The ‘world’s first library farm’

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T10:43:48-04:0014 July 2022|Agriculture|

Some great things just go together, even if sometimes it takes a while before someone has the idea of trying the combination. That’s what Meg Backus, at the time Northern Onondaga Public Library’s (NOPL) adult programming director and public relations coordinator, proved. Backus saw empty land across the street from the library and pitched the idea of setting up a garden on the library’s land. Soon enough, 40 members were bringing “their own water, seeds, seedlings, and other growing provisions to investigate whether that land could produce.”

Co-cities and the enabling state

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T11:08:45-04:0012 July 2022|Cities|

This great piece by Sheila Foster, From Vacancy to Decommodification: Co-Cities and the Enabling State, was part of a symposium on decommodifying urban property, held by the LPE Project (Law and Political Economy). In it, Foster shows how the commodification of property can be replaced by a community-oriented vision, and how homes and shared resources can be managed in land trusts, instead of as private property dealt on the speculative market.

A special report on the circular economy

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T10:55:30-04:007 July 2022|Economy|

We’ve spoken about the concept of the circular economy a few times already, but it’s definitely worth another look when a mainstay of economic discourse such as the Financial Times comes out with not only one piece but a whole report on the topic.

  • Workers within the cooperative ecosystem being built by Morganton, North Carolina's Industrial Commons are supported with quality jobs, strong benefits, training, agency and equity.

Southern Appalachian co-ops building new communities

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T10:57:19-04:005 July 2022|Economy|

The way media coverage is shared around networks often means that we end up talking a lot about larger cities, but those are not the only places where inspiring change is happening. In this excellent piece at Shareable, we discover some fantastic work being done by co-ops in the small town of Morganton, in the foothills of western North Carolina.

People hate car-free cities until they’ve lived in one

By Patrick Tanguay|2022-08-22T11:00:02-04:0030 June 2022|Cities|

Excellent article at WIRED UK, proposing that people hate the idea of car-free cities until they live in one. Which sounds about right. I’m sharing it here for two reasons. First, the topic itself; fewer cars, more and better public transport, more cycling, this combination tackles a number of huge issues for cities. Less pollution, less traffic, better health for citizens, fewer carbon emissions, etc. The second, less obvious reason, is as an example of an unpopular but essential change becoming the new normal.

Go to Top