Self-Awareness Question: Adulthood

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This is the current list on self-awareness.

58. What do you enjoy about adulthood?

Freedom.

Supporting Small Businesses

Small businesses need certain things to thrive.  By providing these, a town can boost its local economy.

Birdfeeding

Today is chilly and gray.

I fed the birds.  The cardinals barely waited for me to turn the corner, let alone get into the house, before descending on the fly-through feeder.  :D  I think there are at least two pairs out there. 

Giving Thanks

What are you thankful for? 

EDIT 11/27/20: Forgot to include mine:
* family
* a big yard in a quiet place
* Internet
* a house lined with books

Wasteful Spaces

This article looks at wasteful golf courses, which neither make good use of space nor return much to the economy.  The author suggests that the land would be better put to housing or business uses.

I will add that a regular park would be more use both recreationally and environmentally.  A golf course tends to serve only a few dozen people at a time, and its wildlife value is limited by overgrooming.  A park can serve hundreds of people via sport fields, hiking trails, picnic tables, etc.  A mix of mowed lawn, unmowed prairie or savannah, and forest plus a pond or creek will host many more species -- especially if landscaped with native plants rather than the exotics favored by golf courses.  A nature-minded community could add programs to landscape medians and encourage residents to garden for wildlife, thus creating lines and dots of habitat that would help wildlife move between larger parks.

Here's another article that examines vacant lots, and low-use properties like parking lots, in high-value areas.  The author suggests a land value tax, rather than an improvement value tax, which is one good solution that some cities use.

Another option is a holding fee.  If you don't want people to sit on property without doing anything, you can charge them just for doing that.  Make the holding fee low if development plans have already been submitted, but high if it's literally just sitting there growing weeds.  You can also make it cheaper to hold land for needed development (e.g. a grocery store in a food desert) than for an unneeded development (yet! another! condo!) in your town.  Put those holding fees into another area that locals consider important such as affordable housing or small business incubation. 

Also, check your greenspace percentage.  Do you have enough pocket parks?  If not, consider reclaiming vacant lots for that purpose too.  Especially look at your medium neighborhood parks and large parks that serve the whole town.  Are there smaller parks or greenbelts between those that allow wildlife travel?  Can you connect the dots to the nearest large wilderness, such as a county or state park, outside of city limits?  Have you got a bigger waterfront such as a river or lake?  Greenspace surrounding that and connecting it to other parks is a great help.

Adaptivars

Adaptivars are cultivars specifically grown for rugged survival against local challenges.  A landrace is whatever plants or animals are grown locally, adapted to those conditions, without deliberately selecting for refined traits the way breeds do.  So some develop a style or purpose, like cider apples vs. dessert apples; but most display huge variety like Indian corn.  If you do not have access to centuries-old landraces for what you want to grow in your area, you can make your own.  Throw down as many types of heirloom, antique, open-pollinated seeds (not hybrids) as you can get.  Test the results and save the best.  What survives, after a few generations, will become your new landrace.

The same works with livestock as plants.  Obtain some parent stock with features you like, preferably from several different hardy breeds.  If at all possible, include some non-pedigreed mixed stock.  Many farm animals breed once a year, so with rapid cycling you can do 5 generations in 5 years, which is a really good start.  A few species, such as rabbits, can cycle even faster.  You might want to keep your pure parent stock available if you're trying to set specific traits (e.g. weight gain, milk flavor, egg production, foraging ability) but the main goal is to get those offspring breeding with each other.  Stir up the gene pool, then skim off the best results to reproduce.  Here is a discussion regarding chickens.