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

[E. Wayne Johnson]

I remembered the c(l)ock tower later.


On 8/1/2009 2:59 AM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> Speaking wasted money, don't forget Urbana's 6 million dollar clock.
>  --Jenifer
>
> --- 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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