What can we do about our big cities?

Rob Hopkins began the Transition Town model working with small towns in Ireland and England, apparently of about 2,000 people. Transition has been applied to some small cities in the UK, but nothing on the scale of Los Angeles.  Until now.

As conscious residents of LA, aware of the changes forthcoming under peak oil and global warming as well as the problems inherent in LA itself, for us there isn't a choice.  This is our home town; this is where we must begin.

For us it has never been a question of whether the Transition Towns concept might fit.  From the start, we've always looked at: What can we learn from what Hopkins and others have been doing, and how can we use that here?

We quickly found out that not only are we pioneers in applying these ideas to such a large widespread population, but we've also instantly become a model!  People are saying, "If they're doing it in LA, we must be able to do it in our city."  Already people are asking what we are doing and how we're doing it, even as we're still creating what we're doing!

We hope this page will serve to answer the questions people are asking about

Note:  these links will take you to a variety of other pages, websites and blogs where we have posted the answers.  We suggest you open them in other windows of your browser so that you may return to this listing.

• Does the Transition model apply to a big city such as L.A.?

THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

• Q: How big is L.A., really?  A:  Estimates place the City at 3.8 million people, and the county at 10 million (a population greater than 42 states considered separately). The greater Los Angeles basin is mile after mile (City 498 square miles, county 4,061) of continuous urban development, in many cases with little break for open space, agriculture, or even parkland.
• Q: The scope of the problem is enormous.  How do you plan to deal with that many people?  A: We plan to start small, because starting small is far better than not starting at all. 
  • View our expandable open structure for Transition LA and the things we considered in evolving this structure.
  • Our roadmap to how we're approaching it

HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?

• A brief history of Transition in Los Angeles
• What our Initiating Group has accomplished
• Our observation:  You don't go from mainstream consumerist culture to Transition Town overnight.  The story of how we got areas of Los Angeles ready for Transition ideas.
• The types of Awareness-raising events we've held
• A vision for the power-down future which has inspired many in Los Angeles (and elsewhere)
• Our roadmap to where Transition LA is headed

HOW DO YOU STRUCTURE IT?

• Our initial "fennel" structure for Transition LA (diagram and explanation) and the things we considered in evolving this structure, then read about its current form
• Definitions for TLA's various entities (in conjunction with our roadmap), and possible activities within these entities as we grow
• Specifics about our local Pods; our City Hub's functions
• article about Resilient Nonprofits

ROB HOPKINS ON TRANSITION CITIES

• Rob Hopkins' letter to Los Angeles, Sept. 2008