<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" id="internal-source-marker_0.8139106201539047">My
good friend tells this story: <br><br>“Last fall, a group of us would meet for
brunch on Sundays. This was before we were given permission to open the
gates (</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to activate the space and provide the community with access to it</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">).
We were dreaming about "Volunteer Work Parties" on the giant lot.
After brunch, we would walk around the perimeter fences to observe the
site. After a few walks, we had met quite a few neighbors, who loved to
talk about the potential for the space and what they had been observing
over time. We came to know the fence line very well. We would admire
the recently dumped furniture, look for freshly cut holes in the fence
and other signs of life.</span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Along
Laguna Street, at the west gate, two large gates locked with a
formidable chain and series of married locks. The fences were all
topped with barbed wire. At the south gate, along Oak street just east
of Laguna, there was a hole in the fence big enough to crawl through but
not so big that you could push a shopping cart through. The hole in
the cyclone fencing was hastily cut and sharp of the passageway. The
more formal double doors at the east gate was unlockable. The frame of
the doors was stationary and the fencing slid open like a shower
curtain. It was clear people had been camping under one of the
Melaleuca trees. A tent and tarp, piles of trash, and a dumpster lined
the path. On one section of the fence near the east gate, an entire
section of the fence was removed from pole to pole.</span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On
one beautiful sunny day last December, we visited the site with a good
friend who was excited to shoot some "before shots" of the site for a
documentary. We parked in the Octavia and Oak street parking lot, turned
on the camera, hauling tripods and some extra gear, and approached the
east gate. As we "slid back the curtain" of the fence and walked right
in, we were immediately warned off by a barking dog. The large, gray
black lab-mix was protecting its owner's campsite. We continued, and
proceeded along the ravine. We took video of the homeless' camp, the
tents and trash that lined the inside of the path. And the broken
bottles and needles that lie all over the place.</span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We
slowly walked through the site and up towards the west gate. We had
been there for a little while, testing different lenses and lighting and
shooting some footage of the ramps. At one point, while heading back
down the offramp, we noticed something "going down" at the east gate. A
couple of more people were now assembling there, milling about behind
the parking valet shack that was stationed right outside the gates. We
wanted to get out of there, but all of this new action was happening at
our entrance (and planned exit). With some adrenaline, we remembered
the hole in the south gate and decided we should try to squeeze through
their rather than "run the gauntlet" of the barking dog, the camp, and
the new gang forming at the gate. </span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I
went first through the hole, to show my documentarian friend how to get
low and avoid the spikes. As she got through, she started to stand up
and scratched her arm on the fence. It looked pretty bad. That night,
after showing her family what happened, she never came back to the
farm.</span><br><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, the footage is in an archive somewhere (for now) and one day she might come back to shoot some "after" shots...”<br>
<br>-Jay<br><br>--<br></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://protojay.tumblr.com/">http://protojay.tumblr.com/</a></span><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 2:47 PM, margaretha haughwout <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:xmargarethax@gmail.com">xmargarethax@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="margin: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On our farm we find heroin needles in between the broccoli plants. We have a barbed wire fence that wraps around the entire 2.5 acres of our "freeway food forest" -- a food forest that is rising from the ruins of a freeway that collapsed and then lay dormant for 20 years. At night there is a pregnant cat that makes the place her own (all the sheet mulching has stirred up the mice and rats). Other folks crawl through the fence at night too. With perhaps one exception, the people that come at night aren't the same people that come during the day. Often “fresh” needles appear in the morning. The stories we write about here all have to do with the chain link and barbed wire fence that was on site when we arrived. The forces it is meant to keep out, the forces it is meant to contain, the edge it creates around our site, the fact that it is there at all.</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are regular potlucks Tuesday evenings on the farm. Last week I didn't go, but I live really close by, so I got a text message from a friend saying she way stopping by. She came up saying she wouldn't stay long as she was getting up at 5:30am tomorrow morning to let </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m2-j1YZPmjG-sh_s3PdcieqLL_wQqrW9Rwxr1dCYgC8/edit?hl=en" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">H.O.T. - Homeless Outreach Team</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> through the gates to talk to the folks that were sleeping there. "I guess someone called them,” she said. I said I’d get up with her. I was curious. A few minutes later I got another text message from another friend leaving the potluck. "Coming over!" it said. Friend no. 2 came up and we told her how we were getting up early for the Homeless Outreach Team. "Oh," friend no. 2 said; "I called them. That was me."</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This call was predicated by several debates in our community about the homeless. Some feel we should let them sleep in the farm, others are more wary. Personally, I like the idea of city worn homeless people finding the soft sheet mulch to sleep on, and maybe even helping themselves to some cherry tomatoes. For a farm built on the principles of people care and fair share as well as earth care, we are torn by what it means to give them the boot. Youth education coordinators despair over the fact that a child might come across a needle before they do, and </span><a href="http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/blog/324-two-killed-and-one-attempt-at-the-farm.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">since we lost our bees this summer from a senseless act of violence</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, we are all a little more skittish. The last time I sat with the women who were at my house after the potluck, we had heated debate on the topic around another table at another house in the neighborhood. It ended with all of us agreeing if there was such a thing as a needle drop box that was configured in a way that you couldn't reach back in and use the old needles, it would be a good idea to install a few of those around the perimeter. We also agreed that eventually we should probably just take the fence down.</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The obvious issue at hand in this story might be how to handle the issue of homelessness and nighttime drug use on our urban farm. The not so obvious issue in this story, but one that we want to tease out and explore is how we </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">decide</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what to do about the homelessness and the needles - and the fence. In the scenario above, some of the farmers debated it at length and then one person took action ad-hoc without really having a method of checking in with the rest of the community. Also, the way in which the conversations occurred were very ad-hoc, and happened at a variety of nodes located not only on the farm but in the neighborhood around it - both inside and outside the farm. There is a lot to say here about how we make decisions on the farm, particularly when they negotiate between the farm and the city, the inner and the outer, day and night, permacultural and urban. A lot of times decisions happen exactly in the manner I’m describing above. This is a thread someone might pick up for discussion: the thread of decision making and accountability when our values ask us to be responsible to the land, the common people and the terms of our lease asks us to be accountable to a larger hierarchy. I love the unfolding at play in the story above, but what if friend no. 2 decided to call the cops instead of H.O.T.?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: Times; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br>
</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; background-color: transparent;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br>
</span></font></div><br>-- <br><div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.5px; border-collapse: collapse;"><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 12.5px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><span>♫ </span><span>Spread the word, please help us support the farm on Kickstarter! <a href="http://bit.ly/hvf-kickstarter" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8);" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/hvf-kickstarter</a></span></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 12.5px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><br></span></div><div>Lead Researcher, Hayes Valley Farm</div><div><a href="http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8);" target="_blank">http://www.hayesvalleyfarm.com/</a></div>
<div><br>Lecturer, Film and Digital Media<br>University of California Santa Cruz<br>Communications 151<br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net" target="_blank">chapter fourteen</a><br>
<a href="http://www.beforebefore.net/" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8);" target="_blank">http://www.beforebefore.net/</a><br><a href="http://www.bitterpattern.net/" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8);" target="_blank">http://www.bitterpattern.net/</a></div>
<div><br>I am best contacted by email:<br><a href="mailto:xmargarethax@gmail.com" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8);" target="_blank">xmargarethax@gmail.com</a></div></span></div><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"If we're not working together, we're destroying each other."<br>