Been Dreaming

Been dreaming a lot recently, being unemployed and all. The dreams all tend to drift towards the same future, which I’m going to work like hell towards. Living off the grid, supporting myself with homegrown food and power. However, an important part of this dream is that I need other people there. I imagine a decent sized group of people (a dozen or so) working together on interesting and idealistic projects. I know the people who I would want to join me, but I don’t know if they would. I’m saving up money for this now, but I know very few people who are doing anything similar. I wish I knew a way to convince people to join me so I wouldn’t be alone in this.
Until then, I’ll keep dreaming.

Communitas

On Thursday a lot of my classes didn’t really have too much to do, and several let us out early. So I found myself with some time to waste before my next class. Usually, I’d nap, but it wasn’t really enough time to enjoy a nap, and I didn’t really feel like it. I dropped by the office of the professor of my next class – he had mentioned something on Tuesday that had sparked my interest. He told us about Peter Goldmark (the guy who invented the LP) and a project he attempted later in his life. He started something called the New Rural Society, with the intent of replacing cities with small rural communities connected by new technologies. I had googled it and not found much (I did find more later), so I asked him if there was anything else he could tell me about it.

The project was started in the late 60s, and launched in the early 70s, but didn’t have much support. The idea was to have rural communities connected by telecommunication, using technology that was available at that time in new ways. Businesses and government agencies could have employees working remotely across the country, in smaller, sustainable towns. There were two test sites that had any real development: somewhere in Montana (my professor didn’t remember where exactly) and Windham County, CT. He actually worked with Fairfield University on a lot of this project, and there are records of the New Rural Society on file there.

He also told me a story of a project someone created in the 60s down in Appalachia concerning libraries. Libraries are usually large centralized structures that improve depending on the size of the community they belong to. Appalachia was very poor and sparse, and could not support decent libraries in each community, but it had an incredible infrastructure of train tracks because of the mining industry. So someone made a library on a railcar, and moved it from community to community, harnessing the power of all of the small communities combined to make a decent, mobile, library. He also made an interesting sidenote, “…and they wonder why people watch TV instead of reading books. TV comes to them!”

Before I left he gave me a book, called Communitas, which seems to be right in the vein of what we were talking about. I’ve only been able to read the introduction so far, but it seems to be questioning the fundamental problems with urban society (instead of thinking about how to improve transportation for commuters, thinking about why people need to commute).

These are all things I’m going to be posting a lot more about.

Co-op College

Ok, maybe that isn’t a good description of this idea. When googling “coop college” I found that most people take this to mean some sort of internship with a corporation, where students can learn the ropes of the “real world.” That is not what I mean.

I was talking to Ned recntly about colleges, and he remarked about what incredibly odd places they are. People pay and go there to learn (and do other things). There is no real economic model, and they only work with an outside support system.

The thing is, they don’t need to be that way. Imagine a college commune, or something of the sort. Tuition is free, and there is a sustainable economic model. Everyone works, everyone learns.

I’m imagining Freshman doing a majority of unskilled labor – keeping things running on a day to day basis. Each year above freshman could teach (or help teach) the year below.

I like this idea a lot, since it fits so snug with my previous commune ideas. I’m going to keep this stewing.

Low Income Intentional Communities

In my sociology of gender class, we were talking about how welfare effects low income single mothers. In the course of this discussion, my professor brought up the national poverty line. To qualify for welfare, you have to have an income below the set line. In 2008 for a family of 4 it is $21,200.

This got me thinking. I had to figure out what the average cost of feeding a person for a day was, for the Tour. With an incredibly basic meal that can be flexible enough to be not boring day after day, I found a person can live off $2/day. That is eating: Oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner. All you need to make any of these meals is water and a stove. Basic, but everything you need.

Going off that assumption, it would cost $2920 to feed a family of 4 for a year. At $8/hr (min wage in many states soon), that comes out to 365 hours, or about 46 days a year. For the entire family. Of course, the poverty level is about $18,000 higher than that, and most people work more than two months out of the year – so where does all that other money go?

The problem is in the infrastructure. Rent and utilities cost a lot, and other basic amenities. How can we get rid of those costs? This is where my infatuation with intentional communities (communes) comes in. Dividing the cost of the infrastructure among many people, and making it completely self-sustaining could eliminate infrastructure costs within a generation. If this completely sustainable environment could house three generations, then it could exist in perpetuity with the only costs being food, taxes, and luxuries.

This situation works for all economic classes within the U.S., and is a far more attractive lifestyle that what is currently the norm. And there is nothing mandating working only two months a year, it is possible to work the same number of hours currently worked, and increase the quality of life dramatically.

The problem, of course, is that this only works if everyone doesn’t do it. For widespread adoption, a different model is required. The only real hurdle is the initial investment. But I fully intend to game the system and pull this off for as long as I can. The more people who work with me, the easier it is.

Suburbs

There is no place more quiet than the suburbs at night. You can travel to the most remote location imaginable, as far away from human civilization as you can get, and you will still find things stirring in the midnight hours. Burroughs called the suburbs “lifeproof houses“, and he was right. They lie far from the main roads, on roads people never travel down, roads only used for coming or going. Walking down those roads at night, you are truly alone. There are no creatures to rustle the perfectly sculpted bushes.
If you find yourself yearning for peace and tranquility, and want to get away from the stresses and complexities of your life, chances are you don’t have to look farther than your own street. You can walk down the center, and feel the power that comes from being alive. While the rest of the world lies dead in their bedrooms, you embrace your own life as you wonder down streets which, in a few hours time, will be busy once again.

Abandoned

Doobie in my Pocket by Keller Williams
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/keller2007-06-16.AKG463/KellerWilliams2007-6-16d2t05_64kb.mp3]

I’ve been meaning to post this song for a little while now. Its from his show at Bonnaroo, and been in my head since I downloaded the set. The problem is that since I finished writing about Bonnaroo, I haven’t really felt like writing anything else. I think that’s mostly because while I was writing about Bonnaroo, I was just writing about what was happening. I’m going to try and get back to future plans, weird hypotheticals, and other such nonsense.

So keeping with that theme, I was recently thinking about abandoned malls. I don’t know why, but one of those anti-urbanization groups is likely to blame. I heard the statistic that half of the retail space in the country is empty. When I heard it, that statistic had numbers to go with it, but you can’t expect my brain to hold on to things like that.

But there is all this bemoaning on account of companies pouring all this money into malls, and then leaving them a few decades later. Right now, malls are on the decline. Apparently big box stores (Walmart) are the new malls. I guess that makes sense, economically, at least. So towns are stuck with this massive concrete eyesore that no one wants.

“Well,” I think, “I’d like one.” And that’s how this idea started. I suppose I haven’t even explained that idea yet. But now you know how it started. Once that seed was planted, I noticed it lined up pretty nicely with some of my other dreams. I think communes, or even just really close communities are wonderful places to live. Now lets tie that idea together with old malls. If I were to acquire an abandoned mall, and open it up to housing, we could establish our own little community. It doesn’t need to be self-sustaining, or even a commune. But with enough people, we could manage property tax and utility bills.

Now you know the idea. I started to look into this, and thankfully the internet is on top of it. DeadMalls.com seems to be the authority, but the site isn’t exactly set up for my needs. They list not only dead malls, but perfectly healthy malls as well (for history’s sake). More exploring found sickmalls.wordpress.com, which lists malls which are on their way out, or already deserted. Its a good resource, but not really exhaustive. Lastly, abandonedonline.net which not only lists abandoned malls, but abandoned big box stores, churches, hospitals, schools, towns – everything. So why should I have to settle for a mall?

Big box stores are probably the cheapest to buy once they’re abandoned, but they are just one massive open space. Not really helpful to the commune idea. But all of those other abandoned buildings…sure!

This is a very long-term idea, but I’m going to keep it stewing in the back of my mind. Good things tend to come out of there.

Update: as luck would have it, my RSS reader threw this my way. Which lead me here.
Update 7/26: more MeFi links.