COMMONS MAGAZINE
It’s a dark and wintry night in Copenhagen, and the streets are bustling. The temperature stands above freezing, but winds blow hard enough to knock down a good share of the bicycles parked all around. Scandinavians are notorious for their stolid reserve, but it’s all smiles and animated conversation here as people of many ages and affiliations stroll through the city center on a Thursday evening.
A DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE
The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, 1975
When in the course of history the threat of extinction confronts (hu)mankind, it
is necessary for the people of the United States to declare their
interdependence with the people of all nations and to embrace those
principles and build those institutions which will enable mankind to survive
and civilization to flourish.
Two centuries ago our forefathers brought forth a new nation; now we must
join with others to bring forth a new world order. On this historic occasion
In America the Possible : A Manifesto —a riveting two part excerpt in Orion Magazine from a forthcoming book— environmental strategist and scholar Gus Speth crafts a practical agenda for the future of the American Dream that brims with optimism, decency and common sense.
It’s relatively easy for Americans to understand that parks, sidewalks, the environment or the Internet are all part of the commons. That’s because no one owns them.
The influence of the new digital commons in democratic uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain has been chronicled at length in news reports from the Middle East, with Facebook, twitter and other social media winning praise as dictatorbusters.
Young food movement activists may be idealistic but we are not flower children. We are process and results-oriented; we may criticize, but also we learn from successful business models. We’re comfortable with money, know how to network and are handy with a spreadsheet.
Three years ago, I was organizing protests at UC Berkeley. Now I’m at my laptop, speaking with Camilla Bustamante, a Northern New Mexico College Dean. She’s enthusiastically telling me about a student-run, local foods cafe that has just opened at her campus.
I am perplexed by the almost complete lack of pedestrian streets in North America. Why is it that car-free commons—designed for pleasurable strolling, shopping and hanging out—which have become as typical as stoplights or McDonalds in European city centers, are almost non-existent here?
The Great Lakes of North America are in serious trouble. A patchwork of governance systems that prioritize economic gain over the health of the water have put this interntional ecosystem in grave danger. Toxic contamination, bottled water withdrawals, wetlands destruction, invasive species, pollution and water intensive energy industries, sewage run off, increased privatization of public water services and eroding infrastructure in communities surrounding the lakes are only some of the threats faced by this treasured watershed and its residents.
What if you had to pay to view Mt Hood? It sounds far-fetched, but such a scheme was once proposed for another iconic commons, Niagara Falls.
This 4-minute video, which was created for as part of the Portland State University Capstone course Reclaiming the Commons, playfully explores the value of priceless Mt Hood views and other aspects of our commons that are easily taken for granted.
Neighborhood associations are often at the forefront of efforts to create and/or maintain community assets. Oregon Commons teamed up with the East Portland Neighborhood Office this winter for a gathering of board members from 13 neighborhood associations. The goal was to strengthen relationships and celebrate positive accomplishments of neighborhood associations. The focus was not only on the physical commons of East Portland, but also on the process of working together to create, protect and preserve our commons for future generations.
What do the Portlandia statue, garbage cans, water fountains and the Oregon History Museum have in common? These are among the points of interest highlighted in a new Commons Walking Tour of Portland, which debuts this month. The goal of the tour’s student creators is “to spark a conversation, ignite and inspire” stewardship of our commons.
Elinor Ostrom, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics for her lifelong work studying how communities share resources, died June 12. She was 78.
Twelve seminars in twelve days? Each on a different topic?
Imagine the angst I felt last winter when organizers in London approached me to make this demanding array of presentations on consecutive days.
They explained that each of the sponsoring groups had a unique perspective on the commons, ranging from economics, business, politics, democracy, culture and technology to land reform, private property, trusteeship, interest rates, systems theory and spirituality.
It’s easy to talk about the importance of the commons in grand terms— vast stretches of breathtaking wilderness, publicly funded advances in science and technology, essential cultural and civic institutions, the air and water which we all depend on for survival.
But let’s not forget the lowly commons all around that enliven and enrich our lives. Things like sidewalks, playgrounds, community gardens, murals, neighborhood hang-outs, and vacant lots. Especially vacant lots.
You can glimpse the future right now in forward-looking American cities—a few blocks here, a mile there where people riding bicycles are protected from rushing cars and trucks.
Handicapping occurs in sports to equalize the winning chances of contestants of varying abilities. Sometimes, as in horse racing, superior horses, based on past performance, are required to carry more weight. Sometimes, as in golf, poorer players are allowed more strokes. Unbeknownst to most of us, the competition between public and private sectors is also handicapped. But contrary to the popular wisdom, it is the private sector that often cannot compete without being given more strokes. Consider these three examples.
School busing
At least since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, we have known about humankind’s squandering of nonrenewable resources, its careless disregard of precious life species, and its overall contamination and degradation of delicate ecosystems. In recent decades, these defilements have assumed a systemic dimension. Lately we have come to realize the shocking extent to which our atmospheric emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatens Planet Earth.
A week or two ago, I blogged about the rise of new sorts of eco-digital commons that blend virtual spaces with environmental management. It’s a bit of serendipity to learn this week about the a fascinating new online tool, the Great Lakes Commons Map. The map is an interactive platform that solicits contributions and conversation by people who love the Great Lakes.
As every 6 year old learns, there is real and there is make believe. The massive Post Office deficit that is driving its management to commit institutional suicide by ending 6-day mail delivery, closing half of the nations’ 30,000 or so post offices and half it’s 500 mail processing centers, and laying off over 200,000 workers, is make believe. Here’s why. In 1969 the federal government changed the way it did accounting.
As a sign of the growing momentum to declare and protect the Great Lakes a commons held in public trust, the Waterkeeper Alliance, a multinational water organization with a significant commitment to the Great Lakes recently issued the following resolution. The resolution was first introduced by John Nelson, Grand Traverse Baykeeper in Michigan, and promoted by by Mark Mattson, an environmental lawyer and head of Ontario Waterkeepers, at the annual Waterkeeper Alliance gathering.