Big Sur Powerdown Statement of Intent: June 2006

Our intent with Big Sur Powerdown is to educate the populace of Big Sur and ourselves about the long-term problems and solutions facing our unique community and the ones surrounding it due to future energy constraint.
For more information about Big Sur Powerdown, please contact the site manager, Linda Parker, by email at surite@sbcglobal.net.

The next year looks like this:

1. We will morph the Big Sur Powerdown website into one that does three things: the main room will be like the regular post carbon site with upcoming events, info on the group and blogs. The two side rooms will be labeled Big Sur Information and Big Sur Community. Clicking on Big Sur Information, a resident could ask any question and know that one of us will get him an answer that’s current. How do I do this? What’s the most efficient way to do that? Big Sur Information would also be filled with easy to find past info from neighbors recounting their stories when they tried to resolve energy issues or begin permaculture. The other side room will be called Big Sur Community. Peak Oil is only a part of this room. The main point of this room will be to link residents to each other in this remote community so that people will know their neighbors in time of crisis, and so people will rely on the community more for their needs in order to lower their collective energy demands in the outer world. This room will foster carpooling and activity sharing (from finding chamber music partners and creating impromptu drum circles to Mah Jongg and quilting bees) –anything that puts people together in a way that strengthens community.

2. We are slowly meeting with every member of Big Sur (population 1,500) and enter into our database what each person wants to do for the community, what they would love to see happen, their contact information and what their needs are.

3. We will create more events that invite the entire community. We’ll bring in speakers and have meals with groups of selected residents as we learn their opinions. We are so isolated that even reviving monthly Bingo games would probably be a great community vehicle –the caller with the mic does 15 minutes on Big Sur relocalization news just before the Bingo, et voila!

4. We are going to bring back the Big Sur food coop. If someone grows too many heirlooms, they can trade for chard. Great healthy place for locals to meet and talk. We will also grow the bio-diesel coop.

5. We will search for locals who can offer land for communal gardening, to setup Jeavons raised beds and permaculture test plots for others to see, and to talk to each other about what we are doing to empower them. To get excited about life again once we stop waiting for the government to help us, but instead take our own future solidly into our own hands. We have no multi-national corporations and no big box stores in Big Sur and so we have a nice jumpstart on the future.

--Created by Randall Wallace, core member