Hello and welcome to SustainableSantaFe.com!
My name is Brian Skeele and below are some of the reasons why I created SustainableSantaFe.com. I am really excited that you are here and I would love to get your thoughts and opinions on what I am doing. Please read over the site and if there is anything that you would like to add or suggest please feel free to comment on the articles or contact me directly, enjoy!
What if sustainable neighborhoods were so useful and wonderful, such great places to live, that they’d spread across the planet, much like cell phone usage has?!
That, to me, is what the times call for, and it’s what I want to be a part of. I call ‘em Sustainable Urban Villages (SUVs)- “Mixed use, mixed income neighborhoods, with lifelong learning and open space.”
The question then comes up, “Ok, cell phones are a consumer item that is mass produced. How are you, Brian, going to do SUV’s?”
“Amazing, empowering online and real world tools, duh!!”
You can see why this section is called About Us. We got the visionary and the pragmatic general contractor cohabitating in the same body.
I keep taking steps forward toward this mission, and I’ve been taking steps for awhile.
One of my earlier efforts was to get some real world experience with real estate development. I put together a 16 home subdivision, from raw land to completed infrastructure and finished lots, in Tierra Contenta, a large master planned, mixed use community on the west side of Santa Fe.
One of my latest efforts is to create a demonstration, showcase Sustainable Urban Village in Santa Fe. As of September 2011, we’re in the “getting the word out, raising interest” phase, intending to get to the modeling and design phase next. Putting together a 16 home development was huge. Creating a SUV of, say 5000 people, is ….beyond logical.
I’m banking on the saying “There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
Of course, “I” am not going to be planning and building Sustainable Urban Villages… It takes an extensive community wide collaboration and a lot of innovation.
This ABOUT US has my part, the pragmatic visionary, enthusiastic advocate for Sustainable Urban Villages.
But then, it has to do with a much bigger US. Together, WE, you and I, can make sustainable real.
I’m going down this road toward Sustainableville. I gotta see what’s at the end. You’re invited to join in! Help get the word out! Share your visions and ideas of “What would make it such a great place, you’d move in?!” Help create these “amazing, empowering online and real world tools”.
Let us see if Sustainable Neighborhoods are an idea whose time has come!
Brian Skeele
September 3, 2011
As for Sustainable Santa Fe, it is a registered State of New Mexico non-profit, with John Goekler as the Vice President, Rebecca Skeele is the Secretary/Treasurer, and I am the President. New Mexico Community Foundation is our fiscal sponsor. You can receive a tax deductible write off for a donation to Sustainable Santa Fe.
www.sustainablesantafe.com is our website, which we intend to become an interactive, empowering online tool to help Santa Fe and the region go sustainable, creating lifestyles that are “good for people, good for the planet and good for the polar bears”.