Pilot Program - Repurposing Community Centers

What is the current purpose of our local Arcata Community Center

In political theory there’s the phrase “the purpose is what it does”

What does the Arcata Community Center do? I’ll google it

Wow its at least $500 deposit to rent the space for a day lol

$1600 deposit to have a concert

They don’t seem to list the fees to rent the rooms. They also seem to offer a 20% nonprofit discount so sounds like nonprofits can’t use the space for free lol

this is run like a business.

I think we owe it to the rest of the world to vote third party

I’ve been traveling since November and have spoken to a lot of people from around the world and they consistently say that US politics shapes their life…negatively. We need a green socialist workers party like now, this year, to just appear out of nowhere like magic and crush this stupid oligarchy in one fell swoop. We need a general strike too. We need a work stoppage to be able to reflect, to share knowledge and actually look around at the waste, the flaws in the system, the unfairness and cruelty, and actually fix it. We are capable, so capable. It’s just we never rest long enough to do a deep clean and we keep working in a chaotic mess, through the pain without acknowledging it

we also need this to be fun and somewhat lighthearted. Like a camping time for shared agreements and river time and dancing :)

my dream revolution, my hope

friends, I think it’s time now

To invest in eachother, in right now

I have access to around 20k that was left to me by my grandparents and I would like to put it into a land back project that would also be a cooperative

and could potentially pull in a bit more funds if I were able to finish the first draft of a blueprint

I hate money and I want to use the bit I’ve been given to invest in anti-money, in love and community that transcend stock prices, interest rates, credit scores or whatever other made up bullshit is supposed to outrank sacred ethics

I’ve tried doing that a bit with do nothing but I see more of a crystallizing vision and it includes just a full send this year for what I actually want. To create a shrine, a sacred space

Of an eco village permaculture farm that also has a guesthouse, an art space,

A free time share—how to pool what we have to create more. The power of multiplication and transparency

I have been so wildly inspired by hostels and guesthouses I’ve stayed in, worker cooperatives I’ve read about, land I’ve gotten to tend to, teachers I’ve learned from in so many fields, visions I’ve been given of a way through the chaos that to me would be beautiful.

My plan right now is to explore and return to some ancestral spaces in Mexico, Central America, and Italy and Spain and to find others who are in alignment. Another part of my plan to to reclaim my role as seed keeper, a role all people wanting to return to their roots can be

If I die before I see a first draft come to life, that’s okay :)

I will still keep my plans and notes together and maybe someday it will be realized :)

This is one of my big hopes

Another is to just return to my wild self watching sea turtles and trees and deer and birds and foxes, protecting them if I can 🩵

We don’t have time to wait to plant our seeds, time to sit on our gifts, time to ignore the voices in our hearts and so this is where I’m at. Fully open, full send :) I love you all and hope that your spirits know peace

Anyone interested in the project regardless of situation is welcome

The goal is to afford one small piece somewhere to share and give back, to reclaim the commons for all beings, all animals and plants and fungi and fish and the rivers undammed and the fences lowered lowered down

The goal is also to create a more metaphysical network of people you can contact if you’re in need of help or someone to show up. A network of places you can crash if you need to in an emergency, people you can call

Rebuilding care networks

Ask Cristobal to be interviewed about his project in Brazil

Amazing friends

A place where everyone gets a tree to befriend and care for, gets to go to the river, the ocean, gets to pick berries to eat and make jam and pies, gets to have big shared dinners, gets to make passionate art, :)

why do nothing?

It can seem counterintuitive to do nothing during an apocalypse, when you’re in the middle of a sea of crises and everything seems like it’s on fire and it feels like the whole world needs fixing every minute of every day. It feels wrong to sit and take a nap, it feels wrong not to scurry from place to place trying to do *something*, anything to help. But there are real and important reasons to stop doing.

ways it helps

• less stress on your own body

  Heart disease is currently the leading cause of death in humans and human hearts on average get 2.5 billion beats in a lifetime. The finite heartbeat theory suggests that the higher your heart rate is consistently, the quicker you’re burning through your lifetime of heartbeats. Our ability to regulate our heart rates comes most easily though yoga, breathwork, rest, and meditation. Sea turtles live for 100+ years, partially because they can slow down their heart rates to as low as a beat per minute when necessary, and researchers are currently trying to learn how we can apply this knowledge to humans. I believe it’s through restful practices, through emulation of the examples in our natural world. Meditation is doing nothing :)

• less caloric needs

  Basal metabolic rate is the calories your body needs to perform life-sustaining function. Mine, for my height, weight, and age is around 1300 calories, so if I stayed in bed all day I’d still burn around 1300 calories doing absolutely “nothing” (thinking, heart beating, cell production, respiration, etc). And it’s another 15% less when sleeping. An olympic swimmer like Michael Phelps needs more like 12,000. Being that active comes at an environmental cost, needing 9 times more calories means so many more chickens, cows, grains, veggies, etc.

• less petroleum use

  The less we commute from place to place, the less fuel we use. If we committed to even a day a week of walking, biking, or just not going, then that’s a day where we don’t need to use our cars, and a whole day of energy and pollution reduction.

• less stress on the land itself
  The sabbath is a day of rest, not just for you, but for the earth. A rest of the lands from human hands. Our constant disturbing, digging, mining, ripping up, paving over, etc harms mycelial networks just trying to do their thing, harms plants, harms animals, harms the whole web of life. Sometimes it is best to know when *not* to do.

• more time being present with ourselves and loved ones and the natural world

  When we slow down and have nothing on the agenda then we are able to be truly present and cultivate mindfulness. We then have so much more capacity for the emotional needs of the people we love, for our own emotional needs, for appreciating the natural beauty that still remains. Presence creates richness in all of our relationships.

• more creative time

  Our best ideas often come when we aren’t trying so hard for them. Giving ourselves time for our minds to wander and daydream allows the creative brain to be accessed more easily. Creativity flows naturally from the source when we’re an open channel.

• more free time

  We currently live in a work culture where the average workday has crept up to 8.5 hours, the average vacation time has been cut down to 11 days, and free time is not considered an important need—even though time without commitments helps us find our own meanings, explore ourselves and our interests, tend to our relationships, and rest and recover from our work. If we have the freedom to our time but don’t use it freely, then we effectively don’t have that freedom. We need to utilize our free time, to savor it, to stretch it out, and to advocate for more of it. A do nothing practice helps us cultivate a positive relationship with our free time, to our “hours for what we will” so we can know what we’re fighting for :)

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Sources

The Finite Heartbeat Theory: Does Anxiety Impact Our Lifespan?
https://theaqapp.com/blog/2021/07/27/the-finite-heartbeat-theory-does-anxiety-impact-our-lifespan/

Research: What Turtles Might Tell Us About Surviving Heart Attacks
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/news/archive/2014/01/research-turtles-might-tell-us-surviving-heart-attacks/.cshtml.cshtml.cshtml.cshtml#:~:text=Its%20normal%20heart%20rate%20is,is%20still%20alive%20and%20healthy

Ten Leading Causes of Death in the US
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929#heart-disease

Basal Metabolic Rate
https://www.garnethealth.org/news/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator#:~:text=BMR%20Definition%3A%20Your%20Basal%20Metabolic,stayed%20in%20bed%20all%20day

Sabbath and the Art of Rest Ezra Klein Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sabbath-and-the-art-of-rest/id1548604447?i=1000592037827

Why Great Ideas Come When You Aren’t Trying
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10678

How to Use Mindfulness the Strengthen Your Relationships
https://www.gottman.com/blog/how-to-use-mindfulness-to-strengthen-your-relationships/

Worth Your Time: Free Time by Julie Rose book review
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/3/517/files/2015/02/Res-Publica-Review-by-Douglas-Bamford_Rose_Free-Time.pdf

Average PTO in the US
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business

What to do in an apocalypse?

What to do in an apocalypse? What can we do *today*?
How can we save the world as only one person?

~ some ideas ~

• Take our money out of big banks (so we aren’t funding climate change and war)

• Pay cash when we can (to avoid giving $ to credit card companies)

• Show up to city council and county board of supervisors and commission meetings and demand local change (go with friends and annoy them regularly so they can’t ignore us)

• Make time being present with our family and friends

• Spend as much time as we can outside

• Use less electricity but make it fun/healthy (sleeping more, playing boardgames, making art)

• Engage in Citizen Science Projects

• Tell people we love them (often)

• Meet our neighbors (to create resilient relationships)

• Grow an edible garden (so we aren’t reliant on exploitation and fragile, expensive systems. Edible gardens called Victory Gardens accounted for 40% of produce grown during WW11)

• Plant trees (fruit trees, shade trees, favorite trees, rare trees)

• Buy and collect seeds

• Buy and make canned foods

• Compost to help soil health

• Give away and trade what we don’t need

• Practice meditation and relaxation and play

• Make time for doing nothing (Why do nothing?)

• Walk and bike and stay home when we can (to reduce energy consumption)

• Meet with community members regularly to exchange ideas, food, care & love

• Talk to our coworkers/friends/family/neighbors about worker cooperatives and unions and boycotts and strikes

• Make political art and put it around town/wear it

• Make art just for ourselves

• Read

• Write down our ideas

• Share them

• Let the old dying system fully die :)

The People’s Market: barriers to vending on public space

June 27th, 2023
by Lissie Rydz

I’ve been interested in making a free public market on the plaza for awhile, mainly because I’ve heard a number of stories about community members having so many difficulties accessing places of commerce. The People’s Market would be a place where people can come and market their Microenterprise goods (homemade foods, art, vintage clothes, healing services like yoga/massage/etc) without having to pay vendor fees or go through complex application processes. Just show up and share what you offer on the days you’re able. Everyone should have the right to do that on common public spaces like the plaza, the right to make your own living. Plus it’d be really fun :)

So yesterday I went to the city to learn more about being able to do that. I was handed a stack of papers and shown the various fees and applications I’d have to submit. A $181 non-refundable application fee, $282 park use fee ($510 if it’s over 1000 attendees), $95 for a traffic control fee, $288 for the event holder to set up barricades. If we had any BBQ equipment that’s another $182 for the fire department. Plus I’d need a $2,000,000 insurance policy submitted. I also learned if we ever wanted to do a concert at the Arcata ball park that’s a $5,500 fee lol.

So to do a public market is probably close to $1,000 in fees *for one day!!*. Plus each booth has to have a $20 permit paid *per booth*. Plus I’d need to submit the full application 30-60 days in advance before the event. $1,000 divided by $20 bucks an hour for time would be the equivalent of 50 hours of labor just to cover the cost of the market for one day.

How is this fair? How is this equitable? What outcomes does this create?

“The purpose is what it does” is a phrase commonly used by systems theorists to describe actual outcomes of a system, in contrast to our intentions (“the purpose is what it claims to do”). We can claim to support small businesses and love community events but when there are these monumental barriers to access, then the purpose of these permits and fees is to prevent access to the public sphere.

Why would access be prevented? Who benefits? Well that one seems pretty straightforward in the age of late-stage capitalism—even the guy at the counter acknowledged it—it’s to prevent “competition” with brick-and-mortar stores. Brick-and-mortar stores with absurdly high never-ending retail lease costs paid to our beloved landlords like city councilwoman Alex Stillman. A little storefront at the plaza will set you back around $3,000 a month in rent. (So at $20 an hour that’s 150 hours of labor paid to your landlord every month just to break even). It’s no wonder the average restaurant start-up costs are close to $300,000. It’s also no wonder that upwards of 60% of new restaurants close in the first year.

To have free public vending is to take back our labor and disrupt this machine, the machine of capitalism. Capitalism requires these barriers to entry to keep us discouraged from starting our own thing, to keep us working at shit jobs at Walmart and Safeway, to keep us paying rent to landlords, to prevent us from making our own living on our own terms.

These are systemic issues.

Why do we have to pay to use the commons that our tax dollars already pay for? Why do we have to pay twice for everything?