In July 2006, I read Liz Walker's book, Eco Village at Ithaca, Pioneering a Sustainable Culture. There are only two eco-villages in America, and there are 15 such villages world-wide. I had an opportunity to visit the eco-village in upstate New York.
While in Ithaca, I met Joan Bokaer, who first had the idea of starting an eco-village in her hometown. She had the vision and the charisma to inspire the handful of people who helped translate her vision into a practical reality. Chief among those who turned vision into reality was Liz Walker who has written a book on how and why.
Every remote village in Africa, or in the Andes, or the Caucuses may be loosely described as an eco-village, meaning that they live close to nature, respect the laws of nature, and conserve natural resources. But when Walker uses the term "Eco Village," she means a worldwide movement that respects nature, or believes in what has come to be popularly known as "sustainable living."
Bokaer explained how she conceived the idea of creating an earth-friendly community in her hometown. "In 1990, I took part in 'The Global Walk for a Livable World,' starting from Los Angeles and going to New York. As I walked, I looked at each city on the way, and felt the urge to redesign each, according to ecological principles of design. Half-way across America, around St. Louis, I decided that I wanted to build a city."
Bokaer was doubly-blessed. The idea came to her of a sudden, unbidden. She then inspired others to work together, buy the land, finance the project, and plan and execute the creation of the first of two neighborhoods atop a 175-acre hill.
Bokaer's vision found a resounding response in Liz Walker, who was in the audience at Ms. Bokaer's very first talk, given at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca. Walker is the co-founder and director of the Village.
With Walker's help, the fledgling group found architects, financiers, landscape architects, biologists, and engineers of alternate energy, water supply, and waste management. With their help attractive houses were built that use passive solar energy.
Not every vision is twice blessed and learns that it is part of a global movement on six continents, nor does every vision get international recognition. Hildur Jackson and Karen Svenson wrote Eco-village Living: Restoring the Earth and Her People, (Green Books, 2002); their title explains succinctly what sustainable living is. For Ms. Bokaer's village, it also means a close-knit community that respects nature, and the laws of nature.
I first visited Eco Village in the winter. Ithaca is ringed by three hills. The rise and fall of land along the horizon adds to the enchantment. East Hill stands out, crowned with the lights of Cornell University. On South Hill stands Ithaca College.
The Eco Village is on a third hill. All around, land dips and rises, and there were no high rises or Soviet-style housing anywhere in sight. In winter the village has a skating rink as one might find described in a 19th century Russian novel.
In the summer the skating rink becomes a swimming pond and a beach covering an acre where families gather with their children. Sixty families with 200 people co-own the 175 acres, an example of co-housing at its best. My latest visit occurred two years later, in the full bloom of summer. I experienced this paradisaical place in the pulsing profusion of the growing season. I gazed in wonder at meadows, rolling land, streams, ponds, woods, an organic farm, berry patches, and flowers and plants of all kinds.
In front of one cottage I saw a kiwi vine, grape arbor, and a herbarium, and opposite, along the gravel path, were miniature trees blazing with trumpet flowers. On all sides were meadows with butterflies and dragonflies fluttering in the golden light.
Motorcars were at the periphery in open car ports as if they were horse-drawn carriages, giving the village a pre-industrial ambiance.
At the top of the rise stands the Common House, which has a dining room for community meals, a playroom for children, a yoga and meditation room, ten offices, and a laundry room. You ask: What do people do there? Answer: They have day jobs. In their spare time they share the common tasks of maintaining the village. My hosts took me berry-picking at an organic blueberry farm, and to the privately-owned West Haven Organic Farm in the village, with enough and more organic produce than needed.
Walker's book does not pursue Ms. Bokaer's personal story of how a first grade teacher with "no known intellectual aspiration" suddenly emerged as a figure who has gained global recognition. Bokaer said, "Four generations of my family live in Eco Village."
Her mother and her two daughters each have their own houses in the village. Of the family, the names of daughter Jen and husband John come up frequently. Their organic West Haven Farm is community-supported. Sixty percent of the produce goes to members of the community and the rest to a farmers' market.
In my view, a vision is a leap in the dark—it cannot be explained. But Joan Bokaer's vision can be experienced by anyone who visits the Eco Village at Ithaca.
Eco Village at Ithaca, Pioneering a Sustainable Culture by Liz Walker (New Society Publishers, Canada, 2005)
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