Share-It Square: Creating Neighborhood Gathering Spaces (330)

Every year for the past two decades, the neighbors near Sherrett Street in southeast Portland repaint their colorful street intersection. Resident Mighk Simpson gives us a tour on painting day. On the sidewalk corners are spacious cob benches (with roofs), a children’s … [Read more...]

Living Abundantly in the Sharing Economy: A Voice of Experience (329)

“I ask the groups that hire me to pay me what feels good and right and fair to them, an amount they can afford, and that they can give joyfully… I basically trust them. And it works out really well.” Freelance group facilitator Tree Bressen has made her livelihood in the … [Read more...]

Dying Consciously in a Loving Community (322)

After a terminal diagnosis, activist Steve Hamm said he wanted to die consciously with his friends around him. Judy Alexander and about twenty friends committed to being his care team. In training meetings with professional end-of-life caregiver Kippi Waters, they learned … [Read more...]

Imagine If — ‘The Great Turning’ meets ‘Community Rights’ (319)

Community rights educator Paul Cienfuegos reads his inspiring short declaration inspired by Joanna Macy’s notion of “The Great Turning,” a total change in how we govern ourselves. Paul writes, “The Community Rights movement has been spreading across the United States — one … [Read more...]

Ecovillages — A Leading Edge for Sustainability (318)

What might ecovillages show us about living sustainably? Political science professor Karen Litfin visited fourteen ecovillages in both developing and developed countries. The author of Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community looked for commonalities among such … [Read more...]

Longing to Belong: Looking for Your Tribe? part 2 (309)

Bill Kauth and Zoe Alowan, co-authors of We Need Each Other: Building Gift Community, modeled the tribe-forming process on fraternal lodges like Elk and Oddfellows. It begins with a champion, one or two people who establish the tribe's values. The champion invites others … [Read more...]

Village Vancouver — How Can A Big City Become a Village? (302)

How do you empower an entire metropolis to transition towards more localized living in a post-petroleum era? Founder Ross Moster and board members Rand Chatterjee and Ann Pacey of Village Vancouver Transition Society view Vancouver (B.C.) as a network of neighborhood-sized … [Read more...]

The Transition Bus — A North American Odyssey (299)

Camille Daum-Lobko and Charlotte Astier are in search of alternative ways to organize Western economies and society, particularly with post-growth, cooperative, worker-owned enterprises which incorporate social justice and environmental sensitivity. They converted a school … [Read more...]

Visit McCaskill Street — Forging Community through Resource Sharing (297)

It all started with neighbors meeting to save money and share information around energy, water, food and more. It has grown into shared projects, shared tools and deepened friendships. Residents joined brushes to paint a wall mural with unique neighborhood themes, … [Read more...]

Beyond “How to Save the World” (296)

When Dave Pollard started his blog "How to Save the World" over a decade ago, he believed he might actually play a role in changing the world. After studying the three major systems of civilization — energy & resources, ecology, and economy — he finds all three … [Read more...]