Introducing albertideation - a place where ideas flourish

My intention is to create a space where friends and colleagues can come together to work on ideas whose time has come.  Often an idea just needs a little tweaking, advocacy or a push to become a reality.  I invite those who would like to work together on these or other great ideas, to contact me at albertkaufman@gmail.com at any time.  Some of the ideas I intend to flesh out on these pages are place-specific to Portland, Oregon - but all can probably be templated/replicated and used anywhere. Sometimes the ideas are mine, and sometimes they are shared with others - in my ideal world, ideas are open-source and I offer each of these ideas in this spirit.  Here are a few of the ideas I intend to flesh out here and continue to develop - both for the betterment of the world and as a way to provide myself with an income stream.

1. Billboard-free Portland.  Sao Paolo has done it, so has Iceland.  There are plenty of places where there are no billboards and I'd like to help Portland, Oregon, become the first city in the United States to go billboard-free.  Billboards are distracting and visual noise that have an awful effect on our lives.  Let's get rid of them and make the world and our personal space ours again.

2. Colwood Golf Course, Portland, Oregon - transition from a golf course to a regional park/urban farmer training institute. There is a 143-acre golf course at the north end of Portland near the airport.  There has been a hearing recently where it was decided by the Portland City Council that this land will remain zoned as open space.  The next step in this process will be for Metro to buy this land from the Colwood owners.  More on this issue to follow.

3. Registry, Portland, Oregon: for those with lawns who want them gardened to connect with urban farmers to create CSAs and more opportunities for locally-grown organic food.  I'd like to see a registry for the Portland area (and beyond) for anyone who would like to take their lawn out - for the purpose of creating a vegetable garden - to be able to connect with the growing number of urban farmers who will gladly farm the land for you.  More on this issue to follow.

4. Alldancepdx.com and allyogapdx.com - portals for the Portland area with calendars to show an individual what classes are available each day (and workshops).  A way to link all of the yoga and dance offerings in Portland into one system - also could lead to a punch card system for all studios to and participants to make use of all of the offerings in one town or city.

5. A tracking system for use by local goverments and corporations that would include information on all available and active labor - so that we can figure out how to swap and share jobs rather than have people commuting like crazy.

If you have an interest in any of these ideas or would like help in thinking about an idea you have, please get in touch.

albert kaufman@gmail.com
http://albertideation.wordpress.com