Hi everyone and sorry for not writing for a while but I have been busy....
This week I was able to finally get the donations of the bikes! Finally Eleven bikes came in strolling for our organization and now we are just waiting to get funded for helmets and locks. Then we will begin rolling around little Village like its no ones business:)
Our garden has also been growing quickly and we got some amazing mint, parsley, and collar greens. The tomato plants are already showing some tiny tomatoes and well I don't think I will be able to harvest any by the time I leave but at least I have seen them grow and will be harvesting some of my own back in Oregon at Le Belmont.
Something really inspiring to me has been going to the field museum and learning about history. They have an amazing show about pirates, and water but the best one hands down is the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr exhibit it is a photography exhibit and since you all know I bought a new camera it is just eye opening to see all these images and how powerful they are! Specially knowing that without these images and the media there probably would have of never been a change!
I have also been doing outreach in the community and promoting a federal program that is giving people in IL up to $6500 to weatherize their house and be able to save energy, and its all free, from the inspection all the way to the changing of windows, insulation or whatever job needs to be done.
Tomorrow we will be protesting for to different campaigns, one is for public transit, and the reason we are protesting there is because LVEJO was able to obtain a grant for the CTA or Chicago Transportation Authority for over 1 million dollars for a new bus route and the money has disappeared. We are going to the CTA to protest and make it known that we want the bus route that the money was assigned for, this will be in the morning. While in the afternoon, we will be at the other campaign which I have been working on and we will be pressuring the lady in the pre-trial tomorrow to come to an agreement with the city and to sell her plot of land so that we can begin building our park. Both events are having press conferences and will be a lot of fun. Plus we all have to dress up so lets see how it goes, because to be honest I think everyone in the office hates dressing up and well lets not say they are not the most fashionable bunch:)
All else is good I will be returning to OR the 7th of August and am hoping to see all of you at least for a day or maybe an hour or so, hopefully to chit chat and just have a great time!
Take care all I will be writing more before I leave and I will be letting you know more about my crazy life in the windy city...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
4th of july
So to begin this blog I will let you know that chopping wood is a lot harder than what I thought it would be:) Weeks before we had gone to take part in taking down a tree so that we could begin a community garden. I volunteered to go back and chop the wood so that we could use it for firewood and people wouldn't have to buy some when they go to the beach for a bonfire, so I went and tried and well all i can say is it was hard work i got some done but after i couldn't even cough because my sides hurt from the work!
Also we found out the ladies name for the case were we want her to sell the park. Although we have the information I cannot disclose her name. we also found out that the cities appraisal came in at 5 million and the ladies came in at 12 so a pretrial/ settlement is coming soon and we will find out what happens. but i truly believe they are going to go to trial and then the process will take a while so... I guess we will hopefully have the park in a couple of months
On the good end we did get the city to not put the plastic tarp over the contaminated site and I was able to go gather some questionnaires with answers from the neighbors. Now we have to wait and see what the lawyers say.
Our community garden keeps on trucking and has already given us a bunch of lettuce we have some beautiful broccoli and cabbage.
I also took some pictures and had some fun at the fireworks and although the show was disappointing i got some great shots and also got to play with the shutter speed and they came out great. i will post them soon
Last but not least I went to go watch food inc. and if you really want to know where your food comes from and how the evil industry has been taking over all the products this is the movie to watch. It is sad how the agro-industry has taken over and harmed our small farmers and done everything possible to abuse them and their rights as they do with the immigrant workers who are turned into slaves in the USA.
We all have to come together and empower our small local farmers and try and help rectify this by buying local "organic" produce. I put organic in quotations because the organic that comes from these corporations follow very vague guidelines and are not 100% organic as you will see in the movie.
Also if you are interested in the subject please read the omnivores dilemma from Michael Pollan it is a masterpiece!
Also we found out the ladies name for the case were we want her to sell the park. Although we have the information I cannot disclose her name. we also found out that the cities appraisal came in at 5 million and the ladies came in at 12 so a pretrial/ settlement is coming soon and we will find out what happens. but i truly believe they are going to go to trial and then the process will take a while so... I guess we will hopefully have the park in a couple of months
On the good end we did get the city to not put the plastic tarp over the contaminated site and I was able to go gather some questionnaires with answers from the neighbors. Now we have to wait and see what the lawyers say.
Our community garden keeps on trucking and has already given us a bunch of lettuce we have some beautiful broccoli and cabbage.
I also took some pictures and had some fun at the fireworks and although the show was disappointing i got some great shots and also got to play with the shutter speed and they came out great. i will post them soon
Last but not least I went to go watch food inc. and if you really want to know where your food comes from and how the evil industry has been taking over all the products this is the movie to watch. It is sad how the agro-industry has taken over and harmed our small farmers and done everything possible to abuse them and their rights as they do with the immigrant workers who are turned into slaves in the USA.
We all have to come together and empower our small local farmers and try and help rectify this by buying local "organic" produce. I put organic in quotations because the organic that comes from these corporations follow very vague guidelines and are not 100% organic as you will see in the movie.
Also if you are interested in the subject please read the omnivores dilemma from Michael Pollan it is a masterpiece!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
the garden
a beautiful bed of lettuce being watered by one of our young volunteers
the birth of a Jalapeno
The waterproof leaf
The crisp leafy lettuce that was used in a delicious salad
the last week...
So I have been tasked to go out to the community and do outreach which means to survey the area. I enjoyed going out to the community and meeting people although it is hard because they see me as someone foreign to them so basically an outsider. Although I was able to get some positive responses from a couple of people I also encountered many negative opinions.
These are some of the thoughts
- People want a community garden and a park, some believe that this will bring the community together and positive project for the community
- on the other hand some people do not want the park because the believe that the park will be taken over by the gangs and that much more violence will break out and that the people playing at the park will be sitting ducks for the gang bangers to just pick off.
- Others are scared that if they get the plot of land for the community garden and it is given to the community, then they will use that as a standpoint to develop the area and raise taxes, which would then run families out of their houses.
- One lady told us that she " would send the army of god to get us if we continue with the idea of the park" because she does not think that the location of the park is adequate.
On that topic the park will be located right behind a jail and on a plot of land that is being illegally used by a lady to provide parking for trailers. Although it will be located behind a jail, the park, will have a wall of trees and a mural that would be placed in front of the jail to provide a visual barrier. The ladies point is that some of the people in jail will see women and children and since they are convicts that their sexual appetite will grow by seeing these people in the park.
Also, during this week I went to the court house to see where the case was at, in relation to the lady selling the plot of land for our park. During this time I was surprised to find out that it is the city that has been taking so long on getting their appraisal in, but as always the real problem is that the money from both sides is off by a couple million dollars. So now if both parties cannot come out with an agreement then it will have to go to a trial and well you know how long this can take:(
Now back to some gang action. During our outreach we encountered a car called the rammer and that belongs to the Latin Kings gang. this car is used to ram into other cars of rival gangs. I was able to see this first hand. Peter and I were walking out of the gas station towards our block to go do outreach and while we were crossing the street we heard this very loud revving of an engine we looked back and it was a black SUV that had no windows and a big metal bumper and about four people in it. The rammer crashed into a Tahoe or a Yukon, Another SUV, and almost flipped the car. The girl that was in the car seemed to know what was going on and as soon as the car bounced back down on all four wheels she hit the gas and took off and the gang bangers followed. After that I have no clue what happened but this seems to be a usual occurrence because we were informed by someone else that was walking down the street about how all this works.
On an even more exciting topic we pulled some more radishes out and some amazing Lettuce from the garden. I mean the lettuce is beautiful! it has some amazing crisp leafs that are just full of life and an amazing green color, i mean every bight I took of the salad we made with it later was just so flavorful and it was way better than all that store bought stuff.
That's all for this week
These are some of the thoughts
- People want a community garden and a park, some believe that this will bring the community together and positive project for the community
- on the other hand some people do not want the park because the believe that the park will be taken over by the gangs and that much more violence will break out and that the people playing at the park will be sitting ducks for the gang bangers to just pick off.
- Others are scared that if they get the plot of land for the community garden and it is given to the community, then they will use that as a standpoint to develop the area and raise taxes, which would then run families out of their houses.
- One lady told us that she " would send the army of god to get us if we continue with the idea of the park" because she does not think that the location of the park is adequate.
On that topic the park will be located right behind a jail and on a plot of land that is being illegally used by a lady to provide parking for trailers. Although it will be located behind a jail, the park, will have a wall of trees and a mural that would be placed in front of the jail to provide a visual barrier. The ladies point is that some of the people in jail will see women and children and since they are convicts that their sexual appetite will grow by seeing these people in the park.
Also, during this week I went to the court house to see where the case was at, in relation to the lady selling the plot of land for our park. During this time I was surprised to find out that it is the city that has been taking so long on getting their appraisal in, but as always the real problem is that the money from both sides is off by a couple million dollars. So now if both parties cannot come out with an agreement then it will have to go to a trial and well you know how long this can take:(
Now back to some gang action. During our outreach we encountered a car called the rammer and that belongs to the Latin Kings gang. this car is used to ram into other cars of rival gangs. I was able to see this first hand. Peter and I were walking out of the gas station towards our block to go do outreach and while we were crossing the street we heard this very loud revving of an engine we looked back and it was a black SUV that had no windows and a big metal bumper and about four people in it. The rammer crashed into a Tahoe or a Yukon, Another SUV, and almost flipped the car. The girl that was in the car seemed to know what was going on and as soon as the car bounced back down on all four wheels she hit the gas and took off and the gang bangers followed. After that I have no clue what happened but this seems to be a usual occurrence because we were informed by someone else that was walking down the street about how all this works.
On an even more exciting topic we pulled some more radishes out and some amazing Lettuce from the garden. I mean the lettuce is beautiful! it has some amazing crisp leafs that are just full of life and an amazing green color, i mean every bight I took of the salad we made with it later was just so flavorful and it was way better than all that store bought stuff.
That's all for this week
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