Albany, A Town in Transition

Albany California is a Transition Town. I've run into a lot of folks in town who, while interested and supportive of some aspect of the Transition Town movement, have no idea what I'm talking about.  But there are quite a number of people in town and in surrounding communities who do know and are actively coming together and working on a wide variety of projects and initiatives.

So, what is Transition Town? Transition Town or the Transition Network is an international movement, started in the UK, that supports community response to climate change and peak oil while building stronger community ties, sharing vital skills, and fostering a sense of well being. There is no central leadership, rather the communities themselves drive the initiatives and the velocity of change that is right for them.  And if we are, in fact, past peak oil, then it will certainly be up to each community to build a local infrastructure and network to meet the needs of the people living there as we look for an alternative to the cheap energy infrastructure we now rely on.

Transition Albany has been active in many ways, but since the May 22nd , the effort to launch the movement more widely, a number of initiatives have gained steam. As with other TT efforts, Transition Albany is focused on green energy, locally grown food, alternate forms of exchange and transit, and building and sharing the wide variety of skills needed to bring productivity back to the local level.  For example, there is an active group discussing a time bank and potential other forms of exchange. And I am organizing the various food and edible intitiatives into a single effort to take them to the next level: to see more on this, please visit the facebook page, Albany Edible Initiatives. There also is a facebook page for Transition Albany which can be found here.

In coming posts, I will go into much more detail on various transition efforts and related topics. A focus will be on the edible and food initiatives, but as these efforts are so closely tied to other concerns, such as water, energy, and land use, the posts will make an effort to connect them.  And I'd love to hear from my fellow Albany residents, to discuss ways for more residents, businesses, and institutions to get involved and align our efforts. More to come!