Local economy

Better Together

A good friend of mine spent some time over the holidays in another college town, where his parents live. We were chatting upon his return to Chapel Hill, and he said something that really struck me: Compared to his parents’ town, Chapel Hill just doesn’t have a real sense of community.

He explained a bit more, specifically mentioning that something exciting had happened at the university and everyone in town was abuzz about it. That’s not something that happens in Chapel Hill, he said. And, after thinking about it, I realized how right he is. There’s a big disconnect in Chapel Hill between the people who live here and both UNC as an institution and the students, faculty, and staff who make up the UNC-affiliated part of our community.

Over at Chapelboro, Matt Bailey wrote an excellent commentary over the holiday break about why he’s excited for the days when UNC students are in town. His sentiment is one I wish more Chapel Hillians expressed. After all, the reason our community exists at all is because UNC is here.

Carrboro: North Carolina's Market Town

Carrboro Farmers' MarketPreviously on CityBeautiful21 I talked about Informal Markets -- events that are marked by an agreed-upon time and place to sell and buy goods, but may lack features of a permanent retail establishment.  When I think about the things that the town of Carrboro has going for it, our talent for finding room for Informal Markets is near the top of the list.  When I began researching this post, I was not surprised to find that Carrboro has been finding a place for Informal Markets in the community for over 35 years.

Like Krakow, Carrboro has nurtured an informal market into a formal one in the heart of the community- the Carrboro Farmers' Market. On their website, the Farmers' Market even refers to itself as a previously informal market!

Social Enterprise in Orange County?

The Executive Team of the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness is interested in ideas for possible social enterprises in the county that could provide sustainable, living wage jobs for our homeless and low-income neighbors.

One possible model is being tried in Cleveland, Ohio, which though a much more urbanized area, could provide an example for us:

Community Book Forum: Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy

The Carrboro Cybrary and Carrboro Recreation & Parks invite the community to read Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy by Lyle Estill. Lyle is a founder of Piedmont Biofuels and he will be leading this discussion along with Michael Tiemann, a founder of the Open Source movement, and William (B.J.) Lawson, PLENTY Revitalization Board Member. This book is focused on the local economy in Chatham County, and will be valuable to anyone interested in sustainability, co-ops, biodiesel, whole foods, slow food, technology, small business, and more. Copies of the book can be borrowed from the Cybrary.

Book Description:

In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate.

In response, Lyle Estill’s Small is Possible introduces us to “hometown security,” with this chronicle of a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. True stories, springing from the soils of Chatham County, North Carolina, offer a positive counterbalance to the bleakness of our age.

This is the story of how one small southern US town found actual solutions to actual problems. Unwilling to rely on the government and wary of large corporations, these residents discovered it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself.

This book is filled with newspaper columns, blog entries, letters, and essays that have appeared on the margins of small-town economies. Tough subjects are handled with humor and finesse. Compelling stories of successful small businesses, from the grocery co-op to the biodiesel co-op, describe a town and its people on a genuine quest for sustainability.

Review:

One of my favorite ideas in this book is the idea of open source. Once you let go of this idea that everything must be copyrighted, everything must be owned and protected in order to make money, you become free. Open source ideas quickly foster a more open community, a more open and honest society. A gropu of people or organizaitons all start working toward a common goal rather than all working against one another. Beautiful, isn't it?

Another beautiful idea is that a community needs a variety of people and businesses to thrive. And that as you begin living locally- and begin working toward a healthy community - people and businesses find their niches. And when you find your own niche within the local economy, your own happiness rises. Your sense of well-being increases when you realize your positive and necessary contribution to society.

As we go further into debt and economic security throughout the world, nurturing our small, local, sustainable businesses and infrastructure will become increasingly important. I recommend this book.
~ Melinda from The Blogging Bookworm

More reviews are linked from:
http://lyleestill.com/blog/?p=9#more-9

Date: 

Friday, June 5, 2009 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm

Location: 

Carrboro Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St.

Economic meltdown is fertile ground for re-invoking a revamped local exchange system

With macro-economic indicators getting worse by the day, scaling down to the local is looking saner and more attractive.

One example of many is local currencies.  Though our local currency, the NCPlenty, is barely in existence, it may be time to re-vamp it. The global and national economic climate may provide the environment necessary for making a local  currency adaptive and succesfull. 

In November the nation's official unemployment reached 6.5%.  This is a figure that would change to 12.5% if included were those who are too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like.

12% may be a significant number;  As pointed out in Beyond Greed and Scarcity by Bernard Lietaer:  In France, years ago,..

 

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