for industrial zones close to Main Street would highlight rather than hide the businesses that keep Patchogue vibrant. Tracking and incentivizing positive environmental behavior would draw all residents into municipal sustainability initiatives. Residents would be fully integrated into the life of the village through easy, multi-modal access amongst the Long Island Railroad Station, the Main Street downtown area, and varied waterfront attractions such as the local Bluepoint brewery.
Open source suburbs will bring towns that were built for nuclear families escaping from cities into a twenty-first century that values diversity, connectedness, and choice in lifestyles.
Key themes: harnessing social networks, stemming the brain drain, supporting local economies, infill development
Collaborators: Siobhan Watson, Nicole Whelan, Jason Engdahl, Mike Ross