La Casa Chica: Neighborkids Start Microlending On the Block

You have found your way to the virtual front stoop of "La Casa Chica," a fitting name for the kind of home I am wanting to create. I hope it will contribute to the growing sense of connection and belonging here in my Central-Cocoanut neighborhood, in the Newtown community of Sarasota, Florida.

La Casa Chica is "the little house," modest in size relative to the other houses on the block and in the neighborhoood.

La Casa Chica is "the enchanted house," with its 1920's Spanish eclectic architecture, its emerging tradition of front-stoop and kitchen conversation, and its resident puppy, Gus.

La Casa Chica is "the home of the beloved child," brought to life through the everyday presence of neighborkids, whose natural inclinations to be social and exuberant generate the special, neighborly spirit of the place.

La Casa Chica is a reclaiming of the legitimate role and relationship of neighbor, which is often less recognized than that of family or professional, but can be powerful and transformative nonetheless.

If Jane Addams were to drop by, I hope that she might recognize La Casa Chica as Hull House reinvented, a century later...

If Jane Jacobs were to drop by, I hope that she might recognize La Casa Chica as an effort to get beyond "the mask of pretended order" that is affecting our community, and to nurture the "real order that is struggling to exist."

If Donald Winnicott were to drop by, I hope that he might recognize La Casa Chica as a place where neighbors choose to get together "to do the things which you can do better than you can be taught to do them."

And if Timothy Leary were to drop by, I hope that he might recognize La Casa Chica as an everyday, real-world, neighborhood-scale embracing of his notion that "the universe is an intelligence test."

But mostly, I hope that my neighbors will drop by.

I am ready to be a neighbor.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Neighborkids Start Microlending On the Block

The kids who will be honored at this month's Neighborkid Dinner are Dalisha and DuShun. Dalisha is already thinking about what outfit she wants to wear, and concluded that she really wants a new pair of fancy shoes. She asked if she could borrow some money, and this led to the impromptu invention of a neighborkid loan option using the money in the scavenger hunters' cash box, which is money that the neighborhood scavenger hunters made at the yard sale a few months back.

Since the money belongs to the Neighborhood Scavenger Hunters as a group, Dalisha called a meeting of scavenger hunters to discuss the possibility of establishing the loan option. It took some time to explain the concept, with a little help from me, but finally everybody got it, and said yes, let's start with one person and see how it goes!

Dalisha wrote down how much money she is borrowing, on what date, for what purpose, to be paid back by what date.

With $20 in hand, she was ready for shoe shopping! Here's Dalisha trying on an especially fancy pair.

Who would have thought that the neighborkids would be the first folks to start up micro-lending here in Central-Cocoanut!

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