Amikas

One third of the thousands of San Diegans who are considered homeless are working people who cannot afford the high cost of San Diego housing. Thousands of others would work if jobs were available, including US military veterans (men and women), seniors, people with disabilities, families with children and an influx of "nouveau poor" – victims of a persistent economic crisis. A situation with such diverse causes requires diverse solutions. So, while good work is being done in our community, new ideas are needed to house the growing numbers of people living on our streets.

Current strategies for addressing this problem are akin to mopping up from an over-flowing bathtub without turning off the faucet, and then dumping the mopped-up water back into the same bathtub! San Diego needs visionary solutions like the Amikas plan (www.amikas.org) that empower people and won’t cycle them through an endless queue of temporary shelters and transitional housing with nowhere to go but back on the streets.

Amikas will provide the structure and means for 1800 San Diegans, currently or at-risk of being un-housed, to participate in creating their own self-sufficient, eco-friendly community. Every Amikas neighbor will be employed to the best of their ability, re-building their lives while building and maintaining their neighborhood, growing food, providing the services needed to sustain a healthy, thriving community and sharing that bounty with San Diego

Amikas will serve as a model of eco-friendly, cooperative living while addressing the root of the economic crisis experienced by the working poor, by introducing a local currency to facilitate the exchange of goods and services within the neighborhood and providing a source of funding so taxpayers won’t foot the bill. Instead of being a drain on limited resources, Amikas residents will contribute.

Amikas needs about 75 acres of arable land near downtown San Diego to build low-carbon-impact homes and a working farm without displacing anyone or impacting local property values. The ideal location is the part of Tecolote Canyon currently being used as an executive golf course. There are over 90 golf courses within a 40-mile radius of downtown, including two less than a mile away from Tecolote Canyon. Each golf course consumes, on average, 150 million gallons of water each year. Living in a region where water conservation is crucial to our future survival, replacing one golf course with a project committed to water conservation, that provides food, housing and employment, makes perfect sense! The City of San Diego owns this property and it is designated parkland. San Diegans can vote to change that designation so we can use this property for the Amikas neighborhood, if the City Council will put an initiative on the ballot.

Please sign this petition to tell the members of the San Diego City Council that you support putting an initiative on the November 2010 ballot to use Tecolote Canyon Golf Course for the Amikas neighborhood, to alleviate the devastating effects of joblessness and homelessness in San Diego.

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it to future generations.”

--George Bernard Shaw