We are excited to announce that Al and Tina are wrapping things up in warm Miami (Al has been working hard and deserved a balmy climate for our final spring stop), the last city on our 2011 Spring Season itinerary. Al and our all-star team of radio producers have collected incredible stories of community and the resiliency and devotion of people meeting challenges head on . . . and creating solutions. Come along this Spring as we visit:

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Birmingham, Alabama
• Utica, New York
• Oakland, California
• Miami, Florida

Watch our newest short documentaries shot in Birmingham about the incredible stories of Red Mountain and Scrollworks and read the breakdown of all five upcoming Spring Season episodes on our Season 2 Preview page!

Go ahead, we know you’re a leader, get the conversation started! SOTRU would love to get your thoughts on the episodes when they are made available, our newest documentaries and all things SOTRU and community related.

Photo By: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

We all love to travel. As a wannabe foreign correspondent, I know I’ve spent my fair share of time daydreaming about incredible adventures in Nepal, Senegal, Peru or a million other far-off places in the world. The problem is, travel can be expensive, and while many of us would love an opportunity to go abroad for awhile, we don’t always have the means to do it. Despite our desire, we’re not all able to pack up our suitcases and say goodbye to our communities.

But maybe we don’t have to.

For all those travel junkies in need of a fix, New York City’s Ed Casabian, 29, may have found an answer:

Don’t leave your community; just learn to travel within it.

Nicknamed the “N.Y.C. Nomad,” Casabian is in the midst of a yearlong journey through his own city, picking up and moving to a different home in a different neighborhood every Sunday. A financial analyst for a local news website, he got the idea when he and his girlfriend ended their seven-year relationship and he needed to move out of their co-op. In a state of depression, he tried to come up with a plan for the next few months. “Thinking about the happiest times of my life, it was when I was traveling, exploring and meeting new people,” he told The New York Times, who recently wrote an article about his adventure. “Couldn’t I just travel in my own city?”

Photo By: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Yes, he thought, and so he does. Armed with a camping backpack, an air mattress, two weeks’ of clothes, a business suit and a tennis racket, Casabian has been traveling for six months now, and at this point he’s seen about 20 different neighborhoods.

In each new location, he pays his hosts not with money, but with home-cooked meals and nights out in the city. And as he makes new friends along the way, he helps them rediscover the unique beauty of their own neighborhoods.

Get the conversation started!

We want to know:

• What do you think of the “N.Y.C. Nomad”? Would you ever pursue a similar adventure? Why or why not?
• What places would you like to explore in your own community?

These thoughts were inspired by an article in The New York Times, entitled “In This Journey, Every Sunday is Moving Day.” Casabian also writes about his journey at thenycnomad.tumblr.com.

Home page picture by: Kprateek88

It’s a really easy habit to get into. You consume the things that you like, the things you need, the things that make you happy . . . all without much thought to the people behind getting them to your table. I know I haven’t in the past and I’m not trying to cause you a crisis of conscience if you haven’t either. Much unlike my past malaise, a group of Princeton students took offense to the Sabra hummus being offered by school dining services.

The delicious chick pea spread caused a rift at the school because Sabra is 50% owned by the Strauss Group, Israel’s second largest food and beverages company. The students that have organized against serving Sabra don’t like that the Strauss Group has “Made public statements in support of the Israeli Defense Forces and also sends care pacakges to soldiers.” A Princeton pro-Palestine group has been trying to garner support for the boycott.

This made me think about the aftermath of the BP oil spill. Many advocated for a boycott of BP and I thought about all the people that such a thing would effect. The franchisees across the country, the truck drivers, the station employees, etc. In these matters, there never seems to be an easy solution that doesn’t leave somebody hurting. But at the same time, boycotts have been successful tools of raising awareness and sending a message, sometimes the only way you can—with your wallet. It’s not nearly at the same level, but I wonder the same thing about Sabra and if they were to lose accounts, who would that really impact and how?

We Want to Know:

• Have you ever participated in a boycott? If yes, explain.
• Has your community or a business in your community ever been impacted by a boycott?

These thoughts were inspired by an article in the Gothamist about the Princeton students fight against Sabra. We would love to hear your thoughts. Get the discussion started!

Use your imagination.

Their Slogan . . . and It's True

When it comes to playtime, nothing beats a good, old-fashioned cardboard box. As little kids, I bet many of us spent our fair share of time inside one – imagining ourselves as spaceship drivers heading toward outer space, or treasure hunters exploring a deep dark cave. As we’ve grown older and the real world has catapulted us forward, that cardboard box has probably lost its appeal – becoming just another storage container, or a reminder that moving day is on the horizon. But imagine if we could maintain that childhood imagination a little longer. How might we apply it to the benefit of our communities?

In New Orleans, a writer named Rob Walker is answering these questions – not with cardboard boxes, but with vacant, dilapidated buildings. Like many towns, New Orleans has several neglected edifices, and they struck a chord in Walker’s imagination. What could these buildings become, he wondered, in some limitless, hypothetical future? How could they be renovated and used by the community? He had a few ideas up his own sleeves, so he decided to play them out artistically – producing architectural renderings of imagined, fictional and exciting new spaces – and posting them outside the current, neglected ones. In this vein, he founded the Hypothetical Development Organization in 2010.

“In our view, plausibility is a creative dead end.”

Mobile Cornucopia

Much like children and their cardboard boxes, The Hypothetical Development Organization isn’t bound by convention as it invents future uses for New Orleans’ buildings. Its designers don’t think about commercial potential, practical materials or physics as they come up with their ideas, and their renderings don’t look realistic. Indeed, as the organization’s website states, “In our view, plausibility is a creative dead end.” With this freedom, past ideas have included, “The Museum of the Self” and “The Loitering Centre.” Although some critics wonder whether the signs will confuse local residents – Are they really turning this old ugly building into a “Museum of the Self”? – Walker says his signs aren’t intended to confuse anyone. Instead, The Hypothetical Development Organization is simply trying to get communities thinking and talking about otherwise overlooked spaces, engaging in a new kind of urban storytelling that could even spark community activism. Might the architectural renderings inspire local residents to take action and transform a dilapidated space into something new?

The Hypothetical Development Organization in New Orleans really got me thinking about communities and the evolution of neighborhood spaces. Like New Orleans, many cities are home to neglected real estate, and people tend to walk by without a second thought.  The empty buildings have history, and they might remind us of what used to be there. The question is, how can we inspire our neighbors to start discussing their futures?

We want to know:

• Does your community have any old vacant buildings? Have you ever imagined a future use for them?
• What do you think about The Hypothetical Development Project?
• If we consider renovations, should we focus on preserving the history of vacant properties? Or should we try to imagine a modern use, even if it’s totally different?

These thoughts were inspired by two September and December articles in Good Magazine.

Start the discussion below!

Photo By: Naz Hamid for www.pictorymag.com

Water permeates every aspect of life. The chemical substance is essential for survival, covers more than 70% of our planet’s surface, composes anywhere from 55% to 78% of our bodies and epitomizes Bruce Lee’s philosophy on life. It is even a direct connection to the stars, as much of the universe’s water is produced as a byproduct of star formation. It’s amazing that a substance so abundant carries vastly different meanings from community to community.

Some places build their economy around a body of water while for others, the disbursement of water is an ancient, sacred and challenging practice. The needs, uses, esteem . . . all present a vast range. Can you imagine explaining to someone twenty-five years ago what a huge industry bottled water would become? Anecdotes surrounding water are endless.

While it has been a source of division in some cases, it generally is something that brings people together. Think about the times you have spent at your local watering hole swimming, plunging in from a rope swing, fishing or time spent at the seemingly endless ocean just taking in the view, surfing, walking, thinking, bonding.

We Want to Know:

• Besides being a necessity of your survival, what role does water play in your life?
• How important is water or a body of water in your community? Please explain.

Start the conversation by commenting below!

Pictory, a website that captures user’s stories in incredilbe, high-quality photos, did this piece about water called In Deep. We’re looking forward to hearing what you to say. Get the discussion started!

Featured image on home page by Serrah Russell for Pictory.

Utica is not a city that makes many outsize claims these days. There’s a pervasive sense that a lot of the city’s glory days are in the past, that the time when people boasted about Utica with words like “best” and “biggest” are long gone. Except… when it comes to food. Economic hard times or not, this is a city that takes its eating seriously. Maybe that’s because it was home to so many Italians… (more…)