understanding and navigating the economic crisis
DESCRIPTION
Randy White is a municipal sustainability and living systems analyst, was a member of Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force, and is the Founder of Bright Neighbor, LLC.It’s no secret that Portland is a pretty radical city. While mainstream America is still learning how to make the leap to full-time sustainability activities, Portland, Oregon is a major hot zone and leader in the human revolution. The intent of this article is to offer an opinion and insight into strategies, collaborations, and technologies that are occurring in our city to solidify life-supporting social constructs.We All Have Our ProblemsPortland is dependent on energy and money just like any other city. With over 500,000 people, we have the 23rd largest economy in the US at $88.6 billion dollars. We have crime, poverty, homelessness, and hard-working people who would love more time off to pursue more joys in life if only they didn’t have debts to pay.The fact is, not enough people here have the skills, resources, or contribute to the system to say Portland can become a completely self-sufficient city. While science has determined that the amount of calories and nutrition needed for human bodies to survive, only each individual can determine what is needed to satisfy each of our own living requirements. Right now, people around the world are searching within themselves to determine what this mother-of-all-market-corrections means in the context of their own life. In countries around the world, people are reflecting on survival, whether it means scrambling to meet basic needs such as food and shelter, or committing one’s life to helping others survive as we dismantle nuclear weapons.Indeed, finance industries and governments continue to try and figure out how they can game the now collapsing currency market, and around the world thousands of loose-knit social movements and groups are acting together, radically altering the balance between commercial and non-commercial economies. Portlanders are trading sink repair for firewood, worm castings for books, and organizing into sustainability groups, meeting to discuss a multitude of survival strategies. The cool part is that it is in the most relaxed manner I could have imagined. You know something cool is happening when the art community gets involved. To see scholars, artists, chefs, teachers, farmers, faith leaders, bureaucrats and other various communities coming together to discuss survival in a civil manner is surreal. It is also the beauty of the Portland conversation, because empathy, understanding, and cooperation are now winning out over personal greed.Let’s examine some of the conversations taking place, and how people are organizing to do what we can locally:Food, Food, FoodPortlanders will practically strip naked and make love to the soil. Our city is full of a diverse ecosystem of people and cultures who love and worship local food, soil, and farmers. The cool thing to ask at parties is “So what do you grow”? Little kids wear shirts that say “I Love My Farmer”. They worship apples - and I’m not just talking about their phones and computers.As mobile as the city is with its fantastic bus and rail system, we have no problem getting around to all the amazing restaurants that showcase seasonal, locally grown vegetables in their menus. Our chefs strive to use local ingredients, as long as the cost doesn’t put them out of business. Our citizens have one of the highest percentages of CSA subscriptions. The fact is, we love food. So when it comes to loud-mouthed know-it-alls, you can bet Portland likes to brag about it’s success with food.Using a variety of technologies to list events, food experts are leading the conversation. If you know how to grow food, fix soil, and install edible landscaping, you are all the rage. Take a look at this quick video and you will see what the job of the future looks like.TransportationThis one is real easy. Portlanders either walk, bike,TRANSCRIPT
How To Fix Our Cities
IN A DOWN ECONOMY
A Challenging TIME
FOOD PRICES
The Problem With
THE INTERNET
Everything We
NEED
Too many Destinations
A Better Way People Can
WORK, PLAY & SHARE
Randy White Living
SystemsAnalyst
All-in-One
COMMUNITY TOOL
We Augment
Existing Internet Powerhouses
Private, Trusted
HELPING NETWORK
We Help Fix Local Community
LIVING SYSTEMS
Public
SYSTEM(Partner Promotions)
Private
CUSTOMERS(Licensed Software)
• Businesses• Organizations• Neighborhoods• Municipalities• Faith Communities
• City Level• Open to the Public• Partner opportunities• Exclusive clients only
On Mobile Devices
We Improve Emergency
COMMUNICATIONS
Other Organizations
PORTLAND95-NEIGHBORHOOD
COMMUNITY
REVOLUTION
TOUR 2009
‘Many Great Reasons To Meet Your Neighbors”
