Free Geek

In a Tell-A-Vision framework, imagine a chunk of the Encinitas Fire Empire being donated to an enterprise like the Free Geek operation described below. In particular the now abandoned Cardiff-by-the-Sea Fire Station would be a great site for this.

This kind of thing is spreading across the country and a good reason to feel encouraged.  Imagine the same kind of entrepreneurial spirit for appliance repair, bike repair and other mechanical skill-based education and cooperative sharing to provide for needs in a transitional economy.

Lifesavers

A dozen years ago the idea of green roofs was a novel one and the first pictures I collected were of humble dwellings and simple homes. These are still favored images and closer to what I'll be installing this year (or next).  Today it is becoming more and more acceptable in the architectural community and with planners to consider on a large urban scale. See last May's Tell-A-Vision for concept to heal the blight that is the big box, Wal-to-Wal, El Camino Real corridor aka car storage and large truck magnet.

Plants make life possible.  This is the introduction to this video clip. One of San Diego's own, Jim Mumford, gives a TED Talk to inspire us all to think of green roofs, green walls and other living elements as a part of our built environment. The time has come. This week is California Arbor Week, March 7-14. Let's hug us some trees and fondle some foliage, folks.

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.

You Are Not A Loan.

 Rolling Jubilee Website:

A bailout of the people by the people

Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

Learn more or contribute.

77.5% Of US Households Are In Debt

62% Of All Bankruptcies Are Caused By A Medical Illness

Student Tuition Debt Is Over $1,000,000,000,000

1 In Every 7 US Citizens Are Pursued By Debt Collectors

The Ratio of Household Debt to Income Is 154%

40% of Indebted Households Used Credit Cards To Pay For Basic Living Expenses

A couple of the many videos available on the Rolling Jubilee website.

Tell-A-Vision: Encinitas Sees Us

Here is a vision for tomorrow.  No, really, tomorrow as in Wednesday, October 24th, the last Encinitas City Council Meeting before the election for a new city council.  Even though activists are usually working on researching the agenda packet to be prepared to speak, another approach just might be timely.

What about our preferred council candidates Lisa Shaffer and Tony Kranz speaking at Oral Communications about the overwhelming support for change in the council members?  After more than a year of meet-ups, events, canvassing, flyer handouts and campaign writing, filming and every day spontaneous testimonials from voters - they have so many stories to tell.  Picture council commissions filled with some of the best-qualified and most council interactive dialogs.

Similarly, our regular council-viewing community have their own stories from others to share.  In three minutes each can give the idea of the sheer numbers of people contacted listened to, written about and befriended during this election year.

See, the council majority has proven over the last 12 years that Jerome Stocks is not only immune to fact-based criticism, he thrives on retaliation and revenge. Muir is the weighted right hand and Bond is over.  Without these players, Gaspar is . . . alone and pettiness or petulance won't be indulged.

What about describing the long silenced minority running the show? Give examples of innovative ideas - like bioremediation of the contaminated soils - and how a transparent, interested council might treat the subject.  Share your daydream of how the city manager might be effective in removing obstacles and challenging the staff to provide more and better support.

How would a council without fear of public discussion of financial strategies and risks envisioned to move back room, highly complex subjects into a series of intelligible forums. There are so many business friendly ideas and insights Lisa and Tony have to share.

All kinds of people have stories they've gathered of an active general population craving more support for walkable streets, more open space enhancement, community gardens, healthy air / oceans / wetlands and our urban forest.  Just standing and reciting lists of things like this - with a big broad smile (and maybe even a blub or two) would bring a glad hearted feeling to the many, many people who are watching from home.

Oh, and what fantastic clips my dears.

Tell-A-Vision: Plenitude Economy

Some practical ideas for living.



And since there is such anger, confusion and misinformation during the campaign season, a few minutes here unfolds an alternative way of thinking about the 'isms . . . capitalism, socialism, fascism . . that are hurled at people's words, ideas and candidates. There are a whole series of people presenting innovative, sustainable local/regional enterprises to a group of investors in a Slow Money gathering. Actually it is a kind of small c capitalism with social justice, community building potential.

The frustration of terrible filming - bad camera work not showing slides, bad lighting - are a lot like our local city council videos.  Don't let this keep you from checking out a bunch of people each letting this "Tell-A-Vision" being central to their lives. It is regrettable there are no women speaking given that women are responsible for 80% of the world's food production and women are the fastest growing group of new farmers in this country.

Whoops! Update because I spoke to soon. Here is the YouTube Channel showing all of the speakers and there are women in this group.  The restaurant speaker gives those with more of an urban world view a great vision for the future of this industry.

h/t Sami Grover

Tell-A-Vision: Beyond Sustainability

Now through Sept. 6 - disgusting national political money orgies, re-runs and a holiday weekend means you can toss the television.  But, we can share with each other our ideas or Tell-A-Vision. Here's one to start the conversation (and for the editor to try and work off the demons and disgust of the last week).

It's the perfect time to imagine Encinitas thriving in way that restores balance, replenishes and renews.  A campaign update (shown on her Facebook page) sent out to the hundreds of her supporters from Lisa Shaffer today,

"This election is about preserving what is wonderful in Encinitas and making good decisions about the future - land use, traffic, environment, business, financial management, and our overall quality of life. A few hours now could make a big difference in the next four years."

Stay with me on this one, this Tell-A-Vision post on permaculture does relate.  Shaffer's quote above seemed a fitting way to say we don't have to view all of these areas in isolation and divided into separate issues as has been the way for so long. Shaffer is a leader in sustainability, so I know she sees these connections that Councilwoman Barth, council's only strong advocate for sustainability currently.  If these two were  joined by Tony Kranz there would be real advocacy for healthy food and all the other connections. On his Facebook page he says,

"Please like the page at the link below. It's an organization on a mission to change the world by helping kids to learn healthy eating habits. I think it's very worthwhile and believe you will too. Encinitas local Mim Michelove and her business partner Camille Sowinski are doing great work with the teachers and administrators at our elementary schools."  Healthy Day Partners

Good decision making would rely on the ability to "learn, unlearn and relearn" what our community needs to thrive in the 21st century.  Good decision making dismisses "truthiness" for the shallow and short term posturing of the status quo measured in spread sheets alone. Good decision making takes what is at hand, be it people or resources and increases value by utilizing everything possible. No mocking or belittling or marginalizing or blaming or attacking ever helped individuals or a community to flourish. That includes hippy bashing too.

Sustainability, public service, climate change and economic development have all been twisted by our council majority.  We instead can have so much more honesty and integrity if we had a council majority of Barth, Shaffer and Kranz open to ideas like these students from University of Massachusetts permaculture experiments have presented below.  The last, part 3, is presented first. It best connects the dots of growing healthy food to land use, business, environment, education, financial and community involvement.  Parts 1 and 2 for the curious.

And, a few hours now making a difference for the next four years - for the next twenty-four years is how we might envision. Right now it volunteering for the campaign, but it is like the planting of 101 trees in Leucadia recently, imagine permaculture gardens throughout all five communities, used to restore the soils on the agricultural acres at the heart of the city.  Imagine composting on a citywide scale as is done in many cities along the Pacific coastline.  Frugal, resilient, building health and economic strength - re-envisioning, re-skilling and so much more. Abundance available, but without the extractive and poisoning methods of conventional tilling agriculture.

It's important to note that there are so many positive garden experiments with school children and others throughout Encinitas, despite no support from the city council majority. Mim Michelove and Russell Levan have a million stories between them regarding the EUSD school district gardens. Sheet mulching, shown in part 1 below was one of the dozens of first steps taken at Paul Ecke Central's School As A Garden several years ago (2 volunteers instead of the 1,000 in the video). Zero cost is a really compelling idea for transforming and revitalizing the land. Let nature and time do the most of the work. (Picture the last 12 years of the Hall Property being enriched month after month with food waste, manure and mulch for no cost but hauling, for 144 or so months to restore the degraded soil.)

Part 1

Landscape design and permaculture planting could work miracles beyond healing the soil and growing food. As Councilwoman Barth said about capturing water runoff at Crest Drive's private property edges.

"Vegetation is the solution. The more you replicate the natural environment the better it is. This is where we need to get this storm water, this runoff addressed - in the landscape plan. Mother Nature knows how to do it, so let's step back and try to replicate that more than big drain pipes, curbs, gutters and pavers."

Part 2

Let's start allowing known facts and experiences in the natural world inform our conversations, our decisions about the present and the future.  All problems of the world solved in the garden, the man says. This lifted from the end of a post about trees transforming our world posted March 23, 2012.

This is a vision.  It could be a real conversations with experts in the field who live in our community or are available outside of our city staff regularly used consultants. Dump Stocks and Muir.  Vote Shaffer and Kranz. 

Tell-A-Vision: We Are Not Your Human Resources

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln, December 3, 1861

According to a National Law Project report, 1 in every 4 jobs is a low wage job in our country and predicted to remain that way to 2020.  In Encinitas this seems emphatically true.  Practically the only jobs coming to our community this year were the shamefully ill-paid big box retail, fast food and the most contemptible (in treatment of workers), Walmart. There is a generation who has never known what has been stolen of their future.  This is all they have known. A year ago I read the following about the debt ridden middle class, and it stuck with me. David Michael Green stated in his piece with the same name, "We.  Are.  Not.  Your.  Human.  Resources."

"The truth is, the one percent in this country sees the rest of us – not as equals, or even as human beings – but as commodities put on this earth to serve them, no different from machines or infrastructure, computers or chemicals.  We are their resources, who just happen to have bodies and minds somewhat similar to their own (though of an entirely different class, of course!).  Which means we’re a pain in the ass because, unlike machines, we have an annoying tendency to want a moderately decent salary and time off to spend with our families, not to mention bathroom breaks on the job.  What a drag, eh Thurston?!  To them, we’re not human beings entitled to human rights and empathetic respect.  We are, instead, the frustratingly-expensive remaining elements of a wealth-production machine that cannot (yet) be replaced by computers, robots or Asian peasants."

Now for the Tell-A-Vision portion of this situation, is the primary vision of a populace aware of this beyond simplistic blame regurgitated from hate radio and cable tv.  A community awareness of the shared challenge of less capital could invite greater respect for the labor opportunities that are gone and probably not coming back. This is pretty fantasy land thinking for 2012's most publicized Encinitas, a community accustomed to wealth and prosperity. But, for the large slice of humanity living on low wages in Encinitas, being seen simply as resources and ascribed moral blame for poverty is a miserable place to be.

Part two is the re-education of our perceptions of value judgements.  As Lincoln said, labor is the superior of capital.  The video clip below captures this in the actions of an Oakland Teacher who created a computer lab for his school with no money at all.  His labor, his imagination and reaching out to the internet, to community and his willingness to try is an inspiration. Robert Litt website

Building a shadow economy is something the very poor have a better handle on than the well to do.  Barter is the backbone of this in every culture.  It's primary attraction for many is building community, like our own Encinitas resident, Isabelle Baril-Ortley who does food swaps for this very reason.  Regardless of what a person's economic standing, the skill and creativity of preparing food of all kinds is a wonderful community connection.

Both of these examples are celebration of labor over capital. These encourage us and our children to see beyond obstacles in problem solving.  They empower us to rely on our own abilities rather than to depend on experts, money, leaders and others to do it for us. Lack of capital isn't the end of the world.  This doesn't mean we don't insist on a decent quality of life for ourselves and a real future for our children.

These are just a couple of examples of envisioning a different approach to fulfilling our needs.  In this last month of summer before Labor Day, there will be more posts on our human labor and finding renewed value in skills for a transitional economy.  Nothing and no One thing or ideology will change our broken system, but it is irrational to keep expecting an economy that was built on paper to return.

The Story of Change

From Annie Leonard - Story of Stuff Website:

I used to think the truth would set us free. Like many who care about the environment, I spent years thinking that information would lead to change. So I wrote reports, gave speeches, even testified before Congress.

Some things changed. Sadly, the big picture didn’t.

For a long time I couldn’t understand why. Now I’ve realized that it isn’t because we don’t have enough data, white papers or experts to tell us we’re in trouble. The problem is we’ve forgotten what it takes to make change.

My new movie, The Story of Change, argues that’s partly because we’ve gotten stuck in consumer mode. 

She continues:

I’ve come to see that we have two parts to ourselves; it’s almost like two muscles – a consumer muscle and a citizen muscle. Our consumer muscle, which is fed and exercised constantly, has grown strong. So strong that “consumer” has become our primary identity, our reason for being. We’re told so often that we’re a nation of consumers that we don’t blink when the media use “consumer” and “person” interchangeably.

Meanwhile, our citizen muscle has gotten flabby. There’s no marketing campaign reminding us to engage as citizens. On the contrary, we’re bombarded with lists of simple things we can buy or do to save the planet, without going out of our way or breaking a sweat. 

No wonder that faced with daunting problems and discouraged by the intransigence of the status quo, we instinctively flex our power in the only way we know how – as consumers. Plastic garbage choking the oceans? Carry your own shopping bag. Formaldehyde in baby shampoo? Buy the brand with the green seal. Global warming threatening life as we know it? Change your lightbulb. (As Michael Maniates, a professor of political and environmental science at Allegheny College, says: “Never has so little been asked of so many.”)

Now, all of those are good things to do. When we shop, it’s good to choose products without toxic chemicals and unnecessary packaging, made by locally-based companies that treat their workers well. But our real power is not in choosing from items on a limited menu; it is in determining what gets on that menu. The way to ensure that toxic, climate-disrupting choices are replaced with safe and healthy alternatives – for everyone, not just those who can afford them – is by engaging as citizens: working together for bigger, bolder change than we could ever accomplish as individual consumers.

Look back at successful movements – civil rights, anti-apartheid, the early environmental victories – and you’ll see that three things are needed to make change at the scale we need today. 

First, we need a Big Idea of how things could be better – a morally compelling, ecologically sustainable and socially just idea that will not just make things a little better for a few, but a lot better for everyone. Millions around the world already have that idea: an economy based on the needs of people and the planet, not corporate profit.

Second, we need a commitment to work together. In history’s most transformative social movements, people didn’t say “I will perfect my individual daily choices,” but “We will work together until the problem is solved.” Today, it’s easier than ever to work together, online and off. 

Finally, we need all of us who share that Big Idea to get active. We need to move from a place of shared concern, frustration and fear to a place of engaged citizen action. That’s how we build the power to make real change.

We have to aim high, work together and act boldly. It’s not simple, and it won’t be easy. But history is on our side. Let’s get to work to make the kind of change we know is possible.

posted by Annie Leonard
July 17, 2012

Tell-A-Vision: Garden of Your Mind

Love this for inexplicable reasons, maybe just because. It is good to be curious and let our ideas grow.  Much is going on behind the scenes, underground and throughout the town overall.  People are talking and grumbling and comparing.

Just watch, somebody will call Mr. Roberts a Socialist. 

Via Bluegal at Crooks & Liars

Tell-A-Vision

Once while walking along the beach, the sight of tide pools and mussel encrusted rocks brought a woman I know to tears. She hadn’t grown up by the ocean, so she looked upon the sight as an epiphany and raved through her tears of a rock teaming with life and the iridescence reflected in the sunlight.

That was far more magical than the mundane glimpse of a barnacle covered rock so common to us who walk along the beach here in Encinitas. Or maybe it is simply perspective.


If one looks closely at the barnacles that cover a rock there is an abode quality to the crusty nuggets that house the inner workings. The barnacle is a natural survivor acclimated to harsh living situations not even considered by others in the sea world (land or air) or resilience in action. This domed colony or clumping design shows great economy and minimalism in resource use. It is reminiscent of the earthbag structures.

Earthbag building fills a unique niche in the quest for sustainable architecture. The bags can be filled with local, natural materials, which lowers the embodied energy commonly associated with the manufacture and transportation of building materials. The fill material is generally of mineral composition and is not subject to decomposition (even when damp), attractive to vermin, or burnable...in other word it is extremely durable.

The fill material is generally completely non-toxic and will not offgas noxious fumes into the building. Earthbags have the tremendous advantage of providing either thermal mass or insulation, depending on what the bags are filled with. When filled with soil they provide thermal mass, but when filled with lighter weight materials, such as crushed volcanic stone, perlite, vermiculite, or rice hulls, they provide insulation. The bags can even act as natural non-wicking, somewhat insulated foundations when they are filled with gravel. Vision of an alternative housing and more

With that as basic structure cell for background, this vision really begins right here.

Take a look at the monstrously underutilized, ignored and ugly view of the corporate chains, the consumer structures typically massed along El Camino Real. Besides the valuable land massively being given away to vehicle storage, the rooftops are a giant waste of square footage.

Remember, our city government bends over backwards for commercial interests in the name of tax revenues and in the name of the economy. Remember too the secretive meetings to usher Walmart into our community through the back door last year? What is seldom calculated are what these enterprises with the consumer-friendly low prices actually cost our community. By no means a complete essay, this is to convey a vision that has the potential to addresses a whole bunch of problems, many if not all invisible to most and clearly invisible to all of the city council majority and current city planning staff with the growth at all costs mindset.

Externalized Costs of Commercial Use

The kind of employment in these sprawling concrete boxes is minimum wage workers and managers, who very often don’t live in Encinitas because they can’t afford to live in Encinitas. they are the working poor all around us. This means most all the workforce have vehicles being stored along with the shoppers in this sea of asphalt.

As an aside, the electrical loads from refrigeration in the grocery stores, fast food restaurants and drug stores and air conditioning in all of these retail outlets doubtless dwarfs residential use.

In other words, our corporate stakeholders can be brought into the process of addressing a critical need in Encinitas; that is, low income housing for their own work force and deficits caused largely by their commercial operations. Ideally, the vision would retain all of the commercial advantages that New Encinitas residents in particular have been shoved into thinking will evaporate with any affordable housing options along El Camino Real.

And, through creative visioning, a bonus would be to help mitigate the externalized costs of the low prices regarding cheap labor, excessive fossil fuel use for workforce, high packaging waste, high use cheap energy costs, loss of valuable land through vehicle storage and possibly a whole lot more.

Greenroofs and more

Not shown here would be steel structure to create 1 level above these commercial building with a 9’ gap between the top of the building and the housing zone to accommodate engineering, maintenance zone, some parking (largely bikes) and storage pods for tenants. Also not shown in these images gathered on the web are the potential PV solar arrays or wind energy generators. But the feel is that of a natural setting with a deep layer of soil part of this design vision for a greenroof along with the housing pods. Greywater systems from showers, compost stations supplied with resident and grocery food waste are part of this green / garden zone with an orchard at its center. Berms and swales will create opportunities in the habitat variation in dwelling heights (opening up varied views at level and from below) as well as habitat opportunities for birds and critters.

What this vision embodies is an organic village above the commercial zone with small, efficient structures to house singles or families, depending on the choices of single or primary with add-ons in the basic housing unit.  The luminous shades of the iridescent mussels in the opening paragraph could be used throughout.  What costs are necessary in the second and mid-stories would be comparable to conventional building. The vastly less expensive small homes with tiny energy footprints lend credibility to proposing this as an experimental plan. The study was started in an agricultural setting to test the model of this eco-village, the authors wrote:

A way to begin, testing – On agricultural lands, city owned open lands a phase 1 experimental eco-construction as a study for local education and code re-adjustment studies would be built before moving to phase 2. “Pod one is designed to consist of thirty-two 200 square foot semi-subterranean “dry pod” earthbag hotel room styled cabanas placed in a circle with thirty-two separate 200 square foot “wet pod” bathrooms forming a second inner-circle. Like a hotel, the dry pods will consist of a bed, a closet, and a small sitting area and desk. The wet pods will be a solar heated passive shower, sink, passive toilet, and walk-in closet/storage. Additional storage will be available between the two Pods with a small patio and additional sitting area.

Why we chose this size and earthbag design: The 200 square foot size, and elimination of hard plumbing (no septic tank; rather composting toilets, recycling of all water) allows us (and people in most US counties) to classify these structures as agricultural buildings that we can start building week one without the permits we will be immediately applying for to build Pod 2. We will still be working with the county on this Pod with a full disclosure of what we are creating and why but THEIR hands won’t be tied by existing regulations and rules so we can all move forward faster. We chose earthbag construction and this design as our first pod because they can be built for under $500 for each structure, are easy to construct with very little training or experience, and will be easier than ever to duplicate anywhere in the world as we achieve our open source goals.”

For less than $40,000 our city staff could work with unskilled labor, local dirt (that’s lifeless soil and widely available), a cadre of local expertise to come up with a kind of living lab for another fee to address ecology and economy in the commercial zones of Encinitas to capture the invisible opportunities for housing the largely invisible people who are low income workers. And El Camino Real might be only a start.

Billboard Graphic Earthbag

For the commercially obsessed there is a variation on this where the earthbags are made from old billboard vinyl. They still get their workforce nearly captive above the stores. And those curmudgeons who see labor only in punitive terms might suggest filling these billboard tubes with all the toxic dirt throughout the nursery zone in Encinitas. Worker housing as punishment? Ugh, forget that. Sometimes the hate talk bubbles up in the mind, even in the middle of some healthy imaginings. In truth this was a design concept winner (without any ill intent) from environmental graphics professionals in a challenge, to offer brilliantly intriguing images if nothing else.

Several hours of creative envisioning and musing - amusement? It beat the hell out of the television machine.

Tell-A-Vision

Here is a vision (overheard) for tonight's pit neighbor against neighbor Public Workshop 1 - Housing Element Edition - for participants to place 10 dots each, representing a total of 1,300 multifamily units, on a map.  This typical election year bread and circuses exercise is for the pretense of community input.  It is a rigged game that finds low income Encinitans who'd love a well designed, affordable housing approach close enough to employers, shopping and transportation to eliminate the cost of an automobile or the high cost of gas (and carbon dioxide emissions) for commuting.  Even the predominantly single family home owners aren't happy with this rigidly defined housing element's future scenario.

So, rebel.  In this vision you place your dots in the Pacific Ocean. This particular slant on the dumb map exercise says several things, including the message that we aren't stupid.  Many citizens have watched bread and circus exercises again and again and know the hours of general plan update workshops, council meeting statements, ERAC and open house sessions are essentially just for show.

Now there is a 21st century vision with a community extension on the water, with specially designed floating housing. Can you picture diving and working to preserve kelp beds and sea life?  Cultivating nearly extinct fish stock, maintaining deep water wind turbines, wave turbines and solar panels all working to produce alternate energy.  Yes, decades to develop but worth the effort of engaged work.  Gone the day of SDG&E central plants.  Some may talk doomsday, some wail about a changing status quo, but there is a place for the visionary notions of simply looking at our problems differently and coloring outside the lines.

Oh, and people who want to remain in their single family homes in a suburban setting a drive away from separate commercial centers or their respective work places can do that too.

This week's Tell-A-vision edition brought to you without advertisements of any kind.