Busy times. Professor Peter Phibbs and myself hosted a Sydney visit by community land trust expert John Emmeus Davis for a week in March and it went brilliantly. Apart from being his usual great company, John was totally on the job – we ran a public documentary screening, professional short course, public seminars, radio time and meetings with state and federal housing ministerial staff. The model and material were received really well amongst public, affordable, community and cooperative housing workers; with any luck we’ll start to see the broadening of affordable housing delivery mechanisms soon. Getting laryngitis half way through the week put an interesting spin on things.
Meanwhile I’m aiming to go back to Burlington and New York in September – this time with the family, which will be a blast. This should be a study visit to the Champlain Housing Trust to get more information about how the Trust interacts with the market and its key partners, plus a presentation at a cohousing symposium at the New School. I’m also hoping to see more of the community supported agriculture schemes at the Intervale in Burlington and will have a biit more time in NYC this time, so am hoping to catch up with more folk actually building things this time as well.
All good.
