Click here to see a list of VBC 8 events here at thedirt.org

The Village Building Convergence 2008 (VBC8) is a 10-day event from Friday, May 23rd – Sunday, June 1, 2008 in which neighborhoods activate to build shared public places that they have envisioned, designed, funded, and will maintain for themselves. VBC8 will include hands-on education in permaculture design and construction, ecological building, and public art. All projects are built through collaboration, community conversations and commitment of a neighborhood to strengthen itself. Everyone is invited to attend evening events at a central location, to participate in workshops or listen to visionaries speak about various aspects of sustainable culture.

VBC will feature projects located in or adjacent to the public right of way and private projects that support community in various neighborhoods. Private site projects will be structures or systems that are built by and available to the communities concerned with that site, and hopefully available to some extent to the larger community. These will include public squares and meeting houses, community kiosks and benches, solar-powered and artistic innovations, and many other new ideas. Each project is initiated and managed by neighborhood groups with support from the VBC Placemaking Committee. The Placemaking coordinators will help neighborhoods facilitate and coordinate the outreach/public involvement process, community decision-making and design workshops, and the permit process with the City.

 Click here to see a 

list of VBC 8 events

http://www.fcnp.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=995&Itemid=33

By Tom Whipple
Thursday, 15 March 2007

Last week Portland, Oregon became the first governmental body in the US to not only acknowledge that imminent peak oil is a reality, but also to publish a plan as to what the city should be doing to cope. Breaking new ground has both its perils and its rewards. The peril is that you have no guidelines to the road ahead. The advantage is that there is no standard of comparison so your efforts instantly become the textbook to mitigating the effects of peak oil at the local level.

As someone who is familiar with the literature and follows the peak oil story on a daily basis, I can report that the folks on the Portland Peak Oil Task Force have produced a succinct, outstanding report that should be read by every local official everywhere. While there will naturally be many local variations, Portland’s approach to the problem contains much that seems universally applicable.

Archives of information are like the bedrock foundation of our knowledge. Obviously here at The Dirt! archives can serve the purpose of acting as reference, resource, and a spring source of renewal for hope.