Recipes

Examples of tried and untried contexts and approaches to radical transitions in the practice of the 4 conversations

Some of these recipes have been proven with data to work, others have never been tried. Some may seem and may be impossible in some contexts and possible in others. We specifically do not identify which are proven and which are not. They are simply ways to provoke new conversations. Communities will always engage each other in what they are ready for. This goes equally for proven and unproven ideas.

Contributors: Heartfelt thanks to Patricia Ross, Linda Fabe, Mark McDermott...

If you'd like to contribute a recipe, either leave a comment on the Radical Transitions blog or email them to georgenemeth@gmail.com

1/ Inter-gen tea party
Dream/ A neighborhood where no one locks their houses, garages, or cars, where children and parents feel free for children to play outside the supervision of parents.

In part because neighborhood grandparents are visible and engaged on first name basis with children and their parents. Small acts of children hosting tea parties for neighborhood retirees, exchanging gifts of food they make by hand for each other. Invitations to one or two local grade school full time and substitute teachers. Invitations to local student musician to play, using their emerging gifts, at the tea party.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 children, any size or shape
  • 9-10 cups of child brewed teas
  • 2-3 senior neighbors bearing gifts of hand made food
  • 1-2 local gradeschool teachers
  • 1 local student musician

2/ Boarded up solar houses
Dream / Every boarded up house is a local energy source

At a block party, people come together in complaints about how many houses are boarded up. They dream of these houses one day bringing money into the neighborhood. Someone invites a pot luck of interested neighbors and students from a local green energy university program. Students help neighbors get grants to plaster the houses with solar panels that create power for the neighborhood. Habitat For Humanity is engaged to help install the new panels.

Ingredients

  • 5-6 interested neighbors
  • 2-3 university students in green studies
  • 1 internship program coordinator
  • a set of donated/funded solar panels
  • a land bank abandoned house
  • energy experts who can help with energy conversion & sharing

3/ River2River
Dream/ Cyclists can transverse neighborhoods with path continuities

Bike riders wonder about the big possibility of being able to traverse single routes between watershed rivers in urban areas. They have relationships with local government planning folks who help them create bike lanes that span single surface street routes through urban and suburban neighborhoods, connecting rivers that run perpendicular to the routes and parallel to each other. Small business owners at the two ends of river-route intersections convene and decide to collaborate with local brewers to craft an ale that celebrates the new connections river to river.

Ingredients

  • 4-5 cyclists
  • 1 river to river bikeable street way
  • 2 local businesses
  • 1 local micro brewery

4/ Church kitchen incubators
Dream/ Local urban kitchen facilities that provide bulk discount preparations for anyone in the neighborhood

Hospital and clinic nutrition specialists collaborate with local college culinary schools and churches to invite neighbors to use unused church kitchen space as a food incubator where they buy bulk meats, vegetables, and fruits and do canning and preparations to take home. Participants pay half for fresher food and the rest of their investment goes to participating churches and schools.

Ingredients

  • 2 nutrition specialists
  • 1 culinary school faculty
  • 1 church kitchen with unused space
  • 1 local food shopping trip
  • food prep & storage equipment and materials

5/ eBay nation
Dream/ Single and struggling parents have zero unused items from raising their children and instead gain income from unused items

Local web designers team with libraries to teach block club members how to use their cell phone cameras and library computers to sell their unused clothes and other valuables on eBay. Portions of profits go back to web designers. Libraries hold classes on consumer literacy to help people discover best quality low cost options in their areas for the money they make on eBay

Ingredients

  • 1 web student web designer
  • 1 library & librarian
  • 2-3 block club members
  • 1 cell phone camera
  • a small collection of sellable goods
  • library sponsored classes on consumer literacy

6/ Poets on the Road
Dream/ Local poets have ample opportunities to read their work in community settings

We want to give local poets support for publishing their work, so connect them to local catering groups to rich suburban and urban clients who pay to host "the best of" poets and poetry as pre-party features at their events.

Ingredients

  • 3 local poets
  • 1 poetry reading organizer
  • 1 local catering group
  • 1 party event host/planner
  • a handful of "best of" poems