Integrated Community Sustainability Planning

It seems like a no brainer that this is a good idea for communities. Yet, if you look at many cities, Victoria and all over North America, you see short sited planning and gridlock, cars and people. Too many people making too many short sighted decisions. I lived in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, for 5 years. These two cities, although separate, were one big city. The street grid in the older Waterloo were based on old Mennonite horse-carriage paths, and the street grid of Kitchener was a modern grid-like structure. They were basically laid side by side, overlapping in places, and they did NOT mesh. If you knew the ins and outs of the city you could get places fast, if you didn't, it was maddening.

Lately the two municipal governments of KW have learned to work together and have strategically tried to improve the road systems. Integrated sustainable planning may take a little more effort, but the long term benefits far out way the headaches that could be avoided. The principles of Integration, Scale, Governance and Inclusion are four pillars of good decision making and should be adopted all over N America.