OCF 2025

July 17, 2025 by albertkaufman

Oregon Country Fair 2025 – a Review

Hey there, I’m back from another Oregon Country Fair (OCF). My head is still a little scrambled, and it’s been 3 days since my return from the fields and forests of Veneta, Oregon. This year was another hot one – daytime temps were in the high 80s, and then for the 3 days of the Fair, temps climbed into the 90s. This ends up having an effect on Fairgoers and those who volunteer for the Fair. Right before this year’s OCF a new documentary about the event came out. It’s about an hour long and does a great job of showing off various aspects of the Fair. Enjoy.

About those volunteers, there are thousands of them. That’s something notable about this event that’s different than anything I’ve attended before. The amount of people and people-hours that are poured into this event is quite incredible and makes for a giant family of people who work together to create Fair Magic. Most events have a ratio of volunteers (or paid staff) of about 10 or 20 attendees for every ticketed customer. In the OCF case, it’s much closer to 1 to 3 – a very low ratio (if you know the exact figure on this, please let me know). I volunteered as a musician this year, playing for kids at Sesame Street and Wally’s Way stages.

This episode brought to you by the inexpensive construction headphones I schlep everywhere to help me sleep during loud music and other noise at festivals like this one. And while I’m here, these headphones are part of a 11 life tips series that you can sign up for here. For some great background music while reading this – try out Fair TV – which is streaming the shows from the main stage as I type this – 7.17.25.

So, besides the great food, wonderful music, interesting spoken word, an incredible 1st annual Friday night burlesque show (go in 2026!), and interesting crafts, there are things that are not obvious. Oh yeah, the costumes, people on stilts, marching bands, cute kids, and all sorts of serendipity – there are a few things I want to talk about that are not obvious unless you’ve been coming a while.

Networking.

I am lucky to get to Fair a few days before the official event begins. This meant the Wednesday before Fair for me this year. This led to wandering the 8 and connecting with many craft vendors and other volunteers before the event opens. Some of these relationships have been going on for years. I see you booth L12, Wileyware! As someone who helps small businesses with email marketing, my conversations are sometimes about how to help the crafters market their wares – both at the Fair and beyond.

Wileyware

I got into a conversation with Skeeter Duke, who’s been coming to the Fair since close to the beginning. He talked to me about the intention of the Fair at the start was for people to come together and network. Figure out how to create a new society together. How to take the ideals that were being discussed in the late 60s and spread them through the community and work, and build together. I’m going to keep learning about this intention (there were newsletters back then, and many elders from the time still carry on this effort today). There’s so much to say about this. And I think this part of the Fair is a little obscured by the pageantry part.

For example, the Fair features 2 big areas devoted to organizations doing interesting environmental activist work that create all sorts of opportunities for education, but also networking. These are Energy Park and Community Village. I think most people and the booths themselves are missing a big opportunity that I hope to elevate here. We tend to approach the booths at Fairs as consumers – these people behind the table or wall have something to offer us. Maybe it’s a blintz or knish. Maybe it’s tie-dyed socks or a beautiful guitar or earrings. But maybe it’s wisdom. Maybe it’s an internship for someone you know. It goes deeper than that. Here’s an example.

While I was sitting in the Ritz** (an incredible collection of saunas and showers – one of the main reasons I go to the Fair, actually), which is also a great place for networking (or catching up with friends, or group singing in the sauna). Anyway, I look up and see the smokestack puffing smoke. The Ritz burns a lot of wood each year at the Fair, and that smoke is spewed into the air and breathed by fairgoers. I’d been thinking, as I’m learning about woodsmoke, how do we electrify the Ritz? The saunas could be running on electricity and sparring fairgoers (and the region) a little bit less woodsmoke in the air. I ended up in a long conversation by someone who’d been on the OCF board in the past and she mentioned Peach Power – an effort to bring more solar panels to Fair. Well, without that conversation I wouldn’t have been able to then have a different conversation with someone from Energy Trust in Energy Park about the same topic.

I work on a few livability issues. Getting Rid of Gas-powered leaf blowers; dark skies Oregon (esp. how to slow the spread of too bring LED lighting); Keeping Trees Standing; and reducing woodsmoke. Mostly, I’m focused on Portland, but everyone could benefit from the work I’m doing. So, when I’m face to face with someone who is part of an NGO where these issues are related, I see the person on the other side of the table as an ally. This relationship is possible with anyone at any time – but at Fair, things are labeled better 🙂 ie, the booth dedicated to seed swapping in Energy Park is a great place to talk about saving the pollinators. Seeing my longtime kinda guru, Sharanam – we got into a conversation about setting up a show for him in Portland.

Then, there’s lots of sharing back. Letting people in on Fair secrets – or, what I like to call, showing people the door. Not everyone knows that there are a wide variety of ways to participate in the Fair. You can jury in and become a vendor; volunteer to be part of a crew; but it’s also possible to be an SO (significant other/guest of) an elder (that’s how I got my camping pass this year after many years with various booths and crews). This is something that I want to dedicate some time to in the future – figuring out how to get people to Fair who will have a life-changing experience there. People who might not even know the place exists, but who will benefit from being a part of the Fair Family (which is pretty much everyone).

Fair Information

You can get information about the Fair from the Info Booths located around the Fairgrounds (also known as the 8). But there are a ton of other ways – there are a slew of private and public Facebook groups, for instance. For instance, if you’re tired of my spiel and want more pictures, try out the OCF Unofficial group.

And the information is everywhere – from the banter of the performers (which contains many positive messages) to the Peach Pit, which is the printed guide to the Fair – there’s lots to learn about. There’s even a code of conduct! And general guidelines.

I will probably have more to say about the networking topic I started on above. My learning about how that informed early Fairs, and my own current approach to networking in the small business world, seems to be pushing me into an area I’m not familiar with. Going to places we’ve never been before!

The hot temps and dust at this year’s Fair were a reminder to me about how fragile our society is. We march our way through, but it’s challenging. I walked around the Fair most of the time with a wet towel on my head that I had to keep wetting. I’m 64, and I noticed aging for myself and others more than in previous fairs. I got lucky and had dinner with a couple of people who’d been to the very first fair and most of them since that time! 52? 53? I saw more alter-abled transport and more strollers this year than in years past. Watching kids at the Fair is fun – and it’s also fun to see someone in their 80s oohing and ahhhing like they were kids.

I appreciate the deep connections many of you have with each other. I realized this year, more than in previous years, that those who live in Eugene or thereabouts seem a lot more connected than those of us who travel farther to reach the shores of the Long Tom. This year felt more “local” to me. But I also realize that repeat visits and my many loose ties with a wide variety of Fair people do ground me.

Ah, Fair. Thank you. Thank you for connecting me with many of my friends. Thanks for the chance to share time with people who knew my friends who have passed away – Ben Bochner and Amira. Thanks for the chance to gather in a very safe place and find magic. Fair is not perfect, but Fair is Fair!

Until we meet again, Albert Kaufman, 7.17.25

This year’s Resource List!

PS – your comments are welcome! I am always open to feedback.

PPS – here’s my write-up from last year, and that links to previous years. I may do a Resource List for this year in a bit. Joining my email list is a great way to hear when I’ve written something new.

PPS – my friend, Bruce Bartlett had this to say about the Ritz (which turns 50 next year):

“I agree that the Ritz is otherworldly in its effect on people. I have been transformed in there several times. Each time (5) a new level of tension has relented, both somatically and psycho emotionally.

Doing something you (almost always) do in private now openly and relaxed is a powerful ritualistic tool that can dissolve shame. When the internal tension, that is so often held excruciatingly tight in a person who is troubled by their body or their beliefs about it, is finally allowed to release itself, the person enters into a free, open communal space with music and laughter in the background in a way that feels almost surreal at first. I recall the first moment my shower turned off so the splash of the spraying water on me ended. I opened my eyes and started taking in the world around me. The relaxation, conviviality, and acceptance I witnessed filled (informed?) a part of me that had always wanted that sensual environment to exist. Warm fires make for warm conversations. The toning in the saunas still echoes in my mind.

We have created a portal into a profound body-positive world. The fair itself is a towering testimony to the glorious beauty of the body, in a kaleidoscopic, wild, outlandish statement of joy. This celebration in the Ritz of our innate beings with our unique bodies manifests the world as it should be.

Deep appreciation for its builders and keepers. May many be blessed in the portal.”

Thank you, festival culture, for making me who I am.

Philly Folk Festival
Burning Man
Oregon Country Fair
Vancouver Folk Festival
Beloved
Mariposa Folk Festival
Hartford Folk Festival
Middletown Folk Festival
Folklife Festival
Garlic Festival
Singing Alive
Cascadia Songrise
String Summit
World Domination Summit (3)
Neurodiversion 2025

I’m probably missing a few 🙂

And to my Mom and Dad, who pushed me in this direction from the very start

Filed Under: OCF Tagged With: art, dance, festivals, friends, highlights, kibbitzing, magic, music, OCF, Oregon Country Fair, ritz, saunas, see you at the fair, The Ritz

Manny Karp

May 21, 2025 by albertkaufman

Manny Karp

Invitation From Bob Karp: “Moses lived 120 years”, so that’s the greeting given before asking one’s age, warding off the evil eye.

There’s no ceremony for such a thing. We’ll spend an hour or so in remembrance.

Video of the event

From Larry Siegel:

“Manny Karp had a beautiful, soulful baritone, a bit like Bing Crosby in timbre, but not playful in that way, more melancholy. You Are My Sunshine, When They Chopped Down the Old Pine Tree; I will always hear those songs in Manny’s voice. From Sol Siegel and my Dad, I got Beethoven and Schubert, from Manny and Rich, and Bob, I got traditional music. So– absolutely fundamental to who I was to become.

Sol Siegel, I lived with as a child, basically a second father. He was Pop-pop, the OG Pop-pop. Manny was Grandpop, the OG grandfather. He smelled like sweet pipe smoke, had soft, handsome features, and somehow, in my perception, beautifully mixed the warm and the rueful. I loved him dearly.”

From Albert:

“Wow, I feel like I’m being introduced to someone I knew very differently. The Pop-pop I knew was somewhat in the shadow of his wife, Esther (Gay-Gay to me). I remember spending a week at their house in the summer in Margate (right next to Lucy). He took me fishing on a pier nearby – we weren’t allowed to go all the way out – I was too young to be permitted that far … we caught sand sharks and I loved his sense of humor.

I also visited them in Boca Raton, FL, a couple of times – once just me, and once with my sister, Liz. He was always very kind and warm towards me.”

From Ben Karp: ” About Grandpappy:

“They built a -cabin- of pine.”

…and that shows something of Grandpoppy’s character. The original lyric to the song “Cut down the old pine tree”is “built a coffin of pine” which makes sense in theme (and engineering).

He wasn’t going to sing that to his children who had lost a mother, though he was obviously feeling it in the original, having lost his sweet gal.

Granpoppy’s original name was Mendel. I learned this from Ancestry dot com.

Here is a dedication for Grandpoppy in whose name are dedicated the next volumes of the Yiddish translations of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s “sichos” or transcribed talks.

He might have had mixed feelings about that, given he moved on like most of his generation from both religion and Yiddish. But I think finally he would appreciate it, and the fact and sentiment, and the benefactor of its inception.

There is also now Yiddish study support at the University of Pennsylvania in his name, and I am sure he would both appreciate and marvel at that. Penn is only miles but a world away from the Fishtown he was born in.

Lastly, alas, still an unsolved mystery which I had hoped to clear up by today, but still waiting as I have for decades now.

Recently, a friend from New York was over for lunch and, with my dogs on his lap and at his feet, showed me a picture of his own terrier.

“He’s a really sweet dog,” he told me, “and we only got him because his owner, Brian De Palma, was travelling too much to take good care of him.”

So I asked him to ask his neighbor a long curiosity of mine, which is why the Dennis Franz character in his 1981 film Blow Out (filmed partially in Mt Airy btw and I remember when they roped off Lincoln Drive) is named “Manny Karp.”

De Palma did go to schools in the philly area. Was it made up completely, perhaps a name in his mind, or did he ever encounter our very own Manny?

(added) – It’s that way he had of imparting wisdom. Rabbinical, you might say. However he learned to do that, he did do that, in a lovely, understated way. One relied on him for that.

Still waiting….

Looking forward to seeing you all very shortly.

Ben

From Becky Siegel:

“Hi everybody.

I share Larry’s happy memories of the pipe and the lovely singing of those two songs. Grand-pop was a gentle, sweet, beautiful presence in my life. And he is still very present. Thank you all for coming together to celebrate his memory. Anybody feel like writing down some of the shared stories for Larry and I to read? Or, some of you tech wizards, is there some way we can listen to this zoom later on? Thanks.

Sending lots of love to you all. Becky

From Liz Kaufman-Taylor: “I have only the fondest memories of Pop-Pop. I loved his calming smile – I can still see him watching me with that smile! So many memories of every phase of my life. And in every one he was smiling. I loved our visits to Margate, which always included Corned beef, Fritos, and Tastykakes – the frozen peanut butter Kandykakes. I remember playing games and walking on the beach. And then there was Century Village. They loved to take us around and show us off to their friends. And still, deli and games. It was always so warm and welcoming. And then what a blessing when they came back north! While this is where my memories are saddened, there were still many years of spending time together. Listening to Pop-Pop’s stories, watching game shows, playing games, and chatting with all of the staff who took such good care of them for so many years. I learned about respect and dignity and the simple joys of life from my time with Pop-Pop.”

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: family, Manny Karp, Pop-pop

How A Constant Contact Solution Provider Can Help You

May 6, 2025 by albertkaufman

Constant Contact Solution Provider

I’ve been a Constant Contact Solution Provider (partner) for 17 years. Over this time, I’ve provided assistance to hundreds of Constant Contact users. Everything from getting accounts set up and running to discussing marketing strategy. Constant Contact encourages marketers to work with solution providers, providing any account holder with a solopreneur like me.

You can see if you already have a solution provider that you’re connected with in your account settings.

This is a free service to you. If you’d like to learn more about how our future relationship might work, please visit my VIP Club page! Then, contact me and let’s move forward!

The Partner Program – How to Become a Partner

If you are a marketer (webmaster, brand expert, SEO, graphic designer) who is looking for additional income and training, please visit Constant Contact’s partner program description. And if that feels tempting, please use my sign-up link to apply for the program (I will be compensated if you become a partner). I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have, and here’s a video that also explains the program features.

Filed Under: Constant Contact Tagged With: constant contact, graphic design, marketing, partner, seo, solution provider, strategy, websites

Happy Earth Day 2025

April 21, 2025 by albertkaufman

Happy Earth Day

Portland 4.19.25

I’ve considered “Earth Day every day” for a long time. But it is also special to know that every year on April 22nd, it’s officially celebrated. And though the news is challenging to follow right now, there are still good things happening.

Something fun that you might know about me is that I use email marketing in my environmental efforts. I’ve been working for years to rid the world of gas-powered leaf blowers, for instance. Before that, I built a list and sent out news about getting rid of phone books. Yeah, remember them? I’m also very interested in trees and keeping them standing and planting new ones. And most recently, I’ve started a new Dark Skies group for the Portland area (happy Dark Sky week!). If any of these efforts interest you, there’s a newsletter for you!

If there’s an environmental issue you care about, starting a newsletter on the topic and building your list over time is an incredible way to make change happen. I love working with people who are doing this type of work, as you can imagine. If this is you, I will bend over backwards to make your experience a good and successful one! Hit reply and let me know what your issue is and where you are in your journey.

We all want and need clean water and air to live. There is no planet B. Happy Earth Day! I hope you find a way to participate this year in a way that brings you joy. Maybe it’s time to get a garden started!

Albert

PS – This was my newsletter to those on my business email list. You can see the original with a bit more content here.

Happy Earth Day!
Pics from a recent walk @ Powell Butte Park

Filed Under: Bizmissive Tagged With: air, animals, change, Earth Day, earth day 2025, good change, plants, trees, water, wildlife

Neurodiversion 2025

April 2, 2025 by albertkaufman

Gary Ware!

These are a few of my Favorite Things

I attended the first Neurodiversion 2025 “A Celebration of Unique Minds” conference. One hope I had when I traveled to Austin was to come home with an idea for a new newsletter. Through a series of conversations and meetups, I came up with a weekly one featuring a talk by an inspiring speaker. Thanks to Hank from Wyoming, who brought this idea to fruition. You can join in the fun by signing up here – the first talk will be headed your way, and I believe you’ll enjoy it. Here is issue #1

I’ve been a fan of Chris Guillebeau ever since I first learned about him in 2017. That led to following his writing, reading his books, and attending a conference he put on for 10 years called The World Domination Summit (WDS). Like most cutting-edge events, this one attracted a lot of interesting people. When Chris announced in his A Year of Mental Health newsletter that he was trying out a new conference focused on neurodivergence, I bought a ticket straight away. I’d been missing the magic of WDS and any excuse to gather with the types of people who are attracted to this type of event = I’m all in. As the event got closer, I hemmed and hawed and considered selling my ticket (who needs to go to Texas? How can I leave Portland when the fruit trees are all starting to bloom? It’s easier to just stay put and keep doing what I’m doing!). But in the end, something stirred in me, and I bought my plane ticket, and I was off to Austin, Texas, for 5 days!

I wanted to come to Neurodiversion with an attitude of openness and an interest in learning. I tried to be as open as possible and not push my agenda on others. This proved to be a good idea because so much of what I was about to experience was new information.

A couple of years ago, I made a new friend, Sundeep, at the Breitenbush Summer Solstice Healing Retreat, who offered to host me. He was also able to buy a ticket, so we got to share the experience, and I got to stay in his lovely house Northwest of the City. I also stayed a couple of days afterward, and we visited some special places like Casa De Luz, The 3rd Eye Lounge, The Laguna Gloria sculpture garden, and the Zilker Botanical Garden above, with a beautiful view of Austin.

On day 1 of the event, my first meetup was about singing and was led by Whitney. Unfortunately, it was held in a nearby bar, which was kinda loud. But I also learned a few things, and it was nice to start with an interesting meetup. I then followed a group to the gelato place across from Fair Market (the main venue) and talked to Whitney about Human Design. After that, I participated in a meetup about activism and ADHD. That was held in a nearby hotel where many who attended the conference were staying. Then, it was time for registration and the opening ceremony, where we played this fun ice-breaker! The idea was to go around and see if you could fill out your bingo card. But the way this was set up, it was hard not to meet a few people and hear some fun stories.

The next day began with a great couple of keynote speeches, and then there were breakout sessions leading up to lunch. There were people attending from 4 countries and all over the US. I think there were probably about 250 people attending and 15-20 ambassadors, who helped answer questions and register us. They were very busy, and I’m glad I paid to attend vs. doing that. I know the event is free for ambassadors, but I think it would be hard to see all the speeches and attend meetups if you were in that role.

Karla Starr’s presentation on AI really stuck out to me. She’s very smart – at one point, the mic cut out, and we couldn’t hear her (we were wearing silent disco headphones). After a minute, she just switched to Spanish, which was kinda hilarious. Eventually, her talk got back into gear, and she regaled us with info from the AI highway. Productivity tools and various ways she’s using AI. Here’s an example.

Part of what makes this type of conference wonderful is the workshops we all put on for one another. On the last day of the conference, I offered a meetup on how to improve where you live. This idea was based loosely on the various issues I activate on in Portland. I also wanted to make the activity interactive, so I asked people about where they lived and the types of issues they face there. Then I offered some tools and ideas on how to make a change where you live. I talked about how everyone you interact with will take the information you share in a different way. And also how long some of these campaigns (to get a bike lane, get trees planted, stop a big box store from being built) may take. Some really great questions came up, and I felt like the meetup was one of the best I’ve ever done.

How to Improve Where You Live Meetup

The days sort of blur together for me. But I’m excited to share that this conference had a really lovely feel to it. It reminded me of WDS in that the people were very interesting and also willing to come towards one another quickly. Not every interaction I had was fantastic, but quite a number of them were. And I got to learn more about neurodiversity and ADHD than I knew before. I didn’t think of myself as neurodiverse before the event, but now I’m kind of wondering.

Through the course of listening to talks and meeting a wide variety of people, I really got a sense of what neurodivergence is about. I know a number of people who are challenged by this and now have some perspectives and tools I can offer that might help. I also got to wondering whether and how I might also be neurodivergent. I arrived at the event, figuring that my brain works just fine and that I was there to learn to help others. But by the end, I realized that I shared some of the same challenges as others were speaking of through the weekend.

I’m fascinated by what it takes to put on an event like this. I feel like I’ve been to many things that have some similar elements, and have been planning my own funconference.me for a while (coming this Spring!) – but this also had an element that I’m not familiar with. I think it was the topic and people mix that felt different. My intention in attending was to try to come with an open mind and heart, and that worked out well. I tried to pull back on sharing my own agenda too much and stay open to learning and meeting people. I’m very glad I tried that approach, as I felt that the conference kind of worked its magic on me.

At the last group meeting, Chris did a check-in to see how people were feeling and asked if we should do the event again the following year. He then shared that we could buy tickets and that Neurodiversion will happen next year (date and location TBD!). I decided to buy a ticket – both to support the event and cause I will likely attend.

After that meeting, we had a fun party outside on the lawn. It had been very hot during the day, and it was nice to congregate on the lawn. There was a place to pet animals, a marching band, and some other fun things + two food carts, and a wine & beer bar. I wandered around and had some time with some of the people I’d met and met a few new ones, too. The conference also has a private Facebook group, and people have been posting some pictures and lovely thoughts about our time together. An interesting part of that is that even people who couldn’t make it seem to have been touched by the event.

After Neurodiversion ended, Sundeep and I headed back to his house and went to sleep. I had a good, long sleep and woke up refreshed and very thoughtful! I spent another couple of days in Austin – got to see a great sculpture garden; ate a couple of meals at Cafe De Luz and hung out at 3rd Eye Lounge, then on Monday visited a lovely botanical garden before heading to Cafe de Luz and then the airport.

Overall, it was great to get out of town, make some new friends, learn about ADHD and other neurodivergences, have a WDS reunion with folks I’d met in previous years, and get inspired. Thanks for reading this far!

I’m always open to feedback – feel free to leave a comment or write me directly. And, maybe I’ll see you at Neurodiversion 2026!

Activism and ADHD Meetup

Albert Kaufman, Portland, Oregon 4.2.25

PS – Here’s a short write-up by Chris Guillebeau of the event.

Filed Under: NeuroDiversion 2025 Tagged With: adhd, ai, autism, body, fun, health, mind, neurodiversion, productivity, spectrum

Small Achievable Things – Take Action!

March 25, 2025 by albertkaufman 2 Comments

Small Achievable Things

This post ➡️ was my first post on Nextdoor.com – a social media site like Facebook organized by neighborhood. I believe Nextdoor.com is the best tool for local organizing that’s ever existed. I use it to make my neighborhood a better place. Here’s the first article I wrote about Nextdoor.com. Now, onto the small achievable things – you can probably take some action yourself to implement these right now. Hit me up if you need encouragement or have ideas on how to move these forward quicker – albert@albertkaufman.com

Phasing out Gas-powered leaf blowers. Here’s our website for this effort Quietcleanpdx.org. Here’s a collection of approaches that have worked well in Portland, Oregon.
I turned this one into a blog post on key fob/noise reduction – here. This method sounds like it works on a lot of cars. https://youtu.be/W5Gd72boYNU
4.27.22 – OMG – Best resource ever! http://www.silencethehorns.org/locking.html
Traffic Calming on Hawthorne and Division – Still working on this 🙂 – but we got to 20mph on residential streets and 25 on some arterials!
Do you have fruit/nut trees that you’d like to share the bounty from? – 3.28.22 – See the latest developments. https://portlandfruit.org/
A Request: Please Drive Slower and More Carefully. This one is an ongoing issue. Luckily, we’re at 20mph on residential streets in Portland, now. I think 15 mph would make more sense (4.14.2020).
Neighborhood places: Marino Adriatic Cafe on 41st and Division.
Stop Receiving Yellow Pages @ https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com – Sadly, I can’t believe in October of 2018 yellow pages are still a thing, but they are. This is a good thread if you live in my neighborhood of Richmond, Portland, Oregon, USA. It talks about how to get off of various lists – Red Plum; Oregonian Food Day, etc. There is also a FB group for this purpose.
Be Idle Free: https://albertideation.com/be-idle-free
Here’s more proof from the Washington Post – There is no need to idle in cold weather.
LED street Light improvements. Here’s how to get a shield on your nearby LED street light. Mention “light trespass” which is what is likely happening – light coming from the LED into your house/porch/eyes. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/Transportation/article/672942 –
Here’s a source for outdoor friendly lighting: https://darksky.org/fsa/fsa-products/
If you’d like to participate in an effort to change these lights with me, please sign up, here.
Where does the dirt go? Dumptrucks on Division – Here’s a dirty idea:
Sign up for my newsletter, The Eleven. It comes out on the 11th of the month and is full of great actionable ideas. Thanks for the idea, Noam!
Get Rid of Your Lawn – I’ve been posting about this one a lot, of course, given my love of Farm My Yard 🙂
Sign up for my monthly newsletter, The Eleven.
Here’s what we can do to keep large trees standing in our neighborhoods – Reform Portland’s Tree Code To Preserve Large Healthy Trees

https://audubonportland.org/news/reform-portland2019s-tree-code-to-preserve-large-healthy-trees Reform Portland’s Tree Code To Preserve Large Healthy Trees Now is the time to reform City rules to preserve more large healthy trees in every neighborhood! Thanks to the direct action of neighbors and financial donations from the community, the 150-year-old giant sequoias in SE Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood were saved from the developer’s chain saws. However, the rules that permitted their removal and the cutting of large healthy trees in neighborhoods across Portland are still in place. From Powellhurst-Gilbert to St. Johns, from SW Hills to Richmond, Cully, and beyond, Portland’s neighborhoods are experiencing extensive tree cutting driven by a highly lucrative real estate development market. (article cont’d here).

This led to starting a Facebook group to organize on this topic. Join us, here. And our newsletter, here.
Learning permaculture – a possible way for us to transform our urban landscape:
TURN OFF YOUR CAR HORN – LESS BEEPING = LESS NOISE – This led to the post below (and one other) and a new post on my website: Feel free to share widely! https://albertideation.com/turn-off-car-horn-less-beeping-less-noise
Solutions to Barking Dogs & Other Noise Nuisances – Answer 🙂
How to Throw a Great Voting Party in a vote by mail state:
A neat article on Communities vs. Networks – to which do you belong?
Want to try out a new game; meet some neighbors; move your body?
Building Neighborhood Resiliency (from 12/2016): As the snow is here – in Australia it looks warm and sunny 🙂 I just got this newsletter from an Australian group called Good Hoods. Here’s what they write: Dear Albert, During the recent Discovery Tour around Australia we met some great people and heard about amazing initiatives working to build community connection and resilience. We now have a network of passionate resilience experts, including yourself, and together we believe we can create a nation that is ready for anything. Following the tour, we have been thinking through how we can continue to help people connect and come together. We know that resilience is a process and something that grows over time. One of the first steps we all can take is to connect with others so we feel a sense of belonging. That’s why we are launching Good ‘Hoods – a new initiative to help create connections and a sense of pride in where you live. We want to connect people who want to work together to create more resilient communities, and share initiatives so the good continues to grow. We have shared some of the great initiatives from the tour that you may want to replicate in your community, see a sneak peek below: Do good in your hood: learn more about the initiatives that we discovered during our tour. If you have an initiative you would like to add let us know about it so we can continue to grow the list. Street BBQ: there’s nothing like a good BBQ to bring people together. We’re encouraging our people to say that first hello to their neighbors this summer, and we want to share the resources with you too. To help get you to get started we’re giving the first 200 to register their own street BBQ a $50 supermarket voucher. These first resources are based on what we heard would be helpful. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas on how we can continue to grow and improve Good ‘Hoods. If you have any feedback please get in contact with IAG’s Shared Value team on 1300 306 493 and info@goodhoods.com.au. Please join us and become part of the Good ‘Hoods community. http://www.goodhoods.com.au/ Sincerely, Jacki Johnson Group Executive People, Performance and Reputation Insurance Australia Group SNEAK PEEK One of the great initiatives we heard about. Learn about this and others on the Good ‘Hoods website. In 2010 and 2012, floods devastated Uranquinty. So a local group, Progress Association, worked with the NSW SES to devise a disaster response plan to minimize damage from future floods.

This led to a long list of items on building neighborhood resiliency.