In another life, I had the luck to meet a group of social psychologists who were doing a study of long-term civic commitment. They were two couples, and were interviewing 200 committed citizens working in social movements from literacy to human rights. They joked that the project would make or break both marriages, and both came through fine. They uncovered some beautiful stories and some guiding principles about adult development and social movement participation. The book they published was all about going with the flow of human nature to accomplish change without creating winners and losers. The authors were Jim and Cheryl Keen at Antioch College, Larry Daloz Parks at Leslie University and Sharon Parks Daloz, then at Harvard Business School. The book, published in 1996, was called Common Fire: Lives of Commitment in a Complex World.

The people in this book are the kinds of people who are holding our Hudson Valley communities together, often with little appreciation or support. Since I have been working with Sustainable Hudson Valley, I can think of far too many to name: Newburgh City Manager Jean McGrane, Hudson Main Street Manager Hilary Hillman, Kingston Mayor James Sottile, all the outreach people at Cornell Cooperative Extension, the elected officials of the Kingston Common Council including my next door neighbor Ann Marie DiBella who puts every ounce of her energy into helping inner-city families, and Alderman Bob Senor, who is a tireless advocate for his ward.

And so it is ironic that Alderman Senor is in the midst of a conflict with a group of citizens called the Common Fire Foundation, who chose their name in honor of the book and who devote their time to teaching the skills of citizenship and conflict resolution as well as demonstrating a greener lifestyle. The Common Fire folks, who created the first LEED Platinum residential complex in the Hudson Valley, now want to create the greenest urban renovation project in the region and show the way down that important path.

I have pledged repeatedly to stay out of local development controversies, and will mostly stay out of this one except to urge all parties to meet each other, listen to each other, and understand the values you probably have in common. Here's a reflection I recently posted on the Daily Freeman's blog in response to the coverage of the controversy:

The cultural collision between the Common Fire Foundation and some long-time Kingston residents is understandable, regrettable, and probably not too hard to work through with some communication. The Freeman's good coverage draws out a number of issues to be addressed, from the legitimacy of nonprofit property ownership (which is widespread) to the zoning appropriateness for shared living spaces among working adults (which is probably also widespread and getting more so with rising energy costs).

A rooming-house is a for-profit business that provides shelter for a fee, with residents coming and going at their discretion and no collaborative activities or added value created beyond the shelter. A cooperative is a not-for-profit business with a shared purpose, committed participants, and an organizing principle that adds value in the community. In the case of Common Fire, that value comes from its educational programs and model projects on green building and resource-efficient lifestyles, and on conflict resolution and community building. Maybe we in Kingston know all there is to know about those things, but maybe even our advanced community has something to learn.

A nonprofit is a business too. Non-for-profit businesses feed profits back into the business to support a public interest mission rather than distributing them to shareholders. The IRS gets stricter every year to ensure that nonprofits document their revenues, their mission-related programs and their outcomes. It is appropriate for Alderman Senor and the entire city government to conduct due diligence on whether any nonprofit organization moving into the city is legitimate and producing value in the form of a social mission; it is not so wise for the alderman, or anyone else, to leap to a conclusion without fact finding.

As for the suggestion that environmentally conscious lifestyles are best kept on the farm… yikes! Farming’s great, but not sufficient. Cities are environments in their own right. The only way we will protect natural systems from population pressure and sprawl is by restoring our urban centers with sophistication and care, and living more sensitive lives right here in the city.