SubRosa – a community space

How much is 4000 acres? Seeing it on the map and comparing it to last summer’s relatively small Bonny Doon/Martin Rd. fire is staggering. Realizing that the fire is as large as the entirety of Bonny Doon — or put another way, as large as all …of Boulder Creek, Brookdale, and Ben Lomond combined — is mind-blowing.

Lockheed Fire, 14 August 2009. 4000 acres. 5% contained. Orange = current Lockheed fire, Gray = last years Martin Rd fire, Yellow = evacuation area. Source and current info: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_maps?incident_id=361

It started me thinking how our political ideals play out in real life. As independent or federated communities, how would we deal with such a situation? And why wait for an anarchist utopia? What can we do now to be helpful and support communities that are in need now?

TEMPORARY HOUSING NETWORK FOR FIRE EVACUEES

In that vein, we created a network to help evacuees find housing at SubRosa in downtown Santa Cruz.

• Offer Housing: If you have temporary housing — a spare room, a couch, a backyard in which to pitch a tent — to offer, come down to SubRosa and list it on the board.
• Evacuees: If you are seeking temporary housing, use the housing list at SubRosa to find a place.

We’ll be looking at other ways we can help out during the fire, so stay tuned.  More info at http://subrosaproject.org