Coincidence?

Small Spaces Etc. - Life Edited

Graham Hill, editor of Treehugger, held a contest. Through crowdsourcing  he received 300 design entries for this "life edited" apartment. Two Romanian architecture students' design were selected and this final design is based largely on their entry.

Top of the line, latest technology, spare no expense for the best features make this an inspired space.

 Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Here are some of the features:

• A moving shelf that divides the room into bedroom and guest room.
• Fold-down bunk beds for guests.
• A Murphy bed that, when folded up, is a functional shelf.
• A telescoping dinner table that can seat 10.
• Refrigerator, freezer, and induction stovetop hidden neatly away in drawers.
• More closet space than you’d get in a much larger apartment.

Here is the Life Edited concept:

Small Spaces etc. - One by One by One

In a beach community accessory units are no surprise.  And, it is important to survival for many that these homes remain a part of the shadow economy because local, state and national laws emphatically impose constraints that do more harm than good for actual people, especially the most vulnerable of the working class and middle class.  This is a look at the great need that these small spaces satisfy and leave the legal constraints for another day. From Grist a quick peek at a couple of options, but the original post shows a whole range for living large in small houses.

Jon and Ryah Dietzen moved from their 1,500-square-foot home to a 400-square-foot cottage with two toddlers. They made the move for its financial freedom, but the benefits didn’t stop there. “We realized after a few months how much time, freedom, and peace we were gaining by not collecting and spending our time taking care of more ‘stuff,’” Jon Dietzen told me. By choosing a smaller house, they found a better balance between work and home life.

Here is the “before” shot.

A lot in a small space: kitchen island, living room, and a bedroom behind a curtain.

Small homes combat neighborhood decline brought on by shrinking household sizes. Adding people can revitalize a neighborhood, allowing schools to stay open, giving neighborhood businesses more customers, making transit service cost-effective, and saving on infrastructure costs. Infilling neighborhoods with backyard cottages helps add more people to a neighborhood, without altering its character. 

As homeowners build small dwellings, they provide lower-cost housing within the existing fabric of their neighborhood, with no government support necessary. Vancouver’s planning director, Brent Toderian, sees this as the essential value of the trend towards small homes: “[It’s] about ordinary people. Thousands of individual homeowners can do it, one by one by one. It’s publicly propelled, not corporate-propelled, densification. It’s gradual. It’s discreet. It’s green.” [ed.emphasis]

Now that many cities have figured out backyard cottage rules, they face a new challenge: dealing with homes even tinier than the typical accessory dwelling. Some cities’ regulations set minimum size requirements for dwellings. Others say a recreational vehicle can’t count as an accessory dwelling unit, which means “you can camp in your little house, but not live in it,” writes Dee Williams. Tiny houser Lina Menard suggests that “people should have the right to a tiny house as long as it accommodates their needs and desires.” But for people to exercise that right, cities will have to rethink the zoning rules that stand in the way of tiny homes.

Dee Williams is well known to many since the uploading of the following video clip in 2008 and shown in the corporate media many times since.

Dee Williams decided to rethink her American Dream after building a school in Guatemala and having a close friend get cancer made her reevaluate her priorities. “He was getting sicker and sicker, and I didn’t have the time or the money to really throw myself into helping him. I was spending a lot of time and money on my house. So the house was the easiest thing to try to get rid of,” Williams told Yes! magazine. So she sold her 1,500-square-foot Portland home and built an 84-square-foot tiny home for $10,000. Now she lives without a mortgage, giving her the time and money to invest in her friends and community.

Via Grist

Whoops! this became a 2 for 1 post day by accident. Accidentally got some posting dates wrong. Enjoy.

A Grassroots Group Stands Up for Everyone’s Water Rights

                            COMMONERS                             

The Detroit People’s Water Board champions the Great Lakes Commons

The Detroit People’s Water Board isn’t waiting for someone else to solve Detroit’s water problems. This community coalition is taking an out- front role on everything from fighting water shutoffs and privatization schemes to helping create a watershed plan for the region.
“Our name is a powerful statement,” says Priscilla Dziubek, a representative on the Board from the East Michigan Environmental Action Council. “People get that we are grassroots and we believe we have a rightful say in what happens with our water.”

The Detroit People’s Water Board (DPWB) is at the forefront of emerging efforts in the Great Lakes region to reclaim the water commons. It was born when community organizers saw the need to bridge a number of different water issues in the city—protecting low-income residents’ access to affordable water, preventing pollution and working to keep Detroit’s water publicly managed and accountable.

Charity Hicks, one of the founders of this

 grassroots organization to protect 

Detroit’s water for everyone.

“We focus on the question: what does water mean for all of us?” explains Charity Hicks, another founding member, from the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. “The Board has a cross pollinating effect among people focused on poverty, health, growing food, jobs, ecological survival. We attend to both human and ecological sustainability.”

DPWB seeks to weave together social justice, citizen democracy and ecological health. The foundation for their work is fostering community and a deepened sense of the “we”—encompassing shared responsibility and equitable benefit.

People’s Water Board members could see that people were concerned about their own water, but they weren’t necessarily making a political connection. “Why in a water-blessed region are so many families’ shut off? Why would we turn over something so intrinsic to our public quality of life, our water, to private interests?” questions Hicks, alluding to the Board’s work to reconnect people to their water and to the community’s stake in what is happening. “We need to have a dialogue about those things we hold in common.”

Seeing the water as a commons, as “all of ours,” Hicks and Dzuibek agree, empowers people. They can make a difference in water issues, and in a bigger way in how we will live together and on this earth, Hicks observes. “We are saying: you are part of this conversation, you are an expert, we are all experts. We have full agency. This is what democracy looks like.”

– ALEXA BRADLEY

Editor: Another chapter in Celebrating the Commons: People Stories and Ideas for the New Year from Commons Magazine being presented each Sunday at EYNU.

Blog Blackout

Blog will be down until Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013.

Small Spaces etc. - Teenager Builds a Tiny House

Kirstin Dirksen filmed Austin Hay when he was mid-project building the tiny home he started at age 16.  She returns at different stages until it's completion in his senior year, September 2012.

For more about Austin and photographs of his process, visit Inhabitat design blog for an interview with the young builder at the beginning of this project.

I Have A Dream - I Have A Drone

captured on the internet . . .

If M.L. King Jr.'s assassination knocked the wind out of the human movements of his lifetime, let's think about going directly "back" to him for the most effective way forward. Below comes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last book of essays, “The Trumpet of Conscience,” 1968: This from “Nonviolence and Social Change”:

"…Of course, by now it is obvious that new laws are not enough. The emergency we now face is economic, and it is a desperate and worsening situation. For the 35 million poor people in America—not even to mention, just yet, the poor in other nations—there is a kind of strangulation in the air. In our society it is murder, psychologically, to deprive a man of a job or an income. You are in substance saying to that man that he has no right to exist. You are in a real way depriving him of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, denying in his case the very creed of his society. Now, millions of people are being strangled that way. The problem is international in scope. And it is getting worse, as the gap between the poor and the ‘affluent society’ increases.

The question that now divides the people who want radically to change that situation is: can a program of nonviolence—even if it envisions massive civil disobedience—realistically expect to deal with such an enormous, entrenched evil?

…I intend to show that nonviolence will be effective, but not until it has achieved the massive dimensions, the disciplined planning, and the intense commitment of a sustained, direct-action movement of civil disobedience on the national scale….

…The only real revolutionary, people say, is a man who has nothing to lose. There are millions of poor people in this country who have very little, or even nothing, to lose. If they can be helped to take action together, they will do so with a freedom and a power that will be a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.

Beginning in the New Year, we will be recruiting three thousand of the poorest citizens from ten different urban and rural areas to initiate and lead a sustained, massive, direct-action movement in Washington, D.C. Those who choose to join this initial three thousand, this nonviolent army, this ‘freedom church’ of the poor, will work with us for three months to develop nonviolent action skills. Then we will move on Washington, determined to stay there until the legislative and executive branches of the government take serious and adequate action on jobs and income.

A delegation of poor people can walk into a high official’s office with a carefully, collectively prepared list of demands. (If you’re poor, if you’re unemployed anyway, you can choose to stay in Washington as long as the struggle needs you.) And if that official says, ‘But Congress would have to approve this,’ or, ‘But the President would have to be consulted on that,’ you can say, ‘All right, we’ll wait.’ And you can settle down in his office for as long a stay as necessary.

If you are, let’s say, from rural Mississippi, and have never had medical attention, and your children are undernourished and unhealthy, you can take those little children into the Washington hospitals and stay with them there until the medical workers cope with their needs, and in showing it your children, you will have shown this country a sight that will make it stop in its busy tracks and think hard about what it has done.

The many people who will come and join this three thousand, from all groups in the country’s life, will play a supportive role, deciding to be poor for a time along with the dispossessed who are asking for their right to jobs or income—jobs, income, the demolition of slums, and the rebuilding by the people who live there of new communities in their place; in fact, a new economic deal for the poor.

…I have said that the problem, the crisis we face, is international in scope. In fact, it is inseparable from an international emergency that involves the poor, the dispossessed, and the exploited of the whole world.

Can a nonviolent, direct-action movement find application on the international level, to confront economic and political problems? I believe it can. It is clear to me that the next stage of the movement is to become international.

National movements within the developed countries—forces that focus on London, or Paris, or Washington, or Ottawa—must help to make it politically feasible for their governments to undertake the kind of massive aid that the developing countries need if they are to break the chains of poverty. We in the West must bear in mind that the poor countries are poor primarily because we have exploited them through political or economic colonialism. Americans in particular must help their nation repent of her modern economic imperialism.

But movements in our countries alone will not be enough….So many of Latin America’s problems have roots in the United States of America that we need to form a solid, united movement, nonviolently conceived and carried through, so that pressure can be brought to bear on the capital and government power structures concerned, from both sides of the problem at once. I think that may be the only hope for a nonviolent solution in Latin America today; and one of the most powerful expressions of nonviolence may come out of that international coalition of socially aware forces, operating outside governmental frameworks.

…In practice, such a decision would represent such a major reordering of priorities that we should not expect that any movement could bring it about in one year or two. Indeed, although it is obvious that nonviolent movements for social change must internationalize, because of the interlocking nature of the problems they all face, and because otherwise those problems will breed war, we have hardly begun to build the skills and the strategy, or even the commitment, to planetize our movement for social justice.

…In this world, nonviolence is no longer an option for intellectual analysis: it is an imperative for action."

Source: Commenter DrJack37 within Common Dreams post

Editor: 43 years later, the numbers of poor, displaced and exploited have skyrocketed - otherwise little has changed.

10 Top Things You May Not Realize Belong to You

...and everyone else on the planet [for most on the list]

1. Air and Water
2. Parks, Libraries, Streets and Sidewalks
3. Social Security, the National Weather Service, Police Protection and other Public Services
4. Wilderness Preserves and National Forests
5. Wikipedia and Open Source Software
6. Dance Steps and Fashion Trends
7. Biodiversity
8. Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Koran, Zen Koans, Hindu Upanishads, Norse Sagas and Native People’s Stories of Creation.
9. Blood Banks, Soup Kitchens, 12-Step Groups, Museums and other Civic Initiatives
10. The Oceans, Antarctica and Outer Space

Editor: Another chapter in Celebrating the Commons: People Stories and Ideas for the New Year from Commons Magazine being presented each Sunday at EYNU.

The Distress of the Privileged

The temptation to just post the entire piece by Weekly Shift is very strong. But, no, you need to read the whole thing over there. You'll have to settle for some excerpts and the framing device below as described in the original piece.

In a memorable scene from the 1998 film Pleasantville (in which two 1998 teen-agers are transported into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV show), the father of the TV-perfect Parker family returns from work and says the magic words “Honey, I’m home!”, expecting them to conjure up a smiling wife, adorable children, and dinner on the table. 

This time, though, it doesn’t work. No wife, no kids, no food. Confused, he repeats the invocation, as if he must have said it wrong. After searching the house, he wanders out into the rain and plaintively questions this strangely malfunctioning Universe: “Where’s my dinner?”

George never demanded a privileged role, he just uncritically accepted the role society assigned him and played it to the best of his ability. And now suddenly that society isn’t working for the people he loves, and they’re blaming him. 

It seems so unfair. He doesn’t want anybody to be unhappy. He just wants dinner. 

Levels of distress. But even as we accept the reality of George’s privileged-white-male distress, we need to hold on to the understanding that the less privileged citizens of Pleasantville are distressed in an entirely different way. (Margaret Atwood is supposed to have summed up the gender power-differential like this: “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them.”) 

George deserves compassion, but his until-recently-ideal housewife Betty Parker (and the other characters assigned subservient roles) deserves justice. George and Betty’s claims are not equivalent, and if we treat them the same way, we do Betty an injustice.

The author cites the carefully parsed argument of Wayne Self's analysis of the Chick-Fil-A obsessions last summer, a series on the distress of the privileged in this post. Between these two writers' insights, we have a really dynamic opportunity to open up the conversations around privilege, justice and scale. As is the norm of coastal California, Encinitas is a bastion of white privilege. But no community is a monolith.  There is more diversity than what is most visible in the press and the government and the advertising.  What is seldom talked about openly is the fact that changes, like more equitable opportunities, bring distress.  Again, read the whole thing for the whole picture as this is just a glimpse.

According to Mary: Oral Communications

Grounds for Resistance

Military issues and veteran topics aren't usually in our viewport.  But, this group highlighted in Yes! brought this marginalized population into sharp focus.  This is a time to make the invisible visible if we hope to solve problems and heal our communities.  With Camp Pendleton our neighbor this hits really close to home.  Those who have served live among us.

Video: Veteran-run coffee houses give service personnel a place to express their frustrations and find help outside the military.

Video courtesy of Gilmanfriends

"Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and suicide are increasing problems among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many have found the support available through the military insufficient. Given drugs instead of counseling or guidance on coping with what they've been through, many soldiers find they must turn to venues outside the military to get the help they need.

Inspired by the coffee house movement of the Vietnam War era, several coffee shops have opened near military bases in the United States, providing more than just a caffeine fix. They double as counseling and support centers for veterans, active duty soldiers, and their families to talk to and get advice from people who understand what they are going through.

One of these coffee houses is Coffee Strong, located outside the gates of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. In her documentary Grounds For Resistance Lisa Gilman looks at Coffee Strong and what it gives to the patrons, military, ex-military, and civilian, who seek more than a good cup of joe."

Read more about Coffee Strong in YES! Magazine's Winter 2012 issue!

Words Matter

Re-humanization: A Glossary of Terms

by William Manson via Dissident Voice

DE-HUMANIZED?:

• Avaricious (adj.)—“grasping, acquisitive, covetous, mercenary”
• Bourgeois (adj.)– “selfishly materialistic… greedy, acquisitive, banal, conformist, philistine, capitalist (middle-class)”
• Corruption (n.)—“moral deterioration, decay… venality”
• Ignoble (adj.)—“dishonorable, mean, base”
• Inhuman (adj.)—“brutal, unfeeling… vicious”
• Joyless (adj.)—“depressed, gloomy… dreary”
• Neurotic (adj.)—“suffering from anxiety, obsessions, compulsive acts”
• Philistine (n.)—“vulgarian, yahoo”; (adj.)—“materialistic, unread”
• Robot (n.)—“person who works mechanically but insensitively”
• Soulless (adj.)—“lacking sensitivity or noble qualities”
• Vice (n.)—“defect of character… transgression, shortcoming”

RE-HUMANIZED?:

• Aesthetic (adj.)—“sensitive to beauty”
• Exuberant (adj.)—“buoyant, spirited, zestful”
• Free (adj.)—“independent, self-governing… unconstrained”
• Humane (adj.)—“benevolent, compassionate”
• Integrity (n.)—“honor, rectitude… wholeness”
• Magnanimous (adj.)—“nobly generous: not petty in feelings or conduct”
• Meditative (adj.)—“thoughtful, reflective”
• Natural (adj.)—“uncultivated, wild… inherent, innate… spontaneous”
• Romantic (adj.)—“imaginative, visionary, idealistic”
• Sagacious (adj.)—“showing insight, good judgment or wisdom”
• Sincere (adj.)—“free from pretense or deceit… unfeigned, open”
• “Soul” (human; n.)—“essential… moral, emotional, or intellectual nature”

SOURCE: The Oxford Desk Dictionary

A Word from Eleanor

“You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt

Small Spaces etc. - Introduction

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
— Henry David Thoreau

Live deep and suck out all the marrow of life is a great Waldenesque way to think about the Tiny House movement of this past decade. Some of us live this lifestyle of small space and others find it an intriguing mental challenge.  Either way, there are now so many wonderful examples around the world it seems Encinitas You Need Us should make this a weekly item.

Housing has been in the news and in the political center of the last campaign year.  Yet absent from the discussion is much talk of small houses and other alternatives to the dominant single family residence that is nowhere affordable for a growing number of residents. There is a Kirstin Dirksen full length documentary - on YouTube here - that is really fascinating. The following is a shorter version as a good introduction to the Tiny House Movement.

Where Are the Off Buttons?

Anyone who has followed the politics of Encinitas knows about the speakers, citizen and elected, who cannot edit themselves. They drone on and on and choose to speak repeatedly. The biggest disappointment is that content rarely warrants the extra time. With high hopes that a new council would set the stage for terse, informative speech (perfected in the campaigns) and high hopes that the community activists who long hoped for a respectful council finally had a new governing body; the last month has been depressing. (This isn't about staff presentations, a subject for another day.)

The following guidelines from Do You Suffer from SME Info Dump Syndrome? by Brad Shore is offered as a perception framework for the goal of edited speaking. Some word substitutions were made to fit a public sector audience versus a private company.

Not long ago I was with some people (normal people, that is – ones who don’t sit in front of a computer screen 24/7) and someone mentioned something in passing about blogs. In no time, I was waxing eloquent about RSS feeds, the appeal of interactive marketing, and the merits of WordPress over competing blog platforms. I was so wrapped up in my oration that I barely noticed that several of my companions had gone to refill their drinks, and the few who remained had their eyes glazed over.

Yes, the shocking reality took hold – I am in the early stages of Subject Matter Expert Information Dump Syndrome (SMEIDS). Luckily for this post, I had made the diagnosis in time. In the latter stages of the disease, victims are no longer aware of their propensity to drone on endlessly about subjects of no interest to their listeners.

The symptoms of SMEIDS include boredom, irritation, and hostility – in listeners. The cure? Remembering that people have their own enthusiasms. In the absence of strong indications to the contrary, assume those enthusiasms are different than yours.

[ . . . ]

If you are an SMEIDS sufferer, there is hope, I hope. I’ve begun limiting my conversation about blogs and social media to short phrases. So far, the news is good. People I’m talking to in meetings do not seem to be falling asleep as quickly as usual. In time, I anticipate a complete recovery.

. . .  Early Warning Signs of SMEIDS
If you are suspect you have SMEIDS, look over this checklist. If you answer “yes” to more than three questions, seek help immediately.

• Do your [online comments] average more than 750 words?
• Are your emails often three paragraphs or more, even in response to yes/no questions?
• Have you ever used the phrase, “Please allow me to explain”?
• Do you ever feel you are not connecting with [others]?
• Do you often find yourself thinking, [others] just don’t understand how great [your opinions] are?
• Are you frequently interrupted?

Maybe a laugh or two could shake our relentless talkers to consider the mute button.  For some activists it seems that dissent for its own sake is just a deeply ingrained habit.  Standing up to a non-reponsive majority for a decade plowed some deep grooves. The beginning of a new year brings a lot of empathy for this kind of a challenge.  Even so, it simply does not work to say the same thing dozens and dozens of times with hundreds of words in order to get a different response.

Rambling council members are really vexing as the past years of stream of consciousness, thinking aloud, love of one's own voice fixations, revisionist nostalgia, autobiographical monologues, diatribes, obfuscations and general questioning for the sake of record were all captured on videos in the city archives.  One of the reasons for the encinitasyouneedus YouTube clips was to separate compelling facts and deliberation from this wasteful noise. A new council of smart, respectful people with something valuable to contribute to deliberations was what we thought we got.  Please hear this as a reminder of that mandate.

This isn't a blanket criticism.  Mayor Teresa Barth is well practiced at covering a great deal of information efficiently and she's already demonstrated a real knack at running a meeting to maximize discussions and contributions. Deputy Mayor Lisa Shaffer used a PowerPoint presentation to address her many thoughts on the process of selecting commissioners.  It actually worked because it was dense with information, well organized and delivered with clarity and brevity.  This was heartening and a more effective use of this tool than often seen with staff presentations. But, staff presentations are an entire subject unto themselves and better left to another post.

Demonizing anyone on the theme (SMEIDS or other reasons) that manifest in the seeming lack of an off button is not a healthy or respectful approach. But, let's just be clear that time theft is not something acceptable in forums that a whole community must share. We need to be able to name this. Distracting from the mountain of issues that are already on the table for this local government is annoying and though a democratic right, it can manifest as the opposite of civic action.

Editor: Speaking as someone who loves words, word crafting, parsing complex subjects and formulating an argument; using twitter, comment threads, oral communications and email lists are not inviting options.  I highly recommend a blog for someone who needs to create with words and share opinions and perspectives.  Those of like mind will appreciate what you offer.  Those who disagree will not hang around long or choose what to read or skip.

Why Should We Care About the Commons in the Modern World?

Editor: A 2013 New Year gift from the Commons Magazine online website On the Commons was their booklet, Celebrating the Commons: People Stories and Ideas for the New Year.  


Encinitas You Need Us will share a chapter each Sunday for readers.  

Why Should We Care About the Commons in the Modern World? 

It matters more than ever in the age of the Internet and a global economy

Although it is a centuries-old way of life, the commons remains essential to our survival and happiness—even in the advanced industrial world.

The natural commons makes life itself possible thanks to air, water, biodiversity and DNA. The cultural commons makes human civilization possible through the sharing of knowledge, language, inventions, stories and art. The social commons makes our modern way of life possible through educational institutions, medical expertise, engineering know-how and communications tools.

Our democratic and community institutions are based on the principles of participatory citizenship embodied in the commons. Even the market economy depends on the commons for the natural resources and human capital that drive its profits, as well as the legal and regulatory systems without which it would fall apart.

Unfortunately, the commons today is under assault. The natural environment continues to suffer devastation, including the specter of global climate disruption. Privatization policies fence us out of resources that once could be useful to everyone, and budget-squeezed governments and civic institutions scale back on services upon which we depend. Open access to the Internet is being threatened.

Meanwhile many people are convinced their security and well-being depend entirely on what they can possess individually, to the detriment of the common good.

But the good news is that people everywhere are standing up to protect and promote what we all share. Some people—inspired by the work of Nobel Prize economics winner Elinor Ostrom, the practices of indigenous and peasant communities or other examples of the commons around us—are launching a movement to draw attention all the ways that the spirit and practice of the commons can help us solve the pressing problems of our time: economic inequity, environmental decline, social fragmentation, political alienation.

Many other people are not familiar with the term, but continue to roll up their sleeves to do crucial work in their communities, guided by a vision of the common good. They are commoners, too.

At this critical historical moment, the commons vision of a society where “we” matters as much as “me”.

—JAY WALLJASPER

Walk on the Wild Side

Reading some of the poisonous comments at online news and blogs - local and national - is despairing for those of us excited about some real positive changes within reach. Time to turn the page - these make us laugh every time.

Financial Vision - Where are we going? What Matters?

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll

Mayor Barth cited this quote concluding the Jan. 9, 2013 council meeting presentation by City Manager Vina. He laid out a plan to open up the entire Budgeting methodology to the council, community and advisors / consultants for a fully transparent process. He also emphasised Strategic Planning as a tool that has been missing in the annual Encinitas financial planning and assessment. The council asked questions, deliberated, heard public speakers and came to the unanimous vote 5:0 to follow the CM's recommendation.

The following information was submitted in the agenda packet prior to the meeting. The complete slide series and introductory memo are included here for documented reference. The subject is too complex and this is merely a glimpse of what is to come.  This process will take half the year. Let this be communique number one. It sounds great, but we've matured I suspect after projecting our own dreams on hopey, changey phrases versus our actual experiences in past ideological strategies.  That said, it looks solid.

SUBJECT: Introduction of the development approach for the FY13/14 and FY14/15 Operating Budgets and FY13/14 to FY18/19 Capital Improvement Program; and Strategic Planning for Council discussion and possible direction.

BACKGROUND:
The City Council adopts a two year operating budget and six year financial plan and capital improvement program. The typical budget cycle begins with the preparation of the operating budget which includes projections and assumptions for both income and expenses anticipated for the two year period. Additionally, capital improvement projects are evaluated and funding sources identified in order to develop the multi-year capital improvement program. It has also been typical that goal setting sessions occur at City Council meetings in order to gain input from the public. These sessions usually occur in the January or February time frame. Following the goal setting process the Finance Department, in conjunction with all city departments, prepares the operating and capital budgets for City Council discussion and approval. The adoption of the two year operating budget and six-year capital budget typically occurs in May.

The management of the city's budget throughout the year is a very deliberate process, with the Finance Department holding quarterly budget meetings in order to monitor the budget plan and check in with departments on progress. This process has been very valuable and results in all departments managing within the resources allocated for the year. Additionally, staff prepares a mid-year report for City Council's information and direction that is presented in January or February each year. This midyear report also assists with overall management of the budget and provides for any adjustments that might be needed six months into the fiscal year and budgetary plan.

The City of Encinitas has practiced good fiscal management through the leadership of the City Councils fiscal policies. Prudent fiscal policies include having a balanced budget each fiscal year, monitoring of spending and income, management of debt, and establishment of reserves. The City continues to meet its reserve requirements and is financially stable.

Editor: Fair to say that many in the community distrust this assessment. There is the perception that voters have been lied to and there needs to be some acknowledgement. One could start with the extremely difficult process to get answers and a clear accounting. Clearly this is what this process is designed to do. 

DISCUSSION:
Staff is currently in the process of organizing for the development of the FY13/14 and FY14/15 Operating Budgets as well as the six-year Capital Improvement Program for FY13/14 through FY18/19. Before the budget hearings begin this year, staff will present a number of informational budget sessions to the City Council in order to provide updates and background on the operating and capital budgets. The informational sessions will include topics such as:

• The city's revenues and expenses, including assumptions and projections
• Two year budgeting process
• Six year fiscal planning
• Reserves and Debt Ratio
• Pension Reform, Unfunded Liabilities, and PERS costs and actuarial information
• Contracts for Services
• Capital Funding sources and programming processes

During the Moonlight Beach Improvements and Encinitas Community Park project workshop on July 11, 2012, the City Council identified $600,000 of available funding that can be allocated to future projects. Staff will present this opportunity during a capital improvement workshop as part of this year's budget process. Following the informational budget sessions, staff will be presenting the proposed budgets for City Council's consideration and adoption.

STRATEGIC PLANNING:
While the City's budget management and fiscal policies have served it well since incorporation, there is an opportunity to enhance this process with the use of strategic planning. Developing and pursuing long-term vision for Encinitas through strategic planning will provide a decision making model that will better connect resources with specific goals. A Strategic Plan would be the result of such an effort and can be used to better communicate with the community on the specific initiatives that are planned to continue providing great quality of life in Encinitas. The specific approach for developing a strategic plan has not yet been prepared. With City Council's direction to proceed with strategic planning, staff will come back with the implementation approach for City Council's discussion and further direction.

Generally, the strategic plan would include two years of specific initiatives approved by the City Council and would be consistent with the two year budget cycle currently in practice. Every year the City Council would have an opportunity to review and update the strategic plan as necessary. Strategic planning usually begins with a "visioning" exercise of the elected body that identifies quality of life elements. The visioning approach leads the organization and community towards specific goals that can be tied to the budget process to assure that resources are aligned with this vision. This same exercise and approach will assist with the updating of the City's General Plan as it would provide a policy framework from which to work towards an update of the existing general plan.

Strategic planning includes many components; however, essential to any strategic plan are: 1) the support and direction from the elected body with exercises that determine the vision for the future and addresses broad themes of common interest, 2) community outreach that is inclusive of all local community leaders, 3) decision making tools that assists with the evaluation of current programs and activities and help set priorities for the future, and 4) accountability through established measurable outcomes to ensure accomplishment of the goals.

(PowerPoint Presentation)

City of Encinitas
City Council Meeting
January 9, 2013
.
Budget Development
Strategic Planning

"Budget Basics"

The Budget Cycle
Budget Preparation and Management

• Revenues
• Expenses
• Two Year Budgeting
• Six Year Fiscal Planning

Reserves
Debt Ratio

Budget Development Approach

Informational Budget Sessions - February/March
Budget Hearings – March/April
Continuous Improvements - April
Strategic Planning Concept - April
Budget Adoption – May/June

Operating Budget

Personnel Costs

• Overview of costs
• Pension Reform
• Unfunded Liabilty
• PERS costs and actuarial

Contracts for Services

• Law Enforcement
• Park Maintenance
• Building Inspections

"On The Horizon" - challenges/opportunities

Capital Budget

Overview of Funding Sources
Programming of Funds processes
"In-progress" projects
"In the Pipeline" projects
Future projects

Capital Improvement Workshop

Council confirmation of current projects
Funding strategies for $600,000
Future Projects

Council Reports Back

Budget Preparation

• North County Economic Development council (? ed)
• Citizens Academy

Strategic Planning

• Environmental Risk Assessment study
• Special Case streets criteria
• Incremental development policies

Operating Budget FY13/14 and FY14/15

Base Budget
Projections and Assumptions
New Programs/Activities/Costs

Continuous Improvements

Department Efficiencies
Public Works/Engineering merger
Wastewater consolidation
Fire Management Services

Strategic Planning

What is Strategic Planning?
Why have a Strategic Plan?
Possible next steps for implementation.

Strategic Planning for Local Government

A decísion-making model

• A systematic way to present the relationship between available resources you have to operate your programs and activities AND the changes or results you hope to achieve.

A Community Communication Action Plan

• A tool that allows the local government agency, organizations, community leaders, and the public to participate in setting goals and identifying priorities.

Why Strategic Planning?

Introduces logic and decision matrix to budget process
Connects quality of life goals to funding decisions
Provides policy framework that supports the General Plan, annual budget, department work plans, etc.
Assists in setting priorities and understanding community needs

Why Strategic Planning?

Brings efficiencies to government
Improves customer service to the community
Provides a vision and focus through an "action plan"... .accountability
Clarity in policy intent and direction

Possible Next Steps

"Visioning" session(s) with Mayor and City Council
Collection of data
GAP analysis.... .does current effort support vision?
Design community outreach efforts
Identify and prioritize initiatives
Allocate resources
Assign Key Indicators
Develop Action Plan

Council Direction

1. Proceed with Strategic Planning?
2. Reorganize General Plan effort?

~ end of slide show ~

The Council Members discussed the General Plan Update reports scheduled for the three February meetings (Planning, GPAC & ERAC each scheduled for a separate week) and agreed that these should be kept as agendized presentations despite this evenings' vote to halt the General Plan update effort until the visioning, strategic planning is complete.

According to Mary: My New Year's Resolutions!

Great Potential Lies Before Us

Image Source

For some the precocious child is just annoying.  You'll want to skip this one. For the rest of us there is something stirring about hearing clear statements, delivered with sincere passion and excitement.

I can recall at age 12 being asked to ride on a League of Women Voters float along with other kids.  This was an utterly passive experience compared with the bright young minds in the video clips here, but it instilled a deep sense of civic pride and responsibility I still feel lives within me and helps shape my choices. 

"Here are a couple of downer facts about mountaintop removal mining: 500 of the oldest mountains in America have been destroyed. There are 2,000 miles of streams poisoned." Source: I Love Mountains - No More Excuses, Appalachian Voices via Grist

The message constantly being attributed with Idle No More is one of solidarity and looking out for future generations of Indigenous Peoples and the environment. A message that can best be shared by members of future generations like 11-year-old Ta’Kaiya Blaney.

The Young activist talks about the changes in our environment, the Keystone XL Pipeline and more before sharing her perception on what Idle No More means. “As we are standing on unceded territory, and we have that right. And that’s what Idle No More is all about. It’s about us standing up and speaking up. We’ve never really been asleep and now more than ever we’re awake and we’re standing up.” Source: Idle No More Has Voices of the Future Generation

This is a couple years old but still timely. Birke Baehr -"What's Wrong With Our Food System? And How Can We Make A Difference?" via Mim Michleove on Facebook

Sunlight Foundation in 2012

Last April we posted about Teresa Barth being recognized by the Sunlight Foundation for her letter to the editor regarding a Sunlight Ordinance for Encinitas City Government.  Capitalized for emphasis as this was also a campaign theme for both Lisa Shaffer and Tony Kranz.

This was only one of several posts here at Encinitas You Need Us tagged sunshine. If you scroll to the very bottom of the page you'll find our permanent link to Sunlight Foundation.

This theme will continue to be central to our political posting here.  Check out the video below for the many offerings from this organization that can help us all shine bright lights at our city government, dark money magnets like We Love Encinitas, our shady Congressman Issa and much more.

According to Mary: Ring and Run

I can't believe the conservative UT San Diego ran this!

Our Lady of Conspicuous Consumption

This was artist Mary Fleener's comment on FaceBook linking the UT San Deigo article on the Women's Museum of California exhibition.

There’s yet another reason to check out NTC at Liberty Station: 

The Women’s Museum of California is comfortably ensconced in Barracks 16, and its inaugural show, “Capturing the Wonder of Women,” is now up through Feb. 24. 

The juried exhibition — curated by UC San Diego’s Huai Li with the three winners chosen by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s Robert Pincus — was open to men and women, but it’s the women who make the strongest impression among the 46 artists admitted (out of approximately 150 artists who submitted work). 

[ . . . ] 

Mary Fleener: Her “Our Lady of Conspicuous Consumption” is among of the show’s delights. It seconds the theme raised by Puffer in an inviting, whimsical manner, perhaps understandable given that she spends much of her time doing comic-book art, CD covers and illustrations. 

Fleener lives in Encinitas and plays in the band the Wigbillies.

You'll have to visit the museum to see this piece properly as the online version is cropped oddly.  And BTW her political cartoons tagged "According to Mary" are proudly posted each week here at EYNU.

Screen Free Dream

A fantasy of taking flight, leaving virtual living entirely behind in favor of living in a physical realm filled with the realities of nature, people, smells, sounds and all that exists regardless of mainstream media - it beckons. Freedom calls.

2012 was a campaign year devoted to 7 days a week blogging about Encinitas and watching the horror that national politics has become.  At least the Encinitas council changes brought really deep satisfaction and fulfillment.

Habits that you want to break?  These are a pain in the ass. amirite? In fact that seems to be the key element to embrace, the pain.  No point in pretending that discomfort isn't part and parcel of the process.

The image here doesn't exactly capture it for me personally.  In fact the television left the house five years ago, but the internet opened a back door with online streaming and video clips.  A junkie can still get a fix even if it is controlled for advertising, asshats and punditry shouty and modulated lying 24/7.

The fact that so many people I know and love still have mainstream media central in lives makes me deeply sad.  But, I'm honestly more concerned with getting my own happy ass away from screens and out the door for real world engagement.

For me the decades long joy of reading several novels a week faded during a period a decade ago with unemployment and the nightmare that was the Bush administration.  Consider this a heads up that there may be periods of non-posting in 2013 as I work to rewire my brain.

That is all.

Mayor Teresa Arballo Barth provided a link to a Western City (CA League of Cities magazine) article that captured the energy of the Dec. 30 Post, We ALL Can Do It. This is a real thing in the real world, yet it feels more like a Tell-A-Vision opportunity.

Santa Monica has taken a national program, Rosie's Girls and given it a civic twist. This sounds like something Encinitas would be perfect for expanding our growing community building muscles and long term resilience. With a new council of dynamic women leaders, we have an encouraging model for our town's daughters to be able to emulate. And, doesn't this seem an especially good entrée for more diversity in our predominantly white city government and activist ranks?

The City Becomes a Classroom

Each summer, as part of the Rosie’s Girls Santa Monica program, more than 60 girls between the ages of 11 and 13 don hard hats, wield hammers and take blowtorches in hand as they go behind the scenes to find out what it really takes to run a city. Over the course of three intense weeks, the girls actively take part in nearly all city functions from carpentry to plumbing, tree trimming and more. They also sit in the hot seat behind the dais at a mock city council meeting. The combination of creative expression and daily challenges increases leadership capacity, stimulates critical thinking about gender equity and has participants looking forward to more.

“Our program takes the original Rosie’s Girls model one step further by transforming the participants’ hometown into a classroom,” says Julie Rusk, human services manager for the City of Santa Monica and co-founder of Rosie’s Girls Santa Monica. “Learning about a city from the inside out creates an extraordinary opportunity to connect girls with their community, while having lots of fun.”

For a general sense of Rosie's Girls, the following video clip of a Vermont camp captures the excitement these girls and their parents feel about this program.

The week of Jan. 16th our new city council members, including Deputy Mayor Lisa Shaffer will be at a League of Cities training conference.  It would be great (in a continuation of the Tell-A-Vision theme) if she and her councilmen colleagues have a chance to meet someone from Santa Monica to find out first hand about this wonderful program for the young women of Santa Monica.  Having more than a decade of data on their Rosie's Girls Santa Monica, the success rate for their community is impressive.

Empowering and Inspiring Girls 

A recent study of the Rosie’s Girls past and present found that 96 percent of respondents reported increased overall confidence, with 97 percent indicating that the program made them believe they could do and be whatever they wanted. Parents often notice this change in their daughters. Eugene, a Rosie’s Girls father, believed he could see confidence building in his daughter thanks to the program; he was sure it would benefit her throughout her life. [ . . . ]

The program has also created a stronger community. Among past participants, 90 percent reported increased community service and advocacy and 88 percent assumed leadership roles in various settings. 

By exposing young women to civic functions, professional careers and technical trades, Rosie’s Girls Santa Monica encourages them to expand their view of what they can achieve and enhances their sense of community at a particularly vulnerable time in their development. 

The emphasis was mine. Their first participants would be in their twenties now. For anyone interested in personally taking some action, the following information is for you.

Contact: Carla Fantozzi, principal supervisor, community services programs, Human Services Division, Community and Cultural Services Department, City of Santa Monica; phone: (310) 458-8688; email: carla.fantozzi@smgov.net.