[Once this would have been labeled ‘communism’, then the hippies tried their version of the community vision, and now today, maybe a different form of it will work, something has to do so...
granny]
http://www.greenecon.org/gane/resources/community/comm_res_frame_view.html
[snipped]
In thinking about community, we have to keep in mind the wide variety of communities and the resources they have available. The challenge of creating a sustainable community in a wealthy community will be very different than building one in a poor rural community or in a depressed inner city. Local financing through a community bank like the South Shore Bank in Chicago has been vitally important to its renewal. Having federal funds available to all communities on a per capita basis helps to build equity between communities.
Transition Communities
This new local community initiative began in Totnes England and is now spreading around the globe. In the U.S., 33 communities, from Portland ME to NE Seattle WA, were already listed as official transition communities by June 2009.
Transition US says: “The Transition Movement is a vibrant, grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. It represents one of the most promising ways of engaging people in strengthening their communities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable and socially connected.”
“It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis?”
Each transition town has its own website where you can get an idea of the activities they are beginning to undertake. Since Totnes has been in existence for several years already, their website http://totnes.transitionnetwork.org/ provides a sense of the spectrum of concerns and activities that can flourish in a transition community. Their website has sections on Building & Housing, Economics & Livelihoods, Energy, Food, Health & Wellbeing, Heart & Soul, Local Government, The Arts, and Transport.
continued....
About the Slow Money Meeting:
http://www.socialedge.org/features/opportunities/archive/2009/07/11/from-the-ground-up-gathering
http://ourrealleader.blogspot.com/2009/07/th-writers-dads-geodesic-greenhouse.html
a snippet..
Slowing down, an idea that might have sounded downright un-American not that long ago, is - you should pardon the expression - gathering speed. Slow food and slow travel are part of a broader slow movement that has expanded to slow cities, slow parenting, slow homes, slow marketing, slow reading, slow transportation, slow craft, slow art, slow energy, slow math, slow science, even slow money.
“There’s no question that it’s got a foothold in the US,’’ said Carl Honoré, a Canadian journalist whose two books, “In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed,’’ and “Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children From the Culture of Hyper-Parenting,’’ have made him a quasi-spokesman for the whole idea. “It’s on the cultural radar.’’
The popularity of slowing down could stem from its implicit challenge to the assumptions that undergird the rat race. After all, when more than seven million Americans have lost their jobs since December 2007, bringing the total number of unemployed to 14 million, the idea of the rat race loses some status.
continued.
http://www.greenecon.org/gane/media_watch/media_watch_new4.html
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6392.4873.0.0
The Unemployment Dam Is Breaking
August 6, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com
A torrent of broke and unemployed workers may be about to start flooding the streets.
A primary bulwark against foreclosures and destitution is about to give way. Almost 500,000 Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits by September. That includes 354,000 for that month alone. The economic consequences will be severe. Social unrest is inevitable.
Unemployment insurance is the only thing keeping many Americans in their homes and off the street. But time is running out. The National Employment Law Project, a national advocacy group, released a study last weekend that should ring warning bells. Over 140,000 people in America have collected the maximum unemployment benefit available under the law—despite the fact that Congress extended payouts for an additional 33 weeks. Currently, people can draw payments for up to 79 weeks in 24 states. Other states offer help for between 46 and 72 weeks.
These first 140,000 will not be alone for long. According to the study, a gushing stream of workers will lose their aid as the year progresses, but the stream will become a torrent leaving 1.5 million jobless Americans who have exhausted their insurance by December.
Congress is under growing pressure to extend benefits again. The number of payout weeks is already triple the norm, and is the most since the program began. Rumors are circulating that Congress will try to borrow another $70 billion from foreigners to extend the program another 13 weeks for states suffering unemployment above 9 percent. Nationally, the official jobless rate is 9.6 percent.
“If more help is not on the way, by September a huge wave of workers will start running out of their critical extended benefits, and many will have nothing left to get by on even as work keeps getting harder to find,” says Maurice Emsellen, a policy director of the Employment Law Project.
Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington, says lining up support for more benefits won’t be a problem once politicians start getting calls from desperate constituents.
Stories of people facing the loss of their homes are emerging. Raymond Crouse of Columbus, who operated heavy machinery, has had no work since 2007. Since the construction industry went into free fall, Mr. Crouse has collected $190 per week in benefits, which has allowed him and his wife to hang on to the house they bought 15 years ago. But with the benefits ending next month, he fears they will not be able to keep up.
In Ohio, Cathy Nixon has barely worked since June 2007. Her benefits of $313 per week also run out in September. Already fighting foreclosure, she says that will probably be the end. The New York Times reports several other similar stories.
And employment conditions probably won’t improve any time soon.
Byron King, writing for the Whiskey and Gunpowder economic newsletter last week, noted that “the Fed made a shocking prediction. It forecasted that the U.S. economy would add no net new jobs over the next five years!”
“No net new jobs?” asked King. “That ought to scare you. The Census Bureau predicts that the U.S. population will grow over five years. But the numbers of new jobs will remain static. That is, for every job gain there will be a loss.”
If this forecast is true, then for the next five years, thousands of students will graduate into jobless lines; meanwhile, older workers will postpone retirement. In July, an additional 371,000 jobs were lost, according to the most recently released adp Employer Services report.
This employment catastrophe is a formula for trouble at both local and national levels. Once the safety nets expire, a deluge of social discontent could be on the way. •