SOS Asheville

Report #:22

Name of Topic:  Cultural Creative Community Center

Name of Leader:  Mary Silva

Names of Participants:  Michael Malone, Rapael Peter, Sage Linden, Kerry

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:  Cultural Creatives are people who care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, social justice and self realization, spirituality, peace and self-expression.  Surprisingly they are both inner directed and socially concerned, they’re activists,, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than others.

While Cultural Creatives are a sub-culture, they lack one critical ingredient in their lives… the awareness of themselves as a whole people!  Once they realize their numbers, their impact on American life promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century.  Even though they are unaware of it these optimistic, altruistic millions are creating a new cultural paradigm.

As of the year 2000, there were 50 million adults in the United states who have the worldview, values and lifestyle of the Cultural Creative.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):  Although there is a huge cultural creative community here in WNC, it is still often difficult to find other like minded individual to connect with to provide the support and friendship many people came to Asheville to find.  The Center of Unlimited Possibilities is a new  prototype for a Community Center designed to support, promote and connect the Cultural Creative Community of WNC. 

Future Action/Next Steps: 

Acquire the location:  proposed space is at Westgate Mall right next door to EarthFare. 

Creation committees for each special interest.

Build out of the space

Resources Required (who should be involved, finances, non-paid labour, other):

Center of Unlimited Possibilities (CUP) Board of Directors and a variety of core groups.

Funding for build out

Lots of Cultural Creatives!

Report #:21

Name of Topic: community gardens

Name of Leader: Cathy Holt

Names of Participants: Debbie Cochran, Steve Arpin

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding): Recalling video by Community Solutions on Cubas Special Period in which they had to cope with embargo of oil and learned to grow food: the farmers became some of the highest paid workers! After the average Cuban lost 20 lbs.

We discussed existing community gardens: Pearson Garden, Edible Park, Burton St. Garden, and Steves homestead garden. At Pearson, it is just whoever shows up for a workday, while Steve makes phone calls. For mulch and composting, Sanitation Dept will deliver truckloads of leaves if requested. Wood chips are another available resource. It is good to grow a cover crop of white clover and plants can be set into it; the clover provides nitrogen, suppresses weeds.

Steve wants to start a Homesteaders Association as a resource base for community gardeners, and offer tours, workshops.

Ways to advance community gardening: Organic Growers School. Edible Asheville idea (get people to make small areas available from their yards for others to help garden, share produce). Cooperation and communication skills will be key!

Future Action/Next Steps: Homesteaders Association

Report #:20

Name of Topic: water catchment and conservation

Name of Leader: Cathy Holt

Names of Participants: Michael Malone, Sage Linden, Carl Odom, gayatri erlandson, Jim Barton,  Kathleen Osta

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding): water is life and vital to any home site. Water catchments and conservation:  anyone can save water with a lowflow shower head. Toilets and washing machines that use less water. Gray water (from washing dishes or shower) can be used for watering the garden. Ground water cannot recharge in cities (pavement) and some groundwater is fossil water, a one time gift. The Colorado river used to get to Mexico now it is mostly used or contaminated. For catchments, metal and green roofs are best. Protect gutters with screens. Can have cisterns with filtration (sand and oyster shells) for drinking.  Ferrocement cisterns made with rebar and cement; plastic bladder within a frame is lower cost. Arizona has a law prohibiting roof water collection. Privatization of water supply is a big problem as in Stockton, CA –they maximize profit and the water system deteriorates. Water use globally: 70% is for agriculture (irrigation), 20% industry, 10% personal use.  Use of drip irrigation would reduce ag water use by 50-70% and increase productivity by up to 90%.

Silt traps for pond: dig a depression upstream.

Composting toilets: flush toilets account for 40% of personal water use in the U.S.

Rain gardens: help filter runoff from parking areas before it reaches creeks, etc.

Future Action/Next Steps: suggested- a tour of Metropolitan sewerage District; a raingardens talk by Michael Miller of RiverLink; Cathy has a Powerpoint presentation on water as sacred resource, which she could show at the U.U. Church.

Report #: 19

Name of Topic:  Meaningful Inclusion of Racial and Ethnic Experience in our Work

Name of Leader:  Amy Sawyer

Names of Participants:  Valeria, Clare, Kathleen, Veronica, Kathy, Chris…Others…

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

Use what you have to reach out and learn other people’s stories, lives.  A flyer inviting someone isn’t just enough.

The issue of developing an open/accessible group often gets tabled.

There is a lot of pain and guilt involved in interacting with different people with purpose

People of Color cannot fully be themselves:  Always needing to ask, “If I go here will I be accepted?

In Germany there was a huge education campaign to come to terms with the Holocaust…but in the USA, slavery has never been discussed or reconciled in that way.

Reconciliation with ancestors is important.  Not something for one person to do alone – reach out and ask for help.

Racism exists.

Take the power.  Teach somebody, make it personal, remove the “they.”

Embrace the desire to do & change & commit to it

Understand that change may be uncomfortable, but the rewards are equally amazing.

Ancestors have good and bad stories…find role models and ask their help, and pray for the ones who were not role models.

Ancestral reverence

Step through fear and feel what is right.

Give orientation to help people learn about new ways to process.

Start with what is close to you & move out in concentric circles.

Report #: 18

Name of Topic: Healing Diverse Women inner healing issues working with teen pregnancy, motherhood and family issues

Name of Leader: Veronica W. Jackson

Names of Participants: Veronica and Steve Arpin

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one: Teenage pregnancy and dysfunctional families

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):How to help with inner healing:  Focus on healthy relationships, have stability in their lives, teach them to have respect for  themselves and others, teach the girls that no means no. 

Future Action/Next Steps: to have training sessions for inner healing, parenting classes and workshops, teaching some cooking skills and women to mentor, bring in positive  role models and mentors to work with them and have pregnant teens to mentor to the preteens to keep them from making some of their same mistakes, to be encouraging and supportive to the preteens. 

Resources Required (who should be involved, finances, non-paid labour, other):Organizers need to find common ground and bring in women who have been through the same situations and developed healthy relationships, brining it to the local community centers and churches.

Report #: 17

Name of Topic: Preparing for Peak Oil in Western NC

Name of Leader:  Angela Leonard

Names of Participants:  Karl Odom, Liz Logan, Irene Wright

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one: 

Angela learned about peak oil three years ago.  It has been a big concern since them because it is a life-changing event—and is emotionally difficult to get your mind around it—people are going to die.  People and government and media need to get together to ameliorate it.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

Background: US peaked in 1972, There is controversy about when the globe will peak.

Questions:

Q: How to get around?  A: Live close enough to walk to town center or on a bus line.

Q: What about biofuels? A:  The volume of fuel that we will need to replace is huge. Do we have enough land for oil and crops?  (no)

Q: What about replacing rail systems? No discussion on the national level.  The US now has to import our steel.

Q: Solar? Very expensive, tax breaks require a certain level of income. Subsidies are needed.

Q: Current self-sustaining farms?  Probably still use fossil fuels for their tractors, pesticides and fertilizer.

Q: Haven’t people been warning us about doomsday for centuries?  A: It is different as oil is a finite resource.

Q: People with land?  Plant with grass and mow (social pressure to keep it attractive).

Resources:

CommunitySolution.org

Relocalization.net—see what other groups are doing.

Post Carbon Institute

Meetup’s Oil Awareness Groups (Liz’s is at http://oilawareness.meetup.com/67 )

Matt Simmons’ Twilight in the Desert

Regional Transportation Authority

Robert Eides plan for transit

Ned Doyle for solar and wind

Concerns:

People who are not in sustainability circles.

Transportation

Bus schedules

Food

Medical

Heat

Cooking

Future Action/Next Steps:

Community education

Once people are introduced to the topic, to have some organization to plug into

Talk to  regional Commissioners, Councils,

Resources Required (who should be involved, finances, non-paid labour, other):

To be determined

Report #:16

Name of Topic: The Relationship of Beauty and Sustainability

Name of Leader: Laurel Reinhardt

Names of Participants: Elizabeth Bunch, Raphael Peter, Charlotte Anthony,

Chris Weaver, Kathy?, Gayatri, Irene Wright

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:

1. Experience at Getty Museum garden led to thought: “If everyone on the planet had access to this kind of beauty on a regular basis, there could be no war; life would be totally sustainable.”

2. PBS special with Yo-Yo Ma, who had been commissioned to create a virtual musical garden (for Boston?); the paths themselves were musical, the plants evoked a feeling of music, and there were to be speakers at various places playing the music Yo-Yo Ma had created in response to the music of the space itself. (The garden never went beyond virtual, I don’t believe, but the music is available on one of his c/ds.)

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

How to create more ceremonial spaces of beauty in harmony with surroundings; self-organizing rather than created by an infrastructure.

Martine Prechtel’s ideas of gods/goddesses responding to the beauty created by humans (even in their speech patterns), and being drawn to nourish the humans in return. Prayers as courtship.

Damenhur: A community in Italy which embraces arts and beauty, brings people together, what helps make the community sustainable.

City Repair: An organization that goes around a community, helping citizens beautify their communal spaces with art (like murals in intersections).

There seems to be a culture clash between people who have been in the mountains for generations, and those coming in now, and different perceptions of beauty (though sometimes it is the generational people who are “trashy,” and sometimes the newcomers who “trash” the mountain sides with bulldozers and big houses).

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander: Noticing the patterns of a place which bring it to life. Can’t define beauty, but know when something strikes me. It’s about developing a language to bring it to life; in this way we can sustain things.

How to encourage community projects designed to bring people together to create beauty.

Such places of beauty are spiritual/transformative.

Charlotte’s gardens: express her own internal experience of beauty, to which people respond in amazingly deep ways. “I just listen to the land, the path which wants to be there, etc.”

Let the beauty you love be what you do.    Rumi

Changing education: open schools to artists every Friday for ongoing mentorship programs, so ALL students, not just those in arts schools, get exposed to art/beauty, and people who are passionate about it.

How do we sustain growth/development without destroying beauty.

Great Circle Builders connect newcomers with green/alternative services for all areas of life which might not be readily identifiable in the marketplace.

Power of intention.

Need to see the beauty in everyone; need everyone’s beauty to sustain humanity.

Discussion of demineralization of soil, change in diversity, effect on health, and how to reminernalize.

Future Action/Next Steps:

1. Charlotte Anthony to write a story for Spirit in the Smokies about an experience she had around intentionality in a community in Colorado.

2. In body of this story, invite people in WNC to create a virtual community which will visualize/intend that people who live here to intend that Beauty be a standard for decision-making, community interaction, and development. Feel what it would be like, be grateful that it is already there, know it together three times a day (8, noon, 4?) for 5 minutes.

3. A collaborative website, starting with language, then photo essay, and any other way of showing the beauty of WNC/Asheville.

Report #: 15

Name of Topic:  Making a living on the land in the city (on 5 acres or less)

Name of Leader:  Lynn Johnson           

Names of Participants:  Lynn, Liz, Claire, Debbie, Brenda

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:  Lynn moved onto 5 acres in west Asheville in the city limits this spring.  North, Northeast and East facing forested slopes; 3 bulldozed housesites uptop; an acre +/- on the hominy creek (similar in size to the Swannanoa), recently bulldozed as part of FEMA “stream restoration”.  Co-stewarding with one other person.  Wondering what other people are doing to make a living on small acreage.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

• What’s possible?

• Preserving the land

• Making money

• Bartering

• Giving it away

• 3 people can be better than 2 to make decisions

• Centerstrip of driveway gardening in bay area for fancy lettuces for local restaurants

• Findhorn sold fancy food to restaurants in france

• Teach what you’re passionate about

• Growing for slow foods restaurants

• Focus on 5 herbs/year.  In 10 years you’ll have 50 herbs, your personal and financial apothecary.

• Cut flowers and herbs sold lemonade stand-style

• Homestead in southern California.  Grows lots of food on small acreage.  Has an inspiring website and blog.  pathtofreedom.com or .org or .something.

• Sell excess to clients, festivals, farmers markets

• Selling watercress from creek on the land in Madison co.

• Wild berries

• Make the relationship connection

• Work party groups – small groups of 5 or less households holding roving work parties throughout the year

• Using big machines to get big landmoving work done now (as opposed to by hand over a long, long time)

• WWOOF-ing - willing workers on organic farms

• Conservation easements

• Land trusts

Report #: 14

Name of Topic: Intentional Community Group to connect people and visions              

Name of Leader: Sage Linden

Names of Participants: 13 participants including Sage Linden, Mary Sylva, Michael Malone, Gayatri, Debbie, Lee, Charlotte, etc.

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one:

There was once SENIC (Southeast Network of Intentional Communities) where they held a couple of large sessions where communities gave presentations and had a potluck together.  They were recognized by the FIC (Federation of Intentional Communities). 

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):

Sage Linden has created a yahoo group website/email listserv to provide an online space for people to have discussions, post their community visions, find a community vision they might want to help with, and to see other website resources and existing community websites.  Hoping to have a tour of existing WNC intentional communities in the fall.  There was discussion about different community aspects and a few specific community examples.  Some innovative ideas, book titles, and resources were shared among the group.

Future Action/Next Steps:

-Plan intentional community tour

-Get more people to post community visions to the website

-Start a book group reading a book about creating communities

-Have a meeting soon and Mary Sylva offered the space at the upcoming Center for Possibilities

Resources Required (who should be involved, finances, non-paid labour, other):

-Sage is running the group right now and no money has been needed so far.

Report #: 13

Name of Topic: Increasing the use of cloth (reusable) grocery bags instead of plastic

Name of Leader: Kathleen Osta  

Names of Participants: Kathleen Osta

Previous story regarding this topic if there is one: Perhaps because plastic grocery bags are recyclable, people don’t think that they have a negative impact on the environment. There’s possibly a belief that it is better than using paper also.

Highlights of Discussion (present story unfolding):  Am curious to know what might motivate more people to use reusable grocery bags. In some countries there is a charge for using them. In other countries they are banned. The # of plastic bags & their environmental impact is staggering.

Future Action/Next Steps:

Will learn and memorize the statistics from an article I have read and still have. Will share that information with others; give them as gifts to friends; tell people this story of no one attending this session out of more than 30 people – which, though not shocking, does say something.