In Lester R. Brown’s recent book “Plan B 2.0:” Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, one chapter is devoted to designing sustainable cities. The book highlights the huge unrealized potential for urban gardening in the United States including the hundreds of thousands of urban vacant lots. While we hear more and more that producing and buying food locally has numerous benefits for local economies and the environment, the book also cites “a regenerative effect” when vacant lots are transformed from eyesores–weedy, trash-ridden dangerous gathering places–into bountiful, beautiful, and safe gardens that feed people’s bodies and souls.

In Oakland, California, People’s Grocery has mobilized communities to transform blighted lots into sustainable gardens full of fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and compost piles. Check out their programs and blog here.

In 2006, two University of California at Berkeley researchers completed a food systems assessment for Oakland, California with the goal of assessing the city’s capability of producing at least 30 percent of its food needs within the immediate region. They found that with 35 community-based gardens and over 20 million acres in agricultural production surrounding Oakland within a 300-mile radius, there is significant potential for boosting a sustainable food-based economy.

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In 2005, two public entities and an ardent community group called “Friends of Tolay Lake” teamed up to preserve a little known scenic and culturally significant valley, 40 miles north of San Francisco. They prevailed after raising the funds from county, state, federal, and private sources. Tolay Lake Regional Park opened up to limited pubic access for the first time since the transfer in ownership to the regional open space district from a private owner.

Over a thousand prehistoric charmstones, culturally significant rock carvings, have been found since the lake was drained in the early 1900s. Some charmstones were sent to the Smithsonian Museum in the early 1900s. According to multiple historical accounts, long before the several-hundred-acre lake was drained, indigenous people performed healing rituals here, putting their ailments into stones that they threw into the water. The rocks, which came from locales across California, were discovered after an early settler dynamited one end of the lake in an effort to make the land suitable for growing potatoes.

The Cardoza family, owners of the property since the 1940s, grew pumpkins in the former lake bottom for an annual fall festival that brought thousands of visitors to the historic site for over 15 years. The Cardozas sold the land to Sonoma County, at a price below its market value, after park advocates successfully raised funds to purchase the 1,737-acre. Now an environmental review process is underway, and the public can visit the park by reserving a spot on a ranger-led hike.

The County of Sonoma’s Regional Parks Department is also consulting with Native American groups representing descendants of Miwok and Pomo tribes to study opportunities for cultural education. One project idea includes the cultivation and restoration of Purple Needle Grass, which was used by Native Californian basket weavers. In recent years, the state designated the rare drought-tolerant purple plant as California’s official state grass.

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Recently, I spoke with Ian Kim, policy director for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center about his organization’s aspirations of building opportunities for disadvantaged communities in the “new green economy.” With an affinity for creating memorable names like “Silence the Violence” and “Books not Bars,” I was immediately struck by the campaign called “Reclaim the Future” and its “Apollo Challenge.”

Simply put, they are urging supporters to sign on, challenging Oakland to create sustainable jobs and energy independence within 10 years, the same amount of time President Kennedy gave the nation for “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” In 1969, Apollo 11 met the lunar challenge after 192 hours. In the Winter 2007 issue of Yes! Magazine, the Center’s executive director Van Jones and communications director Ben Wyskida wrote about their ideas for creating high quality jobs for Oakland residents while cleaning up the environment, improving public health and helping the region achieve energy independence through the promotion of alternative energy technologies.

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My old friend from college Kivi Leroux Miller, a prolific blogger and the principal of EcoScribe Communications based in North Carolina, just tagged me with a meme – a tag that allows a blogger to pose a question to other bloggers and track responses across the blogosphere, according to Wikipedia.

Using a meme, Kivi invited me to answer the question: Who do you write for?

I am writing this blog for anyone interested in positive social change. Have I captured everyone? I am grateful to live in the San Francisco Bay Area where there are myriad nonprofits, philanthropists, cooperatives, social enterprises, and individuals with missions to build healthy and sustainable communities. I would like to pass on some of their stories, ideas, and successes.

Here are just four examples from a very long list:

The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment in Oakland, California believes that “environmental protection and community regeneration must go hand in hand and are inextricably linked to a healthy economy.”

Rainbow Grocery, a worker-owned cooperative in San Francisco’s Mission District, strives to buy locally, supports fair labor practices, donates to local nonprofits, and promotes composting, reuse, and recycling.

Literacy for Environmental Justice has a mission “to foster an understanding of the principles of environmental justice and urban sustainability in our young people in order to promote the long-term health of their communities.”

World of Good is a social enterprise that promotes the principles of fair trade through its sales of handmade items crafted by artisan groups around the world. They also re-invest 10% of their profits in artisan communities through a nonprofit partner. For their first year of operation, they published a document called the “World of Good Social Impact Report 2006.”

In future posts, I will continue to highlight upcoming events, inspirational stories, and real-life examples of nonprofits, socially-responsible businesses, and individuals who are driven by progressive values and vision. Since I am also keen on the use of technology to democratize the media, broadcast more voices, and help organizations run more effectively, I will be posting tips and strategies for using software and web-based tools for project and campaign management, data collection and outcomes tracking, and communications. I will also be writing about nonprofits who are using new earned income opportunities to diversify and build sustainable funding sources. I welcome your ideas!

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