In "the good old days" many people had a very short commute to work. They lived above or behind the commercial endeavor they ran. Apartments above grocery stores, eateries and bars were not uncommon for much of urban history. Before Agribusiness there was the family farm.People lived on the land they worked, even or maybe especially, if they were sharecroppers.

As people look for ways to reduce time spent commuting live/work spaces are making a comeback. Some of this is fueled by younger workers who want to be near the entertainment offered downtown-music, theater, eateries of all varieties. Many of them also work in offices located in the downtown and recently these areas are becoming revitalized as people move back into them. Some of the people moving back into the city or at least to the closer in suburbs are families who want to spend less time commuting and more time together. It also means less money spent on fuel which can mean more for a mortgage.

This is a picture of a live work space build in 2005 in Michigan.  There are at least 6 different live/work projects in Santa Fe, NM some near downtown some not. The ones not near downtown are included in planned developments where the intention is to have local businesses and services readily available within the neighborhood. In many cases the living spaces are smaller than we have gotten used to but because our workspace is attached, we need less space.  I have written lately about cohousing and intentional communities and it seems to me that this is another feature that could work well in these kinds of living situations.

Courtesy of Terra Land Group

Many of us can remember walking to and from school and often stoppig along the way to get ice cream or a snack because there were sidewalks for us to walk on and places to stop to buy a snack.

So what makes this a sustainability issue?

• Less commuting means less use of fossil fuels
• Using less fossil fuel means slowing climate change
• Walking from errand to errand means getting more exercise which is good for human bodies
• Driving less also means less air pollution - another health benefit
• Many of these projects mean reuse of existing structures rather than building from the ground up which means using less energy and fewer resources
• Even the new construction is often infill building which means no need to build new infrastructure while giving impetus to improving and converting existing infrastructure
• Provides an impetus for improved public transit

Perhaps we are learning not to throw the bay out with the bath water. I am not really interested in giving up my Internet access or my digital camera. but I can certainly power the devices with solar energy. As more and more people work at home this solution seems more and more practical. How many people do you know who have a home office.......what if home was just down the hall or upstairs but there was a real separation of the space--not just the spare bedroom or the den converted into office space but a real separate space designed for the purpose of conducting business? Novel idea? Not really.