Occasionally a multi-unit building in my town will go on the market and I fantasize about buying it to house families who are moving to California from states which are outlawing gender affirming care, or even trying to simply eradicate gender-nonconforming people. It's so expensive to live here in the coastal region of CA, and a lot of the cheaper parts of the state aren't any more welcoming than your average red state. I know a lot of families are trying to flee for their children's sake at great personal cost and hardship, and I wish I could do something more to help, besides donating to several great organizations.
Oh my goodness I love this dream so much (and also I have had multiple heartbreaking conversations with families that are having to weigh this calculus as we speak).
My project would be helping local homeowners get plans drawn up for converting their garages to ADU's and for working with the city to change zoning and for working with the local development authority to institute low/no-interest loans to cover building costs for any homeowner willing to restrict renting in their ADU to Section 8 recipients for at least ten years.
We have a vast affordable housing shortage, but I'm not sure that building more apartment buildings is the answer. I think we need to use existing building stock more creatively, allowing mixed income neighborhoods and for folks on the economic margins to be deeply embedded in our neighborhoods.
They’re actually voting on the zoning question next week, it turns out, which has been in the works since 2019. The other pieces are my pipe dreams. But we’ll see…
That’s such a good question. I wonder to what extent it’s because the archetypal demonstration for a lot of us (well, me) is the march on Washington for jobs and freedom, and that, rather famously, had speeches.
Which reminds me of the stirring words of a friend of the family who was actually there: “oh yeah, I heard King’s speech. Couldn’t make out a single word.”
As I painstakingly worked on my Hands Off sign last week, spouse said he wasn't making one (which made me a little grumpy), then as we headed out to the protest he grabbed a flap of cardboard from a box and wrote PAID PROTESTER. I frowned...he wasn't being serious about the severity of this moment! Well, his little sign brought many smiles and started multiple conversations. Shows how much I know.
I would take the concept of the Victory Garden, but rather than have it in one place, I'd provide (hire) the expertise for each block to specialize. Together the blocks would be creating the fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, and nuts needed for survival. Those on one of the lakes would initially be stocked with fish in a plan where the fish would reproduce. One group of blocks would grow medicinal plants, another the basis for simple fabric. One group would have chicks with egg laying hens. Once a week we'd come together for the purpose of socializing and bartering. Bartering would include a childcare coop system, human services and equipment. In the central location we'd provide space for celebrations of events, religious services and how-to classes. Skill sets rather than popularity or money would determine leadership and leadership would be limited to the bartering of those skills. Lots to still work out on the plan, but the concept is that as we got to know and respect each other, even if only based on need at first, we'd get beyond the us/them and develop a level of kindness and empathy that's been missing for way too long. It's viable in my current very diverse neighborhood.
I have never heard of a Victorian Garden, but am now very, very into your idea of one (and I secretly hope that my block would get to be the chicken one).
Victory gardens were vegetable gardens planted during the world wars in order to ensure an adequate food supply for civilians and troops. Government agencies, private foundations, businesses, schools, and seed companies all worked together to provide land, instruction, and seeds for individuals and communities to grow food. Throughout the World War II years, millions of victory gardens in all shapes and sizes produced abundant food for the folks at home. While the gardens themselves are now gone, posters, seed packets, catalogs, booklets, photos and films, newspaper articles, diaries, and people’s memories still remain to tell the story of victory gardens.
Giggling cuz I couldn't figure out how you wouldn't know about them and now realizing that my beloved/despised autocorrect had its way AFTER I hit reply and I didn't catch it. Thanks for the much needed laugh.
I keep thinking "I'll come back and contribute after I see others' comments in this discussion. My imagination is just too limited right now to think of the kind of big thing Garrett is describing" and THAT'S IT. This feels like a cop-out answer, but also my biggest limits to my imagination is "working and parenting and just surviving are taking everything I've got and the little things I do around the margins of All That to further collective good seem so underwhelming", so: I want to offer exhausted people enough rest/space/support so we can all better imagine our way out of these lonely, individualistic, zero-sum frameworks that seem to order our lives to one extent or another. A network of respite accessible to anyone who needs it.
I have actually been thinking a lot about that... how many people are longing for so many things (community, shared care, political efficacy, etc.), but there's not even time to sit down and truly think through what we truly want, let alone what it would take.
Ok, hear me out: social nap group. Come for the nap. Stay for the ... other people who want to nap. :)
I just really related to "working and parenting and just surviving is taking everything I've got..." What if our little, underwhelming efforts to further collective good actually collectively make something amazing? Not to Pollyanna this, but we have to believe our efforts matter because they do.
Oh, they totally matter. I've been making a meal to share via our local free fridge weekly (or so), and my kids are starting to notice. My pre-k child used that as an example for a recent project, "my hands can change the world by...": she said "making food for hungry people" and wow. But the inane perfectionist in me keeps reminding me that my actions haven't fixed immigration or something and that noise... ugh.
Betsy, I'm curious about this "local free fridge" you mention. I thought--wait, I could do that! And have been googling about it in my area ever since! So, your efforts rippled into the world via your child, and I am also inspired too!
"I want to grow up in a world governed by Keynesian economic policy where there is a robust social safety net instead of a reliance on women’s labor, as is the case under white supremacist patriarchy!” PERFECT
What I would do with more resources: I am actively (and by actively I mean a little bit here and there in addition to my actual job and multiple other unpaid organizing and volunteer things) trying to work on launching a workers' solidarity alliance! Unions are so important in these days of being ruled by corporate overlords, but traditional labor organizing doesn't seem to have kept up with a changing economy where so few work long-term for stable companies. I want to organize workers not represented by traditional unions! Here is a questionnaire if this is something you are also interested in: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NL3bXQ8nFPpD3xuGQNyTjDRO6LBJm55TdRD4xYxYovA/edit
Ooh Cathleen, this has been something I've been thinking a lot about as I've gotten involved in my non-traditional union (namely, how there can be a more robust network of all of the various ways that people aren't employed in a traditional "this is the clear boss with whom we can collectively bargain" sense). So grateful for you scheming and organizing on this.
There seems like such a need! We've lost so much of our power as citizens to the billionaires, but who made the billionaires their money? Workers and consumers! So that seems like where we need to leverage.
I was going to go with a food hub, that would aggregate from farmers and do cooking, storing, and distribution + classes + hang space for kids. But the housing comments remind me, is there a program somewhere that pairs people who can co-sign loans or rent agreements with people who need a co-signer? We’ve been able to do this for our kids as they turn into renting or car buying adults and I assume this is a perk of generational wealth not available to many. It wouldn’t even likely cost anything. So I’d still build my food hub.
2) Looking at my personal spheres…deep dive with educators and mental health pros on antiracism and White supremacy. Something which would include serious press to get people activated and evolving rather than the milquetoast business we have now. Including how to effectively combat all the ways people are harming/attempting to harm our students (ie community members).
Re: number two--- having watched where the conversation with anti-racism did and didn't go in education circles in the last decade-- you're absolutely right that there is SUCH an opportunity to discuss holistically that question you laid out in your last sentence that never quite happened... wow.
Definitely one of your better posts - all very similar to the multiple rallies we attended last weekend in Baltimore & DC - you made me smile and laugh which is not an easy thing to do these days. Question - did everyone buy the same lousy PA for Hands OFF on Saturday (my toilet makes more noise). Hope it wasn't Amazon. However I do disagree about the granola bars - the ones we eat are much tastier than Quaker (better be for those prices). Keep writing like the rest of us - Your point of view is different than us Blue State East Coasters but heartens me that we are all fighting for the same place we love - USA. Take Care, Stay Strong, Fight the Power
WOWWWWWWW cannot BELIEVE you left out all 739 iterations of pride flags from the “Flags” line item. SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT, GARRETT, I thought you were an ALLY
My dream would focus on transforming backyard landscapes, boulevards, etc to remove lawn and replace with natives (for the pollinators) and food plants. The idea would be to restore native landscape for pollinators and other critters, while also helping to ensure food security - especially in food desert neighborhoods like my own (where the only options are fast food or Kwik Trip 😕). Have community exchange or free table sites for folks to take what they need. There's probably a seed bank/library in there somewhere as well. I think this would be a great way to build relationship across communities as well
" ... date-flavored tires." Nailed it.
I am increasingly discovering that, like so many things, the granola bar space did not need innovating.
Occasionally a multi-unit building in my town will go on the market and I fantasize about buying it to house families who are moving to California from states which are outlawing gender affirming care, or even trying to simply eradicate gender-nonconforming people. It's so expensive to live here in the coastal region of CA, and a lot of the cheaper parts of the state aren't any more welcoming than your average red state. I know a lot of families are trying to flee for their children's sake at great personal cost and hardship, and I wish I could do something more to help, besides donating to several great organizations.
Oh my goodness I love this dream so much (and also I have had multiple heartbreaking conversations with families that are having to weigh this calculus as we speak).
My project would be helping local homeowners get plans drawn up for converting their garages to ADU's and for working with the city to change zoning and for working with the local development authority to institute low/no-interest loans to cover building costs for any homeowner willing to restrict renting in their ADU to Section 8 recipients for at least ten years.
We have a vast affordable housing shortage, but I'm not sure that building more apartment buildings is the answer. I think we need to use existing building stock more creatively, allowing mixed income neighborhoods and for folks on the economic margins to be deeply embedded in our neighborhoods.
How supportive has the city of Ithaca been of this, Asha? I think it's such a lovely vision!
They’re actually voting on the zoning question next week, it turns out, which has been in the works since 2019. The other pieces are my pipe dreams. But we’ll see…
I don't know much about housing but this seems like a glorious lightbulb of a vision!
I said housing and what I was thinking about was stuff like you said!!
That's a great idea. ADUs are an administrative and financial nightmare from my experience.
Mine too!
PA $4.99 is so real; my greatest most wistful dream is to someday understand a single word of a speech at any protest.
Things that are possible:
A better world.
Things that are not possible:
Amplification.
My second-favourite Arundhati Roy quotation
Would happily cart my loud ass PA to any protest. No one has ever asked.
Wait, you actually own a good PA??? Why is nobody calling you!
I mean, it's gotten LOTS of use for various events over the years. But never a protest!
At the one in Chicago last week I didn’t even know there WERE any speeches until I saw them on TV later.
It raises the very real question "why do speeches?"
That’s such a good question. I wonder to what extent it’s because the archetypal demonstration for a lot of us (well, me) is the march on Washington for jobs and freedom, and that, rather famously, had speeches.
Which reminds me of the stirring words of a friend of the family who was actually there: “oh yeah, I heard King’s speech. Couldn’t make out a single word.”
That one made me laugh, considering the many, MANY calls of "LOUDER!!!!!" at my local protest during the speeches.
STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!
As I painstakingly worked on my Hands Off sign last week, spouse said he wasn't making one (which made me a little grumpy), then as we headed out to the protest he grabbed a flap of cardboard from a box and wrote PAID PROTESTER. I frowned...he wasn't being serious about the severity of this moment! Well, his little sign brought many smiles and started multiple conversations. Shows how much I know.
There is a time and a season for everything, including earnestness and grumpy sarcasm lol.
I would take the concept of the Victory Garden, but rather than have it in one place, I'd provide (hire) the expertise for each block to specialize. Together the blocks would be creating the fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, and nuts needed for survival. Those on one of the lakes would initially be stocked with fish in a plan where the fish would reproduce. One group of blocks would grow medicinal plants, another the basis for simple fabric. One group would have chicks with egg laying hens. Once a week we'd come together for the purpose of socializing and bartering. Bartering would include a childcare coop system, human services and equipment. In the central location we'd provide space for celebrations of events, religious services and how-to classes. Skill sets rather than popularity or money would determine leadership and leadership would be limited to the bartering of those skills. Lots to still work out on the plan, but the concept is that as we got to know and respect each other, even if only based on need at first, we'd get beyond the us/them and develop a level of kindness and empathy that's been missing for way too long. It's viable in my current very diverse neighborhood.
I have never heard of a Victorian Garden, but am now very, very into your idea of one (and I secretly hope that my block would get to be the chicken one).
Victory gardens were vegetable gardens planted during the world wars in order to ensure an adequate food supply for civilians and troops. Government agencies, private foundations, businesses, schools, and seed companies all worked together to provide land, instruction, and seeds for individuals and communities to grow food. Throughout the World War II years, millions of victory gardens in all shapes and sizes produced abundant food for the folks at home. While the gardens themselves are now gone, posters, seed packets, catalogs, booklets, photos and films, newspaper articles, diaries, and people’s memories still remain to tell the story of victory gardens.
Oh Victory Gardens! I love Victory Gardens! I read your first message as Victorian Gardens :)
Giggling cuz I couldn't figure out how you wouldn't know about them and now realizing that my beloved/despised autocorrect had its way AFTER I hit reply and I didn't catch it. Thanks for the much needed laugh.
I keep thinking "I'll come back and contribute after I see others' comments in this discussion. My imagination is just too limited right now to think of the kind of big thing Garrett is describing" and THAT'S IT. This feels like a cop-out answer, but also my biggest limits to my imagination is "working and parenting and just surviving are taking everything I've got and the little things I do around the margins of All That to further collective good seem so underwhelming", so: I want to offer exhausted people enough rest/space/support so we can all better imagine our way out of these lonely, individualistic, zero-sum frameworks that seem to order our lives to one extent or another. A network of respite accessible to anyone who needs it.
I have actually been thinking a lot about that... how many people are longing for so many things (community, shared care, political efficacy, etc.), but there's not even time to sit down and truly think through what we truly want, let alone what it would take.
Ok, hear me out: social nap group. Come for the nap. Stay for the ... other people who want to nap. :)
I just really related to "working and parenting and just surviving is taking everything I've got..." What if our little, underwhelming efforts to further collective good actually collectively make something amazing? Not to Pollyanna this, but we have to believe our efforts matter because they do.
Ooh this is good.
Oh, they totally matter. I've been making a meal to share via our local free fridge weekly (or so), and my kids are starting to notice. My pre-k child used that as an example for a recent project, "my hands can change the world by...": she said "making food for hungry people" and wow. But the inane perfectionist in me keeps reminding me that my actions haven't fixed immigration or something and that noise... ugh.
Betsy, I'm curious about this "local free fridge" you mention. I thought--wait, I could do that! And have been googling about it in my area ever since! So, your efforts rippled into the world via your child, and I am also inspired too!
"I want to grow up in a world governed by Keynesian economic policy where there is a robust social safety net instead of a reliance on women’s labor, as is the case under white supremacist patriarchy!” PERFECT
Cedar really outdid themselves with that one
What I would do with more resources: I am actively (and by actively I mean a little bit here and there in addition to my actual job and multiple other unpaid organizing and volunteer things) trying to work on launching a workers' solidarity alliance! Unions are so important in these days of being ruled by corporate overlords, but traditional labor organizing doesn't seem to have kept up with a changing economy where so few work long-term for stable companies. I want to organize workers not represented by traditional unions! Here is a questionnaire if this is something you are also interested in: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NL3bXQ8nFPpD3xuGQNyTjDRO6LBJm55TdRD4xYxYovA/edit
Ooh Cathleen, this has been something I've been thinking a lot about as I've gotten involved in my non-traditional union (namely, how there can be a more robust network of all of the various ways that people aren't employed in a traditional "this is the clear boss with whom we can collectively bargain" sense). So grateful for you scheming and organizing on this.
There seems like such a need! We've lost so much of our power as citizens to the billionaires, but who made the billionaires their money? Workers and consumers! So that seems like where we need to leverage.
I was going to go with a food hub, that would aggregate from farmers and do cooking, storing, and distribution + classes + hang space for kids. But the housing comments remind me, is there a program somewhere that pairs people who can co-sign loans or rent agreements with people who need a co-signer? We’ve been able to do this for our kids as they turn into renting or car buying adults and I assume this is a perk of generational wealth not available to many. It wouldn’t even likely cost anything. So I’d still build my food hub.
Ooh, I was fairly excited about the food hub and then you added in the part about a good space for kids to hang and then I got very excited.
Thank you for this, so great, I loled. I'm considering investing in my own bullhorn, that will be $1,500,000, and I accept Venmo, thanks George!
If your payment hasn't arrived yet, I'll follow up with our guy George on Monday. I bet he's just swamped!
1) Loving this week’s episode of Portlandia!
2) Looking at my personal spheres…deep dive with educators and mental health pros on antiracism and White supremacy. Something which would include serious press to get people activated and evolving rather than the milquetoast business we have now. Including how to effectively combat all the ways people are harming/attempting to harm our students (ie community members).
3) Or just housing. Just Housing!
Re: number two--- having watched where the conversation with anti-racism did and didn't go in education circles in the last decade-- you're absolutely right that there is SUCH an opportunity to discuss holistically that question you laid out in your last sentence that never quite happened... wow.
I’d fund the NEH.
What? Too soon?
I wish it were too soon! As it turns out, pretty urgent!
Definitely one of your better posts - all very similar to the multiple rallies we attended last weekend in Baltimore & DC - you made me smile and laugh which is not an easy thing to do these days. Question - did everyone buy the same lousy PA for Hands OFF on Saturday (my toilet makes more noise). Hope it wasn't Amazon. However I do disagree about the granola bars - the ones we eat are much tastier than Quaker (better be for those prices). Keep writing like the rest of us - Your point of view is different than us Blue State East Coasters but heartens me that we are all fighting for the same place we love - USA. Take Care, Stay Strong, Fight the Power
Thanks!
Re: "did everybody use the same bad PA?" Apparently, yes!!! I'm not sure what memo we all received, but apparently that's the rule.
Re: granola bars, I would 100% be up to hear your granola bar rec.
WOWWWWWWW cannot BELIEVE you left out all 739 iterations of pride flags from the “Flags” line item. SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT, GARRETT, I thought you were an ALLY
Oh don’t worry, I plan to discuss my current approach towards allyship during my next appearance on Gavin Newsom’s podcast
My dream would focus on transforming backyard landscapes, boulevards, etc to remove lawn and replace with natives (for the pollinators) and food plants. The idea would be to restore native landscape for pollinators and other critters, while also helping to ensure food security - especially in food desert neighborhoods like my own (where the only options are fast food or Kwik Trip 😕). Have community exchange or free table sites for folks to take what they need. There's probably a seed bank/library in there somewhere as well. I think this would be a great way to build relationship across communities as well