BURNSVILLE IN THE YEAR 2000

A number of trends exist which indicate significant changes for life in Burnsville; the decline of the birth rate, the extension of the average human life span, a growth in the need for energy and a corresponding need for efficient energy usage, the expansion of the technological capacity of the individual, and the increase in the number and quality in interactions among people and by people with nature. These trends, if uninterrupted by those momentous events which lie unforeseen beneath the surface of daily affairs, will translate into the following scenario on life in Burnsville in the year 2000.

A community with large open green and wooded spaces, Burnsville is comprised of several high density population living centers. Structurally, the living centers enclose 5,000 to 10,000 people into integrated systems of units where human activity flourished within walking, elevator and escalator distances. These living centers are self-contained villages in touch with the universe, yet a community of people in touch, one with the other.

In these living centers a wide range of commercial, social, cultural, religious, and educational activities exist without the need to travel long distances. Boundaries between work and play, among age groups, and among role categories lack clarity due to the high level of interaction of people and the kinds of activities in which the people engage. The majority of activities are prompted by a desire to give opportunity for self-expression in forms consistent with the interest and talents of the living center members.

The conventional art forms abound--visual arts, music, theatre, dance, poetry, athletics, and literature. Technology will alter the appearance of, and increase the participation in these activities, but the source remains the individual consciousness. Learning new skills, new thoughts, new knowledge through participation by all age groups, is augmented by chemical and mechanical means throughout the living center, and is enhanced by the direct connection of each individual in the living center with nearly all other individuals, other living centers, and other centers of human expression on and around the planet through a satellite computer communication network.

For those who wish the outdoors--immediate land around the living centers is available for walking, watching, whistling, whatever. Since there is compactness inside the living center, much of the surrounding land exists in a natural condition and some of the land is allocated to intensive photo synthetic food production to supplement the regenerative and reclyable qualities of the human food energy need system within the living center. Energy needs for heating and cooling are provided by a solar collector system attached to the structure and by the solar energy supply stations outside the earth's atmosphere.

In each living center all support services...health, education, religious, social, commercial...are nearly sufficient to sustain and extend life. Each of these of these services is interdependent, often they share people, places, ideas, and they are coordinated to achieve a comprehensiveness of support for the participants. Governmental patterns reflect the inter-relatedness of the parts, and the leadership positions extend across the varied functions of the parts.

Transportation to places outside the living center is primarily in the form of a mass transit system--air or land--but some small individual vehicles exists on a rental basis for country travel or for travel to places not yet collected into humanly controlled living centers.

Human life in the year 2000 continues to seek ways to control, b=with varying degrees of success, the physical and psychological forces which act capriciously on it. But at the same time, human life in the year 2000 continues to seek new forms of insight and understanding into the ever unfolding, and apparently inexhaustible mystery of what it means to live in a universe of incomprehensive magnitude and complexity. In this latter sense, life in Burnsville changes not.

John Welchle



The true Republic: men;
their right and nothing
more;
women, their rights and
nothing less.
Susan B. Anthony




As a 16 year resident of a community U gave sine affection for, but a greater amount of hope for, and as a participant in a phenomenon I have no prior touch with--that is, growing into an adult in a suburban environment after urban experience only, and as a person with a measure of skepticism, a realistic view of human frailties with limited comprehensive of human potential, my aspirations for Burnsville are simple, and focus on its resources, natural and human.

The land and water have beauty and despite what humankind has done and will do to blight it, I believe that by 2000 that beauty may still be apparent. I am optimistic even in the face of a now- prevailing obsession with property rights and too little obsession with aesthetics and human rights. It is my hope that the institutions of the city, public and private as well, will in the 21st century be providing appropriate services, be fostering an atmosphere which will attract a more diverse population with a metropolitan outlook and be open to change and risk-taking in an effort to improve the quality of life.

My priority aspirations are for Burnsville's women. By 2000 I hope for absolute equality between the sexes, access to the world through meaningful employment outside the home or reward for home management and child rearing, economic independence and through it political and economic power.

I would prefer to envision Burnsville in 2000 as a community which, having left behind its elitism and exclusivity, is prepared to move into a state of egalitarianism, diversity and vitality.

Marlene Roth