gar alperovitz and community-owned banks

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Permalink Reply by Margo Duesterhaus on January 11, 2012 at 6:25pm

Thanks for posting this.  I heard from Jo last night that Move On is also interested in the State Bank legislation.  If anyone has any information about what Move On is doing - please post it here.

Permalink Reply by Lore Rosenthal on January 12, 2012 at 12:34am

I think they worked on Move-Your-Money (for individuals) and now want people to work on Move Your Money for businesses, colleges, and faith communities, http://rebuildthedream.com/

Permalink Reply by Lore Rosenthal on January 12, 2012 at 12:31am

I think he was also part of the Evergreen Cooperative in Cleveland. http://www.evergreencoop.com/ I would like to start something like that in MD.  Was hoping to invite him to Greenbelt, to see if he could help me drum up interest.  I would even quit my job if I could work on such a project.  Elisabeth, are you interested in collaborating between Greenbelt and Columbia in inviting him to make the same presentation TWICE?

Permalink Reply by elisabeth hoffman on January 12, 2012 at 5:35pm

So, the evergreen coop has a solar company, a laundry company and a farm, right? What did you have in mind for Greenbelt or Columbia? Or are you thinking more generally at this point. Do you think Alperovitz would speak for free? I was thinking not. As an aside, I discovered by Gar Alperovitz when reading a column of his in the NYT in 1977 or 78, when I was in grad school at Penn State. And then, on the bus to the tar sands rally recently, I sat with (and now am in occasional email contact with) another really cool radical economist (Lane Vanderslice) -- and it turns out they know each other!  But I haven't kept up with Alperovitz consistently over the years....Just every once in a while, I would find something he wrote. I'm not familiar with his new book or latest ventures. Looks interesting, and I'm going to have to read more.

Permalink Reply by Margo Duesterhaus on January 12, 2012 at 7:04pm

Lore - I am also interested in the Evergreen Cooperative concept and would love to get something like that going here.  I have toyed with the idea of buying land to start a farm - but land in HoCo is expensive.  It's cheaper in the neighboring counties (Baltimore, Carroll, etc).  I am also interested in an aquaponics "farm"  as you are not dependent on weather.  It would be cool to have both a regular farm and aquaponics.

I have given some thought about where might be a good location for a coop like this.  Right now I am leaning towards a place like Catonsville, as property prices are more reasonable there.  It's close to Howard County and also Baltimore, so could tie in with the BNote and all of the progressive things that Baltimore is doing.  Maybe some of the BGF folks would be interested in participating in something like this? It fits in with their work on creating a local economy.

Is anyone else interested in this?