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Thriving Communities: Focusing on Something Bigger than Ourselves.

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The great French Jesuit Theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, framed the concept of community best: “All that matters, is devotion to something bigger than ourselves.”

If he were alive today, Teilhard might tailor his truth to better fit a more self-centered culture.   It would read: “Do something good for yourself AND good for the community.” If so, he would be describing the fundamental mission behind Napa’s Thriving Communities (www.thrivingcommunities.com).

Yet,  Thriving Communities, with it’s prototypes of two different affordable and sustainable communities— the pocket neighborhood of Harvest Village, and the 48-unit multi-family development called Napa Creek Village—is itself part of something far bigger than a few local developments of sustainable workforce housing—although the need for such housing is acute throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

It’s part of a growing movement in the United States and around the world toward “innovative, small, replicable, grassroots projects,” which honor the essential elements of community: dignity, respect, trust and a sense of belonging. Born, several years ago, out of the Whidbey Institute’s Thriving Communities Initiative, the inspiration for Napa’s Thriving Communities comes from the goal of “creating small scale communities in a large scale world.”

Recently, the Whidbey Institute, convened a special three-day conference entitled, “Thriving Communities 2015: Lens on Shelter.” Some 85 community leaders, including Napa’s own Thriving Communities Founder Bonny Meyer, participated in work-meetings which took place on magnificent Whidbey Island out in Puget Sound, off the coast of Everett, Washington.

The Institute’s location itself symbolizes interconnection and environmental sensitivity.  It is situated on the first of a series of Islands that lays out a geological pathway from the Northwestern United States, up through the San Juan Islands, and iinto British Columbia, across one of the most pristine land and sea routes in the Western Hemisphere. Over the years, the Whidbey Institute has been home to “bold seekers of positive change, connecting people doing uncommon work, for the common good.”   This was the greenhouse which nurtured the early “seed-thought” of Thriving Communities into the reality of affordable/sustainable housing, now taking shape in the Napa Valley.

These “uncommon leaders”, asked some very common questions about housing:

  • Is it affordable?
  • Are homes safe and healthy for all?
  • How does our specific community face the challenges of shelter?
  • What is our community’s responsibility to provide housing?

At the end of the 3-day conference , community leaders from around the globe focused the “Lens on Shelter,” even more precisely by asking “What if everyone had”…a few essentials for living:

  • Access to housing
  • A safe place to sleep every night;
  • The ability to stay in their homes as they age;
  • Choices for sustainable and healthy living;
  • The opportunity to own a home, even without qualifying for traditional financing;
  • An end to the cycle of homelessness.

The extra-ordinarily talented and dedicated group or architects, builders, and community leaders underscored their commitment to building communities with dignity, respect for the individual, trust and a strong sense of belonging. They agreed to pursue those very real goals by focusing on:

  • “Pocket Neighborhoods”, or small “intentional” communities;
  • “Community Rooms and Resources,” or an abundance of common areas and shared things, like tools, books, gardening materials;
  • Affordable housing with land stewardship in mind through home ownership, rent-to-buy programs & resident approval;
  • Implementing the latest healthy buildings technology—beyond “Green.”

That last goal was not written by Napa’s Thriving Communities building partner Healthy Buildings USA (www.hbusa.net) , which has been leading the way in California for decades with such “beyond Green,” technologies under its visionary CEO Bob Massaro. It was arrived at by consensus by housing leaders, builders and designers from around the world, focusing their collective “lens” on the best kind of shelter, and communities to build.

Fortunately for all of us, there are thought leaders and housing activists in local communities and worldwide turning these dreams into reality, and marshalling attention and resources on affordable housing as the focal point of social change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mario Cuomo Dies, and Andrew Cuomo is Re-born…

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Mario Cuomo died this week, and Andrew Cuomo was re-born.

Andrew Cuomo’s simple and eloquent eulogy to his father on January 6, 2015, was a bold and loving seizing of the the torch of humanist leadership his father ignited 33 years ago. In a remarkable love song to Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo became his father.

That chiseled, stately, large and determined face was the same look I witnessed up close on Mario Cuomo, many, many times. Snow falling on Andrew’s dark hair, and dark suit, dramatized the somber yet historic nature of what was about to happen even more. I witnessed Mario Cuomo prepare for, and deliver, hundreds of speeches during the eight years I worked with him; I studied each line in Mario Cuomo’s face as he read each line of his speeches, and as he black-lined out others. Getting what he “needed to say” just right was of great importance.

Up until this week, few of Andrew Cuomo’s speeches were memorable. Actions counted more to Andrew than words. Speech-making was often just another tool in the second Governor Cuomo’s operational repair kit for government. All that changed with Andrew’s eulogy for his father.

For once, Andrew Cuomo’s words and emotions moved us, and, more importantly, they may have moved him toward his father’s progressive, other-centered, enlightened form of leadership. Andrew’s words, personal and powerful, were a radical departure from his pedestrian prose of the past. His words were transcribed from his heart to the page from which he was reading, just as his father advised.

“Mario Cuomo was at peace with who he was and how he saw the world. This gave him great strength, and made him anything but a typical politician,” Andrew Cuomo said, after recounting his father’s advice about speechmaking to him. “Who cares about what the audience wants to hear; it’s not about what they want to hear–it’s about what you want to say.”

“And that, my friends,” Andrew Cuomo said to a church-full of mourners, including Bill & Hillary Clinton, “was the essence of Mario Cuomo.
He was not interested in pleasing the audience: not in a speech, not in life. He believed what he believed and the reaction of the audience or the powers that be, or the popularity of his belief was irrelevant to him.”

Andrew elaborated: “He wasn’t really a politician at all. Mario Cuomo’s politics were more a personal belief system then a traditional theory. It was who he was. Not what he did. My father was a humanist. He had strong feelings of right and wrong based on his religion, philosophy and life experiences. He was very concerned with how people were treated and that was the arena that drew him in….”

Then, Andrew Cuomo shared the essence of Mario Cuomo: “At his core he was a philosopher and he was a poet, an advocate and he was a crusader. Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for our better angels. He was there to make the case, to argue and convince, and,in that purist he could be a ferocious opponent and powerful ally. And, he was beautiful. He believed Jesus’ teachings could be reduced to one word, and the word was love. And love means acceptance, compassion and support to help people.

Then, Andrew Cuomo gave everyone insight into his relationship with his father: “It is this simple. I was devoted to my father, from the time I was 15 joining him in every crusade. My dad was my hero, my best friend, my confidante, my mentor. We spoke almost every day and his wisdom grew as I grew older. . But we carried the same banner. I helped him become a success and he helped me become a success and we enjoyed deeply each other’s victories and we suffered the pain of each other’s losses. My only regret is that I didn’t return from Washington to help in his 1994 race. Whether or not I could have helped, I should have been there. It was the right thing to do and I didn’t do it.” Powerful, and deeply personal, and unlike anything Andrew Cuomo has said before.

“Why didn’t he run for President, people asked? Because he didn’t want to,” Andrew Cuomo said. He was where he thought God wanted him to be. For Mario Cuomo, the purpose of life was clear — to help those in need and leave the world a better place.”

“I believe my father’s spirit lives,” the son said, citing family and community examples. “I will listen for your voice. You taught us well, you inspired us, we know what we have to do and we will do it. On that, you have my word, as your son. I love you pop, and always will.”

The Third Burial Should Be That of Hate

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Dear NYPD PBA President Lynch:

Two burials of two New York City Police Officers are two too many. With Officer Ramos laid to rest this weekend, and the memorial service for Officer Liu just awaiting the arrival of family members from China, many of us are numbed by the unfathomable pain we feel for Officer Ramos’ two sons, and Officer Liu’s new wife.

Those of us born in Brooklyn, not far from where these two public servants were assassinated by hate and madness, understand intuitively how difficult it is for flesh-and-blood human beings to put on a uniform each day, and put their own lives, and the comfort of their families, at risk each moment, to protect and serve the rest of us.

When I worked for Mario Cuomo during his first term as Governor, I saw first hand how members of the NYPD, both in uniform and plainclothed, rushed to ensure his safety when a death threat against his life was made. They were prepared, as I was, to take a bullet for the man, as an act of ultimate service.

During and after the 9/11 attacks on our City, those of us living in New York hugged and high-fived police and firefighters for the sacrifices of their brothers and sisters in heroic attempts to rescue nearly 3,000 souls lost to all of us at the hands of hate and madness. For months and years after that, every time I spotted a cop-on-the-beat, I went out of my way to personally thank that specific officer, just for being there. Many New Yorkers did the same.

I felt especially proud and hopeful when a good friend, a person of color, was sworn in as a member of the NYPD, and later, promoted to being an undercover narcotics detective. He was like a son to me, and by extension, the NYPD became like family.

But, as in any family, sometimes things can get a bit excessive. When they do, it’s the duty of other family members and friends to point to some constructive changes in behavior, that benefit everyone. The “Stop & Frisk” program was one of those things that got excessive. I know because another friend of mine, a Harvard-educated person of color who heads a school for disadvantaged youth, was stopped and frisked for only one reason: the color of his bi-racial skin. If he could be suspected of doing something wrong simply by walking on a City street at a reasonable hour, clearly “stop and frisk” had gotten out of control. It was the equivalent of stopping Colin Powell because someone didn’t like his looks.

Any parent of any child with black or brown skin would have been negligent not to warn that child to act especially respectful around Police officers, sworn to protect them. Even as a parent of a white child, I counseled my son to always be respectful with Police officers; Bill deBlasio did the same for his mixed-race son, in the face of growing evidence of young men of color being stopped and questioned for no other reason than their skin tone. The duty to warn is one all parents have to our children—teaching them how to get by in an often confusing, conflicted world.

Recent police/citizen confrontations in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, NY, have inflamed tensions on all sides and complicated the fundamental issues at stake here: issues of human dignity, respect and civility. Yet neither of those events, while each disturbing in its own right, especially on the crucial matter of policing and race, has anything to do with the assassination of NYPD officers Ramos and Liu, which was a lone-wolf act of a madman, blinded by hate, especially toward himself.

After Officers Ramos and Liu are put to rest this week, there ought to be a third burial, of the kind of hatred and madness that killed them. To allow hate to continue to prowl the streets, whether in civilian clothes or in uniform, is to dishonor the lives, and deaths, of these two humane heroes.

Respectfully yours,

Steve Villano