I was thinking in a cynical manner of jest, that I want to live in a town where the zoning laws mandate that one must have a business in one's home and apply for special permission to live there if one has a residence without a business. Then I remembered that there are such places. Its called artist in residence zoning, without which Soho in New York City would never have become the neighborhood it is today. I remember riding my bike through the Soho neighborhood when it was nothing but run down factory buildings. Then it became zoned for artists in residence. After that it became the center of the downtown Manhattan art scene. In the eighties there were more art galleries per square foot than anywhere in the world. There were entire buildings filled with nothing but art galleries. Then suddenly in the early nineties someone turned off the stock market faucet which had been fueling the art boom. After that the art galleries were replaced with stores and restaurants.
The Libra Foundation is investing in a similar idea in Monson, Maine, a town located in Maine's rural low income regions, where I have long envisioned a network of independently owned ceramic slip casting studio's. I thought of the idea years ago when I was casting. Our line is so large and we were working in a small space so we had to cycle the production. Many molds have special tricks one has to remember when casting them. By the time the revolving cycle returned I often forgot about the special tricks in the first casting. I imagined a series of slip-casting studios with each one casting a portion of the line. One could rotate the line through the casting studios as a backup procedure so that more than one production knows how to cast any design.
Our line would provide a base of activity to support the independently owned studios in the network but as independently owned operations, the studio could take on other jobs if they chose to do so. The formation of working relationships between all participating business entities would be self determined. If the network is functioning optimally. it would become great creative synergy, similar to the synergy that happened in Soho after it received artist in residence zoning.
Synergy is more powerful an economic development engine than those qualifications that make up the 'quality jobs" subsidized by Maine State Inc. The State's ideas about attracting a younger population to Maine are based on materialistic motivations. The State's tax payer subsidized "quality jobs" are defined by higher than average wages and benefits. The Swedish bandage factory at the court of MRRA is a quality job. Working in a startup American ceramic production probably isn't A ceramic production job can at some point offer higher than average wages and benefits but still not be a "quality job" in the sense of being tax-payer subsidized, The higher wages and benefits would be the result of targeted application of the parameters of operations, designed by Weston Neil Andersen, and incorporated into our business plan. There are many ways to achieve that given the many markets into which our product line can belong, from high end one of a kind, to creative mass production niche markets.There is a segment of the youthful population which is strictly motivated by the materialistic carrots offered by the State's "quality jobs" but on the whole, the largest youthful population is attracted by great synergy. Even if we are offering higher than average wages and benefits, we never want to be offering quality jobs, as that term stands for tax payer subsidized upper crust jobs.
Yesterday I posted a new update on my petition for MTI to offer fiscal sponsorship
A Perfect Match but No Fiscal Sponsorship
The post compares a section of the Andersen Design Business Plan with quotes from an article about the Libra Foundation. To my reading they are coming from one and the same page. It is the same idea except that the Libra Foundation is focusing its efforts in one Maine town, Monson Maine, and my idea is for a network spread across a the low income regions of rural Maine. I am told by well intended advisor that Monson, Maine is very political and I should contact someone with more political connections than I have to represent me. A member of the JECD is suggested. Why is Monson political now but the Washington County Redevelopment Authority isn't? Because Monson Maine has a well financed foundation. The politicians of economic development power elite suddenly care about Monson. They do not care about the WCDA which has just been gifted back its own commercial real estate but has no economic assets to maintain or develop that asset thanks to its status as a "municipal corporation serving as an instrument of the state". They do not care about Andersen Design. They care about being controlling authorities where ever there is money to be found. I will trust my own instincts. Thank You.
Regarding current status of our property: Today we wake to a new unanticipated paradigm. Little is known about it yet.
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