A dispatch from the Summer 2012 Community
Five months ago, I proposed a plan to mobilize one hundred creative and diverse young people to a small North American city for the summer. Over fifty people responded with interest. The summer of 2012 is fast approaching and we need to figure out where we’re going and who’s coming with us!
“The rent is too damn high” in Echo Park, Bushwick, Wicker Park, The Mission, Capitol Hill or wherever you’re paying a premium to live. Let’s sublet our apartments and together we can celebrate the summer somewhere more affordable. It’ll be like summer camp but with more potlucks and no curfew!
This summer you’ll save money while you: record your next album, write your novel, postulate 5th-wave feminism, grow your own produce, practice yoga, whatever you want to do! This community will provide you with an audience and potential collaborators.
You don’t have to quit your job. Perhaps you already freelance from home or maybe a sympathetic boss will let you work remotely for the summer (telecommuting can even save the company money). We’ll be moving somewhere with strong broadband connectivity. And the talent in the community we build might help you to create the next stellar web start-up, or serve as a social network for finding new jobs in the future.
Though this idea took shape before Wall Street was occupied, OWS resonates in our thinking about this project. Outrageous rents are the result of a system that rewards greed over people. When our privilegedcommunity gets priced out of previously trendy neighborhoods and moves into cheaper, previously undesirable ones, the process often displaces poorer communities of color who already live there. Underground dive bars pave the way for gourmet cupcake shops that turn into Starbucks franchises.
Our project doesn’t do that. We are following the national migration trend of moving back to the center of the country because it costs less to live there. We will only stay for 3 months. Our impermanence will not leave a lasting physical footprint in this locality (though we hope our ideas will linger).
We’re going to replicate the things we enjoy about living in hip neighborhoods,in a place we might otherwise find boring. We urbanites will meet locals and discover that people from the heartland are more than just caricatures. And we won’t be surrounded by concrete sprawl—bringing us closer to nature.
This is a social experiment in creating a temporary intentional community which will teach us a lot about ourselves, our friends, our communities, and our society and we’ll have a great deal of fun doing it. And if you don’t, at least you payed half on three months rent.
Our first order of business is figuring out where we want to move.
We want to move somewhere that is inexpensive, warm, walkable, close to nature, has sympathetic residents, solid Internet connection, and abundant (temporary) housing. The destination should have between 20,000 and 70,000 residents, so that we can be visible without disrupting the dynamics of the city.
Our best bet is a college town because students vacate their apartments in the summer. I created a chart of potential locations based on this list of college towns to help us figure out where to spend the summer. Once we decide where we are going, we’ll connect everyone with resources to help you find accommodations for the summer.
Population is based on metropolitan area when available.
We aren’t limited by this list. The decision of where to live and all other decisions this summer will be made by consensus. Our process is inspired by the General Assembly model of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
We’re excited to move forward in our planning and we need your help.
Are you interested in coming this summer but don’t really have the time to plan it? That’s totally cool, we want to get an early headcount for the summer.
In the subject line write INTERESTED and e-mail it to: Summer2012[at]googlegroups[dot]com
Which of the places on the list provided are you most excited about? Which places are less desirable? Are there any other small cities that might fit our needs that should be added to this list?
In the subject line write LOCATION and e-mail it to: Summer2012[at]googlegroups[dot]com
Do you want to take a more active role in planning this summer? Join the facilitation committee and we’ll have ongoing conversations about how to organize the summer.
In the subject line write FACILITATION and e-mail it to: Summer2012[at]googlegroups[dot]com
See you all in a few months!
6 months ago • 9 notes
