Jobless and counting the days...

This week, I have decided to make myself the subject of my own blog. My concern is joblessness. I am an example of the people I go out and meet and like to give voice to. I am one of the functioning poor. In my case, I have had time to accumulate a few assets, which I have sold or exhausted in the last few months to keep the mortgage paid and food on the table. I have discovered in these times what it is to slide slowly into poverty and be close to losing your modest home.

Mine is an immigrants story. I started with nothing worked hard to find something and as quickly I am losing it all. I have sold almost all I have including my car and my truck in order to pay a few months mortgage. My personal humility and awareness of the suffering around me keeps me grounded regardless of my situation. I still smile to everyone I see and I still never miss my Wednesday's volunteering to cook at the Rescue mission in town. I watch those in the kitchen with me and realize that they are worse of than I. At least I still have my home.

I have been amazed to see and hear from the mainstream media for months very little comparative voice given to the real issue of losing your home because you can't find a job to pay the mortgage. Not all defaulting home owners as an example bought too much house. Some, as myself, who worked for 22 years in the construction industry as a construction manager, have been out of work since Aug. 2008 with no real prospects of going back into building condos or anything else for a while.

As I look for any work (cooking, book stores, etc.), It is painful to hear those who just don't get it, or those who are settled in safe jobs, speculate on what is going on in America. Please don't get me wrong, this is not an angry rant. It is a thoughtful heart felt open question to are better selves across the board.

What happens when an otherwise responsible, capable and gifted person finds themselves in a failed industry with few good prospects of returning to that industry any time soon? If you are me, you look at your other interests and take what you can get to survive. Day laborer work, cleaning after storms, anything that pays. Pride does not enter into the picture. What I am able to make from odd jobs goes towards keeping the heat on in the house, the electricity on so I can stay looking for work on the computer, and keeping the internet access going one month to the next for the same reason.

Joblessness is painful indeed. The lose of dignity and the seemingly odd assessment of the national conversation on every issue but the real cause, confidence, destroys one's moral further. Perhaps I have been under a rock, but convincing an employer to give you a shot at working seems to be the new rage in my mid sized City.

The number of interviews I have gone on are too many to count here. Leaning back on my woodworking skills to build furniture and make a few dollars has met up against a lake of spending in the stores. Of the 14 pieces I built for the holidays, only 2 sold. Being a life long cook, I have applied at every restaurant in town that will look at me. i am not that bad looking either.

I hear encouragement from people who say to me...let them spend 15 minutes with you and they will want your kind of quality and dedication on there team...well, it has not happened yet. This week I experienced another such disappointment after 4 interviews and a neglectful "you are over qualified in past salary, and we want someone with more cooking experience on the line." Okay, I can take rejection of this type. But how do you make the case to a prospective employer about the hunger in your heart, the desire and shear effort you bring to even cleaning the toilets for a shot at moving up the ladder. Perhaps I could wash dishes for the next three months and see what you think. Can i volunteer with you and prove myself worthy of a paid job when one opens up?

I walk across a bridge that was built in Jan. 1942 when I leave my house each day to go look for work. In Feb. of that year President Roosevelt signed the order to intern Japanese Americans across the country. It occurred to me this morning as I was walking across that bridge, that the Japanese Americans who lived in the neighborhood back then had to come across that bridge. It also occurred to me that February is here and if i don't find a job, the Sheriffs Department will be sending me across that same bridge never to return to the first home I so proudly purchased some five years ago.

Maybe I will learn about what life was like in the Hooverville's of the depression era. Maybe I will find work enough to stay ahead of my mortgage company's demands. How ever it turns out, I came to this country with nothing but the cloths on my back in 1981. I will find a way as so many others are to make it until work comes available again. I know I am done with construction, but at 40 years of age, I have so much life experience and promise. Surely, I can find something to do, this is what I tell myself as I plan for the worst.

Happy New Year A few thoughts ago...

Like the beignet pictured to the left here... 2009 is fresh and new to us all. It is fresh to us all and as such, it is best consumed exactly that way. Let us not wait for it to get old and stale, for the heat to melt the powdered coating, lets sit a while and take this in ahead of all else this day. As a wise man who has passed (Alex) once new said, "Call me...let us get together and talk of the things that deserve reasonable consideration". Taking your advice Alex, I will like to speak briefly about those things I will like us all to ponder more clearly this year.

2009 for me holds with its promise of clarity, opportunities and tasty possibilities to reinvent my life with my new partner Jill as a pillar in this new life, with hopefully a cooking/kitchen station job in a local restaurant to help pay down my old bills, inspiration to expand my woodworking into a business, and the good fortune to writing to my hearts content on my various projects. My personal hopes aside, I am especially thinking about community and the world beyond us here on McKinley Hill.

I brought in the New Year in Yelm, WA at my partners eldest brother Mark and his partner Ella's home. They live on seven acres, off the grid, acquired not too long ago. It is a nice home comfortable to the feel, with good familiar neighbors down the way and one good feeling in the country air of constant renewal and blue herons that watch over the silence. We were joined by other gentle souls for a total of nine on this eve. The irony of that number to the date was not lost on Jill and I the next morning. We all held hands a few minutes before the anticipated strike of the clock at midnight and we each brought forward our voice on the hopes and wishes for ought nine. World peace, humility for all, food, clothing, shelter, health and strength for the less fortunate, wisdom and blessings to our new President for all he will be taking on, blessings to those who could not be with us and those who have gone ahead of us, and the wishes and hopes went around that humble circle until we sought our glasses to toast in the New Year.

I suspect the people there, those I new better and those new to me, saw the world much as I did. Yet, I said something during well wishes toast that I want to expand on here as my public new years wish. As i spoke it to the gathered then, I qualified it first by excusing the political nature of the comment, and then I said "May George W. Bush have a wonderful retirement". That in it self is not an unusual sentiment these days, even from his fans, yet what I was getting at was something more important to our humanity than either the humor or the statement of exhaustion in which it was disguised.

George W. Bush to me represents a certain way of seeing our world and our communities that has been proven to be contrary to the direction our world and our communities energy needs to be directed for the most to prosper into the future. He represents a way of thinking that comes forth with relevant life experience, tools and skills that are valuable to humanity, a love of the land and wide open spaces, a sense of family and tender moments around the fire with friends and those who have guided and advocated that way for ages. He also represents to me a large segment of America, most recently exemplified by the ascendancy of one Gov. Sarah Palin into the national and world spot light. This segment of America and off the world is not going to retire, they will have to be partners with the rest of us in our communities, in our country, and across the world to make things work out for all of us.

I was remarking to a friend shortly after the elections in November 2008, that the country needs Sarah Palin. I was saying then, that she represents a way of life and an identity for over 40 percent of our kin folk. I went on to say that we needed to embrace her, expose her to the things she does not know about and support her efforts to lead her faithful she has so clearly energized. I for one will rather have here accompany our new president on foreign trips and gain a new prospective of our world and local communities not native to her and have her come back as a challenger in 4 years influenced by an alternative prospective than the counterpoint. Imagine Sarah Palin that's been filled with only the views of the extremes and without the tools to tamper down those dangerous hate filled rallies we saw and heard from the republicans towards the end of their campaign last year.

I sometimes wonder if others like myself who lean progressive, think deep and hard enough about the world outside our viewpoint. I wonder sometimes if we realize more than they do that the world is not all about the needy images we have in our minds of developing countries, the European social model or the green movement and its early adopters we hear about across the world. There are many more George Bush haberdashers and Sarah Palin milliners out there, to use those old world metaphors, who will not be retiring any time soon. They have coats to cut and hats to make. They have ideas of there own and they have strong ambitions to make them happen as we did in electing Barack. They will have to be brought to a place where if they don't already see it, they can be intellectually or emotionally convinced by making a practical case for why our collective ways need to change for us to be prosperous and be better off in this new year.

I have been thinking about the recent presidential runoff elections in my birth country Ghana. I am aware my country men have been held up in the popular news, as models for how African elections should be conducted. With several fair and peaceful elections under our belts and forward looking prosperity with the recent discovery of oil of Ghana's shores, I hope those that did well all across our world in the last year, do not forget the lot that did not fair as well. Let us not just wish those that are handing over power a good retirement, but lets us all engage them in being part of the solution, whatever the task may be. Let us reach to our coworkers who have been laid off and find ways to engage them. Let us plant a community garden, work the land together, to feed everyone at least one good meal from our own warm but bare hands. Let us all be kinder and value the longview and realize in bouts of exhaustion, that we are not in this alone.

My father used to love to say (roughly translated from our native language of Twi), "some live well, and some do not live so well at all". He was usually making a statement of surprise, when he encounter someone enjoying themselves in some a way that seemed exclusive and not available to all. With that in mind in 2009, I wish that we all try and make sure our neighbors are enjoying life in someway. Let us not just hold all the cards to ourselves, and then wonder why the natives are restless. For the world and our communities to be a better place, we need to ponder the way we think about sending people off into retirement.

Making the case for a neighborhood garden...

Recently, I had an exchange with the Public works department of my dear City. It started with a mild request to have a community garden across the street from my house. My original request was turned down with out any real inquiry as t the possibilities. Since these communications with City officials are a matter of public record, I have decided to post it myself on Facebaook and also on my blog at http://piratesandlullabies.blogspot.com/ it pains me to see how those of us small fish get treated by the system. my point in this post is to highlight the larger impact that a small neighborhood garden can have on the hopes and sense of belonging of the people that live there. If we don't stand up for the neighborhoods we currently live in, how will they ever become places of pride and prosperity.
You read and decide for yourselves...may you be inspired to take care of your own neighborhoods.

Conversation Thread...Dates and smaller none relevant emails are omitted to keep it brief...but the point is still made.

Hello My dear City of Tacoma:

I will like to speak to someone about doing a small community (neighborhood) garden on a City owned piece of land in our neighborhood. I have been doing some research over the last few months and have some pretty good support up and down the street from a majority of the neighbors. Before I take the time to role out the specifics, I will like to connect with you and have an initial get to know you conversation. The site is a green belt wedge located between E. Division Lane and E. Morton at F street. You can map my address and its just across the street you can’t miss it (520 E. Division Lane, Tac. 98404)

My contact information is as follows:

Rohn Amegatcher

Response i received back:

I believe you need to check with Metro Parks 305-1000
Madeline
Streets and Grounds

My Response:

Hello again:

That's funny because they sent me to you. City of Tacoma owns the property.
Can we try again...I really would like to connect with someone about doing a
garden on that small plot. Perhaps I should talk to public works???

Thx,

Rohn Amegatcher

Next Response:

Dear Rohn,

Thank you for your inquiry. I apologize for the run-around you have been given. I am checking into your questions and should be able to get you an answer by the end of this week. I appreciate your enthusiasm for gardening and wanting to make Tacoma more “green!”

In the meantime, if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.

Cheers,

Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A

My response:

Thank you for looking into it. We have about 9 neighbors and 12 kids that are up for doing this. I say that’s a good thing for the east side and specifically McKinley Hill.

Thank you again for looking into it.

Rohn

City Response:

Just one quick question, how do you plan to get water to the right-of-way (the small plot)?

Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A

My response:

We will fill water barrels once a week from my domestic hose bib once a week which is just across the street (Division). We will install 10 – 12 barrels (interlinked / daisy chained) together. We will use drip irrigation to irrigate the crops in raised beds. We will buy Tacgro for the planting beds/boxes. One of the things we want to do is install safety barriers along the boarders with a minimum 4’ set back from the streets (Morton and Division). We will like City input on this element.

I actually have a fairly detailed plan I will be happy to share as a straw plan. You folks can put holes in it and we can then refine it before spring gets here

Rohn

City Response:

Actually, I would love to see a plan-the more organized you are the easier it is for me to make an argument for you! You may not need to buy TAGRO, as TAGRO is interested in supporting community gardens-details still being worked out of course. Stay tuned though. Trust me, you don’t need to convince me of this good idea, just need to make sure we can get the City’s legal department happy in the process.

Ramie Pierce
Urban Forester
ISA Certified Arborist
PN-6334A


Further City Response:

Rohn,

I made contact with Mike Teskey, Tacoma Cares and this does not fall under what he does. I also made contact with Elton Gatewood who works with the Neighborhood Counsel. The problem is that the patch on ground in question does in fact belong to the City of Tacoma, is a right of way with a street on both sides. This brings up safety concerns,also who maintains it if the person decides they no longer want to work the garden. There is no water on site. So with all of this in mind I would say that the answer is no, at this time. It's a good idea, but Metro Parks offers garden plots around town that have water and are secure.

Tom Slagle
Grounds Supervisor
Public Works

My response to Tom:

Tom

Thanks for your response. I appreciate your research and follow up. The thing is we will have to find some way to make it work on our end (Division and Morton residents). It does not make sense to go out of the area to try to do it. We live here, we know the area we know the hazards of the area, we would not have proposed the idea unless we could see a safe way forward. We have options and we will get back to you. With all due respect to you and the City, its this way of thinking that keeps the east side and this area an after thought in everyone’s mind. The neighborhood never improves and we only get service when its criminal activity. I mean no disrespect in the least bit, I am simple making a point and giving you a context with which to try to think creatively. There are ways to get water to the site, and there are barriers and set backs that are reasonable that can be brought to bear. We can actually develop good solutions here, it is an opportunity for us to think a little harder. I have seen this done for pocket parks and green belts with this type of profile over my 22 year career as a construction manager and as an urban planner. I can’t just roll over and go to our little group and tell them the answer is no because of safety, ownership restrictions and water access.

This does not have to cost any money to the City. Times are hard for everyone. Houses are being foreclosed in the area; this is a way to lift the spirits of those in this neighborhood. To give people some pride in where we live. To give the kids some hope that this place is worth hanging on to. It is more than just water rights. This is about the people who took the risk in the last 5 years to buy in this community, to set up businesses here, to give something back to them so they don’t feel like, no one cares about the neighborhood. Please try to understand that I am not grinding at you, I just see a larger process at work here in this community. The kids will be losing Gualt middle school. The police 4th precinct and animal control will be relocating soon, the road sides have open gutters which get muddy when it rains, people are trying to feel good about the neighborhood and the street and we can’t just tell them “NO”.

I will pay for it if I have to, I just need to know what the set backs need to be a modest community garden. It would be helpful if someone will at least meet with us and look at our well designed concept and garden schematics and see how we have collectively solved the elements you have introduced. I think you may and the department may learn a thing about good solutions. We can’t help what the urban planners did 100 years ago when these areas were platted, but we live here and own here today, and we have pride of ownership. We cannot be poor forever, and we can’t show our children the bear ground because mom and dad could not afford to buy on the north side of town. We also can’t tell them to take the bus to a better part of town with water and safety. This is what we have here, and we want to make the best of it. Again, I assure you I am not trying to be disrespectful in anyway, but I need to make my point very firmly and perhaps provide you and the department with an alternative view of how we that live here see our reality.

A community garden here is more than a P-Patch. It is a community-building venture for us like the Glass museum was to the water front or Triangle Town homes was to the St. Helen's area. We may not be grand, but we like our area quaint. We will like to add features to it that creates pride and makes people want to send out that extra resume each day to see if they can find a job to make the mortgage because there kids love it here so much, instead of giving up and thinking, this place is a dump anyway. I will offer my home for a meeting, come meet with us after the holidays are over and see what we are trying to do around here. We don’t ask for much, just reasonable guide lines that are not unduly restrictive and we will do the rest.

To respond to one of your points in your email, I don’t know about you, but at the end of every season, I put away all my tools and leave my gardens in such a condition that if I did not come back the next year, it would not be an eye sour. Currently, we maintain that area. The City cuts the grass once a year and we are the once who keep the place maintained, pick up the trash, and keep the fire danger down for the remaining 51 weeks of the year. No one pays us for that. Until we wanted permission to do a garden, you never would have even known we were here.

Last year, we worked very hard to get the University of Idaho to do a concept for the McKinley Business district. We lobbied for this small opportunity because we believed then and still do that little things are the way we can bring up the community and give it a positive profile. The neighborhood is full of backyard wood workers and craftsmen, of people like who are potters and master gardeners, people who take old discarded wood furniture restore them or find second uses for the material. of back yard artisans of all types who silently do there thing and wish the neighborhood would just look better so they can feel that much better about the place. We have stair climbs around here that are crumbling, wonderful links to our past as a street car community which we can’t get anyone from the City to help us power wash and maintain (hand rails, lights, etc.). These are the things we have. It seems when ever we make an effort to lift our selves up, someone we have never met down in the valley of downtown says “NO”. We are the once who live up on the hill, we will like to feel like we have something going over here that’s fairly special. We can’t do that if our vision and ideas are not truly heard. The other possibility is to have a neighborhood where no one cares, creative solutions don’t get employed and the roughnecks around the corners think they own the neighborhood.

I am sure at this point I sound like I am venting, but rest assured there This is not a vent. There is a visionary prospective to this rant and a method to my madness and our neighborhood. I am no elected official, but I talk to everyone around here and I hear them grumble and complain. Please give this a meeting or two with us, and preferable if you delegate this to someone else, please make sure it is someone who has a Long view. I would hate to have a conversation with anyone who shows up with a predetermined response. These people here have dignity and deserve a reasonable review of our
request.

By the way…so we all can laugh and keep it real…I bet you did not expect this response back did you…it gets funnier from here if we don’t make any progress with public works…lol. All with good will, we just love our community. Please understand, otherwise the criminals and dividers have won…think about it.

Be well and happy holidays,

Rohn Amegatcher

Toms Response to me and other City people:

Elton,
What about a neighborhood grant for developing a pocket park, or roadside landscape. We could install drought resistant plants that we get from the WDOT, in which are free. Could one grant be used to install rolled asphalt curbs to keep the soil where its suppose to stay? Sort of like what was done on N26th St. Islands?
Tom

Elton's Response to Tom and myself:

Yes, it is possible that a grant can be used for roadside landscape. The applicant must apply for an Innovative Grant when they are available (Feb.- Mar.) if the Neighborhood Council approve it. Before they apply for a grant, they need to do some homework. First of all, will the City permit them to landscape on this public property; secondly, who will be responsible for maintaining it (adopt a spot), and where is it located?

Elton

My response to Tom & Elton:

Tom:

I will get it to you towards the end of the week. I need to get it scanned down to size. Also, I am spending the next few days working on a project in Woodinville. I will like to take some time to annotate it properly before sending it over…best foot forward so to speak.

Rohn


So the process goes on...I will meet with them and share our plan. I had it scanned earlier today and we will see where it all goes...

Stay Tuned...