picture update...

Our house...

Warehouse next to the bike shop

The start of our new house band called Bears Did This... stay tuned.

Hay ride with our st johns family...

Dance party with Junior in our kitchen...

Microloans... bringing global justice?

I think so!

I made my first micro-loan today to a woman in Nigeria named Mabel who is trying to run a grocery store...
http://www.kiva.org/ if you are interested in more info about micro-financing etc.

It is basically providing a non interest loan to the poor who are attempting to start businesses in order to survive in undeveloped countries.

You can give as little as $25 and eventually (hopefully) the loan will be repaid by the entrepreneur at the success of their work. There is a risk that it won't be paid back in instances like natural disasters, health issues, crop failure etc. To me it seems like a risk that is worth taking for the sake of global justice!

City wants to register vacant residences

Article from the Columbus Dispatch... I am going to check it out if anyone is interested last minute!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 3:15 AM

Columbus officials have crafted legislation that would require owners of vacant and abandoned houses to register them with the city and hire local property managers to inspect and maintain them.

The proposal is aimed at curbing the blight and damage that foreclosures and the economy have inflicted on many of the city's neighborhoods.

It targets out-of-town property owners who buy up cheap properties and sit on them in hopes of making a financial killing down the road.

A registry like this would track the owners so the city can hold them responsible, said Assistant City Attorney Jody Spurlock.

The proposal would require owners to carry liability insurance on vacant properties and provide their neighbors with emergency contact numbers.

And it would make them file "statements of intent," including how long they expect their properties to remain vacant and a plan to fix up, demolish or sell the property.

But there's been no discussion on how the city would implement the proposed changes, which will likely be tweaked, Spurlock said.

"We threw in everything but the kitchen sink, presuming a lot would come out in the end," she said.

Charleta B. Tavares, the Columbus City Council member who chairs the health, housing and human-services committee, will host a public hearing on the proposal at 5:30 p.m. today at City Hall, the first of at least two hearings.

"We looked at some of the best practices around the country and came up with what we felt were some of the best measures to combat the problem," said James Ragland, Tavares' aide.

Snowbirds who flee Columbus for weeks or months during the winter would not be required to register, Tavares said.

Columbus has more than 5,300 vacant homes, many of which attract arsonists, thieves, squatters and drug dealers. Many fall into disrepair and threaten neighborhood property values.

Columbus already has an ordinance that requires owners of vacant and abandoned properties to register with the city, but only if they fail to fix problems after the city cites them.

Another problem is that the city can't find the property owners.

"If what we have on the books didn't work, maybe we need to look at other measures," Tavares said.

Laura Swanson, the executive director of the Columbus Apartment Association, said she believes the proposal would require owners to register a single apartment that has been vacant for 30 days, even if it's the only vacancy among hundreds of units.

Donna Hicho, executive director of the Greater Linden Development Corp., said the city needs to track owners and make sure they keep properties in good shape.

"Anything we can do to regulate them and have more accountability can only benefit the neighborhood," she said.

Here we are...

... full from a delicious dinner that Greg whipped up in a matter of minutes consisting of homemade egg noodles, eggplant parmesan, and tomatoes from our garden.

Sitting around listening to music... a beautiful thing this is. A good and beautiful thing without a doubt. Somehow it still feels hard, and a bit gray. The suffering that is constant all around us, all the time, feels heavy. We are trying to learn to have fun and enjoy life in the midst of all the heaviness. Time will help. Prayer and conservation probably will too.

I also think I have some of my own soul searching to do... some things to deal with... some feelings and emotions to sort though... and I need to choose my words carefully.

In other news, we have another person moving in this coming month. A guy from PA who is looking for an escape and, through some mutual friends, found us to put him up for a few months. This will bring our grand total to 8. We will surely keep each other warm this winter. I am really looking forward to providing some longer term hospitality to a brother in need.

On that note, off to enjoy silence... and search around my soul and my scattered mind a bit...

I'll leave you with some love from the Buddha...

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence."

From Kelly's blog...

My thoughts exactly...

" Tonight at femma we wrote letters to legislators regarding domestic violence as a pre-existing condition for health insurance coverage and baked chocolate-chip cookies. Even while passionate letters were handwritten, a funk hung about the group, not unlike the funk that has been plaguing us the past few weeks.

It is hard to live in this neighborhood. When the boys lived here and we drove in from Cville almost nightly, I didn’t notice it. There’s something about the hopelessness that permeates every street corner interaction or handful of broken glass littering the street. Though the neighborhood was the first settled of our state, the trees are young and small. Everything is decayed and nothing is colorful except for neon signs and pawn shop windows– and even those are covered with “the Franklinton film.” That’s what I call the dull and filmy coat hanging over everything from Mount Carmel to the Hilltop. Cigarette smoke, city pollution, oil and dirt rubbed off of last months clothes, and spilled Cobra. This morning biking to street church, Ashley heard a man yelling violently at his wife (an obscenely regular occurence on front porches and streets) and she yelled, “I HATE THIS PLACE!”

It’s just that ills are not kept behind walls in Franklinton. Everything is so overwhelmingly not behind walls that it is, in fact, strewn all over the overgrown lawn. It is this explicitness that makes for a difficult transition. Or, at least, a sudden and undiluted one.

We do have new neighbors to our left, which we have been waiting for. It is a family of six, and the three boys play football in our front median. They are a delightful family– we have already gotten to share some tomatoes and yard tools with them. So far we have seen them communicate very lovingly and respectfully to each other, which is a relief.

It is nice to finally see our homeless friends in passing throughout the week instead of at one designated time, and indeed helps the area feel like home. I would feel more threatened by random passersby if they didn’t smile familiarly and call us “sissy.”

I paint a bleak picture. It’s what I see but not what I hope for."

New house... new fun...

The woman in the middle is our rev

The St Johns crew came over to do a house a blessing for our new place. Those Episcopals... they have prayers for every occasion, including moving into a new house. They have really been behind the seven of us through our transition to the west side and our attempts to bring justice where we desire to see it. They are all ages and all personalities but all incredible justice seekers and freedom fighters (and they like to go out and get a beer afterward). There is much to learn from this group of people. It is nice to have a community in the bigger sense of the word to support us like this.

Did I mention that the six of us just became the seven of us? We had another brother move in with us... and his name is Jonathan too. We decided to stop accepting Jonathan's to be our friends because now we have three of them living in this house. So our family of seven is getting comfy in our new home.

Thoughts on community... and sharing

The move is complete (thankfully). We fit the six of us into our first communal house in, of all places, the bottoms of Columbus. The house is incredible. Our house sits on three lots and we have a few vegetables growing right now but the potential garden (farm) that I see every time I get home is something to really believe in. We have so much room in the yard to farm, and yesterday we finally started getting serious with our overgrown weeds that are consuming our yard. We put on our gardening boots, gloves, and music (which, in case you were wondering is Dead Prez and Mos Def), made some slammin iced tea with nectarines in it, cranked up the jams, gathered some friends, and got to work. The yard is definitely a place of peace, life, growth, death, Resurrection, and joy. The inside is even more wonderful... we have crazy colored walls, bikes hanging all over them, and a collection of not one but six peoples belongings. We have a lovely little chapel in the basement with stone walls and a stone bench all the way around it. We have some Jesus and Mother Mary candles in front of this delicate little confessional alter next to our wailing wall, a place of solitude and power.

I feel as though there is a large misunderstanding about the choice of neighborhood, or the choice of living in community… but here is one small example of why it makes sense to me…

Sunday night, Kelly and I took our free bread we get from street church, hopped on our bikes and went to the T.G.'s house which is about seven blocks, we chatted with them, scored some sweet corn growing in their garden, and were on our way. Then we went up to the Kauffman's house, dropped off our bread to them, peeped in on the chickens, and went home with our corn to cook dinner with our 4 other housemates. We made a delicious stuffed zucchini, all with vegetables that are growing in season, and in our gardens, sat around the table and got to share our meal with others living in the community, Heather, Rachel, and Jon. Then the boys took off for some "guys time", and us girls stuck around and watched some slam poetry that was inspiring, as usual. Sharing in this manner helps me to believe that we could face anything in this world and get through it together by sharing what we have and depending on each other. What beauty in this community.

Then on Wednesday night, Kelly and I were out near our house getting some dinner when we were approached by a younger guy asking for a ride if we were heading west. The furthest west we were going was only about three blocks, but decided to talk to the kid anyways. He was traveling from Virginia to Utah to visit his family and decided to hitchhike the entire way. He had made it this far and got dropped off in the bottoms. He was looking to camp in the area and we strongly advised him not to. He was exhausted, needed a shower, and somewhere comfortable to sleep. After some discussion with the others in the house, the boys went back to get him and bring him in for the night. Paul, the traveler, was able to stay with us, shower, and eat with us because this is something we believe in. We believe in hospitality even if it inconveniences us. We believe in taking care of people and the freedom to do so because we have shared resources and shared space which really does make things safer. We take good care of each other so we can then take care of others. It is beautiful how these situations can arise simply from where you plant yourself.

It is nice having people coming in and out all the time, it is nice having visitors and people to feed and people to share meals with, it is nice to show people around who have heard about what is going on and are interested in community and taking care of their neighbors, it is nice having new neighbors knock on our door and ask if they can cut our grass to make some money when they don't have other forms of work, it is nice waking up to 5 other people and being able to laugh and enjoy each others company in the morning. Much to learn, much to experience, and so very much to do.

Back to the garden with our iced tea and dead prez, and in his words...

"Ain't nobody in the hood got hope in this fucked up system and that's why we don't vote"

Odd note to end on, I realize, but that lyric has been on my mind.

Hope.