GBlist: Quelling Urban(ite) Myths

[Strawnet@aol.com]

I got this message from Mark and thought I would just pass this bit of 
accurate trivia along in the ongoing effort for trivial accuracy and the 
quelling of urban(ite) myths...

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From:   duckchow@greenbuilder.com (Mark Piepkorn)
To: strawnet@aol.com
You likely already know: Kiko's (Denzer) expanded earth oven book gives 
you a
mention, you star. He writes, "I believe the term ['urbanite'] was coined
by David Eisenberg, an architect who is working to make the International
Building Code more environmentally responsible, among other things." 
Kiko's
email is <handiko@cmug.com>
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So, to set the record straight - I am fairly certain that the term 
"urbanite" was coined by Rod Miner, who was once with the Center for 
Resourceful Building Technologies and now has the Shelter Resources 
Institute in Darby, Montana. As I recall, his definition of urbanite was 
- a mineral of high resource intensity and low utility.  Rod also coined 
the term YIMBY - for Yes In My Back Yard - those people who are willing 
to actually live with the consequences of their lifestyle choices...the 
converse of NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard - those who would rather have all 
the negative consequences of their lifestyle choices be inflicted on 
anyone or everyone else. 

And, in spite of many years of hard work, I have not been able to 
overcome the fact that I had 1-1/2 years of architecture school at the 
University of Arizona (in a different century/millennia) and absolutely 
no architectural experience - people continue to label me an architect, 
occasionally an engineer, and a whole host of other things that would be 
filtered out by the listserve software or the list manager...but I am 
merely an over-experienced, undegreed person designing strategically 
placed tremors to exploit the faults in foundational thinking based on 
false or incomplete assumtions. What I'm getting at is that I am not an 
architect...

feeling much better now that all that is cleared up...

DE

David Eisenberg - Director
Development Center for Appropriate Technology
P.O. Box 27513 - Tucson, Arizona 85726-7513 USA
(520) 624-6628, (520) 798-3701 Fax
strawnet@aol.com (direct personal e-mail)
david@dcat.net
www.dcat.net

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We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good 
for the world.  We have been wrong.  We must change our lives, so that it 
will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for 
the world will be good for us.  And that requires that we make the effort 
to know what is good for it.  We must learn to cooperate in its 
processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must 
learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never 
clearly understand it.  We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.  We 
must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation, and the ability to 
be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of 
humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to 
remain in it. 
    --  Wendell Berry - Recollected Essays
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