My last update ended with learning that our scheduled 3/15 story circle was now being replaced with a community meeting to discuss objections to the proposed partnership (including housing) between the Buddhist church and Cornerstone. We let George and Karen, our main connections at the Buddhist Church, know that we would be in town anyway on March 15 and we’d be happy to attend their meeting or to be on hand in case questions came up that we could answer.
Meaning, we would drive to Fowler just in case we could attend the meeting. (It worked last week!) But George wrote us back to let us know he’d talked with the church president and they agreed we should attend the meeting and my idea of sharing a slideshow introducing ourselves was a good idea.
Michael, Peter and I left early Tuesday afternoon for Fowler. When we arrived in town we went to look at the two most likely venues: the park and the Honda Auto Service building. While we were at the Honda building Fowler’s Public Works Director, David W, stopped to talk with us. He was very friendly and helpful. He let us know that the building was not a viable performance venue. He had strong hopes that the building would be demolished in the next couple months to start moving toward the replacement building that will serve as a new firehouse for the VFD. He also said the building is structurally unsafe.
Dave did suggest a couple of other ideas—the Simonian Fruit packing house has a covered outdoor area at the north end of their property on 7th Street. The reception/event for the start of Fresno County’s Blossom Trail was held there recently. He also mentioned that the old boarded up brick building on the corner of 7th and Main is NOT yellow-tagged (unsafe for occupancy) as I’ve been told by many people in town. It’s owned by the DeSantos family. Dave thought that the inside would likely be too small for our purposes.
It’s looking more likely that the park will be our performance venue. We will need to also find an indoor rehearsal space and indoor spaces for production work building sets etc.
We did a tiny bit more touring around Fowler neighborhoods- mostly in the Buddhist Church neighborhood between Hwy 99 and Golden State Blvd. When we arrived at the church for the meeting there were quite a few people already there. George greeted us warmly. As usual there were small plates of snacks shared with everyone and a freshly made berry tart thingy.
There were close to 30 people at the meeting. Many were friendly faces we’d seen last week and at the Food Bazaar. Many were new faces for us.
Craig explained that we should do our presentation and have some Q&A, then we would go away and they could continue the discussion without us.
We set up the projector and computer with a powerpoint slideshow.
Before we even knew what was happening, Karen M was at the front of the room, announcing that she wanted to share her thoughts quickly before she had to go teach a class. Karen introduced us and spoke about Cornerstone, explaining our history, professionalism, etc, and how we work. She spoke about how she thinks our project will be a good one for Fowler and for the Buddhist Church community. She spoke about our proposal and how we’d work with and around the church’s needs. Karen was our champion and it was a heartening way to start the meeting.
Michael introduced the company adding to what Karen said. I presented a slide show that included images from each of our summer residencies. The slides were chosen to demonstrate some relevant factors or things we wanted to feature, such as Central Valley towns, unique performance venues, adapted living situations including outdoor showers, community events, group cast photos, some production photos and before and after shots of the Blue Ox Mill performance space.
There were many questions for us. Some people in the room were really worked up and resistant. Most of them seemed to appreciate the work we do but their concerns were about the space, liability, legalities, etc. We let them know that we’d be happy to create a contract with them and give them a security deposit. We assured them that our insurance was substantial & standard. Concerns were expressed about interference with the Obon Festival, though other people confirmed that it is really a one day event (7/16) with maybe some preparation the day before. One gentleman reiterated that the buildings are old and fragile. Others folks in the group answered some of the questions that were asked. One man who clearly was not interested in us working with them asked, “Why us? Why don’t you go to the Chamber of Commerce?” And another man responded, “Why NOT us?” It seemed clear that some people were partly put off by how quickly everything was happening, that they only learned about this a few days before.
As tempers and voices began to rise, we said our thanks and got out. Shouts were heard from beyond the closed door (“That’s why we have a board!”) as we packed up in the lobby.
The next day we heard from George:
I want to thank you for your nice presentation. Everyone was in agreement as to the wonderful work you people were doing.
The bone of contention seems to have been the presence of people living on the church ground tor a month. All kinds of possibilities issues that were conjured came forth. Most of the issues, ultimately, became a liability issue.
Among those in attendance last night were former City Council member, retired Judge, a former Mayor of the city. An attorney for the church suggested a look at a draft of contract that will absolve the church from any liability that may arise with the presence of so many people living on the church grounds for an extended period. Paperwork that indicates the church will not be in violations of any city ordinance, etc.
I am embarrassed to be sending you this mail. The meeting last night became a shouting match at times and I felt a sense of insanity had taken over.
Egos being what they are flourished and I thought, 'what a scene for a comedy play.'
With high hopes,
George
It’s worth noting that the consideration we are getting on this matter is unprecedented. Mas had said to us in January, “Oh the Buddhists will never let you live there.” Also, the Buddhists tend to be an insular group. They like to keep to themselves partly because they value a balance of hospitality and individual responsibility for community space. George mentioned to me in conversation that many other groups have an attitude of “Someone else will clean up after me” -and that is the opposite of what the Buddhist philosophy values.
Karen (who works at the city office) has already secured a letter from the city saying that there is no violation of permits or code for us to live at the church for a month. Our insurance rider request is being processed. We await word about what the Buddhists would like us to include in a contract and if they want a security deposit.
I believe that George and Karen are working to get the details we need regarding these elements. It seems very likely that we are going to be living at the Buddhist Church.
(tentative) YAY!
Our living at the campus will be the least comfortable yet in some ways—though I said that last year and it worked out to be pretty good. But we will have less “extra” space, less space for people to be alone or to have an extra meeting, etc. I think I mentioned this before, but all staff will have to live on campus which means shared rooms, outdoor showers and limited restrooms supplemented by port-a-potties.
It’s also very likely that we will adjust the schedule so it is exactly 4 weeks- July 17 to August 14. The first few years of the Institute we did this schedule but later added 2.5 days at the beginning for getting oriented and settled. Starting the residency after the Obon Festival is going to make many things simpler for us and for the Buddhists, so we’ll go back to this earlier schedule for I-8. We’ll likely make other schedule adjustments, too.
In addition to settling details with the Buddhist Church, we need to make arrangements with the city for use of park as performance venue and to find an indoor rehearsal space and a indoor production/construction space.
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