Dirty Sustainability

In 2057 there will be more cyclists, runners, and rollerbladers, than motorists on the streets of Williamsburg. The bulk of these athletes will not be commuting, won't be running errands, but will be training. E-market places will offer work and pay for amateur athletes. This means they will earn their sustenance from working in their apartments on their own time. The power to use one's time as desired will be exploited by these athletes. In this decadence, athletes will choose to put a minimum of four hours of training time for various events in their days. Williamsburg will experience a literal facelift. As the street sweepers run more often (a preventative measure against flats and falls) the bodies will become firmer; it's a direct relationship. Proper nutrition will be requisite as food becomes training fuel. And the arrogance of competitors will spill over into a vast marketing ploy for "the best" things. This may sound familiar in our consumer market economy of present but I assure you things will be different. Where we now compete for the largest televisions, SUV's, and all other natural resource monopolizers, the athletes will discover themselves in moments where they would rather buy athlete powered things than machine powered things. Athletes will find that they'd rather work to power their needs in order to burn more calories, enabling them to compete at ever faster speeds.

Escaltors and elevators will be a thing of the past! Why use the electricity when athlete power is more beneficial to the body of the athlete? Sure there will be stairs but they will be the last choice of options for motion around the site. Athletes will compete for prime real estate. This will still be the top floor of the complex but not because it has the best view; they will want the resting place that burns the most calories to get to! These athletes will get to their homes by roller blading, running, biking, and skate boarding, up a series of ramps; by climbing to them via poles and ropes; or by actually scaling the building via outdoor rock climbing walls.

Where they will not be able to make athlete powered things, they'll choose to power their lives with the elements that they train against: wind and water. Fifty years from now the major necessities of an apt. complex will be fueled by the east river a mere four blocks away. So while the user of an apt. complex in 2007 may be interested in renewing water, the user of the same complex in 2057 will be an uber athletic exploiter of water. The complex will not only recycle gray water but it will connect with the nearby river as it disconnects from the city's power grid. Don't get your computer wet.