In February 2010, I lost my job. Not a job that was terribly fulfilling, but not something that was totally empty either. I didn't see it coming and was plunged into a turmoil of anxiety.
Floundering around, trying to find inspiration, I attended a conference on sustainability in downtown Minneapolis. It was called: "2010 Sustainable Communities Conference." And it was inspiring indeed!
I met a lot of interesting people and learned about a lot of inspiring initiatives promoting urban sustainability. I was particularly impressed by Mark Lakeman from the City Repair Project in Portland, OR. He talked about bad city planned based on the Roman grid, and how communities ideally should be designed with many "commons" areas around which homes are fanned in expanding, circular orbits. He told us about the grass-roots efforts to transform intersections into commons in Portland, which initially were illegal, and now are mandated and fund, at least in part, by the city.
At the neighborhood sustainability conference, I also learned about Transition Towns, signed up to volunteer for the Animal Rights Coalition (ARC), attended a session on Dual Currency with Joel Hodroff, and participated in a "green careers" workshop with green career counselor Barbara Parks.
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