Last issue we
focused on sustainable and affordable housing. We
emphasized the building supplies of the equation. We
tried to break the hypnotic glaze that the
lumber/timber and cement industries have over the
public and building code officials. Hopefully,
readers will now be more aware of what goes into
building a house, more aware that what our ancestors
and indigenous peoples used to build homes can be
used again (cob, straw, sand, mud, adobe...), and
more aware of the many resources of the numerous
opportunities for building more sustainably.
This issue is somewhat of a sequel. We focus on HOW
people are living sustainably and affordably. We look
at the pioneering spirit of various groups. We look
at their living arrangements and see that these
pioneers are not only living affordably, they are
also practicing sustainability and building
community.
We start the issue with the Los Angeles Ecovillage.
Pioneer, visionary and architect Lois Arkin
writes about how ecovillagers have transformed a
neighborhood into a lively model of sustainability,
complete with community dinners, car-free
transportation, luscious edible landscapes, ownership
of buildings, teaching of others about composting,
energy conservation, and even the creation of an
Ecological Revolving Loan Fund to fund green
businesses right in their own neighborhood (see p.8).
Tim Krupnik takes us on a journey of
a permaculture household in Oakland, California,
where seven people are walking their talk when it
comes to everyday decisions about: water,
retrofitting the house, using salvaged materials...
even decisions about making decisions! As he writes,
"Every action, no matter how mundane, is
politically and environmentally 'loaded'." Learn
what a small group of pioneering permaculture
activists are doing in their city (see p.13).
Neshama Paiss writes a succinct
piece about cohousing and how it has established
itself as a healthy alternative to the typical
developer's neighborhood where sprawling and
glamorous houses exude a poverty of joy and
community. Cohousing is a pioneering model that is
taking root (see p.17).
As Jim Wilson notes in the
"Letters" section, the last issue said
little of the homeless crisis. Therefore, in this
issue, we have a piece about the Prado Homeless Day
Center (see p.20), a column dedicated to the subject
by Orval Osborne (see p.44), and an
exciting report of a ravaged area that went from
"homeless to a homerun" with the help of a
community land trust by Harriet Webster
(see p.33).
We interviewed Debra Bingham, a
longtime resident of the Central Coast, about why she
is leaving for an intentional community in Northern
California (see p.24). Betty Branch,
a cut-rate collaborative housing activist, gives us
an update on her progress (see p.28).
Environmentalists and affordable housing advocates
came together to spell out principles of support and
action that we hope will become the model for
collaboration here on the central and south coast...
and beyond (see p.22).
For those interested in the legalities of creating
intentional communities, please see Dave
Henson's piece on page 25. So often people
come together with wide-eyed enthusiasm to build a
utopia only to discover that a landowner can later
kick everybody off the land since the legal
foundation had not been established.
A permaculture ecovillage called Crystal Waters near
Brisbane, Australia is reported here by international
ecological design teachers and consultants Morag
Gamble and Evan Raymond who
have come to the South Coast to give presentations of
their vital work. As Satish Kumar, founder of
Schumacher College, has reported, "There are few
places you can see permaculture in practice. Crystal
Waters is one of them." (see story on p.45)
In downtown San Luis Obispo, there are two
three-story Victorian buildings which have become
showcase examples of affordability, sustainability
and aesthetics... Local contractor Brad
Schwan wants to duplicate one of these fine
houses but was shut down by the City (see p.35 for
details).
Since there were sellout audiences at both of our
sponsored documentary gigs (one on the Iraq sanctions
and one on Earth Architecture), Jim Dee of the Palm
Cinema has allowed us to create a series of important
films. See the ad for our next film in July, and make
sure you are on the list for future film gatherings.
(If you subscribe to HopeDance, you will
automatically be on that list!). If you wish to
contribute ideas, please send them to our office in
San Luis Obispo. Our focus for future film gigs is
social justice, restoration, and sustainability...
upcoming films will explore: Car-Free options, How to
expand organic food in our bioregion, the Decline of
Sacred Lands....
Also, we have a new columnist featured in this issue.
Suebob Davis knows food, loves food
and is the most appropriate person to write about
food especially since she is totally passionate about
the environment and sustainable solutions. See her
entertaining debut on page 37 (and her review of two
books also in this issue).
I'd like to thank the following people for helping me
out through a crisis of losing 35 pages in the
production phase: Rosemary Wilvert, Peggy McGonigle,
Harold Hallikainen, Stacey Warde, Dean Disandro,
Linda Seeley, Betty Branch and Scott Davidson.
We are not financed by any government or corporation.
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support us!
Bob Banner
