New Clear Vision


constructive commentary for the chronically farsighted


I Ain’t Got No Home

December 12, 2011 By: NCVeditor Category: Community, Ecology, Economy, Tina Lynn Evans

(Re)learning the Value of Place and Occupying a Sustainable Future

by Tina Lynn Evans

Can we truly be at home in the marketplace? What kind of place is the marketplace, anyway, and how is it related to places like our communities, our homes, and the places we love in the natural world? Has the marketplace effectively replaced these physical/mental places by becoming the great provider of all that we need? And what about virtual place? Many of us spend so much time in online “environments” that place has taken on entirely new meanings unheard of prior to the Internet age. In a time when we can be both virtually and physically present in two different places at once, does it matter how we think about place, or can we just make of it what we will — make how we see and use place fit our chosen lifestyles? (more…)

The Significance of Place

November 29, 2011 By: NCVeditor Category: Current Events, Guest Author, Politics

Why Tents (Still) Matter for the Occupy Movement

by Jen Schradie

Last week, I responded to a 4am text and went down to the Occupy Oakland site to support the encampment during yet another raid. I saw the sunrise over various police agencies dismantling Occupy Oakland tents. That evening, I marched back at sunset with other protesters to take back the plaza. The night before, Denver and Portland authorities moved in to take down local occupy encampments, and a swat team stormed an Occupy group’s takeover of an abandoned building in Chapel Hill. The next day, I watched a livestream of the destruction of Occupy Wall Street’s tents.

But protesters have not given up on tents. On the day of a strike at, the University of California-Berkeley in response to police brutality, the Occupy Cal and Occupy Oakland movements converged with a full-sized tent on a large stick as the symbol of the union, and the movement. (more…)

Power to the Peaceful

November 16, 2011 By: NCVeditor Category: Community, Current Events, Politics, Randall Amster

Holding Space as OWS Camps Come Under Assault

by Randall Amster

As the Occupy Movement gains strength and garners worldwide support, the predominant anti-OWS tactic of authority is becoming clear: decimate as many Occupy camps as possible, in the hope that this delivers a fatal blow to the movement’s momentum. It is an outmoded, heavy-handed tack, one that starkly illuminates the gap between the casual brutality of the 1% and the core aspirations of the 99%.

And it will ultimately fail.

At each turn, the sweeping of the encampments — many of which have become little “utopian experiments” in themselves and working models for an alternative society — has only served to galvanize the resolve of Occupiers and drive even greater numbers out into the streets and parks. Mass arrests aim to make activists pay a personal price for their open defiance, but they also yield greater degrees of movement solidarity and radicalize demonstrators across generational and cultural lines. (more…)

Down on the Corner

September 19, 2011 By: NCVeditor Category: Community, Culture, Jay Walljasper

Neighborhoods Are Defined by What’s in Store

by Jay Walljasper

It’s undeniably fun to write each week about what’s happening in cities around the world, chronicling trends like bikesharing, cool new public spaces and crowdsourcing.  But it’s not all glamour.

A lot of what makes a great place to live is actually quite prosaic: sidewalks and sewer pipes, fire and police protection, effective public officials and dedicated citizens.

And, oh yes, corner groceries.

I’m serious. No neighborhood will be truly vibrant if you must drive a mile or two or more every time you need eggs and espresso beans. Commerce is the lifeblood of any community but even the best bookstore or a knock-your-socks-off vintage fashion boutique can wholly compensate for the lack of a food store.  (more…)

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