Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

VULNERABILITIES
1. When it comes to land use, the physical separation of where we live from
where we carry out the activities of everyday life – work, food, school, health
care, and community – is by the biggest threat posed by the end of cheap oil.
As fuel prices rise and/or fuel disruptions occur with greater frequency, neighborhoods
without access to necessary services will become
less livable and could even be abandoned unless
efforts are made to transform them into self‐
sufficient communities either by adding missing
amenities or by developing alternative
transportation options. 136 Increasing fuel prices
and other costs associated with transportation
will provide incentives to develop land within the
city core and in neighborhoods that provide key
goods and services. Available land for housing in the city core and in core neighborhoods
could include areas previously used for parking, vacant lots, and lots occupied by
single‐story buildings. Because of their proximity to necessary amenities, these areas will
draw residents from the city’s suburban and exurban fringes.
Report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force
[I]t is beginning to dawn on many that the
21 st Century will not see the same easy
access to low­cost oil that fueled the
unprecedented technological advances of
the last century. We are either at or very
near the era when the demand for oil will
outstrip the ability of the earth to supply
the needs of the global society.
Nygren, Massie, Kern. “Army Strategy For The
End Of Cheap Oil.” United States Military
Academy, West Point, NY. 2006.
136 Lack of access to neighborhood services has the effect of driving down property values in those areas,
making investment in them problematic at best and nonsensical at worst. In that case the City may find itself,
as Youngstown, Ohio does today, in the position of having to abandon those areas to function without
municipal services and shrinking the municipal boundary. Youngstown 2010.
http://www.youngstown2010.com/
102