It has been a while since we’ve asked, so please consider a donation today. Better yet, consider a $10-$20 monthly donation. THANKS. If you believe in what we are doing, we need your financial support to cover ongoing expenses. Most of these expenses are largely ‘invisible’ but amount to between $300-500/month. We really don’t waste money here and we are 100% volunteers, so we do depend on you to cover these costs. While many have stepped forward, many more have not and every little bit helps. And Thank You!!!!
Odds & Ends: Last Monday’s Week in Review included excerpts from the NYT’s novella length article on climate change. Since it created quite a stir (with our readers and across the nation), we provide a link to last week’s post where is was introduced which also includes a link to the article itself. Click here. Below are summaries of last week’s posts with further discussion of the article and climate change.
Coming This Week. We are taking a break from our travels and settling in for a week in Sedona where we will finally find some relief from the withering heat and humidity that has followed on every single stop along the way. At this point 90 degrees and dry sounds positively breezy. While in Sedona, we will begin the process of digesting what we have learned on this trip. Look for posts on European models for participatory democracy and more on strategies for combating climate change, i.e. a more thorough analysis of the responses to the NYT magazine article on climate change. We will also begin providing very specific models that can be adapted or used in NM cities, much as we have this past week with profiles of Austin’s Small Home and Community First Village! and Madison’s approach to incubating and developing a network of worker owned cooperative businesses.
The entire purpose of the Road Trip was to find out more about how innovation, commitment, and progressive principles can intersect to create initiatives that advance justice and equity. Much has been learned and now the hard work of synthesizing what has been learned and considering how that learning may (or may not) apply to a NM context.
DNC Reverses Itself, Will Accept Fossil Fuel Bribes. Tomorrow, we will also discuss the DNC’s Executive Committee’s shameless, but utterly revealing decision to reverse the decision to refuse donations from the extractive industries. Their rationale was that they wanted to support an “all of the above” energy strategy. In the face of almost daily and tragic evidence of the increased impact of climate change on communities across the globe, ‘all of the above’ needs to be deep-sixed. We will have much to say about this on T or W when we post again.
Week in Review: Posts on Austin’s Community First! Village, Analysis of Where We Stand with Climate Change, and a Description of How We Can Democratize the Workplace with Worker Owned Cooperatives
As Retake moves forward, we are going to be focusing more and more on how local communities like Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Taos, Gallup, Albuquerque and other NM cities can incorporate Next System’s thinking and develop initiatives adaptable and scaleable to the size of the city and its resources, strategies that can create sustainable progress toward equity. Below are links to a number of publications, blogs and podcasts that we have found that provide information and analysis of models and the processes used to successfully implement those models.
The Next System Pod Casts
- The Next System Pod Casts. Over 20 great podcasts on an array of topics related to imagining an next system and new models for achieving equity and justice. Click here.
Blogs
- The Institute for Local Self Reliance. Click here.
- The Next System Project. Click here.
- Fearless Cities. Click here.
- Democracy Collaborative. Click here.
- US Solidarity Economy Network. Click here.
- Mondragon. Click here.
Videos
- Mondragon Site with an Array of Video. Click here.
- Mondragon: A 14 minutes corporate video of Mondragon detailing various aspects of their history and business divisions (2007). Click here.
Austin Small Homes: A Lesson in How Cities Can Realistically Address the Needs of the Chronically Homeless
Tuesday, August 7.Perhaps the most inspiring 2 days of the trip has been in Austin where Roxanne and I stayed at a truly remarkable development, Community First! Village. The Village was a model of how to engage and support formerly chronically homeless folks and restore not just their security and safety, but their dignity. Just four years old, a group of five men, all volunteers, has developed a village that houses and supports 240 formerly chronically homeless individuals. The Village includes multiple business starts where residents work to earn a dignified living. 380 more units are planned over the next year or two and neighbors who had opposed the first development are strong allies now. Remarkable. Worth a read. Click here to read the full post.
Call to Action in Santa Fe and Summary of Naomi Klein’s Excellent Rebuttal of the NYT Magazine Devoted to Climate Change
Wednesday, August 8. This post provides an update on the planned City Council vote and In this post is also information on Naomi Klein’s rebuttal of the NYT’s novella length article on climate change. In Klein’s rebuttal she points out how Rich had placed the onus of responsibility for failing to act in the 80’s and 90’s upon “human nature” instead of upon the extractive industries’ misinformation campaign, the media that too often bought this misinformation, and capitalism with the growing neo-liberal movement that insisted on unfettered, market driven pursuit of profit. The post also provides a link to Klein’s excellent article.
Worker Owned Cooperatives: An Alternative to Amazon Workforce Oppression and a Tool for NM Cities
Saturday, Aug. 11. The post first revisits the NYT’s novella sized article on how we missed our opportunity to reverse climate change, celebrates a win at the Santa Fe City Council and then explores in depth how worker-owned cooperatives, implemented at the city level could democratize the work place and make significant strides toward equity and justice. The piece on worker cooperatives is a must read, very uplifting. Click here to review the full post.
More posts featuring practical but impactful strategies for achieving equity and justice are coming.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Uncategorized
RE: TINY HOUSES–I want to ENLARGE the conversation about TINY HOUSES and the “homeless”–this implies human beings “on the street”, beggars, bums, down and outs….that is the OLD IMAGE and the old language to separate people out…..just to say…..this is rear view mirror thinking…who needs tiny houses? who needs homes? who needs housing that really is affordable since the term affordable has been co-opted by those who “have a mission to just sell houses and profit big time”. Look at co-housing which is no longer a concept for community of regular folk as the original model was in DENMARK….(price tag for that “vision” are $400K-$500K and more, the price tag “to belong” soars with the hungry ghost of capitalism that makes liberals as greedy as the rest.
Many many single women need housing here and all over the world. Who is championing them as a group?….where’s the townhall meetings and policies that address that?
In Summary, we can stop singling out any one group and pretending that only the “homeless” need housing…….it is an epidemic now and Santa Fe continues to support developers who are here to make big bucks with an attitude of “hang meeting the needs of real people”…..take a look out Beckner Road off Richards and near the new Presbyterian Hospital….a “swamp” of huge houses and piles of blowing dirt with no natural vegetation left to show from the efforts of the newest big boy development……Santa Fe NEVER seems to say NO to big and rich…..Santa Fe never seems to stay focused on THE REAL HOUSING NEEDS OF REAL PEOPLE!
The demographic that is called HOMELESS or fighting off homelessness HAS CHANGED and city planning everywhere needs to stop looking in a rear view mirror and get on with HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHT FOR ALL OF US; multiple big priced homes for the few are NO LONGER TOLERABLE and we ought to ALL stop paying taxes or supporting Santa Fe city government until we see a real turnaround.
Thanks for the comment, Morgana. I think opening the discussion to the housing needs of women, seniors, students, artists, …hell humans…is important and the blog will consider a variety of options that can co-exist within capitalism but that can thrive once a transition from capitalism and purchased democracy can be achieved. There are special needs however for those who have spent 10-20 years on the streets, mental health needs, drug treatment needs and, as is front and central in Community First!, the need to form relationships and community based upon respect, trust, and shared interests rather than being predicated on survival. That is something that extends beyond ‘housing’ and is what makes Austin’s Village so special.