Sebastopol Village Building Convergence article in Press Democrat today

[Shepherd]

The following article, with a photo, appeared this morning in the Press Democrat.
Please join us, starting at 11 a.m. in the Sebastopol plaza and walking up McKinley through the Barlow to paint murals. Please join us for this ten-day beautification of our small town.

Shepherd


Community comes together for Sebastopol Village Building Convergence

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/newsle...for-sebastopol
BY MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

September 12, 2014, 6:43PM

Volunteers were shaping sand bags, adobe bricks and handfuls of a mud-and-straw mixture called “cob” into a circular bench and earthen pizza oven outside a rural Sebastopol coffee shop Friday. And that was just the start.

Between now and Sept. 21, participants in the inaugural Sebastopol Village Building Convergence will tackle at least 12 projects designed to beautify Sebastopol, bring people together and create outdoor gathering spots that foster community and sustainability.

Part of a 10-day combination workshop, lecture series and celebration of what communities can do together, the VBC, as it’s widely known, is focused on sharing the joy and promise of greater connectivity between neighbors.

Modeled after similar events rolled out in Portland, Ore., over the past 13 years, the convergence includes a packed schedule of workshops and lectures, musical entertainment, movement classes and fellowship designed to inspire and educate.

It’s unclear how many people will choose to participate, though an average of 200 daily consult the event’s website, said Sebastian Collet, a Portland transplant who helped create the local event.

“It’s the first time we’ve done this, so it’s a big experiment. But there’s wonderful people involved,” said Marty Roberts, who is organizing painting of a downtown city street.

The theme of the extended event is “reclaiming the commons,” encouraging the creative design, development and stewardship of outdoor gathering places that help counteract social and cultural forces that tend to isolate and divide.

The “place-making” effort involves a series of building, painting and landscaping projects at different venues around town, many of them happening over several days.

Today and Sunday, that will include volunteers gathering to paint a block of McKinley Street, filling in outlined renderings of pre-approved pieces — one, “Spirit Bird,” near Laguna Park Way and the Rialto Cinemas, and the other, “Spirit Canine,” about a block west from there. Animal prints and migrating salmon painted onto the street will link the two, with the overall aim of better integrating the new Barlow center with the central commercial district.

Also today, crews will continue working at the corner of Bloomfield Road and Highway 116/Gravenstein Highway South, building a decorative, sheltered bench at a Sonoma County Transit stop. The bench will be constructed of cob and adobe bricks made in August by several dozen volunteers during a “cob stomp” work party. Nearby, the bench and pizza oven is being built outside Hardcore Espresso, a funky roadside coffee place with an eclectic collection of outdoor seating.

Continues at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/newsle...for-sebastopol