Do you fret about the future of your town? Do you wake up in the middle of the night wondering if you might soon be living in a ghost town of yore, tumbleweeds rolling through your athletic stadiums, your streets corroded into asphalt chunks, your nail salons and KFC's completely stripped of equipment? Lo, be ye not afraid of zombies. They are the least of your worries. It is the tumultuous forces of finance, environment, population, economics and energy that will bounce and jostle our fair burgs, sifting the sustainable wheat from the unsustainable chaff. How will your town fare? Take the quiz!(photo: Mike LoCascio, wikicommons)
Yes, we have plenty of the source of life. We luxuriate in it. We have lawns, and we don't feel the slightest bit guilty about a ten minute shower.
No, we face droughts and/or aquifer/groundwater depletion. It's a drag.
My state is above 20% renewables plus hydro. Or: my state might not be there, but my town has a municipal utility that gets over 20% of its electricity from renewables + hydro and that should give us some sustainability cred.
My state's been putting in renewables. I can't believe we're not up to 20% yet. (NV, MN, CO, NE, HI, NM, AZ, TX)
My state doesn't believe in renewables.
My state has no sun or wind.
Seriously, not every state can be as glorious as Idaho.
Yes (most of the country)
No, you can fry an egg on our streets in the summer. (I live in a place as hot as Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Palm Springs)
Yes, we get wood or propane delivered, or our power plant gets coal by train, or we live on an island and we get more than half our energy sources delivered by ship.
No, we get electrons via wires, natural gas via pipes, and if we use wood, we get it from real close by.
We don't really have winter, or we have serious winter but we've insulated and sealed our homes insanely well, use air-sourced or ground-sourced heat pumps, passive solar, or high-efficiency wood stoves, so our heating bills are low.
We have bitter cold and/or our housing stock is poorly insulated. Our winter propane/natural gas/fuel oil/electricity bills run more than $150/month. (Sometimes way more.)
Yep, we were here.
No, we sprang up post-WWII and our development patterns sure show it.
Our way of life is reasonable in terms of energy (under 200 kwh/person/day.) (CT, MA, NH, RI, VT, NY, FL, MD, AZ, NV, CA, HI) Or it's just a little above that (200--230 kwh/person/day), so cut us some slack. (ME, NJ, PA, MI, DC, GA, NC, VA, CO, UT, OR)
We consume double the energy of most Europeans, but we'll always have unlimited cheap energy, won't we? (230-300 kwh/person/day) (IL, OH, WI, MN, MO, DE, TN, AR, ID, NM)
We are the Sumo wrestlers of per capita world energy consumption. We slurp up huge amounts. (300-400 kwh/person/day) (IN, IA, KS, NE, SD, WV, AL, KY, MS, OK, TX, MT)
We are the King Kongs of energy consumption. Our use is off-the-charts insane, although our mining, drilling and refining industries have a lot to do with it. (650-760 kwh/person/day) (ND, LA, WY, AK)
Yes, fishing, farming, regional commerce or trade via shipping has been in our past and will likely be in our future.
No, none of these are economic contributors for us.
Yes, I live in Alaska, Wyoming, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota, or West Virginia
No, my state's economy is diverse and will not be devastated by reduced fossil fuel use.
Less than 200 feet/capita. We can afford the roads we have as long as we don't build many more. We'll spend less than 10% of our state tax revenue maintaining them. (CT, MA, RI, NJ, NY, DE, DC, FL, MD, CA, HI, NH, PA, IL, IN, MI, OH, GA, NC, SC, VA, TN, LA, TX, AZ, CO, NV, UT, OR, WA)
200-300 feet/capita. We will probably turn some roads back to gravel or toll them. (ME, VT, WI, MN, MO, WV, AL, MS, AK)
300-500 feet/ capita. It's lucky we like gravel roads because we'll have a lot of them. (IA, AR, OK, ID, NM)
500-1300 feet/capita. We are in for a world of hurt road-wise. (KS, NE, SD, ND, MT, WY)
Yes. Gosh, next you'll say we can't have an economy built on fast food either.
No, but we're counting on one of the above to revive our currently struggling economy. (Come gamble at our new casino!)
No, we get our garden gnomes and beanie babies from abandoned storage lockers and play on-line poker.
No, our economy doesn't depend on fluctuating consumption of luxury items, luxury experiences or on a college that is about to go under.
Top meth lab states--MO, TN, IN, MI, IL, OH, NC, KY
Top number of incarcerated persons/capita--LA, MS, OK, AL, TX, AZ, FL, AR, MO
States where more than 31% of citizens are obese--LA, MS, AL, WV, OK, IA, SC, TN, KY, IN, ND, MI, DE
Top death-by-alcohol states--NM, AK, MT, WY, AZ, OK, NV, MI, DC, CO, WV
States where more than 17% of citizens live in poverty--MI, MS, AZ, NM, AR, GA, DC, TX, KY, NC
States where more than 13% of children are diagnosed with ADHD--AL, AR, DE, IN, IA, KY, LA, NC, OH, RI, SC, TN
States with more than 96 opiod prescriptions per year for every 100 people--LA, MS, AL, AR, OK, SC, NC, TN, KY, WV, OH, IN, MI
By some miracle my state is not listed in any of the options above. Our men are not drinking themselves to death, our women are not popping chill pills, our kids don't need to take amphetamines to sit still, and our prisons aren't major state employers.
None of the above. My town is squeaky clean.
Ok, I've got to check off one or two of these, but it was a one-time thing and no indication of a real problem.
Welcome to America. Everyone has these problems, so it's not surprising we do, too.
Our town didn't used to have these problems, and now it does. It's a sad business indeed.
Yes, it will be expensive but we could do it. (Also check this box if question is irrelevant because your town has enough water, you lucky fools.)
No, but why can't we desalinate and then pump water 200 miles up hill?
No. Depopulation is in our future.
I want to divert the entire Columbia or Mississippi River to flow to my town. Start digging now.
Either we don't have an air conditioner, or living without one would be possible with shade trees, ceiling fans, whole house fans, etc.
No freaking way.
We've got at least three of these.
Only one or two. We could do better.
None of the above. I live in a real hell-hole.
Yes, people do this sort of thing in my town.
No, there is little or no sense of community here in this way.
Yes, you're kidding, right?
No, you're kidding right?
It's possible. We have a lot of small shops and service providers.
Unlikely. All the stores are big boxes and even many of the services are provided by chains.
There is no center. It is completely diffuse residential with maybe a few malls scattered about.
Two arterials meet with some strip malls, chain restaurants, big box stores, gas stations, fast food on the corners.
Our large city has an extensive business-centered downtown and the neighborhoods have vibrant shopping districts that act as secondary cores; or, our smaller town/city has between one and ten downtown blocks with shops, services, restaurants and coffee shops.
Buildings
Parking, parking, parking
Yes. That's just the way America is now.
No dead ones. They're either active, been torn down, creatively repurposed to other uses, or we never had any to begin with.
Does being filled with squatters count as repurposing?
Does standing as a decaying monument to American consumerism count as repurposing?
Yes, I live in DC, Alaska, Virginia, Maryland, Hawaii, New Mexico or Oklahoma.
No, how is it possible for the Federal Government to be a state's largest industry?
Yes.
What is crowdfunding?
Storm surge? (answer yes if you live in southern Florida)
River flood?
Tornado?
Earthquake?
Hurricane?
None of the above. We're either not vulnerable to these things or we've engineered our buildings or our rivers or built seawalls to keep us damage-free.