Community Self-Reliance Think Tank
Working Group Reports
Common Ground High School, November 16, 2008
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Title: Mass Transit
Leader: Sarah Forman
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Sarah Forman, Liz Gersten (bumblebee), Melinda Tuhus (bumblebee), Anne Somsel, Allan Brison, Chris Schweitzer, Sheila Brent
Report:
Points brought up during discussion:
A good mass transit system improves street safety and builds community.
Busses in greater New Haven, as opposed to larger cities, show a class division: mostly the working poor who take the bus.
One of the factors that make taking the bus so time-consuming is the need for transfers.
With the economic down-turn, more people are taking the bus.
Were the bus lines of yore more accessible? There were trolley lines running the lengths of some long streets/avenues in New Haven. Did the auto industry push for the demise of public transportation in New Haven the way it did in LA?
Seattle used to have a downtown trolley system that has just been eliminated.
In places where participants have experienced a bus system that utilizes bus conductors, it has made a huge difference in ease of use (the conductor helps people get on the bus who have strollers or large items, and helps them stow the items in a designated storage area, which is also a big factor in making mass transit useable).
There is a lot of money in transportation now that goes to insurance but which could go to improving mass transit if so many people didn’t need to have cars.
Free zones speed up service, as people can get on as well as off via the rear doors.
Street and bridge repairs that are on a bus route should have priority.
Could non-Yale people utilize the Yale shuttles? Some participants think this may already be possible.
Using public transit rather than private cars might require some changes in our lifestyles, even if we do make mass transit much easier.
Points about our proposed ideal mass transit system:
Uses minibuses which are hybrids.
Has conductors and storage spaces
More routes and more intersecting routes, which would also make transfers easier and faster; transfers wouldn’t require going downtown.
Shorter routes might help busses stay on schedule
Have a free zone within downtown: hop-on/hop-off. Could then pay if stayed on bus when it goes outside of free zone.
Bus stop shelters need to be better constructed and more protective from the elements.
Start a zip car system to complement the minibuses: this way, someone who has more stops on their schedule than can be accommodated via the busses could reserve a zip car for the day. The costs of doing this would be far less than those of owning a car.
A long-distance zip car system could also complement the above, making it even easier for people to give up their cars completely.
Continue the excellent policy of wheelchair accessibility and bike racks on busses.
Another way to implement change more quickly, especially given the economic constraints, would be to do more ride-sharing. Someone driving could stop and pick up someone on a corner who could show via a special armband or a City ID that they were a registered user. Then the driver could drop the person off at the desired destination. The rider could give the driver some sort of chip before exiting, and at the end of the month the driver could submit his/her chips for reimbursement from the city for driving expenses.
Contacts/networking:
Environmental Justice Network has a mass transit committee, we think. EJN has a branch in New Haven; has offices in Hartford.
New Haven Board of Alders: Community Services and Environmental Protection Committee.
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Title: Overcoming Despair
Leader: Kath Schomaker, Kathleen.schomaker@yale.edu
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants Ben, Jill, Jeremy
(optional, but encouraged):
Report: Background for this session is the pioneering work of deep ecologist/Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy who evolved a framework for thought and practice to move beyond the overwhelming despair tempting to humans who seek alternatives to mass consumer/apocalyptic society. Despairing any way to be truly effective, many succumb to “I can’t do anything about it” thinking and living. Even those who have personally moved beyond despair may find themselves surrounded by others immobilized by despair.
Working from a framework of fundamental interconnectedness, humans may think and see the creative potential that lies behind our coming “material deprivation”; humans might embrace actively “connecting the dots” as the joyful undertaking it can be.
Our metaphysics makes a difference. The story we tell—to ourselves, to our elected officials, to our neighbors, to our children—about the change we are creating, that story makes a difference. The spirit within which we create social change makes a difference.
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Title: Creative Imagining through Shadow Puppetry
Leader: Shula Weinstein
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Diana Goldberg
Donna Lindgren
Lynne Bonnett
Report: Creative concrete images to express our relationship to water, to food, to the environment and future- rapping about what’s important, creating free-flowing process- related community
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Title: Lawn Pesticides Group
Leader: Silvia Hines
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Silvia Hines shines2500@yahoo.com
Marcia Neken marcianelken@sbcglobal.net
Mike Nadeau plantscapes@snet.net
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Above
Report:
- Westville section of NH: lots of lawns, but not heavily sprayed
- kids playing in yards soon after (2 days +/-) after application
- Homeowners need to be better educated about pesticide residues, their breakdown components and how long they last, and their direct correlation to cancer and other ailments (Nancy Alderman’s group in New Haven/Yale, Environment in Human Health, Inc. ehhi.org authored book about this)
- Takes 20 yrs for cancer to manifest after exposure to pesticides so it is very difficult to link pesticides to illness
- Perkinson’s, MS, other neurological disorders/diseases are caused by pesticides & other agents
- Aspartame (sugar substitute) is implicated as well
- Urge legislation like Canada’s Cosmetic Pesticide Ban for USA
- People with chemical sensitivities should be aware of pesticides used on landscapes
- One person is a meditation teacher & also teaches music to parents & their children is very concerned about lawn care pesticides’ role in family issues, i.e. ADD, rebellion, autism, etc
- More education of homeowners that what we are being told about pesticides aren’t always the truth
- Connecting cancer with pesticides
The 2 concerned citizens in the group said they would consider forming/joining a group to continue this work. Mike is a professional in the field who is already involved through NOFA Organic Land Care Program
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Title: Let’s talk about Bicycles
Leader: Aaron
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Report: A discussion about problems and issues faced by the bike community in New Haven. The discussion ran around creating safe and more inviting streets to ride in, advancing awareness of bicycles as a mode of transportation and we shared resources related to building bike communities.
Creating safer and more inviting streets to ride in: Our solutions to easier and safer riding were to slow down traffic. Some thoughts were to create barriers in the roads that get cars to travel at slower speeds. Things like street cones, speed bumps or reducing four lane roads down to two and using the extra space for bikes. Another solution is to create bike pools for commuting back and forth from work and school, a sort of mini critical mass where there is strength in numbers.
Advancing awareness of bicycles as a mode of transportation: Some of the problems bicyclist encounter is that they are not viewed as part of the road. They’re marginalized off to the far right side of the street and face all sorts of obstacles like car doors and drivers driving to close and not allowing bicyclist enough room. We thought that the DMV could address this problem by incorporating a bicycle awareness aspect to their driver licensing process where bicycles related issues are covered. Something like a few questions on the drivers test that would assure the driver is aware of bicycles on the road.
Elm City Bicycle resources (or somewhat related):
www.Nuride.com
www.Seeclickfix.com
www.Newhavensafestreets.org
www.elmcitycycling.org
www.elmcitybikecollective.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
New Haven Critical mass:
Every last Friday of month
Meets at the flag pole in the New Haven Green @5:30
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Title: Time Banking, a form of local currency
Leader: Brenda Caldwell, 203-393-1245, mariebrenda@sbcglobal.net
Participants Kim Stoner, Sue Frankowitz, Janet Beth Brodie, Liz Gersten, Roger Uihlein, Shula Weinstein, Silvie Hines, Kath Shomaker, Bernard Brennan
Report: Time banking is a system whereby a participant gives an hour of time to provide a service to someone else in the network. The hour is banked and can be used to obtain a service from someone else in the network. One hour equals one hour. Community is built; relationships are formed. There is very user friendly software provided by the national time banks organization.
The group thought it makes sense to start this kind of network within the framework an established group (eg Bioregional Group, Elm City Cycling).
Brenda needs a couple of other people to help coordinate and sell the idea to potential participants. The group participants were excited about the idea and could think of other people who would be likely to join.
Time bank groups can be small or large, but we thought 50 participant members would be a reasonable starting group. A sliding scale annual fee is generally charged to pay for the software, support from the national organization and materials.
Questions:
* Are members screened? How?
* How do we move the idea into different communities to build diversity of skills (eg elderly, ethnic)?
* What are the next steps?
Present the idea at a Bioregional Group potluck.
Build a leadership/ coordinator group.
* What are issues around professional insurance coverage for certain services (eg medical, legal, therapy)?
National Organization can be accessed at www.timebanks.org.
Please call or email Brenda with your interest in participating as a coordinator or future member.
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Title:
- How can we pool resources together for collective action
- Coalition Building for community self reliance
- Leveraging the New Haven Green Fund: Exploring Haven for the future pathway to engaged community building our future together
Leader:
Domingo Medina (medinado@sbcglobal.net)
Nate Bixby
Fred Cervin
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Gianne Jenkins, Nate Bixby, Rev. Kevin G. Ewing, Lee Cruz, William Meyers, Terry Halwes, Camille Seaberry, Marty Waters, Linda Cummings, Domingo Medina, Christopher Zurcher
Report:
Three proposed sessions (How can we pool resources together for collective action;
Coalition Building for community self reliance; Leveraging the New Haven Green Fund: Exploring Haven for the future pathway to engaged community building our future together) were merged into one session.
The main issue: how to build a coalition of individuals, groups of interest, communities, etc., to be able to pool together for collective action and respond effectively to the challenges in an age beyond cheap oil.
Issues related and some solutions:
- Need for a common vision on how the world could be. This is key to guide agendas, coordinate efforts, establish cooperation, search and work on legitimate and effective solutions
- Need for a common language for understanding and to communicate the issues of interest.
- Need for understanding the different and common core beliefs, attitudes and behaviors towards the issues of different groups of interest.
- It important to have a better knowledge of what is out there. Who is doing what, where, when, for what purpose, etc.
- Network of self-reliant groups or communities are key to bring about change from the bottom-up.
- Human diversity (engage diversity) it needs to be seen as an opportunity and not as an issue. The idea in on capitalizing the capacity, resources, knowledge and view of such diversity.
- There is a need to access funding for initiatives. Yet the question is funding for what and for what end. Money to jumpstart… Need to identify funding sources.
- Important is identifying leadership in the communities that can motivate others and put things to roll.
- Some measure of success is needed to have a sense that initiatives, efforts or projects have the impacts they intend to have and accomplish their objectives.
- Self reliance (find ways to do things without funding) is key for not being dependent on outside resources.
- Addressing social issues first (such as to warrant people to not freeze during the winter) is fundamental and goes along way before saving big environmental issues.
- There is a need for a way to coordinate efforts so to not reinvent the wheel, duplicate efforts and waist scarce resources. Also to share resources, ideas, information, etc.
- A conceptual framework is needed to group the diversity of issues, relate them and help for the coordination of the different efforts.
- Priorities need to be set given the different issues at different scales and complexity
- Building coalition through building relations in face to face communication. Putting people to talk to each other to learn from each other about their needs, concerns, issues, to find about their passion self interest, etc.
- Building relation is the mean to engage people in working on issues that are common.
- Use the NEW Haven INDEPENDENT www.newhavenindependent.com (?) platform in the internet to post events and to learn about events occurring in New Haven. This could foster awareness and participation
- Understand what motivates people to act.
- Look and or encourage for creative means such as photography, videos or other self-expression means for people tell their stories or communicate issues.
- Involving young people is important to transfer leadership
- Learn what people are doing already and learn what are the assets in your community
- Ground the issues (example: English Station) that are meaningful for people. Resolve tangible and manageable issues first.
- Help others to help themselves for self-reliance (community development)
- Establish or determine a moral line (no body starve in New Haven) or political threshold for decision making, to act and make changes
- Develop an issue platform by taking to people and writing those issues and vote on them.
- Build coalition through planning
- There is a need for a mechanism to amalgam or cluster the efforts to guide an overall agenda and pool the necessary resources
- Establish a kind of clearinghouse or bulletin board for putting information about the different groups, organizations and institutions that are working in different a common issues related to the overall question.
- A strong leadership is needed to take the task of actually building the coalition.
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Title:Local Food Gardens
Leader: Kim Stoner
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):kastoner@att.net
Participants (optional, but encouraged): Lee Cruz, Linda Cummings, Fred Cervin, Camille, Kevin, Walter Greist, Kim Stoner, Kimball Cartwright
Report:
How can people grow food who don’t have any land?
Sprouts, hydroponics, bin with potting soil to grow greens, potato barrel
Need resources set up in advance for food security
How do we encourage gardens as more than a hobby?
Swapping between neighbors, informal agreements to grow specific crops, increased gleaning to keep food from going to waste, Example from Detroit – urbanfarming.org – entrepreneurial group developing large scale urban gardens
Guerrilla gardens – planting gardens on unused land
Community gardens already exist
Some could be asked to grow for others , for neighbors
Use gardens as a tool for bringing neighbors together
CT Food Bank has a “plant a row for the hungry” program – grow extra food for hungry
Growing food together creating a common culture – as in France before WWII
Growing food creates an attachment to place – couldn’t uproot squatters in Nicaragua once they had planted crops
Group in Montreal that created gardens, stores, restaurants, meals on wheels – all based on local food
How do we teach people to grow food?
NH land trust, Master gardener program, CT NOFA, Common Ground, and Sound School
Bioregional group – have a common plot and share out the harvest
Northfordy fam and Mill River Valley farm – volunteers learn how to grow food
Current community gardens – getting secure land tenure, definitely potential for including more gardeners
Change our culture so that we see gardens, animals as “classy”
Principle of permaculture – obtain a yield – grow plants that produce products for people
Strong connection between people, food, culture
Potlucks create strong community culture, and accompany community events
Bringing a gift – potluck – creates community
We need to teach ourselves how to cook and preserve fresh foods
Community Supported Agriculture – does this well with cookbooks and recipes at food distribution
We need more research into using what we have: e.g. acorns
Can use acorns to feed pigs
Food system study – analyze amount of food needed for our bioregion, what we can produce locally, get idea of where our food comes from
What happens when trucks stop running – in England, less than 3 days worth of food
Goal in 1970s for CT – preserve 130,000 acres of farmland in state, based on 50% of fluid milk and 70% of vegetables and fruits eaten in state produced here
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Title: What will we be needing?
Leader: Ben Ross (ebenross@yahoo.com)
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants : Frank Panzarella@hotmail.com
Plantscapes@snet.net (Mike Nadeau)
cjzurcher@yahoo.com (Christopher Zurcher)
eve10@aol.com (Steve Bellwood)
Jcesiak@nhep.com (Joe Cesiak)
Underwood60@sbcglobal.net (Janis Underwood)
Report:
- Growth -- an unsustainable social plan
- Talked about the book “World Without Us”
- Myths of human nature.
- Mike Nadeau asked about Bio-diesel for his organic landscaping business
- Mentioned Grand Paint and Ray Paglierro
- Talked about government support for infrastructure for solutions
- Myths … T.V. and marketing and correlation to belief systems
- New stories
- “We weren’t poor, we just didn’t have any money” quote from Mike about his life in Maine.
- Differences between “needs” and “wants”
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Title: Affordable Sustainable Houses (Building or Retrofitting) & Communal Living
Leader: Marion Gehlker
Contact information (optional, but encouraged): marion.gehlker@yale.edu
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Claudia, Marie, Terry, William, Maria, Sue, Marty ???
Report:
- Green
- Green Co-Housing
Sustainable Buildings:
We decided to establish a group to help each other with issues of sustainable building or retrofitting, both individually or as communal living. Please contact Marion of you’re interested.
Aspects: solar panels, solar window boxes --- build your own for $20 (in: Ghetto Garden), geo-thermal, sun-rooms, grass roofs.
There are a number of web sites:
Solar Connecticut organizes solar tours annually, which allow everybody to take a look at green houses (retrofitted and new): www.solarconnecticut.org.
PACE (People’s action for clean energy: WWW.PACE-CLEANENERGY.ORG,
organizes seminars about sustainable houses.
There are tax breaks for solar panels: http://www.solarconnecticut.org/rebates.php?PHPSESSID=7edeff52b7cc498d5faf4839014dfe2e
It seems there are none for geo-thermal.
Interested:
mariebrenda@sbcglobal.net
terry@dharmaven.org
watersm4$southernst.edu
maria.pinango@yale.edu
cruffle@juno.com
Affordable Communal Living:
There is an active group called Green Haven Co-Housing. They have been meeting for a couple of years,
and are now open to additional members. Contact person: Terry Hawley.
The group is using the writings of Diana Leafe Christian for their communal vision.
They try to be as green as possible, want to live in or near New Haven (close to public transportation).
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Title: Constructing Whole Strategy
Leader: Gaianne Jenkins
562-4410
newhavenuu@rcsbcglobal.net
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Kate Bradley, Lela Florel, Dave Taylor, J. D. Smith
Report:
(our conversation was passionate and ranging)
Our over-arching objective
Move to long-term thinking
Move toward sustainability
Give up growth as ongoing state
--several phrases, but these are the same thing
There are hundreds of ramifications: we did not go into these, but recognized we shall do it as circumstances require and permit
The small size of Connecticut as political and ecological region offers benefits
A short list of basics: Food, warmth, water, safety, &c. is where strategies connect to action
Personal values and political will are key, if difficult arenas of change
We wrapped up:
Want keep small earth (information and information links or channels)
Generational ethics
Acknowledging and keeping the web of life intact
Loving community
Amorphousness is okay—particulars will show up as needed
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Title: health and healing. “Alternative” medicine
Leader: Hannah Roush: hannahrsh@yahoo.com
Contact information (optional, but encouraged):
Participants (optional, but encouraged):
Nate
Diana
Hannah
Paul
Marcia
Report:
The general purpose of this group was to discuss self-directed and community-based health and healing. “Alternative” medicine can nurture self-reliance and community connections independent of reliance on corporate and legal entities that seek profit and direct definitions of, purposes of, and modalities for healing. We talked about overcoming splits and dualities between doctor/patient, individual and community, environment and human community and separation. We spoke about different modalities, such as preventative, energy-based, chemical based, Chinese medicine, holism, and a host of others that we need to learn. We talked about using your own intuition and connection with, and observations about, your body and community as a method for practicing health. Self-direction and reliance, through education and nurturance, is importance from a practical standpoint, as empowered people will continue to use the practices they have learned, while people coerced or threatened to take care of themselves may not find the value of self-worth needed to recover and continue to recover. Being inclusive to ANY system, it being allopathic (“western”) medicine, folk medicine, etc., and being sensitive to the context and needs of the moment and individual and community.
We talked about some existing spaces and potential spaces to learn and practice health, medicine, and care. these include, but are not limited to: The vitamin and supplement sections at your local health food stores and the workers at those stores, the web, social networks, and free clinics and apothecaries.
The specific practices that we discussed included the benefits of and local resources for:
Yoga
Herbalism-can be accessed through walks, books
Massage
Nutrition and detecting allergies and sensitivities
Meditation
Talk, work, and art therapy and Counseling
Exercise
We talked a bit about the irony and tragedy of cultural appropriation and exclusion of alternative medicine. Many “new” practices, such as midwifery and naturopathy, fail to recognize that historically these practices were necessary for and developed by oppressed groups of people and now they are a part of an “enlightened” privileged culture, reminding privilieged folks to remain humble and be as respectful listeners and learners.
We made a wishlist and list of visions for the future:
-Making health part of a social network or timebanking
-A women’s healthcare collective
-A return to the hippocratice oath and separation of profit and healuing
-Formal academic study of health as ecological phenomenon
-elimination of stereotypes and labeling of people that would be barriers to healing and awareness
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Title: ecology & education
Leader:
Lela Florel maater@earthlink.net
Participants
Scott Glaberman, Hannah Roush, J. D. Smith, Ben Ross
Report: The subject matter is ecology as a priority and how do you educate about
ecology.
Some people come to ecological awareness viscerally, through experience,
others intellectually through learning.
We live in a culture that is separated does not realize that we are an integral part
of the web of life, in essence it is anti ecology. It is slowly just beginning to change.
Hannah said if the people that created the problems create the solutions with the same
Mind set it is not going to work.
The best way is to have children have early and frequent experiences in nature. We now have an epidemic of Nature defecit disorder. It has been proven that children do better in school if they spent time in nature.For adults who have not had these early experiences it is more difficult but possible. It is crucial to devise ways to connect adults and children to nature.
As Hannah said “to get off the island you need to use the bridge”. Some of the bridges
could be to do physical things like gardening, planting trees, walking in nature, bird watching. Using existing groups or celebrities are other ways.
Peer pressure is a factor. We talked about standing up for the environment when confronted with callous attitudes and also about nuturing by explaining the consequences of peoples’ actions. People want to be good, green is the new good.
We talked about the expansion of the self to encompass the Earth and the Web of Life,
And also about increasing your awareness of your local area and protecting that.
We talked about viewing things in light of deep time, the history of the planet and evolution.
We talked about being animals, biological beings on a finite planet, an integral part
of the web of life. And because we have accepted life we have a responsibility to pass
it on intact to future generations.
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Title: Local Food, Gardens
Leader: Melissa VanTine
Contact information (optional, but encouraged): m_vantine@yahoo.com
Participants (optional, but encouraged): Didn’t get them all, Walter Greist, Fred Shapiro, Jane Garvey, Janis Underwood
Report:
Possible ways for self-reliance: Farmer’s Market, CSA, Community Gardens
Need education about turning lawn into gardens (is it legal? Does it lower land values?)
Comes down to the dollar. Destruction of farms around city (Woodbridge, Shelton, Bethany). As farmers retired they sold land to developers who drew up the cost of the land. In one generation we have seen a total change from over 6,000 farms in CT to under 1,000 today. Difficult to go back to the 1940s.
Raise consciousness to take in whole picture. Need to see the TRUE cost of agro business with subsidized agriculture. Actual cost is significantly more, doesn’t come out of pocket at store but comes out in other ways (health costs, oil costs).
Shift consciousness to take in bigger picture. Cost of pollution from pesticides, health costs from eating cheap food, social costs. (list goes on and on)
Need more pebble kicking. A small stone can knock something loose, and lead to big changes. We need to keep up the pebble kicking.
Organic vs. Local. Good and bad to both.
Organic travels a long distance but made “organically”
Local may be sprayed with pesticides but doesn’t come from far away
Look to the CT Agricultural Experiment Station to do more experiments for local people through variety trials, and development of pest resistant plants. We need to let them know we are interested in this type of research. Only 10% of the 70 acres are being used for experiments (that leaves 63 acres of land). Scientists can write proposal for HATCH grant for this end. Other grants written to organizations that are not interested in local developments and are more competitive. Hmmm. How can we get more experiments at Lockwood Farm with an emphasis on local needs?
Problems with Community Gardens – Soil remediation, Solutions- raised beds.
Resources:
NY Times Magazine. Oct.12 Michael Pollen “Farmer in Chief” (See Bioregional Group website http://newhavenbioregionalgroup.org under King Korn For more information).
Workshops
Common Ground High School
Master Gardeners
Sound School
CT NOFA
Organizations Mentioned
CT Agricultural Food Station (Lockwood Farm) Director Lou Magnarelli
New Haven Land Trust
Sound School contact: Chaz Mavrelion
Common Ground High School
Mill River Community Supported Agriculture
Yale Sustainable Food Garden
Cooperative Extension (UCONN)
CT NOFA