Story in FastTimes on a 14K sq ft building being “handed over” to “the community” in San Francisco and the ensuing interesting things that are “growing” there.
I know “this is San Francisco”, but it is encouraging.
Story in FastTimes on a 14K sq ft building being “handed over” to “the community” in San Francisco and the ensuing interesting things that are “growing” there.
I know “this is San Francisco”, but it is encouraging.
There’s probably a “literature” out there describing community projects that work, and those that don’t…imagine there’s a visionary in the mix somewhere, and a charismatic that releases latent energies too… something to be said for “there’s only one direction to go, and that’s up”… energy is released…
La Fey has some interesting people involved for example…and they grew out of total disaster community… to a certain extent they depend on a very talented core, and one person kind of the touchstone… a guy with very strong personality AFAIK… strong enough to get the very big grants and lead success. Maybe some cult of personality involved… which is worrisome over the long haul, but clearly works for them presently.
My hero is the New College founder guy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa back in 1970 era. He got a LOT done, and managed to be kind of leading from the back of the room to a certain extent. Gave a plain white bread appearance to what was otherwise a very radical take on re doing the university model.
Alas, he was so committed to certain principals of NOT being a cult leader, that he stepped down after a few years, and a politically “active” personality quickly led the college into confrontation with powers that be, over peripheral issues. Which was, predictably, a dead end.
PSA spent a fair amount of time talking with people about community centers during BTOP etc…what would work, who the clientele might be, structure, bringing together various different “elements” into one building…
Ruben Castaneda, knows something about this from his work in El Paso with libraries and community centers, and parent/ school interfaces/places. He “knows local”, and is very smart and easy to work with. There are a fair number of people “like” Ruben out there, especially if one includes El Paso as “out there”. Many consider Las Cruces and Dona Ana as in their neighborhood.