Some dismiss the vision as impractical. As I was compiling the document from the dreams of the participants, I came across the idea of removing the concrete from our bayous, and I thought, that'll never happen. We seem to be able to do anything we put our minds to. The big problem is focusing on the right things, and in this century we've been very careless about connecting achievements to consequences.
Some people argue that there are no limits, but of course there are.
Even if the limits are 100 times greater than we believe today, they're still limits. There's only so much water and air, and so many places to stand, and, yes, there's only so much oil and gas. So it is grotesquely impractical to use up all the oil and gas in the planet in one century. I suggest that when people talk about practicality and pragmatism, they are really talking about short term effects and do-ability in the sense that big corporations and big government aren't likely to worry about long term consequences of any sort and aren't always open to dreams of clean air, fast and comfortable transportation, sensible distribution of jobs and homes, or any of the other things in the vision document. It's certainly been true that getting someone elected by the community to focus on the future health and well being of the community is nearly impossible.