[Peace-discuss] How you can support Safe Haven tent community

[John W.]

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 2:59 AM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>wrote:

Speaking wasted money, don't forget Urbana's 6 million dollar clock.
>  --Jenifer
>

Come on, Jenifer.  It has a copper top and four gargoyles.  :-(




> --- On *Fri, 7/31/09, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>* wrote:
>
>
> From: E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] How you can support Safe Haven tent community
> To: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
> Cc: "peace discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>, "Danielle
> Chynoweth" <chyn at ojctech.com>
> Date: Friday, July 31, 2009, 9:10 AM
>
>
> JW wrote:
>
>  WJ Wrote:
>> Why not some sort of cooperative housing for the homeless?  Government
>> programs don't seem to work and are characterized
>> by stupid rules and evil authoritarians rolling up their sleeves to beat
>> people into compliance with the rules.
>> A cooperative system could provide independent super-local governance,
>> some guaranteed freedom from goofy zoners, regulators,
>> and tax-eaters,  protection from predatory construction guilds, all in the
>> name of getting a roof over peoples heads.
>>
>
> I couldn't agree more, Wayne.  I totally believe in credit unions,
> municipal utilities (or co-op utlities, as you describe here), and the
> like.  When I was active with the Prairie Green Party, one of our working
> groups looked into having a municipal utility in Urbana.  Unfortunately
> Urbana seemed to be locked into some sort of long-term contract with what
> was then Illinois Power.  I'm sure Champaign is too, and likes it that way.
>
> We actually do have people working on free wireless internet access for
> C-U.  It's been in the works for years.  I'm not sure what the holdup is.
>
> Cooperative housing is what the Tent City seems to be, actually.  More
> permanent, longer-term cooperative housing would require considerably more
> seed money and strong, smart, committed leadership.  Up in the Chicago area,
> in the heart of the west side ghetto, the Lawndale Community Church has been
> very successful in creating affordable housing units for the community, as
> well as a medical clinic and a number of other amenities.  But it has taken
> almost 30 years to get to where they are now, with the same deeply committed
> pastor there the entire time.  All this stuff is more than a notion.  It
> requires real depth of commitment.  Can we find that in Champaign-Urbana?
> Can we call our neighbors when we need help here?
>
> John Wason
>
> There's more to overcome than just Inertia and stupidity, and ignorance and
> apathy.
> There's often real deception and political evil afoot.
>
> Illinois Power and the Co-ops got into Spite Wars over the territory in the
> days of the establishment of
> the existing turf districts.  Illinois Power used to have a PR guy who
> would go out and "explain" to folks
> that their generators produced a more sine wave like waveform than the
> Co-op's (REA) generator which produced
> a more square wave like waveform.  IP said their electricity is "round"
> while the REA's electricity is "square".
> Next the guy would show the people a copper wire, and ask them if the wire
> was square or round.
> This was in the days when people would put electrical outlets for
> refrigerators about 3 feet off the floor
> so that they electricity could flow "down" into the compressor.  There are
> quite a few old houses wired that way.
>
> I do fortunately have a network of neighbors I can call on here, but it is
> rather clear that Urbana/West Urbana is a society
> that often includes a lot of what Persig is talking about here:
>
> “*They look just like the gasoline attendant, staring straight ahead in
> some private trance of their own. I haven’t seen that since . . . since
> Sylvia noticed it the first day. They all look like they’re in a funeral
> procession. .. Once in a while one gives a quick glance and then looks away
> expressionlessly, as if minding his own business, as if embarrassed that we
> might have noticed he was looking at us. I see it now because we’ve been
> away from it for a long time. The driving is different too. The cars seem to
> be moving at a steady maximum speed for in-town driving, as though they want
> to get somewhere, as though what’s here right now is just something to get
> through. The drivers seem to be thinking about where they want to be rather
> than where they are.  **I know what it is!...We’re all strangers again!
> Folks, I just forgot the biggest gumption trap of all. The funeral
> procession! The one everybody’s in, this hyped-up, fuck-you, supermodern,
> ego style of life that thinks it owns this country. We’ve been out of it for
> so long I’d forgotten all about it." - Robert Persig, Zen and the Art of
> Motorcycle Maintenance.
>
> *
>
> I agree totally that a tent city is cooperative housing.  I agree that
> leadership is needed.
> I agree that the local churches are quite often much more concerned about
> their own "ceiled houses"
> than the needs of the "poor, lame and halt" (maybe you didn't say that
> exactly).  I perceive the time
> as being short and expect the housing need to increase dramatically.  I
> would be pleased to be wrong
> in my expectations about the coming winter.
>
> The city of Urbana has no problem pissing away millions on ridiculous bike
> paths to nowhere, millions on widening a road to nowhere,
> and about a couple hundred thousand on "public art".  The city is also
> willing to guaranteed loans in the hundreds of thousands
> to ensure that obsolete old houses are not replaced in the "Busey(-bodies)
> Corridor".  Finding the seed money is do-able.
> Changing priorities is not easy, but what are the choices here?
>
> Sure enough some people think that a tough program of austerity will "force
> the bums to move along" and get out of Dodge City,
> but sooner or later people will need to awaken and ask "where's the love
> y'all?".
>
>
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