Back to the Streets

09/28/2010 Moon in Gemini

Today, we're getting ready to head back to the streets after a short hiatus where we created a task list for the project that's been decided by the community. That was quite a fun project, and I'd like to give a shout to all the people that helped to make it a success. The next step is to go out and talk to some community members in order to build some excitement and fill some of the vacant volunteer slots. I personally am tired of development, and want to get down to the nitty-gritty of implementation and promotion.

We're definitely hoping to get some help from the fine members of City Repair on this project. We've sent quite a few e-mails out to the community, including some e-mails that we didn't mean to send out. They weren't pornography or anything, they were just these random automatic e-mails that came from the project management software we were trying to use. That was a big oops. Sometimes development doesn't go the way one wants it to go.

I've been feeling super excited lately about the potential of the project to be a success! The reality is that most of the people we're talking to are definitely into the ideas, and our job is to combat the basic inertia that's inherent in human nature and move people towards concerted action in their own communities. The reality is that if we don't work to organize ourselves we tend to be organized by our fears or our prejudices. This process of being led by our fears tends to take us headlong into dark chapters of our collective history. Fascism, Witch Hunts, Religious or Racial Persecution, Repression, Regression and War. I'll leave it at that for now.

The Sickness and the Health

09/23/2010 Full Moon in Aries

Wow, I've been feeling sick for the last couple of days. Not sure exactly what's been going on, but if I had to describe it, it's like I was a computer with a typically stable power source that got unplugged and had to operate with a compromised battery. But feeling better now, and even though I was sick, I managed to accomplish some good work with the help of Cyd. This whole week has been given over to developing tasks and ways to track what's getting done with those tasks. Hey everyone, if you want to get involved in a Portland project that needs some help to get off the ground click here.

Basically, the project is to bring attention to the crosswalks in the Richmond Neighborhood in a creative and artistic way. A real "Reclaim the Streets" moment is possible through this project, and we're excited to get it off the ground. We've created affinity teams that can operate independently and help to inform each other about what's going on. For more on the teams click here So here we stand, getting ready to create an e-mail to send out to all the people we've talked to in the neighborhood so far and to get this thing started. Welcome everyone, to a new season of getting things initiated. Also known as fall.

Twas a Lovely Meeting

09/18/2010 Moon in Aquarius

Jupiter conjuncts Uranus today. And it was good. We had a meeting at Owen Spencer's house today, where we brought a bunch of food, and had a very solid meeting structure for the day planned, which kind of fell apart in the third quarter. (That's a football reference) It was a pretty good turnout, I think around 18-20 people and we all got to know each other and got to talk about some of the project ideas that had come from the community. It really fun to be there, we had a circle up, where we said our name, one thing we loved about Richmond and checked in. That was really good.

After that we announced the three top ideas that had come from the community, we broke into small group discussion about each of the ideas. The three top ideas were better crosswalks in the neighborhood, a community generated art project, and community gardens. What ended up happening is that the crosswalk group and the community artwork group ended up blending the two ideas. That was amazing because both groups did that independently.

So when we came back to the main group and people presented their ideas, there was almost unanimous buy-in on the combined project from all those that were in attendance. Some of the ideas that were floated were really cool, like a community regenerated crosswalk project on Division, where the lines in the street are highly visible and are also pieces of community generated art. I thought this idea was rocking! I also thought that the ease with which the group was able to pick out salient points, and connect to bigger pictures and to possible organizations that could help us were amazing too!

At the end of the meeting we cleaned up and talked about a potential game night at Owen's house on Thursdays, which was very exciting because I've heard that they have Munchkin. There was a lot more that happened, but our next step is to get all that information to all the people that were in attendance and offer to share the developing documents through google docs.

All in all, a great day, and a pretty good meeting regardless of the picture that I placed at the top of the page.

A Day to Remember

09/14/2010 Moon in Sagittarius

Today was great. For a lot of reasons, but mainly because today is the 9th anniversary of my wife and I becoming a couple. We celebrated this day a lot more before we got married in 2007 and had a more formal date to give ceremony to. But enough about me, what about the project? We went to Owen's house to talk to him about this weekends neighborhood meeting. We also talked about the potential of social media to get kids in trouble in their adult life. I'm of the opinion that the more you can own the dumb decisions of your youth, the less power they have over you.

The canvassing today was a little bit hard, Cyd and I were unable to match our energy very well, which led to a few awkward moments. We did talk to a person that had gone to Burning Man where I got some advice on how to build a proper shade structure if I ever want to go in the future. That was pretty great. I got onto my bike a little before 9pm today to come home and celebrate my wife and I's time together, that was great too. In general it was a good day.

DIY Development

09/09/2010 Moon in Libra

It's development time! Woot! I'm spending time with Cyd creating systems to pull people that we talk to at the door immediately into actionable community participation. It's fun. Part of me would rather be out knocking on doors, but it's definitely important to get the systems together so that we're not wasting energy, as that would be rather unsustainable of us. Today was honestly great, there was lots of conversation, lots of love, and lots of strategy. I got to see some old friends that I used to work with in the Greenpeace office.

Other than that, we are gearing up for getting down. We talked to Owen today, and it looks like he'll possibly, with housemate permission be able to open his house up for the meeting that we're planning on Saturday the 18th to decide which project to move ahead with. There are some really good ideas, including community gardens, intersection repairs, murals and many more. It seems like things are coming together and I'm super excited about it. I'd love to see more people in Richmond follow this blog though. Not because of narcissism, but because the links I've been finding are really fun. It's awesome!

Fall of the Pyramids

09/07/2010 Moon in Leo

Today, Cyd and I hit the streets running. Well, not actually running, but at least walking with light steps through the driving Portland rain. The first person we talked to was awesome. His name was Owen, he was a transplant from DC, and just understood in general, intuitively what was up and where things were going. A lot of people feel like the faster we get connected to our communities, the stronger we're going to be as some of the large scale economic and ecological problems start becoming more and more manifest. Change is always hard, but to change before you're forced to is always better than waiting until it happens to you.

I guess that the biggest thing that I've learned lately is that a lot of illusions that have held up our society as it currently is are starting to be dispelled, sometimes forcefully. It seems to me that we've got to realize that we are one people, and we are on one planet, and that division must give way to unity if we're going to go into the future with standing with dignity, rather than limping from all the pyramids falling. The age of the pyramid is ending at this time, and I for one, will not help build more, or give my sweat to helping them stay up.

Today was great out on the streets. I got wet from the rain, but my spirits were very high. I've been seeing more and more signs from the public that this work is useful and that it is wanted, and now we must just use our magic and intellect to make sure that we create the opportunities for community to get together and start the process of doing. The vision is great, but the vision must become action, and the action must become habit, and then the habit will steer an entire communities destiny. I would choose a destiny of interdependence and community involvement anyday over a destiny of alienation and separation. But that's just me.

Searching for Regeneration

08/31/2010 Moon in Gemini

It was the last day of August, and it was a bit rainy. Portland weather has been weird, and I still feel like we might get a summer that stretches a bit into the fall. Today was a pretty good day. I've been away from this blog because I have not been doing the work in the streets for a little while. If you didn't read the earlier posts, my wife and I were expecting a baby, but the baby stopped developing. All last week we were waiting for the remnants to begin their journey out of her uterus, but unfortunately, that has yet to come to pass.

I did go out to the streets today, and talked to quite a few people. The problem that I'm having is that I'm a bit depressed not only about my personal situation, but also about some of the intense economic news that's been coming out slowly lately. Sometimes you can feel long-term developments coming to a head, and you realize the importance of doing something about them. The reason that I'm out in the streets talking to community members is because if we don't stand up together in response to crisis, we end up just reacting to it when it happens.

What's awesome is the amount of good people that are out there. I talked to a lady for a good length of time today that had lived in her community for a long time. She talked about wanting to get a side-yard garden going, and would love to get some help from the community to make that happen. She was really nice, but I had to keep apologizing because I could tell that I was not conveying excitement in my voice, because my heart hurts. So, I will work to regenerate some emotional energy tomorrow and then go back out on Thursday with energy.