The Good Life.
Most Americans are not epicureans.They can eat terrible food, live in cookie-cutter homes in bland suburbs and watch whatever garbage is piped into their televisons. They don't care about the pollution they eat, drink and breathe or the disfigured landscape they live in. They don't mind driving everywhere and they don't care when they become obese as a result.
Other Americans want something better. They want the good life. They want to eat delicious, well-prepared food.They prefer organic food and drink, free of pollution. They enjoy walking and bicycling. They prefer to live and vacation in places not dominated by cars and chain restaurants and stores.
There are a few problems with seeking the good life in America. Good, organic food is expensive. The cities where you are most likely to find restaurants and organic food stores are expensive to live in. There are fewer neighborhoods with affordable homes in American cities that exist outside the ugly auto-dominated landscape of parking lots and highways. Gentrification and suburban sprawl have made the good life less affordable for urban and rural Americans. It is a constant battle to maintain the livability of communities besieged by cars and chain stores.
And who makes the good life possible for Americans? Who picks the fruit and the lettuce? Who makes the clothes? How much fuel do we burn to get away from the awful places we live in to travel to experience the good life in Provence and Venice? Where does that fuel come from?
Why can't there be at least one city in America where Americans care enough to grow and prepare their own food? Why can't there be at least one car-free city in America? Why can't there be at least one place where artists don't have to fear being displaced by gentrification, farmers don't have to fear being displaced by suburban sprawl and craftspeople don't have to fear being undercut by sweatshop labor. Why can't there be at least one city where everyone, not just the affluent can afford to live the good life?
Illichville could be that city.