The second-ever Transition Palo Alto Craft Swap took place in Palo Alto this time, upstairs at the lovely Opal’z store, filled with the fragrance of essential oils and soap. We arrived, arms full, and set up on the U-shaped tables. People arrived early, helped sort things into the categories. We found that there were lots of things that didn’t fit into the regular categories, and lots of things that already looked interesting.
Speakers from VTA, Strategic Economics, and ReConnecting America discuss:
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
7- 8:30 PM
Sunnyvale City Hall:
City Council Chambers
456 W. Olive Avenue
FREE
Sponsored by the American Planners Association of Northern California, Strategic Economics, VTA, ReConnecting America, Sunnyvale Cool, Urban Habitat, the City of Sunnyvale, Greenbelt Alliance and the Grand Boulevard Initiative El Camino Real.
Are you a crafter or artist with pack-rat tendencies? Now is the time to come clean, and clean up!
One person’s trash is another’s treasure, so help reduce waste and share with your neighbors at the 2nd ever Craft Swap.
Join the fun at:
719 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94303
650-322-6500
For details about what to bring and how it works, click here. Let us know what you’re bringing by emailing rani at b a c r a f t s w a p (at) g m a i l (dot) c o m.
Bring your friends! Share or post our flyer:
Transition Palo Alto’s “Conversation, Community and Calling” workshop continues, welcoming new participants. Admission is open and free.
Saving the planet means creating a caring culture. Social ties are central to health, happiness, and civic life. Yet our frantic, distracted culture makes it difficult to maintain and deepen social connections. Trust and civil discourse are in decline.
Based on the practice of good, effective conversation, in this workshop we examine how you can use conversation and community to follow your calling and advance your vision of cultural change.
Join us alternate Tuesdays starting March 1: 6:45 – 9 PM.
World Centric, 2121 Staunton Court
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Coming Events
CARBON NATION – FREE SCREENING – February 28
FREE GROUP WORKSHOPS: “Conversation, Community, and Calling” – March 1
FILM SERIES POTLUCK – March 4
TRANSITION TRAINING AT ESALEN – April 17-21
SHARING CONFERENCE – end of May
For details, see the latest Transition Palo Alto Newsletter — now posted on the website:
https://transitionpaloalto.org/events-2/newsletter-%E2%80%93-february-26-2011/
The newsletter is published about every two weeks. Click on the “Events” tab to see back issues .
(also at https://transitionpaloalto.org/events-2/
Join the Transition Palo Alto Yahoo group to get on the mailing list for the newsletter:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transitionpaloalto/
Slow Food South Bay presents:
World Centric Community Space,
2121 Staunton Ct, Palo Alto, CA
On February 12, The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming will host TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat, a one-day TEDx event on sustainable food and farming. It will explore our food system — from what happened, to where we are, to what we are doing to shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming. In an effort to have as many people as possible participate, the event will be webcast live.
For those of you unfamiliar with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), it is a small non-profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, using talks and performances. Thought leaders from around the world are invited to give presentations up to 18-minutes long that explore important topics to society. All of the talks are recorded and available in an archive at TED’s web-site. Some memorable talks include, Dan Barber’s How I Fell in Love With a Fish and Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize Wish: Teach Every Child About Food. Check them out and get hooked.
Then plan to join us at World Centric on the 12th. The line-up is impressive, including Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, makers of King Corn, Brian Halweil of the Worldwatch Institute, Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA and many more. You can get the full list at the TEDxManhattan web-site. There is no schedule for individual speakers, but the event will be broken into sessions:
Come for one session or stay all day. Those of us staying over lunch time will plan to share a potluck lunch together. Bring something simple, seasonal, local – something sustainable – to share with your neighbors.
(This event is brought to you by a number of partners: Collective Roots, Slow Food South Bay, Transition Palo Alto, Transition Silicon Valley, and World Centric.)
JUST ADDED – Events Calendar courtesy of Yahoo groups
See what Transition-related activities are coming to our area for 2011
—— JANUARY —— FEBRUARY —— MARCH —— APRIL —— MAY —— JUNE ——
After you’ve clicked one of the links, you are prompted to log on to Yahoo to access the calendar.
Anyone can see the calendar. Members of Transition Palo Alto Yahoo group can add events.
You can access these links by clicking on the Events tab on these pages.
We’re got plans in the works for a Newsletter too.
Transition Silicon Valley is offering a film library. It includes some of the titles that have been presented in our movie series. Check it out!
We’ll look at what went wrong with our cities, how sprawl replaced neighborhoods, and what can be done to bring back community and sustainability to our cities and towns.
January 21 – End of Suburbia We’ll set the stage with this influential film, which shows how the American dream of suburbia has become unsustainable and gives an inkling of what might replace it.
January 28 – Save our Land, Save our Towns Small town newsman Tom Hylton explores why America’s towns have declined and what we can do to revive them.
“Development and zoning issues normally make the eyes glaze…Tom Hylton makes them downright fascinating.” Philadelphia Daily News
February 4 – Community by Design Learn about the key role that design plays in community from some leading progressive thinkers on the subject.
February 11 – Portland: Quest for the Livable City Portlanders enjoy a thriving downtown, plus national recognition for alternative transportation, emissions reductions, and overall sustainability, thanks to a regional land use process established thirty years ago. Learn about the challenges of maintaining this land use vision and its implications for equity and fairness.
February 25 – A Convenient Truth In this inspirational film, you’ll learn why cities around the world look to Curitiba, Brazil as the model for creative and enlightened urban planning. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into cost effective solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world.
March 4 – Join us for our third 100 mile potluck. Connect with others and learn about opportunities to get involved.
Films of Vision and Hope focuses on hopeful and positive solutions to environmental
problems affecting our world. Provocative films, great discussion, and opportunities to connect with others who want to make a difference.
Where: World Centric, 2121 Staunton Ct., Palo Alto (behind JJ&F Market)
When: Fridays 7:00 – 9:30 PM (7 PM cookies, 7:30 PM film)
Sponsored by Acterra, Common Ground, Mountain View Cohousing Community, Silicon Valley Action Network, Transition Silicon Valley, Transition Palo Alto, World Centric, and more
NEWSLETTER – December 30, 2010
CONTENTS
New Years Eve party
Upcoming Events
No Impact Experiment
Ideas for Community Building in the New Year
———-
NEW YEARS EVE –
World Centric has invited us to a New Years Eve event, starting at 7 pm
Transition members should have received an invite (see emailed newsletter)
———-
UPCOMING EVENTS –
* Jan 4 – Free workshop 7-9 pm at World Centric with Cecile Andrews
“Conversation, Community, and Calling” https://transitionpaloalto.org/2010/12/10/group_workshops/
* Low impact experiment (January) – see note from David Coale below
* New film series “Making Cities Livable” (tentatively scheduled to start in January)
* New low carbon diet class (scheduled for January) – contact Annette Isaacson
* New Transition book group starting in late January – contact Emily Rosen, Paul Heft or William Mutch
———-
NO IMPACT EXPERIMENT
Here is reminder about the No Impact Experiment I and other folks will be involved in starting Jan 2. Please join me in exploring ways to lessen our impact. This is a project by Transition Palo Alto. See: https://transitionpaloalto.org/2010/12/07/the-no-impact-experiment/ for more information or follow the links below.
– David Coale (Transition Palo Alto)
Join me, Transition Palo Alto, and many others in The No Impact Experiment! It’s a one-week exploration of how to reduce our negative impacts on our environment, beginning January 2nd (in partnership with YES! Magazine (http://www.yesmagazine.org/) and the No Impact Project (http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/).
We’ll learn a few things about living a happier life, and maybe change a few habits in the process.
This is not a test. There is no scoring, there are no judgments. It’s a chance to experiment with small changes in our lives, as part of the big cultural shift we are undertaking to live in balance on our planet. They supply information and support for each day of the week during your exploration experiment. We might learn whether less environmental degradation brings with it more happiness! If you already do a lot to lessen your impact, great! Consider this a tune-up.
Try it! Register on the No Impact Project website. http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/
(Visit How It Works to preview step-by-step instructions, http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/how-it-works/
or Reflections on a one-week carbon cleanse to read someone else’s experience.) http://eartheasy.com/blog/2010/01/reflections-on-a-one-week-carbon-cleanse/
Also think about sending this around to your friends and neighbors as it is fun to do as a group.
David Coale / Transition Palo Alto.
**********************
NOTES FROM POTLUCK
Ideas for Community Building in the New Year
(courtesy of Barbara Weinstein)
* More swaps – such as gardens, seedlings. Note that Acterra is planning a conference on sharing…
* Continuation of Cecile Andrews’ workshops on conversation – perhaps continue after she completes the initial sessions Jan 4.
* New book and study groups (science of climate change, any other topics..)
* Reskilling work group (possible workshop/conference this spring)
* Connecting with Stanford staff and students – for this, it would be best to have activities on campus, or in the case of staff, close to transit lines
* Workshops on bike repair
* Knitting groups
* Book exchange
* More social get-togethers
Things to work out…
* Arranging for space for meetings, films (since we won’t be able to meet at World Centric after March).
o Talking to KEEP in Palo Alto about partnering with them to get some city space (such as Lucy Stern) for free
o Local libraries (Palo Alto, Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View
o Peninsula Conservation Center (where we held the first film series)
o Stanford rooms (need a faculty or staff sponsor to get for free?)
* How best to help people brainstorm ideas for activities and get together to make them happen.
o Use Facebook?
o Try to use the Transition web site to help connect people who want to work with others on ideas for activities
* Consolidating email lists
– Bart Anderson (temporary editor)
Transition Palo Alto 
