Date: April 15th 2020.
Somerville, Massachusetts is the most densely populated city in New England, and several years ago city planners and citizens realized that it was crucial to the health and sustainability of the city to increase the living green spaces of the city, while decreasing the prevalence of blacktop and cars. So in a sweeping gesture, the city has today rolled out new zoning ordinances that encourage all street parking spaces and parking lots on city and private land to…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on April 15, 2010 at 7:00pm —
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So far, I've sent out the following information to several groups and individuals in my city:
I'm participating in a program to help nurture new leaders in social
innovation, and this week we are covering the topic of urban resiliency, and maybe some of you folks can help me out gathering information.
Specifically, I'm looking for information
(program names are fine, links are great) on any programs in the city (government and/or NGOs) that are working to increase…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on April 15, 2010 at 4:30pm —
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I live in New England, a part of the US where we regularly get blizzards (also called Nor'easters, for the North East direction of the storm's movement). We can easily get several feet of snow in less than 24 hours, and it quite literally freezes the flow of the cities commerce and resources. For most people, it's not a big deal to be stuck inside, or to have to navigate the piles of snow and slippery streets and sidewalks and stairs, and often there are power outages, as well. But there are…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on April 15, 2010 at 12:05am —
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New Note: I´m updating this blog based on the input of all Agents.…
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Added by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on April 11, 2010 at 10:00pm —
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Paul Polak: "[If] somebody already invented it, you don’t have to."
I remember my first college class. It was an English class. And as it was a class geared toward writing, we got started right away. This was my first time really learning the finer points of research. It was at this time…
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Added by Kenneth Curnow on April 5, 2010 at 8:01pm —
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In my continuing quest to utilize nature's own economy to get my food needs met, I was checking in with an old friend of mine who's an urban naturalist and he mentioned that there was a website that listed the larger urban wild spaces in the city of Boston. And when I went to the
Urban Wilds | City of Boston site I discovered that there is actually an official city program to protect and preserve urban wild spaces in the city. Which…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on April 4, 2010 at 2:33pm —
2 Comments
Check out the
Move Your Money Movement website. Tell me what you think.
My family banks and gets our insurance from
USAA. USAA is a member owned bank and insurance company. I would recommend all Evoke Agents investigate similiar institutions in their local area. There are many Co-Ops, credit unions, community and local banks all over the world.
Check out some of this links also:…
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Added by David Anderson on April 1, 2010 at 1:30pm —
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A random thought: What if we were to develop a local "bounty board" of sorts for communities?
I envision it as a place where people can post any kind of job, wether they're hiring for a position or just want someone to pet-sit for the weekend. Simply include the wage you're willing to pay, and a way you can be contacted.
If this were done, people like myself could find a new job quickly and efficiently, rather than running all over town searching. Anyone looking for a bit of…
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Added by Richard S on April 1, 2010 at 10:30am —
10 Comments
Food, Energy, Water- Patterns
What´s the commonality in the past Evoke missions? What is the structural pattern behind the food, energy and water crisis? What is failing in this systems?
The answer is:
A) A disruption in centralized system networks
B) The lack of redundant resilient systems.
A) A disruption in centralized networks
The dependence on nodes…
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Added by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on March 31, 2010 at 4:00am —
9 Comments
Here's my suggestion, taken from one of my own communities that I host:
To make things simple, and encourage all participants to take
responsibility for themselves, we have five suggestions for participants:
1. Seek to add value (beauty, knowledge, understanding, creativity, personal experience, etc.) with
all of your dialog here.
2. Do your best to avoid harming others' bodies, minds, and spirits.
3. Understand that all posts here can never be…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on March 31, 2010 at 1:30am —
18 Comments
I live in the US and in a relatively well-to-do state and community so food security was not high in my awareness. I have to say that if nothing else Evoke is definitely and eye opener.
Like most places generally speaking hunger is a condition of poverty in my state. I'm used to thinking of poverty as a Third World issue but I came across this stat online.
"…
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Added by coxcrow on March 28, 2010 at 9:08pm —
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In the year 2020, I plan to party with sustainability. The main festivities will be held during the day, and outside. This means I don't waste my power indoors. People will ride their bikes together, and these bikes charge their batteries. Because the festival requires biking from place to place, we can successfully hold a party indoors with the batteries when it gets late. Food is prepared fresh so I don't use a large fridge, and the wind turbine I installed outside provides enough energy to…
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Added by Nicolas Dykstra on March 28, 2010 at 8:29am —
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International Journal of Community Currency
Research (IJCCR)…
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Added by Michele Saba on March 25, 2010 at 7:40pm —
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Added by Charles Babb on March 25, 2010 at 2:00am —
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I read a couple different sites on social innovators and I have to admit,
http://www.lebone.org/ caught my eye as my husband and I have both had those "Lotto dreams" of owning a property up in northern Ontario where we can have a nice Community of friends and family who live a very cooperative lifestyle.
- Growing our own food plants and medicinal herbs
- Living off grid (power wise)
- Raising animals
- Making products…
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Added by Allison Keats on March 23, 2010 at 8:39pm —
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Hyperlocavore is a free matchmaking service for garden space and gardeners. And, as far as I'm concerned, it is one of the most brilliant, simple, and powerful
collaborative projects I've ever seen! It will help bring the valuable resources of volunteer gardeners and underused yard spaces together for making local food available to more people.
This is a project…
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Added by Turil Cronburg on March 23, 2010 at 1:30am —
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We are working all around the World. We need people that have a lot of local connections. We need people that know everyone in their community. They have tons of connections, friends, acquaintances,
they know everyone and everyone knows them, they always know a friend
of a friend that can do_________ or knows ____________. Is this you?
Let´s create the EVOKE Local Knowledge Network!!!
Added by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on March 23, 2010 at 1:14am —
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This lesson was a real eye opener for me. I believed I had a good sense of the extent of hunger that is going on in my state, but the reality is quite a bit more stark than I had envisioned.
My research came up with these statistics:
https://www.utahfoodbank.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145&Itemid=7It is easy to…
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Added by Kelly on March 21, 2010 at 5:29am —
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I've been considering some local insights I've observed in application on the island of Kauai. I'm most fascinated by the local radio station KKCR and its ability to cultivate community. The radio station almost resembles an applied permaculture project. Simply put, I observe the ecosystem of local lives benefitting from community radio. And I see a few patterns capable of export.
First is the capacity of the radio station leadership to identify a "sane/relaxed" market -- to…
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Added by cameron michael keys on March 19, 2010 at 5:14am —
2 Comments
I cannot think of a more important proactive solution to a food shortage crisis than community gardens. While a food shortage will have global implications, the struggles will be going on in individual communities, and each community will have their own set of solutions.
If community gardens are already in place (even on a small scale) the blueprints for survival are already laid out. It is easier to show an effective and already in use method of survival to a frantic person than to ask…
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Added by Patt Cool on March 18, 2010 at 6:01pm —
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