Reid Welch said:
The Toronto island posting above is beautiful and out of reach of 99.999% of us.
And I'll suggest that this is not true at all. Advertize for a few hundred like-minded home-owners who would be prepared to move into a planned community. With an urban planner develop a site plan and a business plan, then approach a developer... Life is what you make it?
This is pretty much how Vauban was created? Somebuddy had a vision? From their site here:
http://www.vauban.de/info/abstract.html
"The main goal of the project is to implement a city district in a co-operative, participatory way which meets ecological, social, economical and cultural requirements."
And one feature of the project:
"an ecological traffic / mobility concept is implemented with a reduced number of private cars to be parked in the periphery (about 40% of the households agreed to live without an own car), good public transport, a convenient car sharing system and a higher quality of living,"
So Vauban isn't "going car-free", it was designed from the outset to be (sort of) car-free.
northernmike said:
Lock why on earth did you ever leave? I LOVE the islands...
Hehe... There's good and bad in everything Mike. The Islanders make their own amusements, but the real parties are onshore..."city-side" ;->
Many move to the Islands but don't stay... Some appreciate the isolation, some don't. Some are driven crazy by the politics. Everyone knows everyone elses business? The bootlegger only has cheap beer and wine?
Anywhooo Mike, if ya love the place so much I could introduce you around if ya like. Depends what you like. I lived for a while in a shed (OK, a shed w/central heat and aircon, huge deck w/6-person hot tub...2-person Jacuzzi bath...) or a three-floor house on the beach w/sauna, workshop, two balconies, two dogs...
Ya, gave up the Island Life and now I am stuck in a mansion on Bloor in the Annex w/staff to do the cleaning (sigh.) What was I thinking!
...actually what I was thinking was that it was time to give up the toys (boats) and do something useful with my life... like, say, build electric scooters!
loK