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  • From: Killian O'Brien <admin@pri-de.org>
  • To: International Permaculture List <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Occupy Detroit Sustainability Work Group Meeting, Work Day and Foreclosed Homes Action
  • Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 03:40:59 -0500

Sustainability Work Group Meeting, Work Day and Foreclosed Homes Action

Work Day
The Permaculture and Resilience Initiative - Detroit (PRI-De) site went into
tax foreclosure this year due to reasons personal and business. Foreclosure
issues do not end with the foreclosure process. There are financial and
physical issues to deal with. The site was left untended because it was not
owned by PRI-De. It is now time to get the site back into working order and
we would appreciate your support. We are still struggling to get back on our
feet with no income or savings to hand.

Meeting
The meeting will be at 2PM Sunday. It will consist of reviewing actions taken
already, framing our Mission Statement, planning future events and an
introduction to Regenerative Design Principles via hands-on implementation
and application of the principles as we regenerate the garden for next season
and discuss the site plan.

We may not have any power by then, so dress warmly, layer.

Current Needs
We are broke. Our utilities, phone and internet will all be getting
disconnected unless I can raise some funds. There are three approaches:

1. Find roommates to at least cover the cost of taxes and utilities ($100/mo
+ utilities). This is not intended to be a money-maker, but is meant to
eliminate concern for the site in terms of financial issues and safety. For
personal reasons, I must spend some time out of the country when I can raise
the funds to go. This is why I will not be able to pay the utilities and
ph./internet. I keep doing that and spending what little money I've scrounged
up. Depending on the number of people, rents could be extremely cheap. Figure
$500, perhaps much less, or less, total, for everybody including all
utilities, insurance and taxes. Again, this is not to make money, but
stabilize the property.

1A. People interested in learning Permaculture/Regenerative Design and being
part of rebooting and growing this organization would be enthusiastically
welcomed.

2. Sell stuff. For sale:

* '91 F-250 4x extra cab, long bed diesel truck
* Two queen beds
* electric drier
* Classical guitar
* 5500 watt generator (capable of running a house)
* Lots of books: high quality kids books (English and Korean), ESL texts,
cookbooks, novels - Three large bookcases full.

Anything else not nailed down, particularly if I move out and rent the whole
house. Then everything can go.

3. Sell the house and/or business. Cheap. Make an offer. Has: new kitchen (2
years), 8 new windows, half new plumbing, six fruit trees (two cherry, peach,
red apple, green apple, pear), six red currant bushes, three blueberries (3
varieties), 12 comfrey plants, picket fenced sitting/kids yard, herb spiral
with mostly perennial herbs, 3k sq ft of garden/green space. Two floors and
partially finished basement (need to repair what was torn out), 3 bedrooms
(one a sort of small suite), one bath.

Next Steps
If we can survive the winter, we will focus on the gardens as the primary
source of income. We now have available, directly or verbally agreed to, 12k
square feet of garden space. We hope to acquire a total of 1/2 to 1 acre that
is owned eventually. There is a lot of empty acreage here.

Secondary will be design services. If this is successful, one design a month
could be more than enough to run the site, coupled with food production, and
begin to pay larger salaries while getting back to providing education,
preferably free/work exchange.

Third would be course fees for full course and workshops, but this is a
tertiary expectation at this time and unless additional staff come on board
is unlikely.

History

The Permaculture and Resilience Initiative - Detroit was founded in 2009. It
has trained twenty-two people in Permaculture/Regenerative Design Principles
using self-funding, tuition, donations and work exchanges. No person has ever
been turned away. We have never made a profit, either, though. But there are
twenty-two more permies out there, and that was the point all along. We have
only ever sought to get the site self-sustaining.

I came here with my wife and 1.5 year-old son. We took a hell of a stab at
creating a permaculture training center, and did, but with dubious success
financially. We've never managed to become well-integrated into the city.
This is a direct result of failing to add staffing suited to outreach and
policy issues.

My wife, full disclosure, has kidnapped our son to Korea. I am struggling to
get the funds to go there to retrieve him, or at least be reunited. For this
reason, any roommates will likely have the house to themselves for extended
periods of time and perhaps long-term.

Current State

I am trying to survive. We are the only low-cost permaculture choice in this
area, and the only extremely low-cost center in the world that I am aware of.
Hopefully there are others. We'd love to offer all our courses for free if we
could develop a stable income high enough just to cover housing, food,
utilities, transportation, etc.

To that end, I am rebooting. It's odd: we achieved the dream of coming here
and teaching permaculture, but ultimately failed as a self-propagating
organization. It's a strange, bittersweet experience that I hope has not
ended.

We will only do small-scale permaculture courses from now on without big name
instructors. Those are the courses we lose money on. Our small-scale courses
have always made a tiny bit of money or broken even. We will focus on
building our gardens to operate a CSA or sell through local farmers markets
and directly to restaurants, etc. We will develop the design side of the
business.

But PRI-Det, L3C (PRI-De) was always meant to be a group project with
egalitarian management by 3 - 5 people, preferably from Detroit in the long
run. I'm seeking people to do all phases of management and to develop their
Regenerative Design skills. I would like to do primarily design and teaching
and help others become proficient at both while continuing my own development.

Cheers,

Killian O'Brien
PRI-De
admin@pri-de.org<mailto:admin@pri-de.org>
(313) 647-4015

killiankob@yahoo.com<mailto:killiankob@yahoo.com>
(760) 617-4693




  • [permaculture] Occupy Detroit Sustainability Work Group Meeting, Work Day and Foreclosed Homes Action, Killian O'Brien, 12/01/2011

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