Putnam County man says public should think about suburban sprawl, open space

By Robert Gold
THE NEWS-TIMES

BETHEL ­ Will suburban life one day become impossible if we run out of oil? Can shopping centers built in one town affect people three towns away? What's the impact of increasing development?

Jeff Green knows people may not often ask these questions, but he thinks they should.

"That's the best way to educate people, at the grass roots," said the Putnam County man during a presentation of the film "The End of Suburbia" on Sunday at Molten Java in Bethel.

For him, that means, setting up documentaries through the Danbury Independent Media Center, running his PlanPutnam Web site,
www.planputnam.org, which details development and open space issues in Putnam County and it means getting people to think about building projects outside their own towns.

"People should start looking at these things from a regional perspective as opposed to home rule," said the 47-year-old Green, who moved to Kent Cliffs, N.Y. seven years ago.

"I talked to people from other towns, and they had no idea what was going on in other towns," he said.

But he saw ever-increasing development gobbling open space land.

So five years ago, he started PlanPutnam, which links viewers to area environmental groups and updates different towns open space and development plans.

Green said he's not anti-development.

"I have no magical ideas that things are not going to be built," he said.

But he wants the public to educate themselves about where things should be built.

Plus, he maintains, development doesn't always make economic sense for areas. With several area parks, the county could market the region to tourists.

"The drive is beautiful the entire way (through the county), he said. But we can't have them (tourists) if we are ripping up trees and building McMansions here,' he said.

Although he lives in New York, Green decided two years ago to volunteer with the Danbury Independent Media Center.

On Sunday, Green helped organize the showing of "The End of Suburbia," at Molten Java. The film examines whether the suburban lifestyle can survive in future years.

In Green's eyes, the answer is no. With communities not growing their own food, they are susceptible to escalating fuel prices.

"It's going to end whether we like it or not," he said Sunday, "The price of shipping is going to be outrageous."

Minutes later, he started the film. With that, he furthered his goal of getting people to think about development.

Contact Robert Gold
at rgold@newstimes.com
or at (203) 731-3350.