No Small Towns

Southern California's unique environment has made sure that there is no such thing as a small town.

There are tons of small cities and unincorporated areas in Southern California, but it's not like the small towns you find up north or a little further east. Those more typical small towns are economic islands, with limited economic flexibility. Many lack economic critical mass, economic diversity or diversity in cultural and entertainment assets.

However, Southern California acts like an economic hive. Although I disagree with urban sprawl on principle, it has created unique opportunities for small communities to integrate with other economies and fill in the economic gaps.

Which is why I am not sure that living where you work will catch on very broadly or universally in Southern California. Southern California's economy is too well integrated to pull back and separate into economic pockets.

This regional economy is a strong asset for Southern California, and I would love to see more regional partnerships emerge.

The Art of Disagreeing

It's so easy not to agree with someone. But it's hard to disagree well.

A disagreement can be an important relational learning process: it can be filled with respect, affirmation of a person, insight, paradigm shift or furthering the complexity of an opinion.

Unfortunately, disagreement went done poorly can create polarization, defensive action, close-mindedness and ignorance.


So what does disagreeing well look like?
Listening, affirming the person (not the opinion) & seeing the process as one of learning, not one of competition.

The Sin of Charity

"When there is no longer any violence, there is no need for help. Therefore you should not demand help, but abolish violence. Help and violence form a whole. And the whole has to be changed."

Public Space: Why it Matters

Since true public space for discourse has virtually dried up in the past fifty years, we have seen the emergence of some very poor substitutes. It appears as if public debate in this country goes on through the venue of bumper stickers, trash radio, and daytime talk shows. None of these venues provides real dialogue; rather, they reduce us all to very narrow and extreme camps on any given issue. They certainly don't convince anyone to think differently about anything, and they tend to bring out the worst examples of human interaction.

From Sidewalks in the Kingdom.

Mending a Suffering Democracy

"Why would anyone even imagine that something like the Farmers' Market could play a role in mending a suffering democracy? Fixated as we are on 'important' state and national issues such as term limits, campaign finance reform, crime, heath care, and welfare reform, this suggestion seems at first to be merely frivolous.

But, in fact, none of the other paths to reform on which people expend so much energy will reverse the decline of democracy, and none of the policies that we enact to deal with pressing problems such as poverty, racism, environmental damage, and drug and alcohol abuse will do any more than slow the worsening of these evils until we begin to understand the political importance of events like the Farmers' Market. No amount of reforming institutions that are widely and rightly perceived to be beyond human scale will heal our political culture until we begin to pay attention once again to democracy as a human enterprise. Without healing the human base of politics, capacity to heal our politics and to confront the problems and opportunities that politics must address. That one thing is a deeply renewed human experience of citizenship."

Daniel Kemmis, quoted in Sidewalks in the Kingdom.

Can Farming Save Detroit?

Can farming save Detroit?

This article highlights a developer who wants to convert the vacant properties and dead-space of Detroit into a massive urban-agriculture project. We need more people motivated by the triple bottom line.

Space: It’s Still a Frontier

Space: It’s Still a Frontier

Great little article highlighting a project called Local Code - working to reestablish abandoned spaces in the urban realm as pieces of urban-ecology.

Introducing Empowerment

A great clip from the Empowerment Toolkit from the Christian Community Development Association.

Talk Deeply, Be Happy?

Talk Deeply, Be Happy?

Go find meaning with someone!

David Brooks - The Broken Society

The Broken Society

Very interesting op-ed piece - discusses how both the far left and the far right have created unmanageable and self-interested centralized machines that have decimated our freedom and our sense of community. I really connect with the proposed solutions of Phillip Blond.

Replace stop signs that waste your time

I know all the California-stoppers will appreciate this. It's actually an interesting concept. America has been slow to adopt new and adaptive ways to do roads and streets. With the amount of traffic we get in Southern California, we need news ways to cut down the stress of driving and increase safety.

Best Markets for Young Adults

Riverside made the list, how exciting.

Check out the original list.

Glenn beck Attacks Social Justice - James Martin

Glenn Beck Attacks Social Justice - James Martin

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A Beginner's Guide to Understanding Poverty in America

A Beginner's Guide to Understanding Poverty in America

A lot of really great information and discussion on what has historically and what currently contributes to poverty in America.