City Planning Goals Meet Paradigm Shift
Contents of this Essay The Very Short Story A CEI Has Enormous Potential Point of Departure and Affirmations First Look - The Strategic Planning Goals Assessment of Eugene's Planning Goals and Ideals A Community Engagement Initiative Part 1 How can the City and Community collaborate to create a citizen driven Community Engagement Initiative? A Primer For Paradigm Shift Structure |
Aspects of a CEI Outreach Allies and Assets Actions Neighborhood Associations Media Media Stories Parking Lots to Micro Downtown Block Planning Permaculture Suburban Permaculture Front Yard Gardens Work Parties Community Presentations Community Conversations How to Pay For Paradigm Shift Financial Incentives Civic Culture Special Projects Enhance City Programs Faith Groups, Schools, Work Places Boost Quality of Life Volunteer |
City Goals and Paradigm Shift Business, Wages, Jobs Benefits For City Staff Safety Downtown Homelessness and Affordable Housing Strengthen Community Relationships Shift When Needed Inclusion, Respect Resource Constraints From the Primer Uplift of The Spirit & Positive Human Potential Eco Logical Lifestyles Making the Cut Conclusion |
City Planning Goals Meet Paradigm Shift is now on both YouTube and Spirit in Action Radio
YouTube - Audio, text, fotos, graphics, 46 minutes
Spirit In Action Radio - Audio, 51 minutes
The book "A Primer For Paradigm Shift" should be nearing completion this Fall. The book will go into greater detail on most of the topics in the Planning Goals essay and address other issues as well. Check back for updates.
This essay is a tangent taken from writing the book "A Primer For Paradigm Shift." The essay describes how the Primer can be a big help to addressing the City of Eugene, Oregon's Strategic Planning Goal or any individual, city or group's pursuit of sustainability and social uplift. The writer has his own personal interests and focus regarding paradigm shift. Many topics important to others may not be addressed here. Anyone making the effort to start a CEI can shape that effort according to their own priorities but this essay can serve many basic design and content needs. This essay is intended to help you start a CEI. It is such a great idea!
The Primer goes into more detail on all the content in the essay.
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The City of Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals and "A Primer For Paradigm Shift"
Note - The word "City" = City Hall - the elected officials and the administration of the city
The word "Community" = citizens of Eugene
This essay is not a critique of the City. It does identify shortcomings but that's where the Community needs to step up, thats the Partnership. A successful Partnership needs both City and Community. That is paradigm shift in action.
The Very Short Story For This Presentation
Current social, economic, political and environmental conditions in Eugene and beyond call for an unprecedented partnership between the City of Eugene [City Hall] and the Community.
City Planning Goals Meet Paradigm Shift – The Very Short Story
Global & local problems and trends deserve Much Greater Attention. They are social, economic, political and environmental.
Affordable housing, climate change, making our community a better more welcoming place for everyone, sustainability and other concerns are increasingly important for all of us and the City's Goals and Ideals to deal with them are excellent - only the City doesn't have the capacity to take all this on. But the City should not have to do all that heavy lifting anyway.
Meanwhile, Eugene already has enormous experience and talent in relation to all those challenges and Planning Goals. A sensible action would be for that considerable community endowment to manifest its own collective identity and know how to take on a greater role for looking after Eugene's well being.
The City's Planning Goals clearly indicate a path forward – “approach needs in a new way” “engage the community” “tap the community's collective wisdom and talent.”
We have a converging set of deepening needs and latent assets that leads us to a partnership between the City and the Community like we have not seen before where the civic minded organizations and citizens of Eugene purposefully take on much more of the urgent task for addressing those Planning Goals and moving towards sustainability. The City would support this community initiative with its own unique assets.
The City can advise, provide logistical help and link the community initiative to important civic resources. The City would have no authority over this community initiative. The City would receive very useful benefits and new assist for the work only the City can do.
This partnership would require both the City and Community to make a leap in thought and action like never before. One might say a paradigm shift.
What might this citizen engagement initiative look like? Those involved will decide but here are some early thoughts.
This initiative could have an advisory council, a steering committee and action based working groups based on issues and goals. The initiative would become a Citizen's Think Tank and Dynamo. A Think Tank to inform City decision making plus Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects in the community to support the Planning Goals and Sustainability.
A Community Engagement Initiative would reach out to a wide range of entities in Eugene with the goal to connect them in a horizontal way with each other like never before. A CEI would engage neighborhood organizations and the media, offer educational presentations & conversations, site tours. A CEI can set in motion an enormous amount of latent community capacity and can spark positive actions no one is even thinking about at present.
I am just at the beginning – mid March – to reach out to the City and different entities in the community asking – how can we move forward with a City/Community partnership, based on a citizen driven CE Initiative, to address the many familiar, deepening and emerging social, economic and environmental challenges at this point in history that affect us all. Your thoughts and comments appreciated.
A Community Engagement Initiative Has Enormous Potential
A CEI -
* can link City and Community assets like never before
* can connect Eugene organizations with each other like never before
* can access allies, assets and actions in Eugene useful to the Planning Goals and sustainability the
City either doesn’t have the budget to connect with, or under values or doesn’t even know exist
* can be a Citizen's Think Tank to produce valuable information to inform City decision making
* can serve as a Civic Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects
* can have a capacity for outreach to the community far beyond what the City has
* can enhance many existing City programs
* can go where the City, politically, cannot
* can be a model for other cities and towns
* can be an important community resilience asset, given the current state of national political affairs
But, let’s start from the beginning. The very short story needs some context.
Consider this an illustrated essay. You can pause at any time to take a closer look.
Point of Departure and Affirmations - This Presentation
1] calls attention to the City Strategic Planning Goals and the enormous and timely
opportunity they offer Eugene
2] is a first step towards a CEI & affirms confidence that the Citizens of Eugene have the
skill, expertise & experience to be a strong part of an ground breaking partnership
with the City
3] is confident an unprecedented City - Community partnership can help bring about an
enormous leap forward for Eugene to address these critical issues & to manifest its own
great slumbering potentials for moving towards social, economic and eco logical
sustainability
4] encourages individuals, friends, neighbors, any association to put the positive
actions described in this presentation to work on their own, regardless of CEI or
anything else, no permission needed
The implications of this initiative extend far beyond Eugene.
A citizen driven CEI would chart its own course. It might look like what you see in this presentation, it might be different.
Much of the content for this presentation comes from a book currently in the works, “A Primer For Paradigm Shift.”
Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals.
The City of Eugene, like any city, has goals and ideals.
This is how Eugene explains its Strategic Planning Goals. “The City of Eugene's Strategic Plan [informed by the strategic planning goals] provides overall direction and organizational focus for the 2023 - 26 period. The plan was designed to position the organization [the City] to focus on issues identified by the community and the organization [the City] as top priorities and provides guidance for our programs and services, recognizing resource constraints.”
The Strategic Planning Goals
The Goals identify conditions and issues the City endeavors to address on behalf of the Community.
The Planning Goals are in four categories. These points verbatim from the City's website.
1] Urgent community needs – We will prioritize crises that are, or may become, problems impacting health, safety, and welfare -
Increase sense of safety, advance climate action and community resilience, mitigate the impacts of homelessness, a vibrant downtown, local business, create jobs and increase wages
2] Communication and outreach – We will be a city that informs, listens and understands what the community wants and needs, and a community that understands, participates and has confidence in what their city is doing -
Improve understanding of priority topics, engage broadly with the community, increase confidence in council and staff
3] A culture of belonging – We are cultivating a community where everyone feels included, respected and valued as they are. A community united in uplifting the diversity of identities and experiences to provide equitable access to resources and opportunity -
Understand community belonging and what impacts it, strengthen relationships with the whole community, including the most marginal groups
4] Organizational well being – The city organization is most effective when there are clearly defined priorities and outcomes, flexibility for staff talent, and room for innovation, where we can measure progress and shift when needed. We will establish a sustainable foundation to ensure employee retention and development, to support council, and create capacity to accomplish strategic goals - Increase employee engagement and well being, improve organizational processes, create a sustainable budget
These are additional ideals taken from the City's Planning Goals webpage that add even more affinity with the Primer, Sustainability and Citizen Initiative
“The community is at an inflection point, facing urgent needs amidst unprecedented uncertainty and challenge. We need to approach those needs in a new way.”
“We can achieve this [better results to the residents of Eugene] by tapping the collective wisdom and talent of our community to ensure clear direction, allocation of resources and better outcomes.”
[Many issues and concerns that impact Eugene are beyond our control,,, therefore] “the Strategic Plan primarily focuses on City of Eugene efforts, with the recognition that to be successful, some actions will need to be accomplished in partnership with other entities.”
Assessment of Eugene's Planning Goals and Ideals
Assessment of Eugene's Planning Goals and Ideals - Bravo!
The assessment of the City’s Strategic Planning Goals and related Ideals is Bravo! The Goals and companion Ideals are excellent!
There is urgent need to address many social, economic, environmental and political issues and challenges. Most of them are closely related.
But the City of Eugene lacks the budget and organizational capacity to do justice to their own excellent Goals and Ideals.
The City's website clearly suggest a path forward –
“approach needs in a new way”
“engage the community”
“listen to the community”
“tap collective wisdom and talent in the community”
That Assessment Points to A Community Engagement Initiative
We can turn a problem into a benefit
A sensible way forward is for the City to take its own advice - engage with the Community.
No shame. The City has set the table and sent an invitation. Moving forward depends on the Community to accept that invitation.
Moving forward points to a ground breaking partnership between the City and the Community. For now, let’s call it a Community Engagement Initiative or CEI.
To emphasize, the City can play a critical part in bringing about a CEI. Eugene’s best interests are served for the City to be both midwife and partner to a CEI.
A CEI would be autonomous. There would be minimal expense in time and money for the City.
A Community Engagement Initiative Has Enormous Potential
A CEI -
* can link City and Community assets like never before can connect Eugene organizations with each other like never before
can access allies, assets and actions in Eugene useful to the Planning Goals and sustainability the City either doesn’t have the budget to connect
with, or under values or doesn’t even know these assets, allies and actions exist
* can be a Citizen's Think Tank to produce valuable information to inform City decision making
* can serve as a Civic Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects
* can have a capacity for outreach to the community far beyond what the City has
* can enhance many existing City programs
* can go where the City, politically, cannot
* can be a model for other cities and towns
How can the City Support a Community Engagement Initiative?
Many of the greatest benefits to be gained for creating a CEI will come only from the working relationships needed among people and organizations in Eugene to make it happen.
The City can play a critical role that does not require a lot of staff time or budget. Here is what the City can do to assist a Community Engagement Initiative
1] The City can "Bless" the CEI - That blessing can open doors.
2] Provide City expertise on legal and procedural issues
3] Provide logistical assist such as places to meet at City owned locations
4] Connect the Initiative to important entities such as media
5] Restore and Advocate Block Planning
Certainly other low cost City assists will be added to this list
A Primer For Paradigm Shift - Overview
The Primer can be a big assist to a CEI. Much of the description in this account of what the CEI might look like comes straight from the Primer. When I first read the City’s Strategic Planning Goals I immediately illuminated, the Primer is a perfect fit to these Planning Goals. Writing the book, “A Primer For Paradigm Shift” has been on hold for almost 2 months to work on this tangent to converge the Primer and Eugene’s Strategic Planning Goals.
The Primer is a perfect compliment to the City of Eugene's Planning Goals because it examines nearly all the same social, economic and environmental problems and issues as the City mentions. The Primer is also a perfect fit to assist a citizen driven Community Engagement Initiative. The Primer offers an expansive, practical menu of actions both the City and Eugene residents can take for addressing those Planning Goals and sustainability.
Micro Overview Of The Primer
The Primer offers four sections of usable information -
1] Historical Context - Where do these problems come from
2] Aspects of Paradigm Shift – Practical ideals, concepts and principles
3] Allies, Assets and Actions - Making common cause, real life examples
4] Outreach To The Wider World – Sharing the ideas and actions
For more detail on the Primer Go Here
A Community Engagement Initiative [CEI] Part 2
The writer is certain a community driven initiative would attract many capable volunteers, especially with the support of the City. Eugene can be a prototype for a new kind of community scale action.
The purpose [perhaps mission statement] of the CEI could look something like this.
1] The CEI exists to address many familiar and deepening social, economic, public health, political and environmental problems at the local level.
2] The CEI exists to accelerate Eugene's movement towards sustainability and addressing the City's Strategic Planning Goals.
3] The CEI exists to empower the community, build relationships and include everyone who wants to help
CEI Structure
Steps along the way for creating an CEI would include identifying a provisional steering committee and advisory group to build an early organizational structure. These could be people one already knows or they could be new contacts via allies, assets and actions. Here's a bit more detail.
1] An advisory board could include a representative from the city, several community people known to be progressive and respectable, perhaps a faith person, people from well known organizations and several people with resumes more on the edge towards paradigm shift. An advisory board would be available for providing thoughts and advice to the CEI but [from this perspective] would not make decisions.
2] A steering committee would begin to articulate a mission statement and reach out to various entities in the community. The steering committee would build relations with the media, look after a website and social media. The CEI should be accessible to the community. Assessing the information gained from surveys and community input would be a task shared between the steering committee, advisory board and working groups.
3] Working groups would be formed to address the particular issues and concerns for the CEI such as those listed in a city's strategic plan. More working groups can be added as the entire CEI moves forward. A more permanent steering committee would evolve to include representatives from all the working groups. There would be periodic gatherings of everyone involved with the CUI. One of the most important goals is for the different groups and individuals to form strong working relationships. This is paradigm shift in action.
Working groups would include concerns identified in the City Planning Goals such as affordable housing, investing in local high value projects and businesses, suburban permaculture, emergency preparedness, climate change, homelessness, environmental restoration, local and regional food systems, housing cooperatives, block planning and much more. Working groups would meet with each other to bring about a strong horizontal structure. Working groups would organize outreach and educational events with other groups coordinated by the steering committee.
Each working group would be charged with writing an action guide specific to that working group's interests to be made available to the wider community. New working groups could be created by an agreed upon process.
Eugene's over 20 neighborhood associations, a vital asset, can play a core role in the CEI. They are located all over town, have important outreach capacity, they have standing in the community, they know whats up in their part of the world and already have strong interests in community well being.
The CEI would reach out to the public with widely accessible surveys, in person interactive public engagement opportunities, forums, work with media to provide coverage of the CEI so the community could follow its workings.
The CEI would organize public presentations [see further below] where people and groups with expertise and experience relating to the CEI could share what they know with the wider community. Local media would be encouraged to regularly feature stories about these real life examples that show what paradigm shift can look like. There could be tours of places to show and tell projects such as suburban permaculture, alternative business models and block planning. Articles and presentations could explain how to pay for moving towards sustainability.
Even more assets. The City itself has a number of programs that already accomplish important work but can become even more ambitious with a mandate to expand their original purpose to include actions that specifically address various City Planning Goals. Neighborhood Associations as mentioned above are perfectly placed to assist the CEI. Neighborhood Watch, Community Emergency Response Teams [CERT], Community Volunteers and Mapping Your Neighborhood can all be charged with a more broad and wide ranging agenda to advocate home and neighborhood actions that support the Planning Goals.
Every community is loaded with social assets just waiting to be engaged and invited. Imagine, the Scouts, The Northwest Youth Corp, senior groups, church youth groups and social action committees, the Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, veteran groups, student organizations and more all have skills, capacity and agendas that fit the task of helping the community move towards sustainability.
The City's Sustainability Commission and climate policy staff can play an important role helping to advise a Community Engagement Initiative.
Eugene also has physical assets such as thousands of homes, public spaces, meeting places, community centers, people with skills, parking lots and experience relevant to the Planning Goals and sustainability. The Primer emphasizes making smart and creative use of existing allies and assets.
CEI - Outreach to The Community
A Short very preliminary look at what CEI outreach. More detail in this essay and more in the Primer.
Media - local media can regularly feature these and additional stories
Public Presentations - educational presentations for the community about a wide range of topics and
actions to take
Other organizations like neighborhood associations, faith groups, business, schools, any organization can
form “Initiative” structures, presentations and actions as they like.
Allies - Any organization can help put CEI information out to their members and the wider community
The YouTube version of this essay includes several graphics and illustrations that show and tell various possible aspects and elements of a CEI.
Allies and Assets
Eugene and any city has many “allies, assets and actions” to work with for creating an engagement process and moving towards sustainability.
Allies generally refer to organizations and humans that can be participants and partners for a project. Allies are entities and organizations in any community that all have an interest in making their town or city a better place to live for everyone. They typically focus on a “set” of issues, again, most of the problems the by products of over consumption and economic mal practice. Capitalism simply creates a lot of problems. Allies are essentially on the same team.
Allies can include non profits, schools, faith groups, individuals, ad hoc groups, service organizations, neighborhood associations and more. Allies can be partners and companions actually helping with the project. Participation in the CEI can bring these allies together in common cause like never before.
Assets are mostly physical or organizational capacities. Most organizations have outreach assets via newsletters, networks, website. Allies can have these assets, too. Assets can be physical objects that can serve a useful purpose. A house or parking lot can be transformed into an example of paradigm shift. Assets can be communication networks; organizational and management skills; social, economic or political connections. Assets can be anything that can help move the project forward.
Actions
Paradigm shift is not just a future hope. For a growing number of people, paradigm shift is already a part of everyday life. The actions these people are taking can show what it looks like to address Planning Goals and move towards sustainability. They are enormous assets and its important to share their experiences with the community and the wider world.
A] Real life examples include suburban permaculture, site tours; on site production of food, energy
water, resilience. Transforming suburbia
B] More real life examples include Eco villages and intentional communities, block planning
C] More real life examples include empowering young people, progressive economic development,
maker spaces, many many more examples
Tapping Collective Wisdom and Talent, Inclusion, Relationships and Partnerships
These topics are critically important ideals included on the City's SPG webpage. Eugene has a significant home grown "wisdom and talent." A CEI would require an unprecedented level of engaging Eugene's collective wisdom and talent. The CEI would become something of its own community based think tank and dynamo of action. Those with skills related to a healthy community would share what they have learned elevating the capacity of those involved to take on new and even more challenging projects of all kinds for the good of people and planet. Such a process is naturally inclusive while strengthening community relationships and partnerships
Community inclusion, respected, valued
A community conversation can bring together many voices. A CEI can create many new collaborative relationships. A survey by the City received 1400 responses. That's helpful but most people never knew about it and its not enough for community needs regarding sustainability, our historical condition, the Planning Goals and its ideals anyway. A CEI can provide more variety in ways people can participate – in person, zoom, forums, meetups, site tours, by way of organizations, ad hoc - and help create many new relationships and actions with sustainability as a focus. A wider reach encouraging participation offers a great opportunity to include and value many points of view from Eugene's collective wisdom and talent.
Special Shout Out - Neighborhood Associations
Neighborhood associations merit a special shout out. Many cities have neighborhood associations [NA], usually a part of a city program. NAs exist to help make the neighborhood a better place to live. Typically, an NA has a board, there might be working committees. Most NAs have general meetings once a month. The NA typically addresses issues important to the neighborhood such as traffic, development, safety and preparedness issues, environmental issues. Those involved tend to set the agenda. An NA has standing in the neighborhood, usually have a website/social media, send out newsletters. Neighborhood associations are a natural ally and asset to a Community Engagement Initiative.
Any individual or organizing group can identify allies, assets and actions in their own cities and towns.
Aspects of a Community Engagement Initiative
CEI - Allies And Assets
Some useful thoughts on allies and assets.
Eugene and any city has many “allies, assets and actions” to work with for creating an engagement process and moving towards sustainability.
Allies generally refer to organizations and humans that can be participants and partners for a project. Allies are entities and organizations in any community that all have an interest in making their town or city a better place to live for everyone. They typically focus on a “set” of issues, again, most of the problems the by products of over consumption and economic mal practice. Capitalism simply creates a lot of problems. Allies are essentially on the same team.
Allies can include non profits, schools, faith groups, individuals, ad hoc groups, service organizations, neighborhood associations and more. Allies can be partners and companions actually helping with the project. Participation in the CEI can bring these allies together in common cause like never before.
Assets are mostly physical or organizational capacities. Most organizations have outreach assets via newsletters, networks, website. Allies can have these assets, too. Assets can be physical objects that can serve a useful purpose. A house or parking lot can be transformed into an example of paradigm shift. Assets can be communication networks; organizational and management skills; social, economic or political connections. Assets can be anything that can help move the project forward.
Actions
Paradigm shift is not just a future hope. For a growing number of people, paradigm shift is already a part of everyday life. The actions these people are taking can show what it looks like to address Planning Goals and move towards sustainability. They are enormous assets and its important to share their experiences with the community and the wider world.
A] Real life examples include suburban permaculture, site tours; on site production of food, energy
water, resilience. Transforming suburbia
B] More real life examples include Eco villages and intentional communities, block planning
C] More real life examples include empowering young people, progressive economic development,
maker spaces, many many more examples
Special Shout Out - Neighborhood Associations
Neighborhood associations merit a special shout out. Many cities have neighborhood associations [NA], usually a part of a city program. NAs exist to help make the neighborhood a better place to live. Typically, an NA has a board, there might be working committees. Most NAs have general meetings once a month. The NA typically addresses issues important to the neighborhood such as traffic, development, safety and preparedness issues, environmental issues. Those involved tend to set the agenda. An NA has standing in the neighborhood, usually have a website/social media, send out newsletters. Neighborhood associations are a natural ally and asset to a Community Engagement Initiative.
Engage the Media
Engagement with the media is a high priority for the CEI. The City and many civic organizations have important media contacts/assets that can help move the CEI forward. The Register Guard, The Weekly, radio and TV are all important assets to help inform the community about the CEI. There are near unlimited stories that can inspire individuals, groups and organizations in Eugene [and elsewhere] that need to be heard and there are an unlimited number of new positive stories to create. The Media can help take those stories out to the wider world
Stories For the Media
Imagine regular stories going out to tens of thousands of people describing the abundant good works in Eugene that already exist that point towards sustainability and paradigm shift like Friendly Neighborhood's Common Ground Garden, a citizen initiative that has turned a former street right of way into a wildly popular neighborhood garden. A spotlight on East Blair Housing Co-op could show what many of the social, economic and environmental benefits can look like when neighbors use Block Planning.
There's Hummingbird Wholesale's cooperative business model and its small business incubator that offers a very different take on how to organize and manage a medium sized business in the public and workers' interest. Stories could describe what an ecological lifestyle can look like in terms of food, shelter, transportation, past times - and how a person or family can prioritize time and money for making that transformation on behalf of paradigm shift.
Stories could explain the job creation possibilities of transforming thousands of suburban properties. There are homes in Eugene that have already been re imagined and reworked to produce significant amounts food, energy and rain water on site. These places provide greater resilience and disaster preparedness, these properties help build community culture and reduce eco footprints. Transforming suburbia to produce these benefits can create many useful jobs in a green economy.
Some neighbors in Eugene have taken fences down to create more intentional mutual assistance, a small move towards block planning. There have been many dozens of site tours in Eugene over the years to visit these places. The media can help tell these stories to the community by describing on the ground projects that already exist that boost paradigm shift and City Planning Goals all at the same time.
Every City has allies and assets that are a perfect fit for their own community's sustainability action plans such as the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, New York; Local 20/20 in Port Townsend, Washington; Urban Harvest in Houston; N St. Coop in Davis, Cal; LA Eco Village in Los Angeles and many many more.
Urban Land Use
Reworking the urban landscape is a primary action for moving towards social, economic and eco logical sustainability and also Eugene's Planning Goals. Verily, improving public transportation and increasing residential density are already core issues for Eugene and most other cities and towns. The following items describe strip malls to downtown, block planning and suburban permaculture. They are all powerful opportunities and actions that deliver many benefits. The Primer goes into greater detail.
Strip Malls To Downtown - Dateline Eugene 2034
Imagine this abbreviated fiction account in Eugene's daily newspaper, say, ten years from now. Local people can exclaim, “Wow, I can hardly believe it, this is what we have accomplished with our very own CEI.” Again, this narrative is fiction but the capacity to make this story real already exists. All we need is to set the priorities to make them happen.
Members of the community gathered Tuesday for the formal opening of Santa Clara Village. The Village is the largest Strip Mall to Downtown project ever completed in Eugene and can trace its beginnings to ten years ago thanks to the well known Community Engagement Initiative of 2026. What we see today is a cluster of five five story buildings that occupy the one time parking lot of Santa Clara Square, a former strip mall. The buildings contain businesses on the ground floor and apartments and residential co-ops above. The small plazas, points of interest and edible landscaping between buildings invite socializing, child play and community events. The structures are super green with passive solar design, terraces, roof gardens, shared spaces and friendly amenities.
Residents are encouraged to be car free with reduced rents and flex cars on site. Some of the residences are built for cooperative living with shared spaces to make them very affordable and eco friendly.
Essentially, Santa Clara Village is a micro downtown. Many new small businesses in the Village fill in the gaps of products and services useful to this part of town allowing those who live within a mile or so to take care of most of their needs with much less use of a car. Nearby streets have been reworked in the area so they are bike and pedestrian friendly leading to the Village.
Emx bus rapid transit, with a stop at the Village, provides convenient transport to other locations in Eugene and Springfield. All these design features were envisioned by Eugene's Community Engagement Initiative, catalyzed by City Planning Goals over ten years ago. The citizen lead Initiative, made up of many dozens of organizations in the community with city support, has increasingly made its mark in many ways all around town in recent years.
Important to note, that Initiative also brought about dozens of small residential projects where fences are down, gardens are up and groups of families formed what are known as MAPs - Mutual Assistance Pods where those involved share resources and responsibilities to create enhanced security, safety, resilience and to reduce eco footprints.
Important to mention for the MAPs, participants learned from Community Initiative seminars years ago about the benefits to be gained by mutual assistance and also lifestyle management techniques that helped them make best use of their own time and money for healthy outcomes. We are seeing more and more MAPs and parking lot redevelopment projects all around town.
Parking Lot To Downtown projects and the MAPs have received various incentives such as tax breaks, grants, reduced development fees to help with these transformations. Several Eugene credit unions have been working with the Community Initiative starting years ago to set up public investment funds for local people to invest in local projects like small businesses and parking lots to downtown.
The Santa Clara Village opening was a great success. Eugene is turning ideals and visions from years ago no one thought possible into reality. Today's global and national news should only motivate us to do more.
End of story.
Block Planning
Block planning is a powerful land tool that can help build community, reduce eco footprints and create safer/more resilient homes, neighborhoods and community. The City of Eugene actively promoted block planning 40 years ago. Block planning is a better idea than ever. A block plan [BP] is a formal process between the City and property owners. A BP allows participants to make changes to their properties [think detached homes] they could not make as a single property. A BP does not make codes and regulations go away but it allows much more flexibility for what participants can do on their properties as part of the plan such as set backs, parking, landscaping, business and even better, the social, environmental, public health, community building and economic benefits.
Block planning can boost many of Eugene's Planning Goals, sustainability and uplift.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of values, ideals and principles for designing systems for taking care of human needs in ways that are friendly to people and planet. Here are several permaculture principles - catch and store energy, apply self regulation, accept feedback, value renewable resources, produce no waste, use small and slow solutions, integrate rather than segregate, creatively use and respond to change. Permaculture is Earth Care and Fair Share.
Permaculture is like a new and emerging global language. There are permaculture enthusiasts, advocates and their projects all over the world. Jan Spencer's property in River Road was the first video on YouTube, over 20 years ago, under the category "suburban permaculture." Now there are hundreds. Permaculture is an enormous part of paradigm shift and can play a enormous part in helping to address the Strategic Planning Goals. Permaculture is just as much social as it is gardens and the natural environment. Just as much at home in town as in the country.
Suburban Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of values, principles and ideals for designing systems for taking care of human needs in ways that are healthy for people and planet. Permaculture applied to suburbia can help transform the property into a social and environmental educational asset to inspire others. A typical suburban transformation project will include grass to garden and edible landscaping to start with. Various features in variable comginations can include rain water collection and storage, passive solar design and replacing the driveway with positive use. Other actions can include remodeling a garage into living space or building a small ADU. Rooms can be rented and amenities shared. Suburban permaculture fits perfectly with block planning and also the fiction story above. The Primer devotes a good bit of
space to explaining suburban permaculture.
Front Yard Gardens
Creating a front yard garden is one of the most productive actions a person can take on behalf of paradigm shift. All you need is a front yard, some time and effort. And maybe provide some pizza and tools for a work party. Front yard gardens can produce healthy food. It can be beautiful. Its good excersize and front yard gardens are a great way to meet your neighbors and reduce eco footprints. And there is a good chance others nearby will see your garden and start one, too. Front yard gardens build community culture and can make your place safer for you and your neighbors and more resilient if there is some kind of disruption. Front yard gardens deliver many benefits. Work parties build personal, cooperative and environmental well being
Work Parties
Work Parties fit every aspect of this essay. A work party is a fun social event that combines useful work and making friends. Typically, a host calls a work party and organizes the task or tasks to do. Snacks are often provided. Work parties can be about gardens, construction, planning an event or just about anything that requires several people and can be accomplished in a fun way that easy for people to participate.
Community Conversations and Presentations That Will Challenge, Elevate and Educate
A CEI could also organize critical community conversations that can address important aspects of the Initiative. Certainly there will not be complete agreement in the community for explaining these topics but listening to different perspectives can lead to a greater understanding. These conversation could feature a set of speakers to explain different points of view.
1] What is sustainable and what might a sustainable lifestyle and society look like?
2] Where did all these problems listed in the City Planning Goals and others we read about every day and often experience in our own lives come from?
3] What is the historical role of US Foreign Policy?
4] What is permaculture and the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions?
5] How do we pay for paradigm shift?
6] What are Allies, Assets and Actions?
7] What is Block Planning?
8] What are existing examples of paradigm shift?
9] What are External Costs
10] What is the City doing to promote sustainability?
How To Pay For Sustainability
Community conversations can also educate about how to pay for personal and community transformation towards sustanability. Sustainability and paradigm shift are affordable. Verily, we can’t afford not to invest in sustainability. First, we prioritize how we use our own time and money at all scales, from personal, to family, mutual assistance, neighborhood and community. We invest time and money in healthy products and systems that boost sustainability and reducing eco footprints. Products and services that don’t fit sustainability are simply left behind. We apply that money in positive ways instead.
We can trade the kitchen remodel, new car, home entertainment center and many other purchases for an edible landscape, grass to garden, a rainwater storage system, passive solar retrofit, going to work parties and neighborhood meetings; donating to groups doing good work, investing in local projects like turning strip malls into micro down towns and more.
Further, we know healthy lifestyles save money. When we give a miss to those unhealthy products, we avoid the external costs, the inevitable and often expensive companions of consuming unhealthy products and services. Those avoided expenses, again, can be applied to paradigm shift and addressing City Planning Goals. This dynamic works at home scale amounting to thousands of dollars per year, it can work at neighborhood, community and national scale.
Consider, millions of jobs exist in the US to repair the damage caused by the products and services produced by millions of other jobs. This remarkable economic malpractice amounts to trillions of dollars each year. When we quit eating junk food, stop smoking, trade cars for smart transportation, transform suburbia, make smart choices with our own time and money, we can free up literally trillions of dollars to invest in healthy people and planet.
We can also learn new ways to take care of needs that don’t require money such as sharing and trading. Ancient forms of economics have a place in a sustainable future that will depend on new understandings of human potential and learning new social skills.
When we understand the personal and more expansive benefits of sustainability we can become more motivated to participate. Paradigm shift can begin at the personal and home scale as soon as we prioritize our time and money and take purposeful initiative. Even better when we combine efforts with friends and neighbors. Small scale paradigm shift projects will bump into others, they will cross pollinate, support each other and increase the scale of social, economic, environmental and political transformation.
Financial Incentives –
Financial incentives can help bring about sustainability, address Planning Goals and accelerate paradigm shift. For example, lets encourage Block Planning. City planning fees and taxes can be reduced or forgiven entirely to home owners putting block planning to work. At larger scale for parking lot redevelopment, perhaps block grants and tax exempt bonds can help. New investment mechanisms could allow people to invest in specific projects such as mixed use redevelopment in their neighborhood.
At the same time, Eugene can increase fees now on oversized single family home construction projects to help fund affordable housing taking a cue from the Mansion Tax initiated in 2023 in Los Angeles. Homes selling for over $5 million pay a 4% transaction tax and homes selling for over $10 million pay a 5.5% transaction tax. The money raised goes to projects to house the homeless. Paris, France offers incentives and financial security to home owners to rent rooms in their flats.
New York City's new congestion pricing program charges non resident vehicles for accessing certain areas of Manhattan. The funds raised will go to upgrading public transportation. Eugene could do likewise. The City could tax automobile purchases and start a local gas tax to raise revenue to help pay for improved public transportation, subsidize bus fares and encourage bikes to discourage driving.
Civic Culture
Another community conversation. Building “Civic Culture” is a core part of paradigm shift. A CEI would bring about untold personal and organizational interactions and connections - the foundation of civic culture. Building “Civic Culture” is a core part of paradigm shift and would be an enormous assist to realizing the City’s Planning Goals. Civic Culture is where people trade in the distractions of the consumer culture and instead, prioritize making time available to be involved in building civic partnerships and relationships for making the neighborhood and community a better place for everyone and the environment.
Civic culture is inclusive and welcoming. Civic culture calls on building social, economic, political and ecological literacy - the capacity to understand where our problems come from and how to diminish those problems. A Community Engagement Initiative can serve as an unprecedented leap forward on behalf of civic culture, sustainability and the Planning Goals. All those who participate with a CEI will learn valuable experience for building civic literacy.
CEI Special Projects
The Community Engagement Initiative can take on projects as it sees fit that boost the overall goals of the Initiative. The advisory board, steering committee, working groups or the public can all suggest special projects.
Community investment. A group could explore creating a mechanism that would allow people to invest in local business and projects that help move Eugene towards sustainability. The individual investor could choose from a list of projects or start ups. The mechanism would screen project and start up applications. Investors could fund as they like. Perhaps local credit unions could be partners to work with. Local 20/20, a community organization in Port Townsend, WA has such an local investment mechanism.
Another working group could research what would be needed to turn parking lots into commercial and residential development. There are many examples all over the US of repurposing dead shopping malls, a similar transformation as some of those efforts also include building on parking lots. The working group could ask City staff for input. This parking lot task might be taken on by the local investment group.
Neighborhood associations, organizations and ad hoc groups could start any kind of CEI related project they care to. NAs are perfectly situated to encourage neighbors setting up pods for mutual assistance. City programs mentioned in the essay could also encourage pod formation, much as Map Your Neighborhood and Neighborhood Watch already do. Participants of pods could take their collaborations any way they choose. To gain a greater "stature" they could ask to become an "official" project of the CEI. A committee from the CEI could assess any such requests.
The CEI will gestate all kinds of good ideas nobody is even thinking about right now. The CEI will create untold friendships and relationships between individuals and between organizations. A very simple graphic from the primer is the virtuous triangle. It shows the relationship between allies, assets and actions.
Essentially, a CEI could become a community think tank, tapping into Eugene’s collective wisdom and talent.
Eugene Has Many Social and Educational Assets To Boost Quality of Life
Eugene already has many educational and “life enhancement” resources that fit perfectly with Eugene Strategic Planning Goals, a CEI and paradigm shift. These entities and others all add to personal/community health and well being. Many help reduce eco footprints and they are all alternatives to the consumer culture. A CEI can put this information out to a wider audience so more people know about these healthy and positive opportunities for their own lives, friends, families and community. Almost any city or town has their own version of these assets.
Lane Community College courses
Continuing Education
Oregon State University Extension Service - Educational Programs and Events, Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservation
City Programs - Community Action Response Teams, Map Your Neighborhood, Crime Watch [upgrade these programs as mentioned in this essay]
Permaculture courses - Lost Valley Educational Center
School Garden Project
Vegetarian and Vegan Network
Kevin Prier - Urban Homesteading Skills via River Road Rec Center
City Eugene Rec Centers and Programs - Kids, youth, adults, life enrichment - music, art,,,,,
UO senior audit classes
River Road Rec Center - youth, seniors, adult enrichment programs
YMCA - Fitness, sports and a wide range of social and well being programs, courses opportunities
There are many private fitness centers that offer healthy assistance
Enhance City Programs
The City has several programs that already benefit the community and already help
boost the Planning Goals. These programs are important community assets and they can become even more valuable.
1] CERT - Community Emergency Response Team
2] Map Your Neighborhood - disaster/emergency preparedness
3] Crime Watch - well known totally mainstream encourages neighbors looking out for each other
The three have either guide books to explain their particular focus or in person classroom style instruction. CERT even comes with a Certification. All these programs are street scale - with friends and neighbors. They all rely on meeting and connecting with neighbors and these initial first connections can open the door to any more ambitious collaborations those involved care to take. The idea here is, to make sure participants of these programs know they can translate the basic safety concerns as a point of departure for whatever collaborations between neighbors people involved care to make.
Each of these programs could suggest to their participants ways to boost their safety and security even more either on their own or in collaboration with friends and neighbors
1] Learn about the other city programs and also the City’s Neighborhood Program
2] Briefly explain why producing more basic needs at home like food, energy, water storage, front yard gardens, resource share, what ever people like
3] Briefly explain how Block Planning - taking collaborations with neighbors to an even higher level
Faith Groups, Any Organization, Schools, Work Places
Any organization can self organize on behalf of their own interests and a CEI can call attention to common sense actions that members of these groups can put to work in their own lives but even better, they can bring these ideas and actions to the attention of others in their place of work, their organization, their faith community, wherever people come together.
All these entities have internal communications to share information. They could even create their own “in house” CEI structure based on the “Guidebooks” that each CEI Action Group might produce.
Each entity can also reach out to the wider community and even friends and associates in other cities and towns describing these paradigm shift and sustainability ideas and actions. They apply anywhere.
Self Initiation
Many of the actions described in the Primer and in the essay can be taken by individuals, families, friends, PODs or any other grouping, completely independent of any external influence, no permission required. Such as choosing a more healthy diet, identifying one's own priorities of time and money, creating a front yard garden. Anything!
CEI - Volunteer Opportunities With Community Organizations
Donating time to the well being of the community is a wonderful action and helps boost the organization assisted, the CEI and civic well being at the same time. Many organizations welcome volunteers. The groups listed below are found online. Being listed here does not necessarily mean an endorsement. Contact them & find out if they are a good fit for you.
The following are issues of interest identified by the City of Eugene with the Strategic Planning Goals. Brief comments are made from a “paradigm shift” point of view.
Topics under Construction Below
Business, Wages, Jobs
Business and commerce is just as important to paradigm shift as capitalism. There are a few major differences. One being the question, what is the purpose of an economic system - to make profits above all or to serve a society that has positive goals and ideals? Should an economic system internalize its costs so the price tells an honest story about production, use and disposal? Should an economic system be accountable to public health and the environment?
The Primer asserts our current and familiar over consumption of resources and energy, a necessity for capitalism as we know it, is the common denominator of practically every social, economic, political, environmental and even spiritual problem we have. The Primer asserts we would be smart to downsize our eco footprints and that means using less resources and energy. We trade excess stuff for positive relationships, security, uplift of the spirit and civic culture.
City Planning Goals call for new jobs and increased wages. Paradigm shift will create new jobs and many existing skills will fit sustainability although the products, services and outcomes might be different. Many jobs and products we are familiar with will not make the cut to sustainability.
The Primer is not on board with higher wages unless those wages are livable for lower paying jobs. Rather, society must find the “sweet spot” where we have enough for healthy lifestyles and planet, where we avoid poverty and we avoid excess. Who is going to decide that sweet spot and how will those decisions, perhaps regulations, find their way into our daily lives? Humans have created the problems identified in the Planning Goals. Our survival depends on humans finding solutions. We can make some real progress here at the local level.
Wages and sustainability is another important community conversation.
Benefits For City Staff
The writer has minimal knowledge of life as an employee of the City. The writer has several friends who work for the City and they love their jobs. The hope is that City staff can speak freely, express creativity and enjoy the important work they do for the community. City support for a Community Engagement Initiative could create enormous amounts of interest and enthusiasm for staff directly engaged with the Initiative and perhaps other staff not directly involved but supportive of the City taking on such a timely and ambitious project.
Safety
People need to be safe, not only feel safe. There is clear evidence humanity's level of resource and energy consumption, lead by the US, is not sustainable. Climate change, mass migrations and a host of other problems, driven by over consumption of energy and resources are making the entire world less safe and secure for everyone everywhere.
From its own website, the City of Eugene comments “The community is at an inflection point, facing urgent needs amidst unprecedented uncertainty and challenge. We need to approach those needs in a new way.” An unprecedented CEI offers the opportunity to acknowledge the cause and effect of overconsumption and deepening social/economic and political instability and then to take actions to create a healthy alternative in a holistic way. The CEI can help move Eugene towards lifestyles that increase our connections with our neighbors and enhance safety and sustainability by consuming less stuff from far away and producing more of what we need closer to home.
Downtown
Downtown Eugene is a misnomer. A downtown is a place of culture, a place to socialize and a place to do business. Eugene's downtown hardly qualifies as a downtown in a traditional sense. A more accurate term would be the “central entertainment district.” The bus stop and library are downtown features we can really be proud of. To be a real downtown, Eugene must “somehow” restore real downtown businesses like stores that sell clothes, home furnishings, hardware, flowers, medical services, groceries, financial services and more. Many decades of economic push in favor of cars and suburbia have decimated downtowns business districts all over the country. A CEI could include a working group with the task explore what it would take to bring every day business back to downtown.
Homelessness And Affordable Housing
Homelessness is a growing problem and likely to worsen. The Primer sees homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing as a result of an economic system that values profits over the well being of people and planet. The economic system generates more profits from building oversized homes rather than smaller places more people can afford.
There is no shortage of building materials and money, the issue is how we use those assets for the greatest good. Even taxing oversized homes and using the funds raised for affordable housing is not the long term solution. A long term solution would require replacing capitalism with a far more evolved and humane economic system that did not create the social, economic and public health conditions that lead to homelessness.
Strengthen Community Relationships, Actions and Partnerships
The City can be a core part of this community adventure. The CEI working groups, organizations reaching out to their members and networks, city and community collaborations, neighbors meeting neighbors, schools, faith groups, service groups, neighborhood associations can bring Eugene together like never before. A CEI with its unifying purpose and set of actions could bring about a new level of civic culture, safety, inclusion, resilience, belonging and care for the community and the environment.
Shift When Needed, Approach Challenges In a New Way, Organizational Well Being
As individuals, neighbors, community members, we have abundant and obvious reasons to make big changes for how we live. Social, economic and environmental trends and conditions continue to slide. A shift is needed not only for the natural environment but also for healthy humans. Eugene has the capacity, the talent, the expertise to combine the best from both the alternative and mainstream for making significant progress for addressing those trends and conditions in a new way with a Community Engagement Initiative.
Issues identified by community, inclusion, respected, valued
A community conversation can bring together many voices. A survey that receives 1400 responses is a good start but most people never knew about it. A CEI can provide more variety in ways people can participate – in person, zoom, forums, meetups, site tours, by way of organizations, ad hoc - and help create many new relationships and actions with sustainability as a focus. A wider reach encouraging participation offers a great opportunity to include and value many points of view from Eugene's collective wisdom and talent.
Resource Constraints
The limits of city budgets and staff time means a CEI will require citizen volunteers to drive the process in collaboration with an assist from City staff and expertise. The process would create many new resources by way of the relationships and skills learned by everyone participating in the CEI. City assist is a core need for a citizen driven Community Engagement Initiative.
From the Primer
Uplift The Spirit
Paradigm shift is not only about resources, energy and eco footprints. We should be asking ourselves, what is our personal and collective purpose here on earth? One does not have to be a theist. The author of this essay and the Primer does not believe in a higher Being but he does believe in a higher being. Paradigm shift calls on, invites, encourages and depends on the Uplift Of The Spirit which will elevate the effectiveness of participants in the CEI to help make progress with homelessness, climate change, and more. Consumer vanity can be traded for Uplift and sustainability. Positive human potential IS our greatest renewable resource.
Eco logical lifestyles
Paradigm shift and ecological lifestyles can produce new allies and assets that support City Goals. 1] We can prioritize time and money to make best use of allies and assets – that makes time to build community cohesion and resilience. 2] We can trade vanity shopping for spending money to support personal and community sustainability and well being 3] We can create social, economic and environmental conditions that are inclusive and bring out the best in positive human potential and restore the natural world.
Push Back On Cars
Automobiles, their number, the products, the resources, the money [private and public] they require, their external costs and more puts them in their own "we simply can't keep doing this" category. Even the mainstream is realizing our society must diminish its use and need of cars. Many of the problems and issues identified by Eugene's SPGs are related to cars. City of Eugene planning and policy is moving to reduce car use. Cars dominate our lives and economy simply because they, and many their needs, produce more economic activity than sensible transportation and urban planning. Electric cars are no better than gasoline. Paradigm shift calls for far far fewer cars so paradigm shift is strong on addressing urban planning issues related to cars.
Conclusion
Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals create an unprecedented opportunity to bring about a citizen driven, citizen managed initiative to address City Strategic Planning Goals and sustainability.
1] Goals refer to - climate change, affordable housing, safety, resilience
2] Goal ideals refer to - sustainability, community connections, belonging, engage broadly
More Goal Ideals from the City website
3] “We need to approach those needs in a new way.”
4] “,,,tapping the collective wisdom and talent in the community,,,”
5] “,,,some actions will need to be accomplished in partnership with other entities.”
These Ideals, goals and aspirations are all excellent. Add the social, economic, political and environmental trends we read about every day and the product is, Eugene needs an unprecedented community engagement process to address these issues sooner than later. The City doesn’t have the money to pay for an appropriate response, so let the Community take the lead with strong City assist - an unprecedented partnership is called for.
Humanity’s great leap forward on behalf of sustainability will require unfamiliar changes to our relationship with the natural world, personal lifestyle, public policy and how we perceive ourselves, where we live and the entire human experience. A Community Engagement Initiative can be an enormous boost for making that paradigm shift transition.
Sustainability and paradigm shift is not a future dream. A growing number of people are already engaged in paradigm shift for moving towards sustainability. Paradigm shift is simply common sense. Every community has allies, assets and actions for working together in common cause to help bring about a future we all deserve. The sooner the better. A Community Engagement Initiative can be an enormous boost towards a sustainable and uplifted present and future.
YouTube - Audio, text, fotos, graphics, 46 minutes
Spirit In Action Radio - Audio, 51 minutes
The book "A Primer For Paradigm Shift" should be nearing completion this Fall. The book will go into greater detail on most of the topics in the Planning Goals essay and address other issues as well. Check back for updates.
This essay is a tangent taken from writing the book "A Primer For Paradigm Shift." The essay describes how the Primer can be a big help to addressing the City of Eugene, Oregon's Strategic Planning Goal or any individual, city or group's pursuit of sustainability and social uplift. The writer has his own personal interests and focus regarding paradigm shift. Many topics important to others may not be addressed here. Anyone making the effort to start a CEI can shape that effort according to their own priorities but this essay can serve many basic design and content needs. This essay is intended to help you start a CEI. It is such a great idea!
The Primer goes into more detail on all the content in the essay.
===============================================
The City of Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals and "A Primer For Paradigm Shift"
Note - The word "City" = City Hall - the elected officials and the administration of the city
The word "Community" = citizens of Eugene
This essay is not a critique of the City. It does identify shortcomings but that's where the Community needs to step up, thats the Partnership. A successful Partnership needs both City and Community. That is paradigm shift in action.
The Very Short Story For This Presentation
Current social, economic, political and environmental conditions in Eugene and beyond call for an unprecedented partnership between the City of Eugene [City Hall] and the Community.
City Planning Goals Meet Paradigm Shift – The Very Short Story
Global & local problems and trends deserve Much Greater Attention. They are social, economic, political and environmental.
Affordable housing, climate change, making our community a better more welcoming place for everyone, sustainability and other concerns are increasingly important for all of us and the City's Goals and Ideals to deal with them are excellent - only the City doesn't have the capacity to take all this on. But the City should not have to do all that heavy lifting anyway.
Meanwhile, Eugene already has enormous experience and talent in relation to all those challenges and Planning Goals. A sensible action would be for that considerable community endowment to manifest its own collective identity and know how to take on a greater role for looking after Eugene's well being.
The City's Planning Goals clearly indicate a path forward – “approach needs in a new way” “engage the community” “tap the community's collective wisdom and talent.”
We have a converging set of deepening needs and latent assets that leads us to a partnership between the City and the Community like we have not seen before where the civic minded organizations and citizens of Eugene purposefully take on much more of the urgent task for addressing those Planning Goals and moving towards sustainability. The City would support this community initiative with its own unique assets.
The City can advise, provide logistical help and link the community initiative to important civic resources. The City would have no authority over this community initiative. The City would receive very useful benefits and new assist for the work only the City can do.
This partnership would require both the City and Community to make a leap in thought and action like never before. One might say a paradigm shift.
What might this citizen engagement initiative look like? Those involved will decide but here are some early thoughts.
This initiative could have an advisory council, a steering committee and action based working groups based on issues and goals. The initiative would become a Citizen's Think Tank and Dynamo. A Think Tank to inform City decision making plus Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects in the community to support the Planning Goals and Sustainability.
A Community Engagement Initiative would reach out to a wide range of entities in Eugene with the goal to connect them in a horizontal way with each other like never before. A CEI would engage neighborhood organizations and the media, offer educational presentations & conversations, site tours. A CEI can set in motion an enormous amount of latent community capacity and can spark positive actions no one is even thinking about at present.
I am just at the beginning – mid March – to reach out to the City and different entities in the community asking – how can we move forward with a City/Community partnership, based on a citizen driven CE Initiative, to address the many familiar, deepening and emerging social, economic and environmental challenges at this point in history that affect us all. Your thoughts and comments appreciated.
A Community Engagement Initiative Has Enormous Potential
A CEI -
* can link City and Community assets like never before
* can connect Eugene organizations with each other like never before
* can access allies, assets and actions in Eugene useful to the Planning Goals and sustainability the
City either doesn’t have the budget to connect with, or under values or doesn’t even know exist
* can be a Citizen's Think Tank to produce valuable information to inform City decision making
* can serve as a Civic Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects
* can have a capacity for outreach to the community far beyond what the City has
* can enhance many existing City programs
* can go where the City, politically, cannot
* can be a model for other cities and towns
* can be an important community resilience asset, given the current state of national political affairs
But, let’s start from the beginning. The very short story needs some context.
Consider this an illustrated essay. You can pause at any time to take a closer look.
Point of Departure and Affirmations - This Presentation
1] calls attention to the City Strategic Planning Goals and the enormous and timely
opportunity they offer Eugene
2] is a first step towards a CEI & affirms confidence that the Citizens of Eugene have the
skill, expertise & experience to be a strong part of an ground breaking partnership
with the City
3] is confident an unprecedented City - Community partnership can help bring about an
enormous leap forward for Eugene to address these critical issues & to manifest its own
great slumbering potentials for moving towards social, economic and eco logical
sustainability
4] encourages individuals, friends, neighbors, any association to put the positive
actions described in this presentation to work on their own, regardless of CEI or
anything else, no permission needed
The implications of this initiative extend far beyond Eugene.
A citizen driven CEI would chart its own course. It might look like what you see in this presentation, it might be different.
Much of the content for this presentation comes from a book currently in the works, “A Primer For Paradigm Shift.”
Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals.
The City of Eugene, like any city, has goals and ideals.
This is how Eugene explains its Strategic Planning Goals. “The City of Eugene's Strategic Plan [informed by the strategic planning goals] provides overall direction and organizational focus for the 2023 - 26 period. The plan was designed to position the organization [the City] to focus on issues identified by the community and the organization [the City] as top priorities and provides guidance for our programs and services, recognizing resource constraints.”
The Strategic Planning Goals
The Goals identify conditions and issues the City endeavors to address on behalf of the Community.
The Planning Goals are in four categories. These points verbatim from the City's website.
1] Urgent community needs – We will prioritize crises that are, or may become, problems impacting health, safety, and welfare -
Increase sense of safety, advance climate action and community resilience, mitigate the impacts of homelessness, a vibrant downtown, local business, create jobs and increase wages
2] Communication and outreach – We will be a city that informs, listens and understands what the community wants and needs, and a community that understands, participates and has confidence in what their city is doing -
Improve understanding of priority topics, engage broadly with the community, increase confidence in council and staff
3] A culture of belonging – We are cultivating a community where everyone feels included, respected and valued as they are. A community united in uplifting the diversity of identities and experiences to provide equitable access to resources and opportunity -
Understand community belonging and what impacts it, strengthen relationships with the whole community, including the most marginal groups
4] Organizational well being – The city organization is most effective when there are clearly defined priorities and outcomes, flexibility for staff talent, and room for innovation, where we can measure progress and shift when needed. We will establish a sustainable foundation to ensure employee retention and development, to support council, and create capacity to accomplish strategic goals - Increase employee engagement and well being, improve organizational processes, create a sustainable budget
These are additional ideals taken from the City's Planning Goals webpage that add even more affinity with the Primer, Sustainability and Citizen Initiative
“The community is at an inflection point, facing urgent needs amidst unprecedented uncertainty and challenge. We need to approach those needs in a new way.”
“We can achieve this [better results to the residents of Eugene] by tapping the collective wisdom and talent of our community to ensure clear direction, allocation of resources and better outcomes.”
[Many issues and concerns that impact Eugene are beyond our control,,, therefore] “the Strategic Plan primarily focuses on City of Eugene efforts, with the recognition that to be successful, some actions will need to be accomplished in partnership with other entities.”
Assessment of Eugene's Planning Goals and Ideals
Assessment of Eugene's Planning Goals and Ideals - Bravo!
The assessment of the City’s Strategic Planning Goals and related Ideals is Bravo! The Goals and companion Ideals are excellent!
There is urgent need to address many social, economic, environmental and political issues and challenges. Most of them are closely related.
But the City of Eugene lacks the budget and organizational capacity to do justice to their own excellent Goals and Ideals.
The City's website clearly suggest a path forward –
“approach needs in a new way”
“engage the community”
“listen to the community”
“tap collective wisdom and talent in the community”
That Assessment Points to A Community Engagement Initiative
We can turn a problem into a benefit
A sensible way forward is for the City to take its own advice - engage with the Community.
No shame. The City has set the table and sent an invitation. Moving forward depends on the Community to accept that invitation.
Moving forward points to a ground breaking partnership between the City and the Community. For now, let’s call it a Community Engagement Initiative or CEI.
To emphasize, the City can play a critical part in bringing about a CEI. Eugene’s best interests are served for the City to be both midwife and partner to a CEI.
A CEI would be autonomous. There would be minimal expense in time and money for the City.
A Community Engagement Initiative Has Enormous Potential
A CEI -
* can link City and Community assets like never before can connect Eugene organizations with each other like never before
can access allies, assets and actions in Eugene useful to the Planning Goals and sustainability the City either doesn’t have the budget to connect
with, or under values or doesn’t even know these assets, allies and actions exist
* can be a Citizen's Think Tank to produce valuable information to inform City decision making
* can serve as a Civic Dynamo to generate many on the ground actions & projects
* can have a capacity for outreach to the community far beyond what the City has
* can enhance many existing City programs
* can go where the City, politically, cannot
* can be a model for other cities and towns
How can the City Support a Community Engagement Initiative?
Many of the greatest benefits to be gained for creating a CEI will come only from the working relationships needed among people and organizations in Eugene to make it happen.
The City can play a critical role that does not require a lot of staff time or budget. Here is what the City can do to assist a Community Engagement Initiative
1] The City can "Bless" the CEI - That blessing can open doors.
2] Provide City expertise on legal and procedural issues
3] Provide logistical assist such as places to meet at City owned locations
4] Connect the Initiative to important entities such as media
5] Restore and Advocate Block Planning
Certainly other low cost City assists will be added to this list
A Primer For Paradigm Shift - Overview
The Primer can be a big assist to a CEI. Much of the description in this account of what the CEI might look like comes straight from the Primer. When I first read the City’s Strategic Planning Goals I immediately illuminated, the Primer is a perfect fit to these Planning Goals. Writing the book, “A Primer For Paradigm Shift” has been on hold for almost 2 months to work on this tangent to converge the Primer and Eugene’s Strategic Planning Goals.
The Primer is a perfect compliment to the City of Eugene's Planning Goals because it examines nearly all the same social, economic and environmental problems and issues as the City mentions. The Primer is also a perfect fit to assist a citizen driven Community Engagement Initiative. The Primer offers an expansive, practical menu of actions both the City and Eugene residents can take for addressing those Planning Goals and sustainability.
Micro Overview Of The Primer
The Primer offers four sections of usable information -
1] Historical Context - Where do these problems come from
2] Aspects of Paradigm Shift – Practical ideals, concepts and principles
3] Allies, Assets and Actions - Making common cause, real life examples
4] Outreach To The Wider World – Sharing the ideas and actions
For more detail on the Primer Go Here
A Community Engagement Initiative [CEI] Part 2
The writer is certain a community driven initiative would attract many capable volunteers, especially with the support of the City. Eugene can be a prototype for a new kind of community scale action.
The purpose [perhaps mission statement] of the CEI could look something like this.
1] The CEI exists to address many familiar and deepening social, economic, public health, political and environmental problems at the local level.
2] The CEI exists to accelerate Eugene's movement towards sustainability and addressing the City's Strategic Planning Goals.
3] The CEI exists to empower the community, build relationships and include everyone who wants to help
CEI Structure
Steps along the way for creating an CEI would include identifying a provisional steering committee and advisory group to build an early organizational structure. These could be people one already knows or they could be new contacts via allies, assets and actions. Here's a bit more detail.
1] An advisory board could include a representative from the city, several community people known to be progressive and respectable, perhaps a faith person, people from well known organizations and several people with resumes more on the edge towards paradigm shift. An advisory board would be available for providing thoughts and advice to the CEI but [from this perspective] would not make decisions.
2] A steering committee would begin to articulate a mission statement and reach out to various entities in the community. The steering committee would build relations with the media, look after a website and social media. The CEI should be accessible to the community. Assessing the information gained from surveys and community input would be a task shared between the steering committee, advisory board and working groups.
3] Working groups would be formed to address the particular issues and concerns for the CEI such as those listed in a city's strategic plan. More working groups can be added as the entire CEI moves forward. A more permanent steering committee would evolve to include representatives from all the working groups. There would be periodic gatherings of everyone involved with the CUI. One of the most important goals is for the different groups and individuals to form strong working relationships. This is paradigm shift in action.
Working groups would include concerns identified in the City Planning Goals such as affordable housing, investing in local high value projects and businesses, suburban permaculture, emergency preparedness, climate change, homelessness, environmental restoration, local and regional food systems, housing cooperatives, block planning and much more. Working groups would meet with each other to bring about a strong horizontal structure. Working groups would organize outreach and educational events with other groups coordinated by the steering committee.
Each working group would be charged with writing an action guide specific to that working group's interests to be made available to the wider community. New working groups could be created by an agreed upon process.
Eugene's over 20 neighborhood associations, a vital asset, can play a core role in the CEI. They are located all over town, have important outreach capacity, they have standing in the community, they know whats up in their part of the world and already have strong interests in community well being.
The CEI would reach out to the public with widely accessible surveys, in person interactive public engagement opportunities, forums, work with media to provide coverage of the CEI so the community could follow its workings.
The CEI would organize public presentations [see further below] where people and groups with expertise and experience relating to the CEI could share what they know with the wider community. Local media would be encouraged to regularly feature stories about these real life examples that show what paradigm shift can look like. There could be tours of places to show and tell projects such as suburban permaculture, alternative business models and block planning. Articles and presentations could explain how to pay for moving towards sustainability.
Even more assets. The City itself has a number of programs that already accomplish important work but can become even more ambitious with a mandate to expand their original purpose to include actions that specifically address various City Planning Goals. Neighborhood Associations as mentioned above are perfectly placed to assist the CEI. Neighborhood Watch, Community Emergency Response Teams [CERT], Community Volunteers and Mapping Your Neighborhood can all be charged with a more broad and wide ranging agenda to advocate home and neighborhood actions that support the Planning Goals.
Every community is loaded with social assets just waiting to be engaged and invited. Imagine, the Scouts, The Northwest Youth Corp, senior groups, church youth groups and social action committees, the Kiwanis, Lions Clubs, veteran groups, student organizations and more all have skills, capacity and agendas that fit the task of helping the community move towards sustainability.
The City's Sustainability Commission and climate policy staff can play an important role helping to advise a Community Engagement Initiative.
Eugene also has physical assets such as thousands of homes, public spaces, meeting places, community centers, people with skills, parking lots and experience relevant to the Planning Goals and sustainability. The Primer emphasizes making smart and creative use of existing allies and assets.
CEI - Outreach to The Community
A Short very preliminary look at what CEI outreach. More detail in this essay and more in the Primer.
Media - local media can regularly feature these and additional stories
Public Presentations - educational presentations for the community about a wide range of topics and
actions to take
Other organizations like neighborhood associations, faith groups, business, schools, any organization can
form “Initiative” structures, presentations and actions as they like.
Allies - Any organization can help put CEI information out to their members and the wider community
The YouTube version of this essay includes several graphics and illustrations that show and tell various possible aspects and elements of a CEI.
Allies and Assets
Eugene and any city has many “allies, assets and actions” to work with for creating an engagement process and moving towards sustainability.
Allies generally refer to organizations and humans that can be participants and partners for a project. Allies are entities and organizations in any community that all have an interest in making their town or city a better place to live for everyone. They typically focus on a “set” of issues, again, most of the problems the by products of over consumption and economic mal practice. Capitalism simply creates a lot of problems. Allies are essentially on the same team.
Allies can include non profits, schools, faith groups, individuals, ad hoc groups, service organizations, neighborhood associations and more. Allies can be partners and companions actually helping with the project. Participation in the CEI can bring these allies together in common cause like never before.
Assets are mostly physical or organizational capacities. Most organizations have outreach assets via newsletters, networks, website. Allies can have these assets, too. Assets can be physical objects that can serve a useful purpose. A house or parking lot can be transformed into an example of paradigm shift. Assets can be communication networks; organizational and management skills; social, economic or political connections. Assets can be anything that can help move the project forward.
Actions
Paradigm shift is not just a future hope. For a growing number of people, paradigm shift is already a part of everyday life. The actions these people are taking can show what it looks like to address Planning Goals and move towards sustainability. They are enormous assets and its important to share their experiences with the community and the wider world.
A] Real life examples include suburban permaculture, site tours; on site production of food, energy
water, resilience. Transforming suburbia
B] More real life examples include Eco villages and intentional communities, block planning
C] More real life examples include empowering young people, progressive economic development,
maker spaces, many many more examples
Tapping Collective Wisdom and Talent, Inclusion, Relationships and Partnerships
These topics are critically important ideals included on the City's SPG webpage. Eugene has a significant home grown "wisdom and talent." A CEI would require an unprecedented level of engaging Eugene's collective wisdom and talent. The CEI would become something of its own community based think tank and dynamo of action. Those with skills related to a healthy community would share what they have learned elevating the capacity of those involved to take on new and even more challenging projects of all kinds for the good of people and planet. Such a process is naturally inclusive while strengthening community relationships and partnerships
Community inclusion, respected, valued
A community conversation can bring together many voices. A CEI can create many new collaborative relationships. A survey by the City received 1400 responses. That's helpful but most people never knew about it and its not enough for community needs regarding sustainability, our historical condition, the Planning Goals and its ideals anyway. A CEI can provide more variety in ways people can participate – in person, zoom, forums, meetups, site tours, by way of organizations, ad hoc - and help create many new relationships and actions with sustainability as a focus. A wider reach encouraging participation offers a great opportunity to include and value many points of view from Eugene's collective wisdom and talent.
Special Shout Out - Neighborhood Associations
Neighborhood associations merit a special shout out. Many cities have neighborhood associations [NA], usually a part of a city program. NAs exist to help make the neighborhood a better place to live. Typically, an NA has a board, there might be working committees. Most NAs have general meetings once a month. The NA typically addresses issues important to the neighborhood such as traffic, development, safety and preparedness issues, environmental issues. Those involved tend to set the agenda. An NA has standing in the neighborhood, usually have a website/social media, send out newsletters. Neighborhood associations are a natural ally and asset to a Community Engagement Initiative.
Any individual or organizing group can identify allies, assets and actions in their own cities and towns.
Aspects of a Community Engagement Initiative
CEI - Allies And Assets
Some useful thoughts on allies and assets.
Eugene and any city has many “allies, assets and actions” to work with for creating an engagement process and moving towards sustainability.
Allies generally refer to organizations and humans that can be participants and partners for a project. Allies are entities and organizations in any community that all have an interest in making their town or city a better place to live for everyone. They typically focus on a “set” of issues, again, most of the problems the by products of over consumption and economic mal practice. Capitalism simply creates a lot of problems. Allies are essentially on the same team.
Allies can include non profits, schools, faith groups, individuals, ad hoc groups, service organizations, neighborhood associations and more. Allies can be partners and companions actually helping with the project. Participation in the CEI can bring these allies together in common cause like never before.
Assets are mostly physical or organizational capacities. Most organizations have outreach assets via newsletters, networks, website. Allies can have these assets, too. Assets can be physical objects that can serve a useful purpose. A house or parking lot can be transformed into an example of paradigm shift. Assets can be communication networks; organizational and management skills; social, economic or political connections. Assets can be anything that can help move the project forward.
Actions
Paradigm shift is not just a future hope. For a growing number of people, paradigm shift is already a part of everyday life. The actions these people are taking can show what it looks like to address Planning Goals and move towards sustainability. They are enormous assets and its important to share their experiences with the community and the wider world.
A] Real life examples include suburban permaculture, site tours; on site production of food, energy
water, resilience. Transforming suburbia
B] More real life examples include Eco villages and intentional communities, block planning
C] More real life examples include empowering young people, progressive economic development,
maker spaces, many many more examples
Special Shout Out - Neighborhood Associations
Neighborhood associations merit a special shout out. Many cities have neighborhood associations [NA], usually a part of a city program. NAs exist to help make the neighborhood a better place to live. Typically, an NA has a board, there might be working committees. Most NAs have general meetings once a month. The NA typically addresses issues important to the neighborhood such as traffic, development, safety and preparedness issues, environmental issues. Those involved tend to set the agenda. An NA has standing in the neighborhood, usually have a website/social media, send out newsletters. Neighborhood associations are a natural ally and asset to a Community Engagement Initiative.
Engage the Media
Engagement with the media is a high priority for the CEI. The City and many civic organizations have important media contacts/assets that can help move the CEI forward. The Register Guard, The Weekly, radio and TV are all important assets to help inform the community about the CEI. There are near unlimited stories that can inspire individuals, groups and organizations in Eugene [and elsewhere] that need to be heard and there are an unlimited number of new positive stories to create. The Media can help take those stories out to the wider world
Stories For the Media
Imagine regular stories going out to tens of thousands of people describing the abundant good works in Eugene that already exist that point towards sustainability and paradigm shift like Friendly Neighborhood's Common Ground Garden, a citizen initiative that has turned a former street right of way into a wildly popular neighborhood garden. A spotlight on East Blair Housing Co-op could show what many of the social, economic and environmental benefits can look like when neighbors use Block Planning.
There's Hummingbird Wholesale's cooperative business model and its small business incubator that offers a very different take on how to organize and manage a medium sized business in the public and workers' interest. Stories could describe what an ecological lifestyle can look like in terms of food, shelter, transportation, past times - and how a person or family can prioritize time and money for making that transformation on behalf of paradigm shift.
Stories could explain the job creation possibilities of transforming thousands of suburban properties. There are homes in Eugene that have already been re imagined and reworked to produce significant amounts food, energy and rain water on site. These places provide greater resilience and disaster preparedness, these properties help build community culture and reduce eco footprints. Transforming suburbia to produce these benefits can create many useful jobs in a green economy.
Some neighbors in Eugene have taken fences down to create more intentional mutual assistance, a small move towards block planning. There have been many dozens of site tours in Eugene over the years to visit these places. The media can help tell these stories to the community by describing on the ground projects that already exist that boost paradigm shift and City Planning Goals all at the same time.
Every City has allies and assets that are a perfect fit for their own community's sustainability action plans such as the Onondaga Earth Corps in Syracuse, New York; Local 20/20 in Port Townsend, Washington; Urban Harvest in Houston; N St. Coop in Davis, Cal; LA Eco Village in Los Angeles and many many more.
Urban Land Use
Reworking the urban landscape is a primary action for moving towards social, economic and eco logical sustainability and also Eugene's Planning Goals. Verily, improving public transportation and increasing residential density are already core issues for Eugene and most other cities and towns. The following items describe strip malls to downtown, block planning and suburban permaculture. They are all powerful opportunities and actions that deliver many benefits. The Primer goes into greater detail.
Strip Malls To Downtown - Dateline Eugene 2034
Imagine this abbreviated fiction account in Eugene's daily newspaper, say, ten years from now. Local people can exclaim, “Wow, I can hardly believe it, this is what we have accomplished with our very own CEI.” Again, this narrative is fiction but the capacity to make this story real already exists. All we need is to set the priorities to make them happen.
Members of the community gathered Tuesday for the formal opening of Santa Clara Village. The Village is the largest Strip Mall to Downtown project ever completed in Eugene and can trace its beginnings to ten years ago thanks to the well known Community Engagement Initiative of 2026. What we see today is a cluster of five five story buildings that occupy the one time parking lot of Santa Clara Square, a former strip mall. The buildings contain businesses on the ground floor and apartments and residential co-ops above. The small plazas, points of interest and edible landscaping between buildings invite socializing, child play and community events. The structures are super green with passive solar design, terraces, roof gardens, shared spaces and friendly amenities.
Residents are encouraged to be car free with reduced rents and flex cars on site. Some of the residences are built for cooperative living with shared spaces to make them very affordable and eco friendly.
Essentially, Santa Clara Village is a micro downtown. Many new small businesses in the Village fill in the gaps of products and services useful to this part of town allowing those who live within a mile or so to take care of most of their needs with much less use of a car. Nearby streets have been reworked in the area so they are bike and pedestrian friendly leading to the Village.
Emx bus rapid transit, with a stop at the Village, provides convenient transport to other locations in Eugene and Springfield. All these design features were envisioned by Eugene's Community Engagement Initiative, catalyzed by City Planning Goals over ten years ago. The citizen lead Initiative, made up of many dozens of organizations in the community with city support, has increasingly made its mark in many ways all around town in recent years.
Important to note, that Initiative also brought about dozens of small residential projects where fences are down, gardens are up and groups of families formed what are known as MAPs - Mutual Assistance Pods where those involved share resources and responsibilities to create enhanced security, safety, resilience and to reduce eco footprints.
Important to mention for the MAPs, participants learned from Community Initiative seminars years ago about the benefits to be gained by mutual assistance and also lifestyle management techniques that helped them make best use of their own time and money for healthy outcomes. We are seeing more and more MAPs and parking lot redevelopment projects all around town.
Parking Lot To Downtown projects and the MAPs have received various incentives such as tax breaks, grants, reduced development fees to help with these transformations. Several Eugene credit unions have been working with the Community Initiative starting years ago to set up public investment funds for local people to invest in local projects like small businesses and parking lots to downtown.
The Santa Clara Village opening was a great success. Eugene is turning ideals and visions from years ago no one thought possible into reality. Today's global and national news should only motivate us to do more.
End of story.
Block Planning
Block planning is a powerful land tool that can help build community, reduce eco footprints and create safer/more resilient homes, neighborhoods and community. The City of Eugene actively promoted block planning 40 years ago. Block planning is a better idea than ever. A block plan [BP] is a formal process between the City and property owners. A BP allows participants to make changes to their properties [think detached homes] they could not make as a single property. A BP does not make codes and regulations go away but it allows much more flexibility for what participants can do on their properties as part of the plan such as set backs, parking, landscaping, business and even better, the social, environmental, public health, community building and economic benefits.
Block planning can boost many of Eugene's Planning Goals, sustainability and uplift.
Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of values, ideals and principles for designing systems for taking care of human needs in ways that are friendly to people and planet. Here are several permaculture principles - catch and store energy, apply self regulation, accept feedback, value renewable resources, produce no waste, use small and slow solutions, integrate rather than segregate, creatively use and respond to change. Permaculture is Earth Care and Fair Share.
Permaculture is like a new and emerging global language. There are permaculture enthusiasts, advocates and their projects all over the world. Jan Spencer's property in River Road was the first video on YouTube, over 20 years ago, under the category "suburban permaculture." Now there are hundreds. Permaculture is an enormous part of paradigm shift and can play a enormous part in helping to address the Strategic Planning Goals. Permaculture is just as much social as it is gardens and the natural environment. Just as much at home in town as in the country.
Suburban Permaculture
Permaculture is a set of values, principles and ideals for designing systems for taking care of human needs in ways that are healthy for people and planet. Permaculture applied to suburbia can help transform the property into a social and environmental educational asset to inspire others. A typical suburban transformation project will include grass to garden and edible landscaping to start with. Various features in variable comginations can include rain water collection and storage, passive solar design and replacing the driveway with positive use. Other actions can include remodeling a garage into living space or building a small ADU. Rooms can be rented and amenities shared. Suburban permaculture fits perfectly with block planning and also the fiction story above. The Primer devotes a good bit of
space to explaining suburban permaculture.
Front Yard Gardens
Creating a front yard garden is one of the most productive actions a person can take on behalf of paradigm shift. All you need is a front yard, some time and effort. And maybe provide some pizza and tools for a work party. Front yard gardens can produce healthy food. It can be beautiful. Its good excersize and front yard gardens are a great way to meet your neighbors and reduce eco footprints. And there is a good chance others nearby will see your garden and start one, too. Front yard gardens build community culture and can make your place safer for you and your neighbors and more resilient if there is some kind of disruption. Front yard gardens deliver many benefits. Work parties build personal, cooperative and environmental well being
Work Parties
Work Parties fit every aspect of this essay. A work party is a fun social event that combines useful work and making friends. Typically, a host calls a work party and organizes the task or tasks to do. Snacks are often provided. Work parties can be about gardens, construction, planning an event or just about anything that requires several people and can be accomplished in a fun way that easy for people to participate.
Community Conversations and Presentations That Will Challenge, Elevate and Educate
A CEI could also organize critical community conversations that can address important aspects of the Initiative. Certainly there will not be complete agreement in the community for explaining these topics but listening to different perspectives can lead to a greater understanding. These conversation could feature a set of speakers to explain different points of view.
1] What is sustainable and what might a sustainable lifestyle and society look like?
2] Where did all these problems listed in the City Planning Goals and others we read about every day and often experience in our own lives come from?
3] What is the historical role of US Foreign Policy?
4] What is permaculture and the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions?
5] How do we pay for paradigm shift?
6] What are Allies, Assets and Actions?
7] What is Block Planning?
8] What are existing examples of paradigm shift?
9] What are External Costs
10] What is the City doing to promote sustainability?
How To Pay For Sustainability
Community conversations can also educate about how to pay for personal and community transformation towards sustanability. Sustainability and paradigm shift are affordable. Verily, we can’t afford not to invest in sustainability. First, we prioritize how we use our own time and money at all scales, from personal, to family, mutual assistance, neighborhood and community. We invest time and money in healthy products and systems that boost sustainability and reducing eco footprints. Products and services that don’t fit sustainability are simply left behind. We apply that money in positive ways instead.
We can trade the kitchen remodel, new car, home entertainment center and many other purchases for an edible landscape, grass to garden, a rainwater storage system, passive solar retrofit, going to work parties and neighborhood meetings; donating to groups doing good work, investing in local projects like turning strip malls into micro down towns and more.
Further, we know healthy lifestyles save money. When we give a miss to those unhealthy products, we avoid the external costs, the inevitable and often expensive companions of consuming unhealthy products and services. Those avoided expenses, again, can be applied to paradigm shift and addressing City Planning Goals. This dynamic works at home scale amounting to thousands of dollars per year, it can work at neighborhood, community and national scale.
Consider, millions of jobs exist in the US to repair the damage caused by the products and services produced by millions of other jobs. This remarkable economic malpractice amounts to trillions of dollars each year. When we quit eating junk food, stop smoking, trade cars for smart transportation, transform suburbia, make smart choices with our own time and money, we can free up literally trillions of dollars to invest in healthy people and planet.
We can also learn new ways to take care of needs that don’t require money such as sharing and trading. Ancient forms of economics have a place in a sustainable future that will depend on new understandings of human potential and learning new social skills.
When we understand the personal and more expansive benefits of sustainability we can become more motivated to participate. Paradigm shift can begin at the personal and home scale as soon as we prioritize our time and money and take purposeful initiative. Even better when we combine efforts with friends and neighbors. Small scale paradigm shift projects will bump into others, they will cross pollinate, support each other and increase the scale of social, economic, environmental and political transformation.
Financial Incentives –
Financial incentives can help bring about sustainability, address Planning Goals and accelerate paradigm shift. For example, lets encourage Block Planning. City planning fees and taxes can be reduced or forgiven entirely to home owners putting block planning to work. At larger scale for parking lot redevelopment, perhaps block grants and tax exempt bonds can help. New investment mechanisms could allow people to invest in specific projects such as mixed use redevelopment in their neighborhood.
At the same time, Eugene can increase fees now on oversized single family home construction projects to help fund affordable housing taking a cue from the Mansion Tax initiated in 2023 in Los Angeles. Homes selling for over $5 million pay a 4% transaction tax and homes selling for over $10 million pay a 5.5% transaction tax. The money raised goes to projects to house the homeless. Paris, France offers incentives and financial security to home owners to rent rooms in their flats.
New York City's new congestion pricing program charges non resident vehicles for accessing certain areas of Manhattan. The funds raised will go to upgrading public transportation. Eugene could do likewise. The City could tax automobile purchases and start a local gas tax to raise revenue to help pay for improved public transportation, subsidize bus fares and encourage bikes to discourage driving.
Civic Culture
Another community conversation. Building “Civic Culture” is a core part of paradigm shift. A CEI would bring about untold personal and organizational interactions and connections - the foundation of civic culture. Building “Civic Culture” is a core part of paradigm shift and would be an enormous assist to realizing the City’s Planning Goals. Civic Culture is where people trade in the distractions of the consumer culture and instead, prioritize making time available to be involved in building civic partnerships and relationships for making the neighborhood and community a better place for everyone and the environment.
Civic culture is inclusive and welcoming. Civic culture calls on building social, economic, political and ecological literacy - the capacity to understand where our problems come from and how to diminish those problems. A Community Engagement Initiative can serve as an unprecedented leap forward on behalf of civic culture, sustainability and the Planning Goals. All those who participate with a CEI will learn valuable experience for building civic literacy.
CEI Special Projects
The Community Engagement Initiative can take on projects as it sees fit that boost the overall goals of the Initiative. The advisory board, steering committee, working groups or the public can all suggest special projects.
Community investment. A group could explore creating a mechanism that would allow people to invest in local business and projects that help move Eugene towards sustainability. The individual investor could choose from a list of projects or start ups. The mechanism would screen project and start up applications. Investors could fund as they like. Perhaps local credit unions could be partners to work with. Local 20/20, a community organization in Port Townsend, WA has such an local investment mechanism.
Another working group could research what would be needed to turn parking lots into commercial and residential development. There are many examples all over the US of repurposing dead shopping malls, a similar transformation as some of those efforts also include building on parking lots. The working group could ask City staff for input. This parking lot task might be taken on by the local investment group.
Neighborhood associations, organizations and ad hoc groups could start any kind of CEI related project they care to. NAs are perfectly situated to encourage neighbors setting up pods for mutual assistance. City programs mentioned in the essay could also encourage pod formation, much as Map Your Neighborhood and Neighborhood Watch already do. Participants of pods could take their collaborations any way they choose. To gain a greater "stature" they could ask to become an "official" project of the CEI. A committee from the CEI could assess any such requests.
The CEI will gestate all kinds of good ideas nobody is even thinking about right now. The CEI will create untold friendships and relationships between individuals and between organizations. A very simple graphic from the primer is the virtuous triangle. It shows the relationship between allies, assets and actions.
Essentially, a CEI could become a community think tank, tapping into Eugene’s collective wisdom and talent.
Eugene Has Many Social and Educational Assets To Boost Quality of Life
Eugene already has many educational and “life enhancement” resources that fit perfectly with Eugene Strategic Planning Goals, a CEI and paradigm shift. These entities and others all add to personal/community health and well being. Many help reduce eco footprints and they are all alternatives to the consumer culture. A CEI can put this information out to a wider audience so more people know about these healthy and positive opportunities for their own lives, friends, families and community. Almost any city or town has their own version of these assets.
Lane Community College courses
Continuing Education
Oregon State University Extension Service - Educational Programs and Events, Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservation
City Programs - Community Action Response Teams, Map Your Neighborhood, Crime Watch [upgrade these programs as mentioned in this essay]
Permaculture courses - Lost Valley Educational Center
School Garden Project
Vegetarian and Vegan Network
Kevin Prier - Urban Homesteading Skills via River Road Rec Center
City Eugene Rec Centers and Programs - Kids, youth, adults, life enrichment - music, art,,,,,
UO senior audit classes
River Road Rec Center - youth, seniors, adult enrichment programs
YMCA - Fitness, sports and a wide range of social and well being programs, courses opportunities
There are many private fitness centers that offer healthy assistance
Enhance City Programs
The City has several programs that already benefit the community and already help
boost the Planning Goals. These programs are important community assets and they can become even more valuable.
1] CERT - Community Emergency Response Team
2] Map Your Neighborhood - disaster/emergency preparedness
3] Crime Watch - well known totally mainstream encourages neighbors looking out for each other
The three have either guide books to explain their particular focus or in person classroom style instruction. CERT even comes with a Certification. All these programs are street scale - with friends and neighbors. They all rely on meeting and connecting with neighbors and these initial first connections can open the door to any more ambitious collaborations those involved care to take. The idea here is, to make sure participants of these programs know they can translate the basic safety concerns as a point of departure for whatever collaborations between neighbors people involved care to make.
Each of these programs could suggest to their participants ways to boost their safety and security even more either on their own or in collaboration with friends and neighbors
1] Learn about the other city programs and also the City’s Neighborhood Program
2] Briefly explain why producing more basic needs at home like food, energy, water storage, front yard gardens, resource share, what ever people like
3] Briefly explain how Block Planning - taking collaborations with neighbors to an even higher level
Faith Groups, Any Organization, Schools, Work Places
Any organization can self organize on behalf of their own interests and a CEI can call attention to common sense actions that members of these groups can put to work in their own lives but even better, they can bring these ideas and actions to the attention of others in their place of work, their organization, their faith community, wherever people come together.
All these entities have internal communications to share information. They could even create their own “in house” CEI structure based on the “Guidebooks” that each CEI Action Group might produce.
Each entity can also reach out to the wider community and even friends and associates in other cities and towns describing these paradigm shift and sustainability ideas and actions. They apply anywhere.
Self Initiation
Many of the actions described in the Primer and in the essay can be taken by individuals, families, friends, PODs or any other grouping, completely independent of any external influence, no permission required. Such as choosing a more healthy diet, identifying one's own priorities of time and money, creating a front yard garden. Anything!
CEI - Volunteer Opportunities With Community Organizations
Donating time to the well being of the community is a wonderful action and helps boost the organization assisted, the CEI and civic well being at the same time. Many organizations welcome volunteers. The groups listed below are found online. Being listed here does not necessarily mean an endorsement. Contact them & find out if they are a good fit for you.
The following are issues of interest identified by the City of Eugene with the Strategic Planning Goals. Brief comments are made from a “paradigm shift” point of view.
Topics under Construction Below
Business, Wages, Jobs
Business and commerce is just as important to paradigm shift as capitalism. There are a few major differences. One being the question, what is the purpose of an economic system - to make profits above all or to serve a society that has positive goals and ideals? Should an economic system internalize its costs so the price tells an honest story about production, use and disposal? Should an economic system be accountable to public health and the environment?
The Primer asserts our current and familiar over consumption of resources and energy, a necessity for capitalism as we know it, is the common denominator of practically every social, economic, political, environmental and even spiritual problem we have. The Primer asserts we would be smart to downsize our eco footprints and that means using less resources and energy. We trade excess stuff for positive relationships, security, uplift of the spirit and civic culture.
City Planning Goals call for new jobs and increased wages. Paradigm shift will create new jobs and many existing skills will fit sustainability although the products, services and outcomes might be different. Many jobs and products we are familiar with will not make the cut to sustainability.
The Primer is not on board with higher wages unless those wages are livable for lower paying jobs. Rather, society must find the “sweet spot” where we have enough for healthy lifestyles and planet, where we avoid poverty and we avoid excess. Who is going to decide that sweet spot and how will those decisions, perhaps regulations, find their way into our daily lives? Humans have created the problems identified in the Planning Goals. Our survival depends on humans finding solutions. We can make some real progress here at the local level.
Wages and sustainability is another important community conversation.
Benefits For City Staff
The writer has minimal knowledge of life as an employee of the City. The writer has several friends who work for the City and they love their jobs. The hope is that City staff can speak freely, express creativity and enjoy the important work they do for the community. City support for a Community Engagement Initiative could create enormous amounts of interest and enthusiasm for staff directly engaged with the Initiative and perhaps other staff not directly involved but supportive of the City taking on such a timely and ambitious project.
Safety
People need to be safe, not only feel safe. There is clear evidence humanity's level of resource and energy consumption, lead by the US, is not sustainable. Climate change, mass migrations and a host of other problems, driven by over consumption of energy and resources are making the entire world less safe and secure for everyone everywhere.
From its own website, the City of Eugene comments “The community is at an inflection point, facing urgent needs amidst unprecedented uncertainty and challenge. We need to approach those needs in a new way.” An unprecedented CEI offers the opportunity to acknowledge the cause and effect of overconsumption and deepening social/economic and political instability and then to take actions to create a healthy alternative in a holistic way. The CEI can help move Eugene towards lifestyles that increase our connections with our neighbors and enhance safety and sustainability by consuming less stuff from far away and producing more of what we need closer to home.
Downtown
Downtown Eugene is a misnomer. A downtown is a place of culture, a place to socialize and a place to do business. Eugene's downtown hardly qualifies as a downtown in a traditional sense. A more accurate term would be the “central entertainment district.” The bus stop and library are downtown features we can really be proud of. To be a real downtown, Eugene must “somehow” restore real downtown businesses like stores that sell clothes, home furnishings, hardware, flowers, medical services, groceries, financial services and more. Many decades of economic push in favor of cars and suburbia have decimated downtowns business districts all over the country. A CEI could include a working group with the task explore what it would take to bring every day business back to downtown.
Homelessness And Affordable Housing
Homelessness is a growing problem and likely to worsen. The Primer sees homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing as a result of an economic system that values profits over the well being of people and planet. The economic system generates more profits from building oversized homes rather than smaller places more people can afford.
There is no shortage of building materials and money, the issue is how we use those assets for the greatest good. Even taxing oversized homes and using the funds raised for affordable housing is not the long term solution. A long term solution would require replacing capitalism with a far more evolved and humane economic system that did not create the social, economic and public health conditions that lead to homelessness.
Strengthen Community Relationships, Actions and Partnerships
The City can be a core part of this community adventure. The CEI working groups, organizations reaching out to their members and networks, city and community collaborations, neighbors meeting neighbors, schools, faith groups, service groups, neighborhood associations can bring Eugene together like never before. A CEI with its unifying purpose and set of actions could bring about a new level of civic culture, safety, inclusion, resilience, belonging and care for the community and the environment.
Shift When Needed, Approach Challenges In a New Way, Organizational Well Being
As individuals, neighbors, community members, we have abundant and obvious reasons to make big changes for how we live. Social, economic and environmental trends and conditions continue to slide. A shift is needed not only for the natural environment but also for healthy humans. Eugene has the capacity, the talent, the expertise to combine the best from both the alternative and mainstream for making significant progress for addressing those trends and conditions in a new way with a Community Engagement Initiative.
Issues identified by community, inclusion, respected, valued
A community conversation can bring together many voices. A survey that receives 1400 responses is a good start but most people never knew about it. A CEI can provide more variety in ways people can participate – in person, zoom, forums, meetups, site tours, by way of organizations, ad hoc - and help create many new relationships and actions with sustainability as a focus. A wider reach encouraging participation offers a great opportunity to include and value many points of view from Eugene's collective wisdom and talent.
Resource Constraints
The limits of city budgets and staff time means a CEI will require citizen volunteers to drive the process in collaboration with an assist from City staff and expertise. The process would create many new resources by way of the relationships and skills learned by everyone participating in the CEI. City assist is a core need for a citizen driven Community Engagement Initiative.
From the Primer
Uplift The Spirit
Paradigm shift is not only about resources, energy and eco footprints. We should be asking ourselves, what is our personal and collective purpose here on earth? One does not have to be a theist. The author of this essay and the Primer does not believe in a higher Being but he does believe in a higher being. Paradigm shift calls on, invites, encourages and depends on the Uplift Of The Spirit which will elevate the effectiveness of participants in the CEI to help make progress with homelessness, climate change, and more. Consumer vanity can be traded for Uplift and sustainability. Positive human potential IS our greatest renewable resource.
Eco logical lifestyles
Paradigm shift and ecological lifestyles can produce new allies and assets that support City Goals. 1] We can prioritize time and money to make best use of allies and assets – that makes time to build community cohesion and resilience. 2] We can trade vanity shopping for spending money to support personal and community sustainability and well being 3] We can create social, economic and environmental conditions that are inclusive and bring out the best in positive human potential and restore the natural world.
Push Back On Cars
Automobiles, their number, the products, the resources, the money [private and public] they require, their external costs and more puts them in their own "we simply can't keep doing this" category. Even the mainstream is realizing our society must diminish its use and need of cars. Many of the problems and issues identified by Eugene's SPGs are related to cars. City of Eugene planning and policy is moving to reduce car use. Cars dominate our lives and economy simply because they, and many their needs, produce more economic activity than sensible transportation and urban planning. Electric cars are no better than gasoline. Paradigm shift calls for far far fewer cars so paradigm shift is strong on addressing urban planning issues related to cars.
Conclusion
Eugene's Strategic Planning Goals create an unprecedented opportunity to bring about a citizen driven, citizen managed initiative to address City Strategic Planning Goals and sustainability.
1] Goals refer to - climate change, affordable housing, safety, resilience
2] Goal ideals refer to - sustainability, community connections, belonging, engage broadly
More Goal Ideals from the City website
3] “We need to approach those needs in a new way.”
4] “,,,tapping the collective wisdom and talent in the community,,,”
5] “,,,some actions will need to be accomplished in partnership with other entities.”
These Ideals, goals and aspirations are all excellent. Add the social, economic, political and environmental trends we read about every day and the product is, Eugene needs an unprecedented community engagement process to address these issues sooner than later. The City doesn’t have the money to pay for an appropriate response, so let the Community take the lead with strong City assist - an unprecedented partnership is called for.
Humanity’s great leap forward on behalf of sustainability will require unfamiliar changes to our relationship with the natural world, personal lifestyle, public policy and how we perceive ourselves, where we live and the entire human experience. A Community Engagement Initiative can be an enormous boost for making that paradigm shift transition.
Sustainability and paradigm shift is not a future dream. A growing number of people are already engaged in paradigm shift for moving towards sustainability. Paradigm shift is simply common sense. Every community has allies, assets and actions for working together in common cause to help bring about a future we all deserve. The sooner the better. A Community Engagement Initiative can be an enormous boost towards a sustainable and uplifted present and future.