permaculture

[Sean Maley <semaley@yahoo.com>]

Here in NYC we, Green Phoenix Permaculture, have been
draw together using online tools like yahoo groups,
meetup, and more.  The parks department seems
receptive, as have community board members.  NYC is
very large, so we tend to be limited trying to
coordinate everyone.  We try to meet at least once per
week in as central a location as possible.

I'll let Claudia Joseph speak for her own projects, as
she has operated independently from us.  Andrew Jones
and Andrew Philips have also been active, though
Claudia is the most visible.  GPP has a few things
lining up and taking on their own life.  Some of them
can't have any publicity yet, so I can't say much.

However, my own neighborhood is where the Lenape sold
Manhattan for bobbles and would be just for us to get
loose.  We are starting at the Nature Center and have
a 200-acre forest in Manhattan that hasn't been cut
since 1776; it is the park that the parks department
lets nature do as it will, except cutting through the
occasional giant tree that falls over a path (some
have been recorded at 35' around).

The CSA concept seems to be a wonderful draw to get
others to start listening to the issues, while they
enjoy a better quality of food than the city grocers
tend to offer.  We have also pushed the Ishmael book
series.  The peak oil folks have adopted permaculture
as there solution, too.  The intentional community and
ecovillage crowds tend to gravitate to permaculture,
as well.  Finally, their are people foraging in the
parks that will become interested.

Many outsiders to NYC are misinformed about life here
when they see the city on television.  It should be
noted that some parts of the city have a per capita
income well below the national average, despite being
in one of the most expensive cities in the world. 
Some of us can appear to make loads of money, but this
is a myth where it takes so much money to live here,
which makes parts of the city sureal with the
magnitude between have and have not.  Therefore,
economic issues dominate any large scale planning
discussions.

We have adopted the Henry George view of "Progress and
Poverty" and will seek to establish Community Land
Trusts (CLT).  We will also have to establish a
network between rural communities we can establish in
the region with communities in the city.  This is also
where Ishmael comes into our discussion, as we are
pushing the concept of tribalism.  This is very
similar to the concepts in the final chapter of the
Permaculture Design Manual by Bill Mollison. 
Permaculture is what we are attempting, but Tribalism
and the CLT are the means of getting there under these
circumstances.


-Sean.


--- sinergyinaction@netscape.net wrote:

> That's the dilemma!
> I'd like to see if doing this is viable in the city
> where I live (Barcelona, Spain)
> My first aim is getting in touch with people that
> have already had some exposure to 
> permaculture concepts and if lucky enough I might
> even meet people that have a PDC
> on their shoulders. I would leave the group open to
> anybody simpathetic even if they are not initially
> specifically trained in PC, diversity of backgrounds
> will be a very useful resource to have anyway
> but I'd hope to gather interest especially form the
> permies around (not very many I'm afraid), so at
> least we have a basic philosophy to share, to start
> with.
> I feel starting up and getting people interested is
> probably the first critical point then how to get
> internally organized etc.
> Deciding where to focus our efforts will be be
> probably our next concern...there are so many
> problems that could be turned into solutions in a
> big city ...
>  
> Has anyone any ideas or experiencies to share about
> the process they used or wanted to use?
> What went right what wrong. 
> All the best
> Antonio 
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