RAIN March/April 1985 Volume XI, Number 3 Bioregional Fish Nuclear Children Liberated Land
Page 2 RAIN March/April 1985 RAIN Volume XI, Number 3 March/April 1985 Staff Rob Baird Ben Bishoff Madeline Dalrymple Steve Johnson Alan Locklear Steve Manthe Katherine Sadler F. Lansing Scott Contributors Susan Applegate Tom Bender Ralph Cavanagh Jack Churchill Carlotta Collette Clay Dennis John Harland Patrick Mazza Cecilia Ostrow Jim Stevens Mary Vogel Graphic Design Susan Applegate Printing: Argus Printing Typesetting: Irish Setter RAIN magazine publishes information that can help people lead simple and satisfying lives., make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, and build a society that is durable, just, and ecologically sound. RAIN is published six times a year by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a nonprofit corporation located at 3116 North Williams, Portland, OR 97227; 503/249-7218. Subscriptions are $25/year for institutions, $15/year for individuals ($9.50 for persons with incomes under $6000 a year). For additional information on subscriptions and publications, see page 39. Writers' guidelines are available for a SASE. Editorial and advertising deadlines are two months prior to publication date. RAIN is indexed in the Alternative Press Index and New Periodicals Index. Members of the Rain Umbrella Board of Directors: E. K. Maccoll, Mimi Maduro, Maggie Rogers, Steve Rudman, Sumner Sharpe, and Michael Wells. Copyright © 1985 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. ISSN 0739-62lx. COVER: Still Creek. Photo by Carlotta Collette. RAINDROPS By the time you read this, Rain Umbrella, Inc., the corporation that has published RAIN magazine since 1976, will be dissolved, and the magazine will be published by its new corporate parent, the Center for Urban Education. Rain Umbrella inherited its incorporation papers from the Full Circle Community Resource Center, a nonprofit group started in 1975 by Lane deMoll and Tom Bender. Coming full circle, as some of you might remember, in 1980, Rain Umbrella took on a joint project with the Portland Community Resource Center, to educate the local community about selfreliance. The Center moved in with Rain, and was renamed the Rain Community Resource Center. For several years, RAIN magazine was published in the midst of a flurry of local community projects and the daily operation of the resource center. Then, in 1984, after nearly 10 years in the same house, RAIN sought a new office. Fortunately, the Eliot Energy House had available space, and RAIN moved into its present location. To follow the full circle one more loop, it should be noted that before the Eliot Energy House existed, its parent · organization, RUNT (Responsible Urban Neighborhood Technology) had its office at Rain's old Victorian house. Over the years CUE and RAIN have worked on many projects together. In early 1984, discussions began about a merger of the organizations. About midway through this process, a new programmatic thrust of CUE emerged as the Information Technology Institute. The institute represents a consolidation of CUE's commitments to education and technical assistance in applications of information technology for nonprofits. The first major program of the institute, a community computer lab, is going to be open in March. The lab is being made possible by the generous support of Apple Computer Company's Community Affairs Program, the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Northwest Area Foundation. I have played several roles, hurrying over here (RAIN) to be editor, while also helping to establish the computer lab. It's been a rather exhausting lesson in patience and juggling. The pieces are coming more into view now, but we expect the dust to be unsettled for awhile. And just how can you, reader, expect all these changes to affect what you read? Well, not much if you expect an all-of-asudden change; but over a longer period of time hopefully you will see some major improvements. You can expect RAIN to remain bimonthly (we had considered a quarterly schedule) and to incr€ase its coverage of issues of common concern to all nonprofit groups. We hope to widen the contributor network, create an editorial board, and work with the Information Institute in finding new ways to bring you useful news and information. -SJ And now for the personal gossip. We have not yet introduced a couple of the newer names in our staff box. The first is Ben Bishoff, who came to RAIN a few months ago from Oberlin College. Actually, he's not officially a RAIN employee; he's a VISTA worker dividing his time between working with the Eliot Energy House and the Farmers Market. But he still managed to find the time to put together the section on children and nuclear war in this issue. · The newest person around here is our intern, Madeline Dalrymple. She will soon complete her Masters degree in Environmental Science from Washington State University. Her primary emphasis has been agricultural ecology. The rest of us are still plugging along. With our latest transitioning, things have seemed kinda crazy around here. But if that weren't the case, it just wouldn't seem like RAIN. -FLS Wanted: One editor. We are looking for a full-time editor/managing editor, to begin as soon as possible. Salary: $1215,000/year. Send inquiry and resume to RAIN by April 15. LOOK! RAIN IS GOING UP! Have you ever seen RAIN go up? Well, we haven't seen it happen since 1978. But since then we've seen everything else go up, so I guess it was inevitable. On May 1, our subscription prices will go up, not quite enough to cover seven years of inflation, but enough to pay the bills. Our new rates will be as follows: $18-one year, regular rate $12-one year, living lightly $30,two years $40-contributing subscriber $60-sustaining subscriber $500-RAIN patron and lifetime subscriber We invite everyone to subscribe, renew, and/or give gift subscriptions at our old rate through April 30.
"War Tax Resistance" by Bruce and Ann Borquist must be commended for its clear presentation of a timely issue. The bibliography should be especially valuable for those who break away from the h~rd, refusing to :'prciy for peace, yet pay for·war." However, we must take issue with.a common distinction, repeated by the Borquists in their article. "No-risk . methpds of resistance include living lightly on incomes below taxable levels ..."while "high-risk actions involve the possibmty of criminal penalties." Then it is recommended that one "plan ahead how serious you want to be in your war tax n~sistance efforts, and adopt a method with acceptable risks." There is the implicatipn that "serious" efforts must involve high risks, and that greater risk will bring quicker or more favorable results. The teaching of Christ is clear in this matter~ Give fo Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. So if we participate in the government's money economy, Caesar will have his du~. There is no l?eating the government at its own gam~, and the constitutional -• t RAIN Patrons· ·Last December we asked our subscribers to "help build the new RAIN." They (you) responded generously. The names of donors are listed below. Altogether, we raised about $2700, which may not seein much by normal publishing standards, but with our "living lightly" budget it helps a lot. Thanks,· folks . You'll see some changes in RAIN over the next several months and we ·hope you like them. We invite your comments. To those readers who are .. not subsc~ibers : you can help by ' ·. I becoming subscriber~. And, of course, tax-deductible contributions are always welcome. To the people on the following listindeed, to everyone who buys and reads RAIN-thank you for your support. John Barber Karin Beck Sh.erwin N. Berger Ann and Bruce Borquist Breitenbush Community ·· LETTERS objections to war taxes are futile. ·We consider the most effective resistance to the mili~ary-industrial complex to be nonparticipation. In tax terms this means limiting our taxable income (legally, with no risk of criminal penalty) to zero. Learning to live lightly outside the money economy is a continual challenge to the cherished notions acquired w_ith our middle-class upbringing. Changing our personal habits of material acquisition and consumption in the direction of living more simply is seldom simple, nor does it feel like a no-risk approach to war-tax :resistance. But our faith in higher values calls for direct positive action. We must be willing to risk personal comforts (private auto, large house, i.e. all the amenities requiring lots of Caesar'smoney) in order to be free to give to God what is God's. Larry and Marge Warning Oysterville, WA Th.e Borquists reply: Our attorney told us . early on in our "frivolous return" challenge Joseph F. Brown Ernest Callenbach Dave Campbell Carl C. Clark Bob Coe and Merrilly McCabe Carlotta Collette ·Lee Cooper Pauline and Dave Deppen Bill Ferguson Portia and Bill Foster Michael Frasher Food Front W. W. Fuller III Douglas Funkhouser Mr. and Mrs. Stanley A. Furman William T. Geer Harley Gibson T. L. Goudvis .Del Greenfield Jere Grimm Elaine and Charlie Harris Harvey Harrison Kansas Area Watershed Council Marjorie and Ogden Kellogg Doug Kirkpatrick Stuart Krebs Fred Krueger March/April 1985 RAIN Page 3 that social change is a chipping process. American society doesn't change its ways of thinking in an overnight revolution, but by individuals picking, and winning, small battles on positions only a little ahead of the mainstream. Much of what w_e wrote is based on that premise, and we and the Warnings arefirmly in agreement on that "high-risk /low-risk" strategy choice in·war tax resistance. Risk and effectiveness are not necessarily directly related-in fact, high risk methods are described as such only because they cannot stand a court challenge. The Warnings have weighed beliefs, values, and costs and.adopted th e "living lig~tly" method of WTR. For RAIN readers, this fits with many other social change agendas as well. Other taxpayers, however, have told us that they resent having th eir income level dictated by the government as th eir only legal way of preventing contributions to the military. They instead write letters or take positions that run the risk of provoking a hostile response from the government. Th ere is no easy formula or answer. Fred W.·Lancaster Louis J. Laux, Jr. Bob Lohaus E. K. MacColl • Norm Marshall Christine and Ernst Miller Ann R. Mulrane Eric Noon William Norman Rheua Pearce Noel Peattie John Picaro Privacy Journal Maggie Rogers Clayton T. Russell Sy Safransky (Sun Magazine) -Marie and Robert Schutz Sumner Sharpe and Margaret Strachan Michael Stoops James Thiele Walter Thiem Bob Wallace Gail and Rusty Whitney Connie and Jim Winter-Troutwine Sally 'and Mark Wingate Thomas Zellers
Page 4 RAIN March/April 1985 Bhopal Tragedy Spurs International Dialogue The World Environment Center.has launched "Projrct Aftermath," consisting of a series of meetings between industry, leading international organizations, and government officials from both industrialized and developing countries. These meetings will discuss strategies and actions for improved environmental manageme'nt and training throughout the world. . The findings of the meetings will be presented to the Center's fourth international conference on the environment and develoment, to be held in the Hague on September 25-27, 1985. The conference is co-sponsored by the Dutch Government. Cooperating institutions include the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. For further information on "Project Aftermath," contact Center President Whitman Bassqw, World Environment Center, 605 Third Avenue, 17th floor, New York, NY 10158; 212 /986-7200. . Co-op Bank Changes Name The National Consumer Cooperative Bank has changed its name to the National Cooperative Bank. In addition to consumer cooperatives, the bank serves housing cooperatives, employee-owned producer cooperatives, r.etailer owned cooperatives, and shared services cooperatives whose members are professional or institutional providers. The bank is funding a program designed to address the special education needs of consumer cooperatives. The bank is also undertaking a new effort to expand cooperative housing for the nation's low and moderate income families and senior citizens. The bank will provide loan funds for projects originated by a Washington-based housing development organization, the National Mutual Housing Network. For more information contact Joyce Conrad the National Cooperative Bank, 1630 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20002; 202/745-4754. Smart Windows Scientists at the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), are researching "smart windows" that can regulate the amount of sunlight and solar heat that enters a typical home during the summer and also prevent heat loss during the winter; · Researchers are attempting to combine evacuated (vacuum) window panes with electrochromic glazings to produce a window with electronically controllable light tra~smission and an insulating value in excess of R-12. Conventional double-glazed windows have an insulating value of R-2. Electrochromic glass resembles that of ordinary windows until an electric voltage is applied. The current causes a NEWS coating on the glass to darken as desired so that it transmits less heat and light. Glare and solar heat gain are controlled while the vacuum provides high resistance to heat loss. The electric current can be activated manually, by thermostat, or by light sensor controls. Studies have shown that between 15 and 35 percent of t~e total heat lost by a typical home in the northern U.S. is through windows. In passively solar heated homes, which have especially large windows, these losses can be as high as 40 percent. , A laser-welding technique has been developed to rapidly seal the evacuated window. This may make the massproduction of evacuated windows more economical. However, several more years of research and development are required to perfect the "smart window." For more information, contact Solar Energy Research Institute, Public Affairs Office, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Goiden, CO 80401. Windpumps for the Third Worlq Intermediate Technology, a British organization, has been awarded a Silver Medal of Excellence by the Worshipful Company of Turners for the design of a new Third World windpump. Intermediate Technology, which helps to identify, adapt, and develop tools and equipment for use in long-term, small-scale development projects, developed a long-lived (20-year), reliable windpump for use in remote, rural areas for irrigation, livestock, and drinking water. The design is nearly maintenance-free and capable of local workshop manufacture in small quantities, using a high proportion of locally available materials. The windpump is ' now manufactured in Kenya and Pakistan. In Kenya, more than 80 are in action, serving relief camps, clinics, schools, farmers and herdsmen, and tree nursuries. For more information contact Steve Bonnist, Intermediate Technolog.y, 9 King Street, London WC2E 8HW, United Kingdom; or Peter Reid, Development Techniques Limited, 3rd Floor, Myson House, Railway Terrace, Rugby CV21 3HT, United Kingdom. No Beryllium, No Nukes The Dene Nation of the Northwest Territories in Canada recently announced emphatic opposition to furthering the nuclear arms race. The Dene Nation, made of five separate tribal groups, will fight to block local development of a beryllium mine because the people oppose participation in the nuclear arms race on any level. The Dene will not permit beryllium to be mined from aboriginal lands because it is a key ingredient in the building of nuclear weapons. Commonly used in high-technology products, this substance is also necessary in the making of alloys used to produce missile~, space crafts, machine guns, nuclear
BRIEFS. reactors, and neutron bombs. The Dene say they are not opposed to development and are not opposed ·to all mining in the North, but only when the ~nd product will be used for destructive purposes. They want to control development so their own people will benefit. I • Deadly Tide ofPlastic Plastic pollution is killing milliohs of birds, fish, whales, seals, and sea turtles, marine scientists report. Their research has shown that the animals die after becoming entangled with discarded or broken plastic fish nets, straps, trawls, seines and snares, and also after eating pieces or tiny spherules of plastic that ate being dumped into all of the world's marine-waters. The problem has b~come so·serious that 150 marine wildlife researchers from 10 countries met recently at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu·for t~e first international conference on the issue. The meeting focused on the impact of nonbiodegradable plastic wast~s and section of untended nets have on animals that live in or depend on the ocean. Many groups have expressed alarm,·including the National Academy of Sciences, the World Wildlife Fund, the Environmental Network, a consortium of 14 environmental and marine wildlife conservation groups, arid individuals from other research groups and universities. Conservation groups are pushing for federal and-local legislation to restrict the outpouring of plastic debris into oceans. Other proposals include requiring fish nets be made of biodegradable materials. The Future Makes News A column about the future is no~ appearing in U.S. newpapers. It is written by Edward C.ornish, president of the World Future Society, an international association of people interested in what the future holds in technology, lifestyles, government, business, and other areas. · Futurists do not use crystal balls but rather make educated guesses about what might happen in the coming years · by studying current trends, such as rising population and income, and new technological breakthroughs. Business and government now employ a growing number of futurists to help them anticipate future developments. The name of the column is "Your Changing World" and is distributed by Sunfeatures, 7720 El Camino Road, Rancho La Costa, CA 92008. Reagan's Solar Suit President Reagan and five Cabinet officers were sued in January in U.S.·District Court for the Southern District of New York for an allegedly illegal attempt to retrieve from March/April 1985 RAIN Page 5 the st?tes certain funds obligated for the Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank but not spent by March 1. The suit asks that the president and the five cabinet officers on the bank's board be cited for contempt. It estimates that the proposed bank action would deprive p'otential customers of at.least $25 million of promised federal subsid~es for home energy improvements. The plaintiffs-five U.S. congressmen, two cities, one state and a.handful of.energy and consumer groups and individuals-will return'. to the same court that upheld them 30 months ago, ordering the administration to create the bank as soon as possible. That suit prompted the agministration to release money it had initially withheld. The suit focuses on congressional orders for the bank to spend 70 percent of conservation and.80 percent of solar funds'in the years in which they are obligated. The bank has fallen fai: short of the percentages. The unspent portion could be about $33-$34 million. Although more funds are likely to go out before the March 1 deadline, the recapture could ii11volve $25 million. The plaintiffs are particularly annoyed that the bank, which has considered the recapture for a year, has taken so long in getting the funds to the states. Some Fiscal Year 1983 money was not given out until the end of 1984. No N,,ikes Atoll Heads of state at the August 1984 meeting of the South Pacific Forum, representing all the independent nations in the.Pacific, agreed to draft a South Pacific nuclear free zone proposal for consideration at their 1985 meeting. The treaty proposal, accepted unanimously by the forum leaders would ban testing, acquisition, and storage of nuclear weapons and prohibit the dumping of n,uclear waste in the region. While Vanuatu and New Zealand currently ban visits of nuclear warships, the proposal states that each Pacific nation is free to make its own decision on nuclear warship transits. Japan and Micronesia-especially the Marshall Islandsexp_erienced first hand the consequences of the nuclear age. Marshallese people endured resettleme'nts in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. At Kwajalein Atoll, the Marshallese also encounter other aspects of the nuclear arms race. Since , U.S. assumed Trusteeship of the Marshal Islands, racism, job and wage discrimination, and life threatening conditions occured, asserts Akwesasne Notes. The Marshallese have protested in forms of "sail-ins" to show they have the power to prevent missile testing at Kwajalein. But the. islartders' economic dependency on the military presence poses a difficult dilemma. For current information contact the Kwajalein Atoll Corporation, PO Box 5220, Ebey~, Marshall Islands 96970. Also, a quarte_rly newsletter on Micronesian and Paci~ic issues is available from the U.S. Pacific Network, 1346 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 533, Washington, DC 20036; 202/296-8152.
Page 6 RAIN March/April 1985 La~d, ·Housing, and . ' Community Finance: CHUCK MATTHEI· Talks About the Institute for Community. Economics "We·need a new sort of element in the infrastructure of finance in this society." So says Chuck Matthei in the following interview. What's exciting is that we are starting to see the beginnings of such a thing take shape with the creation of institutions such as ARABLE and EarthBank (see our last issue) and social investment programs such as Working Assets and Calvert Social Investment Fund. The revolving loan fund operated by the Institute for Community Economics (ICE), which Matthei represents, goes further than most social investment funds toward developing a financing mechanism truly oriented toward the needs of specific communities. Between their loan fund and their technical assistance to community land trusts and other community·groups, the people at ICE are doing exemplary work. What's more, they use their work in the field to raise . fundamental questions about the nature of c;apital and finance in our society. .ICE publishes a quarterly newsletter called. Community Economics. If you wish to be put on the mailing list, write to Institute for Community Economics, 151 Montague City Road, Greenfield, MA 01301. The following transcript is excerpted from a much longer interview we did with Matthei when he was in Portland recently. It's a shame we don't.have space to publish the whole thing. Matthei impressed us all with his insights into the ,nature of our present economic system and his ability to cite numerous working models for alternative approaches. -FLS RAIN: Let's start with the basics. What does ICE do? Matthei: ICE is a Sm<;lll non-profit organization that provides technical and financial assistance to community-based qevelopment projects in primarily low-income communities in both urban and rural areas around the country, primarily on site in the eastern half of the country although occasionaJly further west. We work on the average on site with about 40 community groups in . 15 states each year. Our services to those groups vary according to the situation and the need. Most of the work is with land- and housing-related projects. In a much smaller number,ofinstances we work with economic development or cooperative business development, but primarily it'.s land and housing. For the most part we work with community land . trusts and limited equity cooperatives, occasionally with nonprofit housing corporations, almost never with projects through which properties might eventually transfer onto the open speculative market again. That's a qualification in our technical assistance, and it's a qualification in our lending criteria as well. It's not an absolute prohibition-we have the flexibility at our own · discretion to mal<e an exception, but we feel very strongly about the need for the development of limited equity housing models. Not only practically, to get the most use for the dollar over time, but also in a more basic and political sense because we feel that the.ability to get to the root causes of the social, and for that matter, environmental problems that many peoplea~e concerned about requires, in part, a willingness to confront the institutions of land ownership and the patterns of land tenure and land transfer. We have to take a look at the structure of property, and particulafly in that regard at the allocation of.equity. So we have both a practical
concern with limited equity development and also a more fundamentally political concern. What kind of services we provide will vary, again, depending on the community, the group, and th.eir needs. In some instances, when we go into a community-and it's always at their request, we don't initiate that involvement-in some instances, we're dealing with groups that are fairly sophisticated, that know very well their community and their needs.... They want to talk about practical development models, or they may already be involved in a development program and they need some specif.ic assistance in carrying out their plans. In other cases, we may go in at the request of unorganized low-income tenants facing displacement.or · local,churches with no experience whatever in economic development or housing, but with good roots in the community. In that instance we may have to start by helping them understand what's happening. They know that they're confronted wifh an immediate threat or that they're living in some distress; they don't necessarily understand why that situation has developed or what trends they·are riding the crest of and where . things are headed. One way or another we'll come to a common understanding of what the problems are and , we'll talk about different development approaches to those problems._ If they want to go with one of those models, we can help them with legal assistance and incorpora_tion, outreach, public education, ~nd community organizing. We teach property acquisition and financing and development planning skills, and we can assist them in negotiations with public and private agencies. · We feel that the ability to get to the roofcauses of social and environmentql probl~ms requires a willingness to confront the institutions of land ownership. RAIN: You said most of your work is with fand and housi.Qg., and that a smaller part is with businesses., Matthei: Right. There is another category that' has emerged in the last couple of years, and that's with community loan funds. We initiated our own revolving loan fund about five years ago. It grew out of our experi- -ence as a technical assi~tance organization, and the frustratior that you feel when you work with a group to identify their problems, create a development organization, do the planning, identify the right property, and ' then everything grinds to a halt for the lack'of start-up . capital. · Fiye years ago when interest rates went completely . through the roof and federal cutbacks began, it became clear that what had always been the prindpal barrier to March/April 1985 RAIN Page 7 low-income development was f!OW almost an ipsuperable barrier and was going to get worse. So we decided at that point that we simply had to intervene directly to provide some assistance with start-up capital-particularly with young groups that don't have a track record and are confronted with that "catch-22" that says that you can't get money without a track record and credit history, and you can't build a credit history without money to borrow and spend. If you were interested in lending money to our fund, you would tell us how much you wanted to lend, for how long a time, at what rate of interest, what repayment schedule, and ifyou have qny special condit~ons on the use of the fund. So we figured there must be some way to get them over that initial hump. We knew that we would never be the sufficient lender to any group. We're not going to be their permanent financing source to meet their financing needs over time ... but we felt we needed to have some ability to make a strategic infusion of capital tp get a project started. · RAIN: Do you provide technical assistance with the loans? And what percentage of your loans have gone bad? I'm trying ~o· grasp the risk involved in providing loans to new groups. Matthei: Let :i;ne tell you very briefly how the loan fund works._We knew that we needed access to a pool of capital to help these groups get started-particularly the young groups and groups that had a high percentage of low-income people, minorities, and women. What we figured was that we had more contacts with individuals· and-institutions that had both social concerns and investment capital-though often those two had not been put together-than any of the individual groups. It was all most of these groups could do to deal with their immediate low-income community where there seemed to be few concentrations of capital and few sources of . financing. So we figured that we have a w~der recognition than the individual groups because we do a certain amount of publishing and a lot of traveling and speaking: Can we use that network to create a financial resource? So we set up a very simple mechanism, which is essentially a restriczted account within our nonprofit corporation, and called it a revolving loan fund. We invited these individuals and institutions to,take investment monies and lend them to the fund and we permit
Page 8 RAIN March/April 1985 the lenders to name their terms·. So if you were interested in lending money to ICE's revolving loan fund, you would tell us how much you wanted to lend, for how long a time, at what rate of interest, what repayment 'schedule, and if you. have any special conditions on the use of the fund or preference about urban/rural, housing/bu~iness~ or whatever, you would identify those, and as long as we feel that the terms you have set are workable, given our knowledge of what kinds of capital we can put to use, we would accept the loan. Many loans go to groups that we have provided technical assistance to, but that's not a requirement. ... There have been insfan~es where a group will come in, and we will require technical assistance, not necessarily from ourselves, as one of the conditions for making the loan, if we feel that the group is a solid group and it's a viable project, but it seems clear that they need assist- · ance or training to carry that project off successfully. So thafs part of a long evaluation process.. ..· To date, we have not lost any money, and we've never been a day late in a payment to a lender. ' To date, we have not lost any money, and we've never been a day late in a payment to a lender, which is not to say that there haven't been occasions where borrowers have been late in their payments to us. There have been som~, but we've never been a day late in a payment to a lender. · RAINt,How big is the loan fund? Matthei: At this point the loan fund amounts to ,about a milliqn and a half. We're expecting it to double this year. The last two years it's increased by about a half a million each year.... · This is still largely wor~ of mouth growth. We're out and around in the field of socially responsible.investing and expanding and there are these conferences and things now, so'there is more exposure of that sort, but we've never done a promotional mailing on the fund itself. We've never undertaken a capitalization drive...·. You know, as I indicated, the loan fund, which was essentially conceived as a resource to support the technical assistance program, has emerged into a whole program of it~ own. We moved from simple operation of our own loan fund to working with a number of individual groups to identify potential sources of capitpl in their own community and help them approach tho~e sources. We found that our participation as a third party advocate, broker, whatever you want to call it, could be very helpful in moving money from local lenders to local borrowers .. . . [We can contribut~] a familiarity with the issues and the language of finance, which some corpmunity groups have and many do not. After the community group has, described their community, their needs, their project, and their capital needs [to the potential lenders], we come in and say, "These SQcial problems that the group has presented to you this morning are not unique to Portland, they exist in other communities around the country and frankly theire getting worse," and tell one or two stories, but then say, "But I'm not here to talk to you about social problems because I know you share my - concern with the problems they have described or none of us would be here together to meet with them today. Let me talk to you about whether there's a financially as · well as socially responsible investment opportunity for your institution in this projed. Now, what are the traditional concerns of investors? They are: one, two, three, four, five. Let's deal, one by one, with the wa.y in which these community investment opportunities address those investor concerns." We'll go·through that and make that kind of a presentation. Well that's not only informative in a helpful way, but it's also reassuring to the prospective lender tqat someone in this pool u.nderstands what their concerns are and is conversant . with the language of finance.... So, ·we've found that our as~istance with~ community group can be very.much worth their while and a little bit of time and a minor expense on their part in getting that -money moving and setting a precedent. And we found that as we becam~ a more active lender and began assisting groups to mobilize comn:mnity investment capital, the word tei:i-qs to get out. You w_ork with one group in a.city and they score and it doesn't take long before every other housing group in the city knows about this and they're saying, "Aha, $400,000 at three to eight percent. Where are they gefting this? How can I get it?" You know, that's exciting, but it also is an opportunity that begins to create its own problem. The prospei:tive lender who is interested and willing to meet with the first group or two to go through one of these sessions, is not able or willing or interested in meeting with 20 or 30 or 40 groups on the same basis. You can do it once or twice but you can't do it over and over in that same format without overburdening the lender.... When it comes to placing investments, there's an effic~enCy of scale in a decentralized -program. So what we found was, the more our activity in community investment expanded, the moi:e we began to see, in certain areas, growing numbers of prospective lenders and borrowers, and the obvious need for some , kind of coordinating mechanism there. We did not feel that it was possible for us to play that role in this comm~nity and that community to the degree that it could and should be played, or that it was·appropriate.... In a community investment program there are certain '
efficiencies of scale in concentration; in other words, dealing with one $10,000 lender is easier than dealing with 10 $1,000 lenders, but when it comes to the other end-placing the investments-in many respects, there's an efficiency of scale in a decentralized program. When you talk about the kind of monitoring, management, and technical assistance that's required to make community investment work effectively, then being close to the community and having a geographical proximity is very helpful. So our feeling was, for practical and political reasons, that there needed.to be an The more low-income people do through their own contributions of labor and capital to improve their COJ!lmuni ty, ~he more they will tend to accelerate the forces that will ultimately displace them from the neighborhood., informal network of community investment vehicles or community loan funds; that we need a new sort of element in the infrastructure of finance in this society. So what we began to do was identify some areas in which we had been active and had good contacts and recognized the presence of a number of potential borrowers and lenders and then to suggest the development of a local or regional community loan fund .. '. . · The most important feature of the loan fund, I think, is that we have insisted that any group that we work with in the development of a community loan fund . must bring together in the or-ganizing committee, and the board, and the management structure of the fund, three different kinds of people or kinds of skills. We want to see representation of the potential lender constituencies. People from the churches, individual investors, from the financial community, foundations, ~hatever. Equally important is representation from the potential borrower constituency. It doesn't have to be groups that themselves will be getting loans, but people who are out there-day in and day out-on the street, involved in low-income community development. You need their contacts, you need their perspective, and yo1:1 need their peer judgement. And the third type of person you want involved in the loan fund are people with the technical skills to service the fund-attorneys, accountants, whatever-and people with the technical assistance skills to serve the · · borrowers. Because our argument has been that what makes community investment work is a close, ongoing tie to the neighborhood and to the community development sector. Low overhead and low transaction cost and the ability to integrate technical assistance with the March/April 1985 RAIN Page 9 lending function. If you've got those three qualities in a program, we think that community investment.is financially ~swell as socially responsible. If you're lacking any of those components or qualities, then we think 'community investment is, as the conventional wisdom used to be, .a high-risk venture: ... RAIN: This question seems fundamental to what you're doing. Why shouldn't land be a commodity? Matthei: Why should land not be regarded as a commodity? Number one: Because land is largely not of human creation, it's finite in its amount and infinite in its term of existence. It's the same land that our ancestors lived on, it's the same land and the only land that our descendants will have to live on. And it is a finite resource upon which all life on earth currently depends. That is fundamentally different in character than improvements-buildings, for instarn,:e-which are much mote significantly the work of human hands, and the product of human imagination. They are quite finite in their term of existence, and infinite in their multiplication·. You can build a house, tear it down, build.another one, tear it down, and build another one. The land remains the same. So we .would say there is a fundamental character difference between land-and by land, I mean also natural resources-and buildings and improvements.... Now in another sense, let's take a look at the equity limitation, which is inherent in your question, why should it not be a commodity, is why can't we buy it, sell it, trade it, and speculate upon it. We would say that a land trust, in its program of equity limitation, through which it provides the leaseholder, the resident family, ownership and equity based on the value of their own investment of labor and capital oyer time in those improvements-you have a real dollar equity for what you've put into those improvements, adjusted for inflation and depreciation, but you don't benefit from the appreciating market value of the property-we . would say that is not confiscatory.... I think people think of land reform very ~ften as a form of confiscation. We need a new sort of element in the infrastructure of finance in this society. We are not talking about confiscation. We are talking about looking at property value and understanding its origin, and distinguishing between that part of property value which accrues because of investment of labor and capital by the resident, the owner, the user, and that portion of property.value which accrues because of community-wide development efforts, public investment, or larger ma!ket forces which can't be attributed to one owner. We're saying, what you put in in labor and capital, that you have a legitimate claim on. But if the Arabs raise the oil price, and consequently half the people in the suburbs want to move into the inner city to cut their
Page 10 RAIN March/April 1985 fuel bills, you do not have a legitimate claim on that equity. It belongs to no one, it belongs to every.one. If we put $7 million of public money [into a community] and we put in brick sidewalks and gas lights and facade improvell1ents, and property values soar because of it, who created that value? The [taxpayers] created that value. Who benefits from it? The people who hold title to those buildings, whether or not they live in those buildings, whether or not they ever·have or ever will, whether or not they've maintained those buildings, whether or not th-ey had any affirmative commitment or even basic sense of responsibility or decent relationship to the people of that community. A larger percentage of the American population cannot afford a new home today than was true in the middle of the Depression. There's a terrible "catch-22" facing the poor in a gentrifying neighborhood. The more they do through their own contribution of labor and capital to improve their community, their lives, and the lives of their neighbors, the more they will tend to accelerate the forces that will not only not produce any economic returns for them, but will ultimately dis.place them from the neighborhood. They won't even have the use value of the social benefits they have contributed to the community. So we would say, let's distinguish between that whiCh the resident owner has earned, and that which the community at large has earned, and that's not confiscation, that's reallocation, just allocation of equity. Now it FROM: Community Economics is a challenging concept if you're qccustomed to the market economy, but I think it's important to make that distinction, because people typically think, when you question private property or property rights or the market, that you are acting with a kind of malice that we don't believe we're acting with. In strategic terms, if we're interested in building a land reform movement in this country-and to my mind there's not only not a land reform movement, there's not even a meaningful dialogue about property in this country_:if we're going to create'that movement, like any othet movement, you've got to be able to acknowledge people-who they are, where they are, how they feel, what they want, and what they need-and you've got to be able to talk with them. So what we've been trying to do is develop a language, a dialogue, a context for addressing the fundamental issues of property that allows us to draw a broad cross-section of people into the discussion. That doesn't mean that they don't come with some trepidation, it means that they're willing to sit down and talk. The old leftist ideologue on the soap box is not going to find an audience where private property is such a fundamental aspiration. But if we understand that a larger percentage of the American population cannot afford a new home today than was true in the middle of the Depression, then in that sense the line of demarcation between the haves and the have-nots, the franchised and the disenfranchised, has shifted significantly into the middle class, and that i~ that one respect- . access to the American dream of homeownership-we are in a situation today where the middle class, the wo.rking class, and the poor have common cause, or should have common cause. That's a fundamental political opportunity that we probably will never be savvy enough to make full use of. But it's an important opportunity.... That's a political constituency. It's not an awakened or directed constituency. But our fundamental goal is not just to develop land trusts. It's to try to initiate some dialogue around these issues and to create a context and a language for that dialogue. D D
March/April 1985 RAIN Page 11 ACCESS: Social Investing Insight: The Advisory Letter for Concerned Investors, quarterly newsletter, quarterly profiles on specific industries, monthly market updates, monthly profiles of selected companies, $40/year (individual), $80/year · (institution), from: Franklin Research and Development Corporation 222 Lewis Wharf Boston, MA 02110 Insight's "Quarterly Advisory Letter" offers good regular features. In the two issues I've seen, the guest column was excellent, offering incisive analysis of social investing issues, and the "Focus on Useful Books" column was well done, too. Both issues had a column called "Alternative Investments," the first attempting to define that broad concept, and the second covering the Industrial Cooperativ<;__Association's Revolving Loan Fund for worker cooperatives. Finally, the newsletter's "Company Comparison" column-while not covering companies oli. the cut~ing edge of societal transformation-was useful in helping the reader develop criteria. Insight's own criteria, however, in "Equity Briefs," its monthly analyses of individual companies, seemed to me to lack backbone and a thoroughgoing commitment to social as well as financial concerns. Witness the recommendation of Houghton Mifflin after detailing a poor employee relations history (including several class action suits alleging sex and age discrimination). However, for readers interested in companies traded on the , New York Stock Exchange, the briefs do provide valuable information, if one takes the author's recommendations with a grain of salt. -Mary Vogel Ethical Investing: How to Make Profitable Investments Without Sacrificing Your Principles, by Amy L. Domini and Peter D. Kinder, 1985, 288 pp., $17.95 from: Addison-Wesley Publishing Reading, MA 01867 , This book seems to take for granted that investing in the stock and bond market is the most effective and desirable path toward achieving socially responsible use for your surplus money. It never questions the tenets of Wall Street. In fact, it even seems to go the other direction when it espouses an anti-Communist position that seems unhealthy to me. The book does have its good points, , too. For anyone considering getting into the stock market, this book is one of the best, most easily read introductions to the MOVING? complex workings of Wall Street that I've seen. Facts and suggestions are given without the veneer of greed and fear that investing books are usually glossed with. The authors explain not only the basks about many types of irivestmentsstocks, bonds, blue chips, mutual funds, money market funds, and retirement funds-but look at their advantages and disadvantages for a few different viewpoints and lifestyles. The chapter called "Managing Your Money Every Day" makes.good suggestions for choosing a bank, one of those being "smaller is usually better." It. describes some int~resting banks that are truly community-oriente~, and also gives a list of black- and women-owned banks. While Domini and Kinder cover tax shelters in some depth, they never once question the impact of these shelters on the American economy as a whole. A~tivists in the housing movement, for example, have called real estate tax shelters "the most expensive, least effective way we could find to get affordable housing built." Typically, the authors tell you hqw to use the system as it exists to your own short-term advantage, but not how to begin to change it for the long-range good of us all. -Mary Vogel Mary Vogel is a teacher/writer on "investing fdr a sustainablefuture," a dealer for earth -sheltered dome housing, and a frequent contributor to RAIN. If you're moving, please let us know. With a month's notice we can make sure you get each issue of RAIN. But if you don't let us know, you may miss out. The U.S. Postal · Service doesn't usually forward RAIN's class.of mail. · Attach your address label here (or copy it careflllly): NAME--------------------- ADDRESS ____________________ CITY--------STATE ----ZIP---- EFFECTIVE'DATE _________________ New address: ADDRESS ____________________ CITY-------- STATE ____ ZIP ____ Mail to: RAIN, 31.16 North Williams, Portland, OR 97227
Page 12 RAIN March/April 1985 The Community Garden Book: New Directions for Creating and Managing Neighborhood Food Gardens in Your Town, by Larry Sommers, 1984, 121 pp., inquire for price from: Gardens for All/The National Association for Gardening 180 Flynn Avenue Burlington, VT Q5401 The focus of The Community Garden Book is cooperative ventures-their budgeting, planning, and management. The solo urban gardener will also benefit from this guide. A typical chapter describes a. problem in the process of urban gardening, suggests time-tested solutions, and provides a list of further references. Most of this attractive guide is·devoted to discussing complications not always considered when first thinking of a cooperative garden project Examples of five budgets emphasize the need for financial planning facing a neighborhood ACCESS: Gardening venture. Initial planning and procuring of land are well discussed. This book even indulges in some ambitious thinking such as community managed orchards, greenhouses, and nurseries. The Community Garden Book is a great help for people starting a neighborhood garden. It is also a useful tool for any type of cooperative venture. _,...MD Your Nutritious Garden: A Guide to Growing Your Own Fresher, Better Tasting, More Nutritious Vegetables, by Dick Ramond and Gardens for All, 1984, . 44 pp., $3.95 from: Gardens for All/The National Association for Gardening 180 Flynn Avenue Burlington, VT 05401 Ari excellent guide for novice gardeners. In 44 pages this charming, easy-to-read (or skim) book has practically everything an aspiring gardener needs to produce a Who says a garden has to be rectangular? This sample layout includes both vegetables and flowers (FROM: Anything Grows!) nutritious, bountiful harvest by uncomplicated, practical techniques. This is not an exhaustive reference, but a concise guide for starting a 'garden. A key to this book's success is that only the 10 most · planted garden favorites are detailed. Plants high in vitamins A and Care encouraged for a "cancer-fighting gar- ~en." Ramonds provides ample information on choosing a garden location, tools, plant care, cultivation, and varieties appropriate to various situations. This book contains attractive illustrations and readable charts of pertinent ' information. Common pests are described and sometjmes illustrated. Of special appeal is the unpretentious emphasis on preventative techniques for thwarting weeds, insect pests, and diseases. "Commercially available controls" are discussed along with ecological and common sense cautions of. their usage. Both conventional and organic gardeners will find this guide very useful. -MD Anything Grows!, by Sheryl London, 1984, 246 pp., $9.95 from: Rodale Press Inc. · Organic Park Emmaus, PA 18049 This is the book to get if you always wanted to grow edibles, but thought you didn't ha\:'e the space. Anything Grows! is full of creative, workable ideas for pl.aces in which to grow garden plants. The book highlights individual examples of unique ga~dening from many different situations: sand dunes, parking lots, roof tops, and-oh yes-even the ground. The book is geared for the beginner, and covers a broad range of subjects. The basics of soil needs (chemistry), composting, mulching, watering, fertilizers are discussed. Charts help you choose plants, cultivation, containers and locations, and more. London even includes a section on warm-up exercises for stiff gardeners. This book caters to the uninitiated gardener, and encourages them with reassuring phrases such as "small time commitment." The discussions of naturally occuring pesticides are enjoyable. London writes on how to entice the help of insect-feeding birds, toads, lizards, and turtles. She also suggests ways to discourage visits of pesky birds such as pigeons. A lot of experience from many different types of gardening is written into this book. This is not a quickly read pamphlet, but a book to.contemplate and plan by. It is perfect for peopl~ with space limitations but ample interest. -MD
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