What is your vision for what Los Angeles could possibly be like in 2040? 

What could a resilient, more sustainable, self-sufficient, resource-conscious greater L.A. area be like? 
Too big to imagine?  Then, what could your immediate neighborhood be like?

As we begin asking this question at speaking appearances around the area, we're getting answers.  Add your answer in the comments section below, and you might see it posted here next time you visit us!

We all have our gardens on our property. We all bike or walk to different businesses in our neighborhood instead of driving to Target.

We won't be relying on cars, things will have to be closer to where we live. We can buy in our neighborhoods. Local store owners open back up again and we'll have communities again.

Collecting water in cisterns, every drop that falls on the house. Using it several times before it escapes into the outdoor planting beds.

Horses ... wonderful creatures to work with. [We'll rebuild] the relationships with our animals that we used to have.

A legitimate subway system that goes at least from downtown to the beach and hopefully a lot more expansive than that. Some neighborhoods where cars aren't allowed, period. Pedestrian friendly, bike friendly. High speed trains up the coast.

Community bread ovens and that sort of thing. Large scale projects-oriented spaces for each block or each neighborhood. Foster the climate of tactile expertise.

Composting toilets.

Tool libraries where you can take the thing out for the day. Access to all these resources without having to have ownership of them.

More barter in trading for things.

I can grow 300 yes 300 lettuce in a space 18x18 inches!

The city is QUIET.  You can hear your neighbor whistling as he hoes his vegetable garden, or hear the soft sounds a chicken makes.  We look back on the noise (airplanes, leaf blowers, traffic) and the go-go-go stress as a distant ugly memory, the way that people in 2010 might look back with a sense of "ugh" at the filthy coal-burning and horrible factory conditions of the 1910s

Adults like being with children; most activities have mixed age groups. Human development knowledge belongs to everyone. Children and adults understand child development because the olders are bringing up the youngers.

Billboards-as-Energy Architecture:  Los Angeles's freestanding billboards have been transformed into solar electricity-generating towers -- south-, southwest- and southeast-facing structures supporting solar-photovoltaic panels and DC-to-AC inverters that feed solar electricity into adjacent electric lines and the power grid, or perhaps fed "directly" as direct current into parked electric vehicles in adjacent lots.  Other billboard structures have become aerial urban wildlife habitats of volumetric foliage, flowers, cover and food for birds and bees. ...

It is no longer less expensive to buy new stuff than to repair old stuff.

Sepulveda has NO huge stores -- they have been replaced with local shop owners and co-ops (food, used items, recycling of products, shared tools, repair shops, sewing shops).

Music and the arts will be performed live (no canned music)

college/university programs & departments are no longer afraid to pursue issues that are most pressing, without fearing lack of funds that are today channeled toward "growth"-oriented paradigms.  Experts communicating with community.  2-way dialogue.

I will be able to kayak or canoe non-stop from the headwaters of the LA River to the bay, the entire distance through naturally restored waterways.

drought-resistant landscaping, lots of community gardens, many places to meditate with guidance, more intential community, community colleges and libraries increase.

Revitalize the small communities that have been absorbed into L.A.

Focus on working in your community -- playing there, kids walk to school, etc.

Rid ourselves of central banking and debt-based currencies

Neighborhood night watch -- neighbors volunteer with whistles to raise the alarm (with often comical results)

Co-housing; gardens on all empty lots;

gangs being trained by unions for green construction/reconstruction;

aspalt = white and water-absorbent -- collects rainwater;

all waste composted or sent to farms for fertilizer

all water becomes gray water -- reused

no plastic stuff -- collect what we have, keep reusing it, recycling it using renewable energy

people working remotely from home and homeschooling / get an education through online schooling

clusters/small communities

fewer people & thinner people

distributed water storage/collection

distributed energy generation

reprocessing of resources, including water, metals, lll

many gardens & farms

repair shops, local production facilities

Religions experience a renaissance -- actually support and eliven communities.

Indoor/outdoor life with "small as the new big":  small indoor spaces & lots of time outdoors.

We can see the Milky Way at night.

What are your visions for a Los Angeles that is resilient, self-sufficient, low carbon, powerdown, more sustainable, socially-just, resource-conscious ...