What Boxes You Ask?
Where we live...
on a numbered block...
in a building
And in an apartment or house or room (if fortunate).
At work it can be more of the same with variations, of course,
And organizational charts to manage us all.
Imagine how all this affects our thinking? The way we see or don't see things.
This is a way to start if you can't throw away the box - at least make an effort to think outside of it. And as referenced by Rev. Bill Kirlin-Hackett, Director of the Task Force on Homelessness up in Seattle: focus on people and from the bottom up. (his advice here)
Right now our neighborhood is experiencing an "unbridled" laissez-faire approach to development of key blocks (24,25,26) despite a 2008 plan with scenarios to choose from, a re-development agency that is unbalanced, indeed, omnipotent, and a neighborhood organization that does not include in their decision-making what is here on the bottom - a diverse community of residents and employees, many in health care serving those in supportive care, sheltered and unsheltered.
We want representation as decision-makers for those of us on the bottom and for our City's elected officials and staff "to challenge and reform the rigid command-and-control systems that inhibit people’s ability to adapt their neighborhood to their needs."
Ruth Ann Barrett
Portland's Caring Community
Old Town Chinatown
June 15, 2018