Posts Tagged ‘New York’
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Becky James, the woman accused of shooting Ganas member Jeff Gross, was aquitted on all charges by a New York Jury.
A woman was cleared of all charges Monday in the shooting of a commune founder nearly killed by a shadowy figure on the stairwell of his compound.
The jury took less than five hours to acquit Rebekah Johnson of attempted murder and lesser charges in the May 2006 shooting of Jeffrey Gross. Johnson disappeared for nearly a year after the attack, setting off a huge manhunt and garnering five appearances on Fox's "America's Most Wanted."
If convicted, Johnson had faced up to 25 years in prison.
On May 29, 2006, Gross returned home from a movie, and in the dull light of a nearby lamp, he saw a gun pointed at him. He was shot six times, prosecutors said. The shooter apparently stepped over Gross before walking away.
Gross was convinced that Johnson fired the shots. Prosecutors said he was capable of identifying Johnson because he'd known her nearly 20 years, even though the stairwell was barely lit the night of the shooting.
New York Times
Associate Press
Staten Island Advance
Laird's Blog Entry
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Tina Nilsen-Hodges, a resident of Ecovillage at Ithaca who is also an Ithaca College lecturer, is leading an effort to create a charter school focused on sustainability. The alternative high school, New Roots School, would not be a project of the ecovillage but might hold some classes there and be involved with the organic farm and CSA located at the ecovillage.
At West Haven Farm at EcoVillage they are likely to work on the farm doing things like soil analysis. Produce from West Haven Farm will be part of the school's meal program, she said.
Nilsen-Hodges imagines that students could, for instance, restore wetlands, conduct climate-related agricultural research, bring solar panels to low-income neighborhoods and create small green business enterprises. She sees students becoming entrepreneurs and community leaders, she said.
Read the article in the Ithaca Journal about the sustainable charter school
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Related Posts Tags: Ecovillage at Ithaca, education, Ithaca, New York
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Tony Sirna
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
The local paper in Brooklyn, New York has an article on Brooklyn Cohousing's efforts to start the first community in the New York burroughs. The Brooklyn group plans to buy an apartment building in the recently this recently trendy part of the city, sharing meals and common spaces within a condominium arrangement.
The article follows the standard "they're not hippies" line with an emphasis on the inherent cost of New York City condo ownership with the headline, "Wanted: Roommates with money".
"We want more out of life. We want more community. We were lonely and felt too isolated," said Alex Marshall, who started planning the first co-housing dwelling in the city with his wife last summer.
Alas, the 1970s are dead. This will not be a pot-smoking, patchouli-filled, free-loving, anything-goes compound.
"Take a commune and a condo, put them in a blender and this is what you get," said Ben Watts, a likely resident of the building, which will probably be in Park Slope, Prospect Heights or Windsor Terrace.
The article goes on to get some quotes from members of true communes from New York's past and finishes with a mildly humorous comparison of co-housing and communism noting that in cohousing the main source of conlfict is "Hectic, impersonal modern life" whereas in communism it is "Unequal ownership of the means of production."
For the real trash, see the commentary on the article at nymag.com where their only context to comment on the cohousing group is based on TV and movies and they snidely quip, "Something about a bunch of adults living as roommates seems inherently pervy to us."
Read the article on Brooklyn Cohousing.
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Friday, May 9th, 2008
EcoVillage at Ithaca is helping set up a car sharing cooperative for the town of Ithaca, NY. Car Sharing co-ops are designed for people who don't own cars but have occasional needs for them. Members are often cyclists, walkers, and frequent users of public transit.
After about three years of planning, Ithaca CarShare is set to launch June 1 with six Nissan Versa hatchbacks and a Ford Ranger pickup. The organization expects to add more vehicles in August.
Jennifer Dotson, executive director of Ithaca CarShare, said the average car sharing member spends $100 a month compared to the $600 a month that AAA says the average car owner spends.
Nancy Jacoby, an Ithaca resident, said, "I'm really excited. It's been rocking my world all week. It's the missing link to getting rid of my car."
One of the locations cars will be available is at the Ecovillage. I'm sure a number of Ecovillage members will take advantage of the program.
Read the article on Ithaca CarShare.
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
The city of Ithaca was second on the list of Greenest Cities in part due to the work of the Ecovillage at Ithaca an intentional community with two 30-home cohousing clusters. The Ecovillage was recently featured in Time magazine and is a great example of a community moving towards sustainability.
Move.com profiled Ithaca and highlighted the Ecovillage as a major part of the cities green ranking:
The village is already at work on phase two: future developments are being considered and will likely include more accessible and affordable housing, a charter school, an education center, village-scale wind power, organic orchards, a roadside farm stand, graywater recycling, on-site biological wastewater treatment center, biomass energy crops, shuttle van, carshare, a natural cemetery, onsite biodiesel/vegetable-oil fuel production, and educational programs.
Not surprisingly most of the top green cities on the list are home to ecovillages, cohousing, and other forms of intentional community. Are communities attracted to green cities or are cities made green by community? I'm sure the answer is both.
Read the Article.
See the list of Greenest Cities.
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Related Posts Tags: cohousing, ecovillage, Ecovillage at Ithaca, Green Cities, Ithaca, New York
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
While not a commune in the traditional sense, the residents of 475 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, NY describe their home as a kibbutz or commune. Unfortunately they were all evicted a few days ago due to the building being a fire hazard. Evidently the building was not even supposed to have residential spaces. Some claim the motivation was to move out the artists so the building could be turned into condos.
"We're trying to figure out how to organize ourselves as tenants to get to the bottom of what’s going on here," said tenant Lai Ling Jew. "We love our homes. This is a vibrant community we created."
Read about the community in the New York Times.
More info at the browsnstoner.com
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Related Posts Tags: Artists Commune, Brooklyn, New York, New York Times
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Written by:
Tony Sirna
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