Greening the Generations: Star-studded stimulus-sustainability mind meld

BILLY: I love a good old-school 'greatest hits' package, so let's click off memorable moments from last week's Emerging Issues Forum – from where we live to how we move to what keeps us on top for the next hundred years ...

GREG: You mean that Olympic test of Marathon Mind Melding and Networking? The event drew together hundreds of people integral to figuring out how we fix up our communities and plan well for a cloudy future. A workout for my hand shake and my hand sanitizer, Remi-D!

BILLY: I was struck by Rep. Heath Shuler (go 'Skins) recalling a visit to an alternative energy site in Texas where he marveled – not in a good way – that the component parts all came from overseas. Come on, America, let's get crankin'!

GREG: What about Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London, telling that great story about how he got Oasis together? Well, that's our tall tale, but his call to make cities more manageable places to live, work and get from point A to B efficiently makes me take a second and third look at what we're doing and not doing in the Triangle. If London can turn around ...

BILLY: Back in the colonies, Gov. Bev Perdue promised to relentlessly attack our infrastructure gaps while keeping budgets in line. And then there was our host, GovEmeritus Jim Hunt ... Guy has more get-up-and-go than a Springsteen half-time show!

GREG: Ditto US Senator Christopher Dodd.

BILLY: The Snow-Capped Connecticut Yankee held up Charlotte as a national model for its success with light rail. According to Dodd, our planning for housing, transit, energy alternatives and curbing climate change has to be a package – not separate threads.

GREG: An idea also taken up by New York Times resident conservative David Brooks. I've never seen so many die-hard NC Dems both star- struck and nervous in all my life!

BILLY: After teasing every political type, Brooks made the point that people can't help but seek the company of other people – and we should start planning again for communities that bring us together not scatter us willy nilly.

GREG: The message seemed to resonate strongly with audience members, many of whom no doubt drove in from all different areas of the Triangle...by themselves (check out Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There).

BILLY: Speaking of 'message,' time and again commentators hit on the need to find new and better ways to communicate new ideas and alternatives to all of busy with soccer games, careers and tivo. Something hasn't been clicking.

GREG: All-in-all, a provocative and well-populated mind-meld on topics that'll be relevant in ten or 200 years ... When Gov. Hunt will probably still be bringing together the movers and shakers to make things happen.

BILLY: Yep, innovation is never a moot topic and the status quo is no longer an option. The Triangle can be in the center of the action or a side-liner. Tell us how you think we should get in the game ...