Street Philosophy

Safe Ground photos

2009-07-15T21:47:33Z

This is the fourth vacant space Sacramento homeless have been forced to leave since July 1. For more background on this event, click the "Storyline" tab on the right, or click this link

The Compassion Project

2009-08-06T05:20:56Z

When Michael Donnoe puts up magnets with compassionate statements around downtown Sacramento, he intends to have them ripped down, plagiarized, and re-posted elsewhere.

Having moved to the downtown area around March 2008, Donnoe was struck by election paraphernalia floating around the city, as well as graffiti. "Election signs easily make people polarized," he said.

He thought, "How about instead of having an election sign, somebody put something up about respect and kindness."

These attempts to disseminate notions of compassion and thoughtfulness pushed him to create the Compassion Project.

"It's best described as an art and activism project that is designed to cultivate the causes and conditions of compassion and altruism for all who encounter it," Donnoe said.

His inspiration stems from his upbringing. "It was of utmost importance that we treat others with compassion and our primary motivation in life is altruistic," he said.

About 15 years ago, he came across the teachings of Buddhism and found they resonated with his family values. "Everything I grew up believing, it said," he said.

Donnoe writes all of the statements on the magnets himself and tries to capture the attention of passers-by. "It's easy to get preachy on these, but they aren't religious in any way," he said.

The magnets start off with scenarios prompting the reader to "imagine" or "dream" themselves in a particular situation where compassion is needed.

Donnoe found magnets to be a simple way to convey these messages. "I don’t have printing skills and magnets are good because they stick to lots of things," he said.

He typically posts on mailboxes, newspaper boxes, utility boxes and will even leave them on tables and booths in the downtown area.

Donnoe also tries to superimpose his magnetic messages on graffiti vandalism. "I don’t particularly feel safe with graffiti and I assume other people don’t, so I usually try to cover it up if it's written on something magnetic," he said.

"I am limited in where I can post, but I’ve actually started using that to my advantage," Donnoe said.

His limitations allow him to be creative, putting magnets in empty "Take One Please" boxes and sending them off with traveling friends.

"They've gone as far as Davis, Boston, San Francisco and a couple in India," Donnoe said.

The feedback he receives on his magnets has been positive. "My friends are really, really thrilled that the magnets disappear. It's a really good thing."

In the future, Donnoe hopes to write the web address for his new website on the back of magnets and have people register where they found them and any words of wisdom they may have.

He also plans to translate them into Spanish and put them up in Spanish speaking areas.

With the advice of a friend, Donnoe obtained a Creative Commons License for his magnets. "Anybody can use it, copy it, post it around," he said. "I may be the person that starts it, but I hope everyone who encounters it will help it grow."

If you come across these magnets, take a second to read it, pick it up, move it around and spread the compassion.

For more information, click the following link:
The Compassion Project

Photo credit: Michael Donnoe

In search of sleep

2009-07-02T05:40:38Z

Emergency overflow shelters shut down their accommodations to the homeless in Sacramento, including Cal Expo so the homeless took a stand Wednesday morning.

Hundreds gathered in front of Loaves & Fishes on the corner of North 12th and Ahern Street for a march to bring awareness to the recent closings of shelters and the criminalization of poverty and homelessness.

Event organizers expected around 200 attendees, but at one point during the march, there were counts of close to 1,000 people walking to 420 Richards Blvd., a vacant parcel next to the new police station.

Many of those participating in the rally who rely on shelters for a place to sleep at night said they are afraid of legal consequences for camping out on streets.

"There was a woman, six months pregnant on the street, and when the police found she was homeless, they put her in jail," said G.P. Bailey, an activist and songwriter. "That is a scary thing."

"It's a crime against people for existing," said Robert, an 18-year-old a recent graduate of Jesuit High School.

He endured the heat and 1.2-mile march in solidarity for the community of people he was immersed in as a part of a community service project. Robert spent one week living as a homeless person, scrounging for food and pedaling for money with the guidance of teachers.

"We come from a pretty privileged school and they want us to learn that there is more to life than that cloistered area in Carmichael," he said.

Another appearance from the ranks of the privileged was made by the lead singer of local band Papa Roach, Jacoby Shaddix, who lived in Del Paso Heights since the age of 18.

He mingled with the rally participants, held up signs of support with his family, and led a cheer for a safe, legalized camping ground for the homeless.

"My family was homeless for the first year of my life, and to be where I'm at now, I'm super blessed," he said.

Papa Roach has donated money to Loaves & Fishes, and when he is not touring on the road, he serves food there in his spare time.

Birte, a librarian at Loaves & Fishes, as well as a Danish immigrant, was attracted to the homeless environment because of her experiences in Denmark.

"Healthcare for everyone was a big difference back home," she said. "A lot of folks out here end up here because they didn't have healthcare or had big bills."

Tina Reynolds, the owner of Uptown Studios, expressed the need to reform public policy that criminalizes homelessness.

"We are working on repealing laws and making politicians aware of the situation," she said. She also expressed dissatisfaction with the various laws that prevent people from setting up camping gear, rolled up beds, and how these apply to everyone with homes as well. "You are not allowed to camp out in your backyard for more than one day," Reynolds said.

The issues at hand are not specific to the homeless population, they also affect the community in general.

"It's not one side, it's affecting everyone," G.P. Bailey.

Bailey feels the cuts in shelters are creating a ripple effect which affects more than those looking for a home on the street.

"It is affecting the police department," he said. "It's hard to hire anyone from the new graduating class" of the police academy.

Reynolds suggested a dome-like model structure on display from World Shelters that they hope to implement in the future.

"They have if for disaster relief, and there's no disaster like homelessness," she said.

The structure, which costs roughly $2,495, is made of panels of corrugated plastic, and is said to protect from UV rays and can be equipped with optional solar panel attachments. For $2 a day, people can live in these structures.

Reynolds said she wants to look for property within the city that is unclaimed and hopefully set up safe facilities. She described the ideal location as an inexpensive community off the grid that has access to services like Loaves & Fishes, water, toilets, showers and garbage collection.

"What I hope is that we'll be able to understand that there's a legitimate problem in Sacramento," Robert said.

To learn more, click the following links:
Sacramento Loaves & Fishes
World Shelters

Parkour traces Sacramento

2009-08-20T06:44:13Z

I walked onto the quad of Bella Vista High School on a Sunday afternoon to a sight of 20 or so men climbing walls, running like cheetahs on all fours and swinging from trees.

This was the Sacramento regional parkour practice, led by a SFparkour.com representative, Victor Lo Forte. He has been a practitioner of parkour, or traceur, French for tracer, for three and a half years and has led the Sacramento group for about two years.

"From what I understand, it's basically the discipline of training one's mind and body to prepare oneself to overcome obstacles in an environment," Lo Forte said.

Parkour is said to be rooted in early 20th century French military practices. Georges Hébert, a World War I naval officer, developed a notion of physicality that embraced use of the body and its environment for developing strength useful to society.

These principles were the foundation for his "Natural Method," which incorporated the fusion of the mental and physical to overcome obstacles via climbing, running and jumping (to name a few). His method contributed to the development of the French parcours du combattant, or military obstacle course.

As a young teen, David Belle, considered the father of parkour, picked up Natural Method ethics along with his gymnastic and martial arts training in France.

Many of the young men at the Sacramento parkour practice admire Belle and have adopted the Natural Method as part of their training.

"Parkour is training your flight response," said Sacramento State student Jake Anderson.

Lo Forte commented on one of the many purposes of parkour, to "be strong to protect your family and friends."

"We’re not trying to hurt anybody, we’re training to be strong, and that really helps the community," he said.

Though not a spectator sport, it is difficult to explain what exactly traceurs are doing to people who gather round their concrete playground.

"I usually point them to YouTube and Casino Royale," Anderson said. "I tell them parkour is the study of the most efficient way to get from point A to point B."

This efficiency calls for climbing walls, not walking around them.

"If you're in a dead-end alley, you look back and forth and don’t look up," Anderson said. "People don’t look up, they don’t look at their environments anymore."

He described parkour as a way to think of our built environment with a critical lens. "We create our environments to be quick and easy for what we’re raised as," Anderson said. "Parkour shows us that there are actually easier ways than we’re raised, things people don’t think of."

The Sacramento traceurs have tried practicing in the Downtown Sacramento area, but have found security and business owners to be hostile to the activity. "If they tell us to leave then we leave," Lo Forte said.

"I’d say ground-rules for anywhere are be respectful of the environment, don’t wreck things, don’t leave litter behind, clean up after yourselves," he said. "There is a big thing in parkour community called the leave no trace campaign. We don’t want it to look like we’ve been there. We don’t want to get kicked out of places."

Parkour training also focuses on overall health and well-being. "It might save their lives," Lo Forte said. "You never know if they might get addicted to drugs or end up in jail."

"I wanted to get in shape," said Robert King, a telecommunications technician for Sacramento County. "Since I started in January, I lost 40 pounds."

"A lot of people are sitting home and they don’t get any sensory input; they don't smell the dirt on their hands and the sun on their face," Lo Forte said.

This was the case for 15-year-old Jonah Saysourivong. "Before this I was a big-time gamer and would play Call of Duty for 42 hours straight," he said. "I definitely know other kids my age are drinking alcohol and smoking, and that’s one thing I’d never do."

The health benefits and the body's adaptation to unique movements is of great interest to Anderson as a kinesiology student. "They should talk about it in anatomy classes and in physical therapy classes. I think that doctors should know it, gymnasts, athletes," he said. He hopes to introduce parkour in his dance and martial arts classes at Sacramento State.

Lo Forte also aspires to introduce parkour skills to the police force. "These things will be helpful for them and hopefully they will realize that and hire some of us to train them in the future," he said.

In the middle of practice, a group of young men started tumbling and performing a series of flips in the air and over others lying on the ground. The freedom of movement in a creative way like this is called free-running, often associated with parkour.

"Parkour is strictly what's the most efficient way from one point to another; free-running is adding flair and flips," Anderson said.

Though there were not any females present at the practice, they are encouraged to participate as traceuse, French for female tracers.

Robert King encouraged me to try a technique to get over a 7-foot wall during practice, but I settled for swinging and balancing on rails on my own time. I found that I was using my environment rather than living around it. Though we all live in our environments, traceurs live their environments.

For more information, click the following link:

Practice at Bella Vista High School, meeting Sundays and Wednesdays at 4 p.m.

Safe Ground yet to be found

2009-07-15T04:27:26Z

Police arrived at the most recent Safe Ground location on North D and North 11th streets Monday afternoon to notify about 100 homeless campers that they must vacate the premises.

Safe Ground is an attempt to find a safe, legal space for the homeless to settle.

Reverend David Moss was the only arrest made that afternoon for trespassing. Sacramento Police Department spokesperson, Sgt. Norm Leong commented, “He refused to identify if he was camping on the site and refused to leave.”

The empty lot is owned partially by the city and two private property owners. Joan Burke, Director of Advocacy with Loaves & Fishes, said those camping were aware only of the city ownership of the property.

“We came here to facilitate the removal of illegal camping and trespassing complaints of neighboring businesses and owners of the property,” Leong said.

Since the closing of the shelters, the homeless have now been forced to leave a fourth camping location since July 1.

The first was on a vacant lot at 420 Richards Blvd., the second was a vacant parcel of city owned land at 100 Bercut Dr., and the third was a small camp site between the Volunteers of America Shelter and the Union Gospel shelter on Bannon St.

“Thus far everyone is cooperating and moving their property,” Leong said.

Leong said that the police department does not claim itself as an organization fit to solve the homeless issue. “Our job is to enforce ordinances and laws in place," Leong said.

Since their time searching for a safe space to settle, the homeless have become self-governing.

“Campers as a group elected five people to be on a governing board,” Burke said.

She said the board is a Council of Elders, inspired by tribal practices, which helps make decisions about the group in a democratic process. “Each camper signed an individual pledge that the campground be drug, alcohol, and violence free,” Burke said. “It was the first thing the entire camp decided on."

Following the clearing of the lot, Joan Burke made her way to a meeting on the 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness.

In a phone interview Tuesday morning, Burke explained that the policy board met and voted Monday to ask the city of Sacramento to "adopt a moratorium on the enforcement of anti-camping laws."

This advisory policy will be passed from the board, which consists of non-profit organizations, businesses, law enforcement, and the homeless community, to the Sacramento City Council and the City Manager's Office.

The campers are planning to go to the City Council meeting Tuesday night with their gear to raise questions about where they will be sleeping tonight.

“This is a grave situation with nowhere for folks to go,” Burke said.