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April Newsletter Volume 2, Number 2	A Tribute to John Muir – “A Noble Earthquake!” Shocks in Yampa Valley WSSAP and Annexation The Lessons of Crested Butte Maybe The Community Housing Policies Are Not Broken A Glass Half Full The WCC Strategic Summit: Transforming our Alliance Poetry and Pithy Remarks by John Muir
March Newsletter Volume 2, Number 1	Commentary – The Inside Story On Commentary, Dialogue, the Process of Community Building and Our Future. Irish Poems, Pithy Remarks and Lyrics
February Volume 1, No 8	Commentary – “By Means of Water…” The Calendar The Growth Committee Poetic, Profoundly Deep Reflections - Our Neighbor and Friend, Wayne Kakela
2008 Newsletters	2008 Newsletters

 

 

Commentary – Tidbits

A Tribute to John Muir. On Tuesday, April 21^st, we who love mountains and wilderness paused to remember John Muir who was born in Scotland on April 21, 1838. California has proclaimed April 21 as John Muir day because John Muir contributed to fostering the awareness “that an ecologically sound natural environment plays in the quality of life for all of us.” I would like to share the beginning of a passage John Muir wrote on an earthquake he was “overjoyed to experience.”

From Our National Parks by John Muir (1901)

[ Note: Yosemite Valley was shaken by the violent Inyo Earthquake of March 26, 1872. Muir was working that winter as a caretaker for Black's Hotel, located near Sentinel Rock in Yosemite Valley. Other Yosemite Valley residents were especially terrified, due to the theory advanced by the state geologist, Dr. Josiah Dwight Whitney, that the floor of the valley had dropped down during some ancient cataclysm. Muir disagreed so strongly with this theory that he was not fearful, but rather overjoyed to experience this earthquake! ]

“In Yosemite Valley, one morning about two o'clock I was aroused by an earthquake; and though I had never before enjoyed a storm of this sort, the strange, wild thrilling motion and rumbling could not be mistaken, and I ran out of my cabin, near the Sentinel Rock, both glad and frightened, shouting, "A noble earthquake!" feeling sure I was going to learn something. The shocks were so violent and varied, and succeeded one another so closely, one had to balance in walking as if on the deck of a ship among the waves, and it seemed impossible the high cliffs should escape being shattered.”

For the complete passage go to:

http://www.sierraclub.org/John_Muir_exhibit/frameindex.html?http://www.sierraclub.org/John_Muir_exhibit/writings/

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Shocks in Yampa Valley. In April NPR prompted listeners to ponder the prospect of a “New Normal,” a new way to view self, materialism, and lifestyles. I found myself wondering just what the New Normal might look like here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102851827

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/04/open_thread_the_new_normal.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103104831

The over-liquidity crisis of the past led to the current liquidity issues. Those issues shake the valley floor and shock households, businesses, and the local government. I hope these economic shocks lead us to strengthen our connections to each other. We may rediscover just “who we are” as Crested Butte did (see below) so we consciously strive to preserve those aspects of our local culture that bring out the best in each other.

One aspect of our community we all value is inclusion and inclusion is the foundation for civil dialogue. When we engage each other productively, we listen in order to understand. We consciously choose to reject listening with an ideological filter. We collaborate pragmatically to find solutions that work for the whole community.

I think the value of inclusion is a fundamental part of “who we are.” We can build the New Normal of Yampa Valley on inclusion and civility, leaving the ideological finger pointing behind. We can be honest without assassinating the character of the “other” whose ideology differs. Rather than slipping back to the Old Normal we can develop a New Normal culture that reinforces the unique character of Steamboat Springs and Yampa Valley as an inclusive, caring, friendly community. After all, as John Hess said…

“Its not a town,
its a culture,
it grows on ya.”

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WSSAP and Annexation. The Community Alliance has vigilantly monitored the negotiation processes between the City and Steamboat 700 and 360 Village. Although the West of Steamboat Springs Area Plan serves as a framework for assessing the potential of both annexation proposals to yield exceptional benefit to current residents, it is inconsistent. For example, consider these inconsistencies:

• “maintain our small town character” versus “remain an economic center for the region.”

• “Annexations should mimic Old Town” (single family homes) versus “development should utilize ‘New Urbanism” (i.e. mixed use condominiums).

• The WSSAP’s level of suburban densities, 1-2.5 dwelling units/acre, is not dense enough to generate the riders for an efficient transit system which is necessary to reduce the traffic congestion on Hwy 40 created by the proposed annexations. For an efficient transit system, we’ll need at least 4.5 dwelling units/acre, yet that means more than 4,000 new units out west.

What do we do about an inconsistent WSSAP? How do we protect the unique character of Steamboat Springs? These are major challenges. I know one thing, The Community Alliance is “in the game.”

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The Lessons of Crested Butte. It sounds like the citizens of Crested Butte came together with more unity than Steamboat’s citizens and defined “who we are” and laid out we they wanted - open space, affordable housing and water. They saw annexation as opportunity to negotiate the deal on their terms. They also managed annexations whose scope only increased population modestly. The community solidarity allowed CB to be tough and not to cater to developers proposing annexation. They also consulted with Gerry Dahl on annexation and with Melanie Rees on affordable housing just as Steamboat has but the communities are different. John mentioned a member of the town council who voluntarily excused himself from the annexation decision because his family was interested in purchasing a home in the annexed property. CB might have more clarity than SbS about conflicts of interest. One thing that clearly sets CB apart from SbS is that its elected officials also serve as its planning commissioners. In an email sent on Tuesday, April 28^th, I shared the “take aways” of others, so please refer to that attachment for more assessments.

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Maybe The Community Housing Policies Are Not Broken. The refrain from one corner of our community is that the community housing policies (both IZ and linkage) legislated by the preceeding City Council were flawed, broken from the very start. We are told, “That’s why they aren’t working, regardless of the financial markets and the credit meltdown.”

 

Granted, the seller controls a lot of the process, determining what price they charge say 100% of AMI instead of 80% AMI, and marketing the home before they are finished. So there is a lot of room for maneuvering. All the while, the prospective buyer of an “affordable” unit is at a disadvantage, especially in a town where they may be afraid to speak their mind for fear that their employer may be cozy with a builder, banker, or real estate agent. Jobs are hard to come by.

 

On March 30, I interviewed a prospective home buyer of a First Tracks “affordable” unit at his/her workplace. A member of the Community Alliance referred this person to me on the condition that I protect her/his identity. Since I had already spoken with Tony Lettunich, the City Attorney, to learn the City’s rules for the introduction of first hand testimony into public comment, I knew I could conduct this interview, share what I learned while protecting the source.

 

I was told that on the previous Wednesday, March 25, Resort Ventures West (RVW) called the thirteen prospective buyers of First Track affordable units in as a group. RVW told the buyers with contracts to purchase that RVW would like them to sit as a group at the City Council meeting on April 21, so RVW could refer to them when they proposed to the City Council that the City lift the permanent deed restriction and substitute it with a deed restriction that would expire after 7 years. RVW asked this person and the others to delay the closing on their unit until after April 21, maybe until late May. If the buyers would agree, then RVW thought it would be able to limit the deed restriction to 7 years.

 

The person who wanted to buy a unit had a mortgage loan but s/he was afraid that on any given day, s/he would learn that the mortgage source would change the rules and s/he would lose his/her loan. His closing date had been March 31^st. S/he was afraid to oppose RVW. The Community Alliance offered to obtain a lawyer to offer protection and expertise in such a situation.

 

A week later I sought out this person at her/his workplace, only to learn that the person had left town. I don’t think the policies are broken. Something else is going on.

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A Glass Half Full. A year ago, Western Colorado Congress was responsible for the Community Alliance budget. Then, in August of 2008 the funding world changed. WCC informed CAYV it no longer had resources to fulfill its obligation and the CAYV Board decided we should raise our own funds. In September as green horns, we started our own fund-raising. Since then we have raised enough to meet our obligations and function until the end of July. For 11 of our first 12 months we have met our monthly budget target of approximately $1,667.

The WCC Strategic Summit: Transforming our Alliance. A group of representatives from the 8 community groups affiliated with Western Colorado Congress is designing a two to two and a half day gathering on June 12-14 to transform our western slope alliance. We intend that each community will send three representatives to process focus group results, survey results and case study analyses of 8 national grass roots membership and advocacy organizations and recommend a structure to the WCC board for its adoption in the fall.

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Pithy Remarks by John Muir

• The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry,   and all that is spiritual.

• The mountains are calling and I must go.

• Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

• The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

• The power of imagination makes us infinite.

• When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.

• Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

• How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

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Commentary – The Inside Story On Commentary, Dialogue, the Process of Community Building and Our Future.

The Inside Story. In February, The Community Alliance worked out an arrangement with the Steamboat Pilot and Today so that we get to write two of the four progressive Sunday commentaries a month. This opportunity principally resulted from the Steve Lewis’ initiative. Writing on a regular basis takes time. We have a “writing” group and we are trying to bring others, like Deep Roots Food Trust, into the writing process.

BUT we would love to have others who like to write

join us. Let me know if you want to join our writing and editing group, please!!

 

Sunday’s Commentary - “Civil dialogue is essential – Cordial debates a precondition for healthy community” – originated from a realization about the Tax Policy Advisory Board. The TPAB should have asked if heavy reliance on the sales tax would feed the growth machine and result in further pressure for growth. “Is a sales tax sustainable?” is a question that should have been asked. Then I realized that I knew why outside-the-box questions are not asked here.

 

Rural development scholars and researchers know that in small towns people suppress what they want to say out of fear that there will be repercussions. I said this is the commentary - it is an axiom of rural development. It happens because in small towns there are few employers and little economic diversity so people are dependent on one or two major employers or industries and they don’t want to get blackballed.

 

Civil Dialogue. In academia we say Civil Dialogue is a key dimension of “Entrepreneurial Social Infrastructure.” But that phrase wouldn’t work in a newspaper. As I pondered how to reframe the commentary for the newspaper, I was listening to NPR when I heard a musician, Kinan Azmeh, who was at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. participating in Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World…

 

A clarinetist, Azmeh explained the name of his group, Hewar, is an Arabic word that means dialogue:

"When it comes to my musical world, the whole idea of dialogue and being open to the other is actually what shapes my musical journey. I maneuver between Arabic music and jazz and classical, and I think equally, I feel that I am equally connected to all these different cultures. So dialogue is a concept I live with — live by, in a way. Especially making my music."

http://www.kinanazmeh.com/hewarmusic.htm

With civil dialogue we can overcome misconceptions and barriers, building on what brings people closer together rather than focusing on what separates people. Azmeh and Hewar try to achieve this through their music. Each musical personality uses a personal instrument to communicate within the structure and beauty of the musical score through musical phrasing, subtexts, and improvisational inspirations.

Needless to say, I have found myself paying more attention to music. And this awareness brings me to the two final point I want to make.

The Process of Community Building. Throughout the 20^th century history of organizing for change, community organizing has focused on campaign strategies directed at targets whose behavior, e.g. decision-making votes, a group of people on the periphery of an issue would want to change. Such efforts often result in crystallized divisions within a community and unresolved anger across the board. Such efforts often tire out change oriented constituents and generate long-term divisiveness.

Near the end of the 20^th century we realized that processes that lead to interpersonal relationships will build a shared sense of community so that the whole community is better off and more able to sustain a dynamic, learning approach to issues and challenges the whole community faces. National groups that train organizers still have not adopted cutting edge approaches to community change that incorporate community building processes like civil dialogue and strengthening bridging ties across differences.

Our Future – Let’s Make Music. And because I believe we must build community as we seek change, I have tired to balance commentaries focusing on issues with process oriented commentaries. In the next year members of The Community Alliance will have to get together and work out whatever differences we have on annexation and maybe even water. We must work together and avoid division even if we disagree. 

Related URLS

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/mar/15/steve_aigner_civil_dialogue_essential/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101547802

http://www.kinanazmeh.com/hewarmusic.htm

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/mar/01/steve_aigner_we_need_airtight_water_policy/

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/feb/15/steve_aigner_crested_butte_story/

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/feb/05/developer_steambaot_700_still_strong/

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/jan/18/steve_aigner_time_strengthen_ties/

 

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Pithy Remarks, An Irish Poem by Eavan Boland, and Van Morrison Lyrics

My travels to Northern Ireland and Ireland led to life altering insights. On sabbatical I left the USA seeking to learn about the interface of peace and reconciliation with community and economic development in within the context of 800 years of British invasion, land confiscation, religious conflict between Protestant masters and Catholic resisters, and colonialism.

I came home with deep understandings of cultural identity, community, and the travails of reconciliation. Thus, Saint Patrick’s Day represents more to me than part of my ancestry and the transition from Druidism to early Christianity.

I would like to honor the influence of the Irish on all of us by quoting the remarks of Seamus Haney, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and George Bernard Shaw. I also want to present a modern Irish woman poet, Eavan Boland, and the lyrics of van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately.” Van Morrison is a Belfast lad of my age. It was in Belfast that my sabbatical led me to insights that enriched my life.

Pithy Remarks

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world. ~ Seamus Heaney

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

A man who loses his money gains, at the least, experience, and sometimes, something better. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. `~ George Bernard Shaw

A Contemporary Irish Poem. Eavan Boland is one of the female contemporary poets who has broken through the centuries long patriarchal male domination of Irish poetry. I selected this poem, “What Language Did,” because it stresses the wondrous mythos beyond words

What Language Did

The evening was the same as any other.
I came out and stood on the step.
The suburb was closed in the weather

of an early spring and the shallow tips
of washed-out yellows of narcissi
resisted dusk. And crocuses and snowdrops.

I stood there and felt the melancholy
of growing older in such a season,
when all I could be certain of was simply

in this time of fragrance and refrain,
whatever else might flower before the fruit,
and be renewed, I would not. Not again.

A car splashed by in the twilight.
Peat smoke stayed in the windless
air overhead and I might have missed:

a presence. Suddenly. In the very place
where I would stand in other dusks, and look
to pick out my child from the distance,

was a shepherdess, her smile cracked,
her arm injured from the mantelpieces
and pastorals where she posed with her crook.

Then I turned and saw in the spaces
of the night sky constellations appear,
one by one, over roof-tops and houses,

and Cassiopeia trapped: stabbed where
her thigh met her groin and her hand
her glittering wrist, with the pin-point of a star.

And by the road where rain made standing
pools of water underneath cherry trees,
and blossoms swam on their images,

was a mermaid with invented tresses,
her breasts printed with the salt of it and all
the desolation of the North Sea in her face.

I went nearer. They were disappearing.
Dusk had turned to night but in the air -
did I imagine it? - a voice was saying:

This is what language did to us. Here
is the wound, the silence, the wretchedness
of tides and hillsides and stars where

we languish in a grammar of sighs,
in the high-minded search for euphony,
in the midnight rhetoric of poesie.

We cannot sweat here. Our skin is icy.
We cannot breed here. Our wombs are empty.
Help us to escape youth and beauty.

Write us out of the poem. Make us human
in cadences of change and mortal pain
and words we can grow old and die in.

Eavan Boland

 

Lyrics. Van Morrison and I share more than two common elements to our lives…

Have I Told You Lately

Have I Told You Lately
Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles that's what you do
Oh the morning sun in all it's glory
Greets the day with hope and comfort too
And you fill my life with laughter
You can make it better
Ease my troubles that's what you do
There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine
Like the sun at the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray
To the One
Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there's no one above you
Fill my heart with gladness
Take away my sadness
Ease my troubles that's what you do
There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine
And it shines like the sun
At the end of the day
We will give thanks and pray
To the One

Van Morrison

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 Commentary –“ By Means of Water”

Until last year, anyone who savored the healing effects of the Heart Spring of the Old Town Hot Springs may have viewed a sign that said …”by means of water we give life to everything.” For me this quote from the Qur’an served as a reminder that there is a natural balance in nature between living species in an ecosystem and the resources available to those species. We humans should observe that natural balance respectfully. 

Regardless of whether a person interprets the balance between the living and the available natural resources necessary to sustain life spiritually or scientifically, this balance introduces the idea that there are limits to population growth. If we ignore such limits, we run the risk of degrading or destroying the ecosystem within which we currently flourish.

Ecologists call this concept the “carrying capacity” of an ecosystem. Three elements factor into the carrying capacity equation:

• the amount of resources available in the ecosystem;

• the size of the population or community; and

• the amount of resources each individual within the community consumes.

Remember last month’s commentary on deep ecology? If we embrace or even just lean towards the deep ecology perspective, then we recognize that the unrestrained Yang of self-assertion with its tendencies towards expansion, competition, quantity and domination are synonymous with growth.

The values that underlie the “survival of the fittest” mentality and the culture of unrestrained, rugged individualism must be balanced with the values that underlie collaborative, cooperative communities as ecosystems and with an appreciation of holistic, interdependent systems. Yin must balance the Yang. When humans attempt to dominate without respect to the balance between available resources, living species and a resident population, we take huge risks.

This is why a water dedication policy is absolutely necessary for Steamboat Springs. If you haven’t read Sunday’s Letter to the Editor, you might believe that we have access to an abundant amount of water and we can contemplate growth so long as the free market allows. But this belief does not hold up to scrutiny. I won’t use our time and this space to repeat what I have already said. (Please see - http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2009/feb/08/stephen_m_aigner_phd_city_needs_water_policy/?letters)

Consistent with the CAYV mission, deep ecology and the concept of a carrying capacity, we continue to expect that decisions to annex Steamboat 700 or 360 Village must satisfy the rule that benefits to current residents must exceed greatly the costs to current residents, especially when it comes to water. The current set of water rights and the infiltration, water delivery and treatment infrastructures are assets in which current and past residents have invested since 1892. Future residents on annexed land will need to make comparable investments for any annexation and subsequent development to meet the criterion of revenue neutrality. The 2007-2009 City Council has said that, “development must pay its way.”

It is simple common sense that with land development comes the obligation to bring water rights. What good are more homes for even a moderately growing population, if there is a severe drought in one out of every seven years, because we have exceeded the carry capacity of Yampa Valley?

Even the Colorado General Assembly acknowledged the interdependency of land development and raw water supply, conservation, delivery and treatment when they passed House Bill 08-1141. As I said in Sunday’s LTE, “According to HB 08-1141, the City shall not approve an application for a development permit unless it determines that “the applicant has satisfactorily demonstrated that the proposed water supply will be adequate.”

As Steve Lewis recently titled his LTE, “Let’s keep our eye on the ball”…it is only common sense.

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The Calendar

February 10 – Second Work Session on Affordable Housing at which the Community Alliance is invited to participate, Citizen’s Hall, 5:05. The topic is the possible, even probable, suspension of the community housing policies of inclusionary zoning and residential and commercial linkage.

February 12 – The SbS Planning Committee, 5 p.m. Citizen’s Hall, considers the feasibility and desirability of a Big Box store (“large format retail outlet”) in the West Steamboat area. Our vice-president, Rich Levy, has a LTE on this topic. Please see:

http://steamboatpilot.com/news/2006/dec/27/our_view_cap_wont_come_without_price/

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February 17 - City Council considers an ordinance to reject the good work of the 2005-2007 City Council as it tried to provide “keep up” housing for our workforce. Developers will be here in force. So should we!

 

CAYV’s Growth Committee meets, February 26, Thursday, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the home of a member. If you are interested in attending, let Steve Aigner know and he will direct you to the address. At the January meeting we discussed 1) our meeting with Tony Connell of 360 Village; 2) the increasing pressure to reject the community housing policies for affordable housing; 3) the developers’ proposal of a Real Estate Transfer Fee; 4) our campaign strategy to retain inclusionary zoning and linkage polices for affordable housing; 5) the upcoming discussion by City Council of a Water Dedication Policy; and 6) the merits of the YVHA as the lead entity for affordable housing.

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Poetic and Profound Reflections of Wayne Kakela, a famed and beloved member of the Community Alliance (adapted from the January 19^th article in the Steamboat Pilot and Today.)

 Steamboat Springs — To Wayne Kakela, everybody was allowed in.

Wayne Kakela was a rancher, sculptor, river runner, designer, swimmer, filmmaker, skier, father, friend, reader and motorcyclist. He was a broad thinker who had a broad approach to life.

“He was known. Not in the way, say, the president of the bank would be known. But known by more strata in society than anybody else I can think of,” said John Whittum, a fellow Strawberry Park resident and longtime friend of Wayne's. “He had no limitations in his acquaintances.”

“He just loved this community and being able to provide a place where people could gather and enjoy this Yampa Valley that he loved,” Linda Kakela said.

Kakela and Linda had two daughters, Kate and Anne.

 ‘Full of the joy of life’

Gary Hertzog, who said he met Wayne in 1964, says “It didn’t take long to learn that the Kakela ranch was “a great place to spend as much time as you could,” he said, largely because of Wayne’s love for it…“He was one of the most positive guys I’ve ever known, and I never saw him when he was in a bad mood or anything like that. He was always just full of the joy of life”

Paul Stettner met Wayne on a river trip in the late 1960s and stopped at The Barn on a post-college “unending ski trip.” In years of taking river running trips across the American West, organizing motorcycle races and exchanging tips for brewing beer, Paul — along with too many people to count — came to know Wayne’s “wide-open approach to life…His character was open to just about anything that came along. And even if he wasn’t, he’d let you know right away,”

After graduating from Dartmouth College, Wayne decided he needed to experience the West instead of read about it, so he got on a motorcycle and rode across North America, Linda said. He spent a year studying art in Mexico before taking a teaching job at Lowell Whiteman. “I would say that during that year and in his travels around all of North America and South America, he just had this great respect and love of the great cultures of the world,” Linda said.

 ‘He made art irresistible’

A supporter of art and community, Wayne took in many young artists, including some of those living and working in Steamboat Springs this summer as part of the Colorado Art Ranch residency program. “It was a very reciprocal relationship, where Wayne wanted to encourage young artists and be inspired by their work as well,” Linda said.

Nancy Kramer, who worked with Wayne often in her 13 years as executive director of the Steamboat Springs Arts Council, said it would be hard to chronicle all his creative endeavors. A visionary artist who loved to reuse old materials, Wayne once filled the Baggage Room at the Depot Art Center with a pontoon boat-themed installation called “Blow It Up.” He took a sculpture to the Burning Man festival in 2000, and he contributed to Home ReSource’s “Creative Community” salvage art project this summer.

“He was so creative, from the intellectual perspective down to the whimsical. He made art irresistible,” Nancy  said.

 ‘That magnetism few have’

The approachable quality of Wayne’s art translated to his character.

“He has that magnetism that few people have, and such depth and capacity. He was a marvelously outgoing fellow,” said John Whittum, who worked with Wayne at Lowell Whiteman.

A staple of Strawberry Park who could often be found haying with a 1930s John Deere tractor, keeping an organic garden or tapping into renewable energy sources, Wanye was a social fixture and a constant adventurer who will be missed.

“He was out for the greatest experiences in life, and I think he probably achieved most of them,” said John.

Steamboat Pilot Article on Wayne Kakela

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Related Links Western Colorado Congress