Page 8 RAIN February-March 1979 COMMUNITY Municipal Fire Insurance, $2 from: Institute for Local Self-Government Claremont Hotel Building Berkeley, CA 94705. There's little incentive for a community to fund and work for better fire prevention and suppression when the benefits. never return to the community in lower insurance rates. The city of Mountain View, California, tried it and found its property owners paying out $2.5 million in fire insurance premiums against.an average loss rate of $500,000. For every dollar of insurance payments, t~e companies were pocketing four dollars of excess premiums! One wise alternative is municipal fire insurancewhere the community insures as well as educates and prevents. and puts out fires-all from the same pocket. This • report details historical development of fire insurance, prevention and suppression along with the problems and benefits of combining them into a single self-balandng institution. One of a series of reports on pragmatic specific alternatives to tradifional local public • safety services. Write for pubhcations list. -TB Organizing Production Cooperatives: A Strategy for Community Economic Development, Alvarado-Greenw9od, • Haberfeld and Lee, 1978, 220 pp., $7.50 CDCs and co_mmunity organizations eligible for Legal Services Assistance, $15 all others from: National-Economic Development & Law Center 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite.300 Berkeley, CA 94704 Production coope{atives offer workers an ·opportunity to own and control their workplace. This type of co-op ca·n be used in many fields, from farming and produce distribution to manufacturing arid janitorial services. While members ca"n privately own their work units, such as truck, farm and boat, the co-op operates financially on a cooperative basis with organizational decisions made democratically. The structural and procedural features of a production co-op are described in this how-to manual with heavy emphasis on the financial and kgal aspects. People interested in implementing this idea might want to consider the Consumer Co-op Bank as a possible source of • financial assistance. It is a'uth orized to loan up to 10 percent.of its capitalization to producer co-ops. - PC lns.titute for Community Economics 639 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 0_2139 . 617/661-4661 • One of our readers recently wrote to us enquiring about The Community Land Trust: A Guide to a New Model for Land Tenure in America by Bob ' Swann, 1972, which was listed in 'Rainbook (p. 155), from International Independence.Institute, whose forwarding address has expired. Coming up very close in time to that request-as things cosmically do at Rain-is the connection and sourcf for that book. I hope that person reads this because we wrote to him/her about a week before this answer appeared: ' • The International Independence Inst. initiated the Community Land Trust concept in 1969 and has established the National C:LT Center to help spread the word. The Institute for_Community Economics seems to be an umbrella for the national CLT, along with Community Investment Fund, Inc., an alternative investment fund. "T' he Institute • is focused on creating alternative economic systems for decentralized community development. The, National CLT .Center has an excellent publications list including the CLT Guide, "Model Community Land Trust Corporation ByLaws," 26 pp., $2.00, and "Land TrtJsts as Part of a Three-fold Economic Strategy for Regional Integration" by Robt. Swann, 1973, 8 pp., $.80. Write to' thern for further information and publications list. - LS Co-op Bank Act Numerous articles have been written about the potential impact and possibilities of the recently passed National· Consumet Cooperative Bank Bill.(see The Neighborhood Works, October 13, 1978, $20/yr. individual and non-professional organization, 570 W. Randolph; Chicago, IL; The New Harbinger, Winter 1979, $8/yr., NASCO, Box 7293, Ann Arbor, MI 48107). A four-page report, The Co-op lj.ank: New Funds for Community Development, containing the legislative history and a sectionby-section summary of the Act, condensed from the Report of the Senate Committee on Banking, Hqusing and Urban Affairs, is available for $. 50 (bulk rates available) from: Conference on Alternative State and Local Public Policies 1901 Q St., N.W. Washington, DC 20009 - .PC Neighborhood Composting in New York City, Douglas Qaly and Elizabeth Christy, 1978, 36 pp., $.55 from: Council on the Environment of New York City 51 Chamhers St. Room 228 New York, NY 10007 A recent Gallup poll found 32 million American households (44 percent) raised some fruits and vegetables-$10 billion worth. With that.type of activity, can •composting be far behind? Neighborhood composting in New York City makes a lot of sense when you realize the city produces 10 million pounds of compostable organic waste a day and has more vacant open ~pace now than in 1900. The booklet is a good model to use in getting neighborhoods involved with recycling their compostable waste. The pamphlet includes secti<;rns on compost methods and structures (bin, • drums-appropriate for apartment buildings, schools, etc.), operation and a list of what ingredients to include and where to obtairi them. -PC Energy Forum Northwest 316 Lewis Hall DW-20 U. of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 206/543-0980 Energy Forum Northwest is a continuing education program that consists of a three-part project in community development: a community Energy Demonstration project assisting two Puget Sound communities to learn skills in use of small scale energy projection systems and conservation methods. They're putting together a community energy awareness exhibit and an Energy Resource Guide with a planning and organizing workbook for the Pacific Northwest. Anyone in this region who is involved in a community energy project can contact Gordon Thompson at Energy Forum to be included in the resource guide. The third part of the program is .a regional conservation workshop planned for Sept. 1979. It's so good to see a university project focus on neighborhoods and communities in . a relevant way. The success of this project seems to rely on the communities' involvement, so get in touch if you want to' see something good come of it. -LS ' •
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