LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE

For the past several years, the good folks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C. have been working to help urban residents gain greater control over their lives through the use of low-technology, decentralist tools and concepts. We strongly believe that more people (city dwellers and country folk alike) should be exposed to the Institute's admirable efforts . . . which is why we've made this "what's happening where" report by the ILSR staffers one of MOTHER's regular features.

Almost everyone uses some sort of household budget, simply to keep track of how much money comes into the home and how much goes out of it. Nations keep similar records — on a grander scale — in order to control the balance of trade with other lands. And the same kind of accounting can be done for neighborhood economies as well.

When looked at in the same way that we commonly view nations, many American communities — particularly low-income urban and rural sectors — resemble Third World countries ... since most natural resources in these areas are either undeveloped or owned by outsiders. They also export considerable wealth, and depend upon other regions for such key resources as energy and food.

Of course, sometimes the drain on a community's resources isn't at all obvious. A busy fast-food restaurant, for example, may seem to add life to a neighborhood business district . . . but it can't do so if most of the restaurant's revenue is leaving the community.

To better understand how neighborhood economies work, several researchers have studied models of typical cash flows, tracing — as carefully as possible — how money comes into a community and how it goes out. One such study concerned two neighborhoods — one a low-income area and the other in the middle-income bracket — in Brooklyn, New York. Predictably, it was discovered that capital flowed out of the less affluent neighborhood by the millions of dollars, while the wealthier community kept a greater share of its resources at home.