5/14/05 Chicago Meeting Notes
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Kath, Louella, Gerry, Colin, Maria, Jill, Victoria, Seowa, Mike and others welcomed Eric, Nadia and Dolores to their first meeting.
Mike opened the space with a round of introductions and
VS Northwest Indiana... meets May 21st, Munster, IN public Library, 9:00am to noon.
Kathy has offered to show "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream, a recently released 78 minute documentary on the expected peaking of world oil production in the next four years and it's potentially devastating effects on most of our lifestyles", at the June VS Chicago Meeting. Discussion will follow. Thank you Kathy!
Jill has a 1999 Honda Accord for sale. Contact Mike at
VSChicago@juno.com.Kudos again to Jill, Victoria and Seowa from the VS Northside group for lending their time to National Public Radio (NPR) producers for a story on buying and simplicity. Their work became part of a program that aired on "All Things Considered" and "The 848 Show" last week. If you missed the shows, you can listen to the program from the NPR web site.
The group then began posting discussion topics...
* Bio region - type projects, ie, Earth Institutes... (Nadia)
* YMOYL - General update and chit chat (Kath)
* Mother's Peace Day, May 8th 1870 - the origin of "Mother's Day" (Mike)
* Sprawl - options and ideas (Maria)
TOPICS:
Chicago Wilderness,
http://www.chicagowilderness.org/North Park Nature
Chicago Department of Environment
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Environment&entityNameEnumValue=05Cook county Forest Preserves have a lot of local programs,
http://www.fpdcc.com/Great Chicago Places and Spaces next weekend May 13, 2005
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Special+Events&entityNameEnumValue=38Libby Hill, author on the Chicago River.
Chicago Botanic Gardens & programs,
http://www.chicago-botanic.org/
(*) YMOYL - GENERAL UPDATE & CHIT CHAT (Kath)
Kath and Jim lead a northwest suburbs group that completed a Your Money Or Your Life (YMOYL) Study Guide Session 6 months ago. Now they are wondering, "What's next?" Mike & Linda coordinated a one-day, YMOYL Audio Workshop using the "Transforming Your Relationship with Money" audio program (forerunner to the book, YMOYL) in February. Advantages of using the audio program include working through all nine YMOYL Steps in one day, hearing the YMOYL program explained directly by coauthor Joe Dominguez, and ease of setting up and conducting the workshop (it's only one day, start the cassettes tapes and let Joe do the talking). And results from the workshop have been the best to date => better participation, follow through AND results (ie, more folks working the steps, automatically reducing their expenses and automatically increasing their income, dramatically reducing debt).
Are there groups like AA for debtors? There sure are - Debtors Anonymous at
http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/.Politically active/powerful groups exist to help stem the tide of the American mind set of more is better. Growing in strength is the Center For a New American Dream (CNAD) (
http://www.newdream.org/http://www.__.com/). Like AARP, CNAD enlists its members to contact political and corporate leaders in coordinated campaigns to create environmentally friendlier office products, hybrid automobiles, higher mileage and appliance standards. Members are also encouraged to thank those CEO's and political leaders who are making a difference. And CNAD measure the result of their actions - their "Turn The Tide" web based program (http://www.newdream.org/tttoffline/index.php) tracks such things and tons of CO2 not released into the environment, effects of converting to compact fluorescent light bulbs...
(*) MOTHER'S PEACE DAY, MAY 8th 1870 (Mike)
Mike was recently astonished to find Mother's Day had its origins in 1870, as a proclamation by Julia Ward Howe to encourage mothers worldwide to rally for peace. Originally titled, "Mother's Peace Day", commercial interests eventually hijacked and converted the day to its modern entity. When Linda saw the procrastination's 1870 date, she immediately drew a connection to the carnage of the Civil War. You can check out the procrastination's in it's entirety on page 150 of Cosmo Doogood*s 2005 Urban Almanac (
(*) SPRAWL - OPTIONS & IDEAS (Maria)
As our population grows, can there be a balance between packing more people in cities and creating more suburban sprawl? How many high rises can we build before the crush of people per unit of area is greater then we can tolerate? And how big and spread can suburban homes become? With this focus, group discussion included examples of compact living from other countries.
Nadia mentioned the European Model, which focuses on the concept of villages => a town center accommodating community business, living and communication needs, with less dense living radiating from the center. Today, many American towns/suburbs have "no heart" => no center. Some town centers are the shopping mall, with local government offices dispersed through out the town's boundaries. Mike mentioned a movement underway among communities across the nation of going back to the town center concept. Towns like South Holland, Homewood, Tinley Park, Palatine... are actively reconstructing/reviving their downtown areas. Baby Boomer populations are creating markets for single family, owner occupied homes in town centers - maintenance free, close to shopping and transportation. Gerry mentioned Transindorial Development and
Congress for New Urbanism
Using nature is another model. Nadia said Canadians intentionally developed population centers along longitudes where weather is warmest. By contrast, Russia required populations to occupy all areas of their country, no matter how cold/harsh/sustainable the local environment.
We closed the meeting and space at 11:50am. Energetic, spontaneous, one-on-one conversations carried on in the room, hall, stairs, outside... ^_^
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