Communities Should Fight Back

my latest email list rant...

folks-

this is long. caveat emptor.

one of my pet peeves - no, major soapbox rants - is the way (in particular but not always limited to) corporations spam and price bully their piggish selves into our lives.

i mention this because everyone i know is fed up with the direction our country is headed. what's needed? among the necessities, here are a few i think are required:

1. motivation: a knowledge base of real-world, concrete examples of individuals and communities doing real things to sustain and empower local communities. i am particularly interested in entrepreneurship that energizes communities through letting ideas from the grassroots flower.

2. networking - a consistent platform, not only virtual but real-world, for people to come together and experience the unique dynamic of synergy. i believe synergy is the one thing that local communities and those individuals possess that is our greatest resource - but also the most under-developed. during the dot-com boom, there was a now legendary tech group that met in santa monica quite regularly - VIC, or the Venice Interactive Community (later, the Virtual Interactive Community, i believe, when it grew). their gatherings were thick with the buzz of "something's in the air." some entrepreneur MUST be out there who can figure out how to cater to a comparable audience around sustainability issues and community empowerment.

3. capital - this may be too obvious but i think the approach to capital is soft-peddled and not met with force in the non-profit or community-based realm. financially struggling is no one's idea of a good time, and i've seen it time and again with non-profits and entrepreneurs. one of the problems is that there is no community-based approach to capital - it's always tied in one form or another to corporations. if an idea is funded, say, by relatives and friends, their concentration is so small as to make it a fairly sizable risk. this is what a lot of filmmakers run into - i hear it all the time.

there is a tribal community in africa i heard of years ago that had a novel - and synergistic - approach to capital. when one of the community members had an idea for a business, the rest of the community would pitch in and fund it. then later, when another had an idea, it would make the same rounds. i'm assuming the ideas had to of course pass muster, but the point is they practiced sound investment fundamentals: minimizing risk by spreading it around in small amounts and diversifying their portfolios. simply: by playing the odds via diversification, their bets (investments are bets) are hedged toward probability.

and the more good bets one places, the greater expectation one has. that is what "odds" are about. this is what professional gamblers do. and make no mistake, investors are no different - they are gamblers. (there are of course contextual distinctions...)

one exciting, community-based approach to capital is MICROLENDING. if you're unfamiliar with the subject, there is perhaps no better example of its power than Vinod Khosla.

what this asian brotha has done is nothing short of miraculous; empowering the poorest of the most oppressed and disenfranchised (ie: third world women of color) - and local communities here need to pry open their minds and begin looking for entrepreneurial examples outside of their narrow confines. khosla's story is nobel prize worthy, and one that i'm confident e.f. shumacher would smile at.


for those of you in LA or who know folks here, there is an event this saturday - local, community-based...

eso won books is an institution in LA's black community, and they are having their opening this saturday - tomorrow - in their new location. what's significant is that their new home is in la's black capital - leimert park.

i mention this not just because i support eso won, but i heard a piece this morning where a local leimert park entrepreneur was talking about the changes in the community - developers gentrifying, raising leases and pricing out locals (residential and commercial) and bemoaning the general decline in the community, mostly due to these changes brought on by the pursuit of profit over communities.

so, support this event (take an umbrella tho, there's a small chance of rain) - who knows, you'll get out and see LA, have a good time in one of the jewels that is our city, and hopefully connect with folks who see it the way we do.

gamblers want action, they seek it out and approach it strategically: i think community-minded folks could learn something from that.

thanks for reading.

-jp

jp's recommendation: EDEN'S LOST AND FOUND

How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring
Our Great American Cities

following is my most recent email blast...

folks-

it's rare that i email nearly everyone on my list but after watching the first part of EDENS LOST AND FOUND, i'm compelled. the first of fours parts - tonight's was on chi-town: CITY OF THE BIG SHOULDERS - was so well thought-out and produced i have to say that it's one of the best films i've seen in a while.

like just about everyone i know, we all share a sense of gloom about what's currently going on; i don't think i have to belabor that point. but this film was so inspirational and touched on not just the environment, but education, race, the generation gap, business, politics... a large menu indeed - but it accomplished it so deftly i was blown away.

it's very moving, but beyond that, it told the story of normal, every day folk - chicagoans - who're not just talking but making real impact, finding their niche in life and in the process, real joy amidst conflict, strife and history - real accomplishment in this day and age. one of the profiles of a teacher who teaches environmental science in high school was so good, it made me question why every young person couldn't have an education like that, experiences like the ones she was generating for her students, let alone teachers who dug what they did as much as she obviously does. in one of her lines she said something about how what they were doing was powerful. true that.

one more point; i as much as anyone bemoan the corporate presence on pbs, but i have to say that some of the greatest films i've seen in the past few years have come through them. along with THIRST, which i wrote about last year, EDENS LOST AND FOUND has me cheering them on. and i make a damn ugly cheerleader.

next week is part 2 on philly. then a hiatus until the fall, where i and my fellow angelenos are profiled (LA, capital of pollution and the environment!), followed by seattle.

great people, great subject, great filmmaking. small is beautiful. here're the links:


http://www.pbs.org/opb/edenslostandfound

http://edenslostandfound.org

-jp

Entrepreneurs vs. King Kong Corporations

Some of you know that I serve as an elected board member on a neighborhood council. Right now, there's a debate over corporate presence in the form of bus stop kiosks, billboards, etc.

This argument really goes to the heart of the "Small is Beautiful" point of view of EF Schumacher vs. the mega corporations that have tons of lobbying moolah, politicians in their back pockets, and stampede through communities obliterating entrepreneurs.

Here is my recent message to the board:

Hi All-

1) At the heart of this debate is the fundamental question of property and ownership, and the right to do what one wants with one's property. If Viacom (or Clear Channel, or...) pay the money, then they have the right to do what they want with their real estate. The counter to that is that that's an abstract argument, devoid of context.

2) As we can easily see with, to take a gross example, Walmart, these giant corporations come into communities and don't give a fig about local entrepreneurs. Case study after case study has shown the degradation to local entrepreneurs. The question then becomes - do communities REALLY want to live in a world where, no matter where one travels, there'll always be commercial entities like a thousand others?

3) Think about the xxxxxx Corridor right here in our own neighborhood council (NC) district. Who in their right mind would want to change this charming, personal and unique part of the country for, say, a Starbucks, a McDonalds, a Cingular/Verizon/Sprint... and yet, we see the encroaching presence of corporate America clamping down just across the street south of Olympic and on the north side as represented by Public Storage.

4) Entrepreneurs provide more jobs than corporations but lack the political clout of the mega corps. I see NCs as being at least a body that can offer up some voice for local entrepreneurs, and even perhaps organize them. The fact that entrepreneurs provide more jobs than corporations is an un-leveraged point in politics, because they have no lobby, no PAC and essentially no (organized and managed) money. Mega corps, on the other hand, funnel huge sums of money into campaigns and thus can have a politician in their back pocket. That's an unfair advantage and, I think, not only highly unethical but un-American.

5) So, if Viacom wants to come into bus stop kiosks (and wherever else) and bludgeon us with their spam, then at the very least local entrepreneurs should be allotted some kind of a fighting chance. But that's an ideal world that doesn't answer only to money. The sad fact is, if I'm Clear Channel, my billboard goes to the highest bidder.

At the very least, the community should be made aware of these points, among others. And I think the NC could do its part in disseminating this information.

-jp