At this week’s Bull Session, we had a great discussion on productivity — how do you stay productive when you are managing 5 projects that all have a deadline of…yesterday? One person shared this video, which we hope you find useful, too!

Let’s play Jeopardy! ™

Under the “Democracy” category for $1,000, our clue is: “Corporate constitutional rights, progressively granted by the Courts over the last 100+ years, have created this shocking reality.” [Insert Jeopardy theme song here]. What question will match our clue and win us that $1,000? Any of theses questions below, and many more like them, count for a winning response:

• How did corporations successfully undermine the Safe Drinking Water Act to have fracking exempted from federal regulation despite the fact that people who live in areas with fracking are able to set their tap water on fire? ^{(Democracy Matters podcast 11/27/11)}

• Why are food industry corporations allowed to participate with Congress in establishing school lunch standards resulting in a reduction of standards such that serving french fries 5 days a week meets the requirement for vegetables? ^{(Democracy Matters podcast 11/27/11)}

• How did corporations succeed in overturning a Vermont law and avoiding a requirement to label milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH)? ^{(Democracy Matters podcast 11/27/11)}

• How are corporations able to privatize the local water supply in communities that are not in favor of privatization and have no legal recourse to prevent their water from being siphoned off for the production of bottled water? ^{(Democracy Matters podcast 12/5/11)}

• Why do government agency inspectors need a search warrant in order to conduct inspections of the businesses they are regulating? ^{(Democracy Matters podcast 1/2/12)}

If this list alarms you as much as it alarms me, then read on for more details or simply jump to the end of the article to learn what you can do today to be part of the solution to reclaim democracy.

The list of constitutional rights granted to corporations has been growing progressively for nearly 200 years, and today these rights impact almost every aspect of our democracy. Look carefully at any issue that concerns you – campaign finance, environmental justice, civil rights, GMOs, food quality, water quality, air quality, sustainability, educational standards, school discipline, gun laws, prison industrial complex, city zoning and (re)development – and you will find that corporations are strategically using their constitutional rights to wield remarkable power in order to benefit their own interests rather than the public good.

The imbalance of corporate power in our democracy reached a new degree of absurdity three years ago with the Citizens United ruling. Citizens United firmly established money as the “speech” of corporations because the court ruled that campaign finance laws would infringe on the First Amendment free speech rights of corporations and therefore they are allowed to spend unlimited money on federal candidate elections.

Citizens United is but one of a long string of such rulings that began as early as 1886 with a judgment by the US Supreme Court in the Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad case. This case is recognized as one of the first where corporations were given a foothold into securing constitutional rights and establishing them as “persons” entitled to rights in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution (rights originally intended for natural persons). Leveraging the premise that established them as “persons,” corporations have been strategically pursing “corporate personhood” ever since.

Democracy Matters podcast is an excellent resource for more in depth coverage of the history of corporate rights. In January 2012, it ran a 5-part “Democracy School” series covering the history of corporate rights and complete frame of the structural problems we face. The series outlines several key ways that corporations exercise the power of their constitutional rights:

1. Election Spending: Election spending is legally defined as a First Amendment free speech right of corporations.
2. Drafting Legislation: Corporations draft legislation and influence the legislative process; often on legislation that governs their own industries.
3. Participating in the Rule-making Process: Once legislation is adopted, an agency (i.e. EPA, FDA) is tasked with implementing and operationalizing the law. Corporations participate in this process and influence the regulations that govern their own industries.
4. Driving Ballot Initiatives: Corporations drive ballot initiatives that benefit their industry and these initiatives are voted on by citizens and passed into law. Corporations also fight against ballot initiatives that do not serve their interests.
5. Making Direct Contact with Lawmakers: Lobbying to influence state, local and federal lawmakers and determine policy that is directly related to their own interests.
6. Taking to the Courts: Corporations take cases to court where they have succeeded in winning judgements to overturn established state, local, and federal laws that were passed by Congress and the people.

Unless we take action to reverse “corporate personhood,” we will soon surpass even the level of absurdity reached by Citizens United. Case in point: a senator in Montana recently proposed a bill that would grant corporations the right to vote. Yes, that’s right. To vote. In elections.

Seriously?

Seriously.

Now that we know how bad it is, what can we do about it? The solution is simple, we need only to amend the US Constitution to establish two things:

1. Only human beings, not corporations, are endowed with rights that are protected by the constitution, and

2. Money is not speech and, therefore, the expenditure of money to influence the electoral process is not a form of constitutionally protected speech and may be regulated.

Does amending the Constitution sound crazy and impossible? The history of the United States includes several such “impossible” movements: the American Revolution, Abolitionists, Suffragists, and Civil Rights. Drawing on the legacy of these movements, the grassroots group, Move to Amend, is building a diverse coalition of individuals and organizations across the nation. From the bottom-up, Move to Amend is actively pursuing a 10-year plan to pass a 28th Amendment to end the imbalance of corporate power in our democracy.

The solution to the crisis of corporate constitutional rights is a far-reaching and long-range movement, but what about right now, today, for you and me here in Sacramento? What can we do?

1. Today: Sign the petition stating that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

2. Next Week: Come be inspired and informed by David Cobb of Move to Amend. ThinkHouse Collective is pleased to host David for his talk, “Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule,” on Wed., 3/27 at 4pm. This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action! David gives a rousing one-hour talk followed by a facilitated discussion. Come get your questions answered, and learn how you can get involved. You can RSVP on Facebook. *

3. Next Month: Attend a meeting of the local affiliate group, Sacramento Move to Amend, on the second Monday of each month. Email sacramento@movetoamend.org for more information.

“We the People” is the opening line of the Constitution of the United States, yet corporate constitutional rights are dominating our democratic process and undermining the power of the people.

Come next Wednesday to ThinkHouse Collective to hear David’s talk and join Move to Amend in the fight to reclaim democracy.

About the Author: Tara Ingram is a ThinkHouse member and Move To Amend activist who blogs about public art as a hobby. You can visit her and local public art at sacpedart.com

* This event is part of the California Barnstorming Tour, and David will also be speaking at two other locations next week: Tues., 3/26 at 7pm at Davis Library and Wed., 3/27 at 7:30pm at Valley-Hi North Laguna Library (near Consumnes College).

We love food. And when we say food, we are talking about handmade, from scratch, local and whole ingredients, family, history and tradition that combine into pure deliciousness. That is why we love Food, Love & Tradition, a site dedicated to telling the story behind recipes. Aside from the hunger-inducing food photography, Marita and Bridget, the creative genius behind the photos and the words, are just plain cool. And you know how much we like cool people. Almost as much as we love food.

Cool people and good food? How can we resist? We’ve got a little sample of one post (this pic) and an excerpt from the story that goes with it. But to get the full affect you really need to see the entire site.

“If you’re ever lucky enough to be invited over to Yadira’s house, you will certainly have the opportunity to sample her cuisine. After raising three kids and having a house constantly full of their friends—some who even moved in for a while during those challenging teenage years, Yadira always keeps a pot full of goodness on the stove and a stocked fridge. In fact, if you leave her house without eating, you are a rare person indeed, for Yadira opens her home to all and is sure to delight the palate with her fresh ingredients and complex spices.” Click here for the rest of the post. 

Head on over to check out what these two have been up to — it includes a blogger award from CountryLiving magazine!

CinemaSpeak is a free film screening and discussion event featuring movies making an impact on our society.

This month will we be viewing Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is an excellent example of a true Shokunin, a Japanese term meaning, in short, mastery of a profession. Jiro and his clan are a clear example of not only the technical skills required for mastery but also of the deeper meaning, the attitude and social consciousness that act as the foundation for such skills. Jiro’s guiding light comes at a time when uncertain times can cloud our role in the changing economy. Come join us this Thursday, the 13 at 6:30 for a special movie and great conversation.

Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us and for most people that means a family meal that resembles the indulgences of decadent roman emperors…if were lucky.

At ThinkHouse, we believe Thanksgiving can be more than day of food and bowl games (not that we don’t don’t love both!). It should be a time for reflection and introspection. More than anything, it is time for us to put on our wide-angle lens to review what we can be grateful for.

For us, that’s easy: our friends, our family, and our community.

From our house, to your house…

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday.

J&J

We went to the debate between District 4 City Council candidates this past Tuesday at the Cosmopolitian Cabaret hosted by Sacramento Press, and we were duly impressed. No only by the candidates themselves, but by the event and the turn out. We love to see people rally around local politics and get passionate about making Sacramento a better place to live and work — that’s why we started ThinkHouse, after all.

Both Joe Yee and Steve Hansen were well-spoken, and they answered a myriad of pre-selected audience questions on topics ranging from park maintenence and Second Saturday to revitalizing K Street and fostering the city’s innovation.

Afterward a small crowd lingered for food and drinks at K Bar and Steve Hansen made the rounds. Maybe Joe did, too, but we didn’t see him.

I was supposed to be one of the question-askers, but didn’t get called before the debate ended. My question was, given that a lot of missed opportunities occur because of gridlock on the council, do you support the strong mayor initiative and why or why not?

So when Steve ended up at our end of the bar, I asked him. He had a diplomatic answer ready about working together, fostering cooperation among council members.

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“By electing me,” he said.

“But you’re just one guy,” I said.

“True,” he said and added, “but this is the third election of change.” Meaning that if he’s elected, he will be the third council member to replace the “old guard,” and things are moving toward change.

That’s all well and good. But then he added something else that really stuck with me.

“I’m a pragmatist,” he said, “And people don’t want it.”

Now, why people don’t want the strong mayor is beyond me — it’s likely because they don’t understand it — but the thing that’s important here is: Steve knows his constituants. And that’s only one good reason to vote for him. Here’s are several more:

1. He’s hands-on.
We only spoke to Steve for maybe 5 minutes, but during the debate he had a specific example to answer almost every question. And by specific, I mean he talked about people by name, he mentioned businesses by name and he shared stories about his personal interaction with city residents from all walks of life.

2. He gives everyone his cell phone number.
And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. When I didn’t get to ask my question, I sent a tweet saying “Bust. Didn’t get to ask my question. Want to know candidates’ take on strong mayor initiative. #D4SP #sacramento.”

Instantly, I got a reply back:

3. He wears cool socks.
Now before you criticize this point, let me say that I’m not using the socks as a reason to vote for him, per se. The reason to vote for him is that people are forever commenting about his socks on Twitter and what does Steve do? He retweets those comments! You gotta love a guy who doesn’t take him self too seriously as a politician.

4. He chooses to live in Sacramento and contribute to improving the city.
One question that Jeremy and I ask people when we first meet them is, “How did you end up in Sacramento?” We ask this question because we find the answers fascinating; we find that most people end up here by accident — they don’t plan to stick around, but they fall in love with the city and then, and here’s the key, they choose to stay.

Steve told us on Tuesday night that he came to Sacramento after college for a job and then chose to stay. He got tired of looking for a better place to live, he said, and decided to participate in making Sacramento a better place to live. We know this story. This is our story. So why wouldn’t we vote for someone who’s also making those same choices? It’s like having personal representation on the city council. He loves Sacramento. He’s one of us.

ThinkHouse will be supporting Steve Hansen on November 6. We hope you will too.

Anyone else attend the debate on Tuesday? What did you take away from it? Did it help you decide who to vote for?

For the last few years I have really enjoyed wine tasting. I love the wineries. The artistry of both what goes into the wine as well as how these creative people choose to express themselves through the winery. If there were only a way to combine two of my favorite passions, movies and wine, I would be a really happy human. That’s when I got a call from Story Winery (a particularly creative winery in Amador). They are doing a Date Night–dinner and a movie and what movie could I suggest?

I knew the perfect movie.

Blood Into Wine is a documentary about the lead singer of the hardcore rock band Tool, Maynard James Keenan, who, between selling out stadiums and living the rock’n’roll lifestyle, became a wine enthusiast. So much so that he had a dream to build a winery in Jerome, Arizona. Funny and insightful, Blood Into Wine is a profile of the artist behind the rocker as much as it is a documentary on the wine, wine makers and the wine industry as whole.

A great meal, a great movie and great winery. November 3rd will be a great day to get yourself to Story Winery. The fun starts at 6 p.m. and it’s just $15 for dinner. See you there.

The ThinkHouse tagline is “A coworking community for Sacramento’s creative class.”

What’s the Creative Class? 

We are often asked, “what’s ‘creative class?’ ” We’re asked it so often that we added to our FAQ page and tried to answer it in a succinct manner.

We’re asked it so often that we wrote a blog post back when we first opened titled “Why we serve the creative class.” And we’re asked it so often that we even hosted a discussion about the book Rise of the Creative Class, which is where the term comes from. The book was one of the main inspirations behind ThinkHouse and bringing the coworking movement to Sacramento.

We don’t say this often, but we were one of the first ones to start talking about coworking in Sacramento, back in 2007. Here’s a blog post that I wrote when I first came across the concept. It had just started one year before that in San Francisco (where else?).

At the time I had been considering a move out of Sacramento, to places like Seattle or San Francisco, where I could find the culture I was looking for in the city where I wanted to live. I wanted to be a part of a thriving city life that would support coworking, that would support local independent business, that would support collaboration. Seattle, San Francisco, Portland — we all know those cities fit that bill. And those cities all had thriving coworking communities back in 2007.

Where is the Creative Class? Creative Stimulation vs. Isolation

It was a time in my life when I had just finished grad school and started freelancing. I had previously been on staff with a magazine publishing company for almost four years. I was the managing editor. We had regular editorial meetings. The editorial department had a shared office. We were always bouncing ideas off each other, reading sentences out loud to each other, reading each other’s work, offering suggestions, editing and feedback.

I went from that environment to freelancing. From home. No one to talk to. No one but the cat.

I tired going to coffee shops. At the time I lived on 18th and O Streets, and I’d walk the few blocks over to Java City. I liked it well enough, because I could sit at the bar along the window and look out to that amazing tree (that we just had to say goodbye to a few weeks ago) for inspiration.

But it took only a few days of sitting at Java City when I couldn’t be at home alone all by myself anymore to realize that even at the coffee shop I was still alone. Yeah, there were people all around me, but I never spoke to any of them. I couldn’t turn to the guy next to me and say, hey can I read this sentence to you?

I guess I could have, but he might have tried to hit on me or something.

Who are the Creative Class? Others like me.

From that experience I thought, there have to be other people like me in Sacramento. We aren’t a tiny town. I know there are other people who feel the way I feel about working alone. What if there was a common place where we could all work alone together?

In that moment I decided to be a part of creating what I wanted and needed in the city were I lived. Instead of moving to a city, searching for the thing I wanted or needed, I would be a part of starting it here.

And then I read Rise of the Creative Class. It was like Richard Florida spoke directly to me. He wrote about a group of people who make up the dominating economic class and he called it the Creative Class. He gives it that label, not because of what these people do for a living, but because of the type of life these people want to live.

They want to see local talent performed locally in interesting venues. They want to see the community support the local talent — whether that is musicians, artists, writers, start ups, freelancers or small independent retal boutiques. They want to participate in a vibrant night life. They think globally and act locally. They bristle when the city council talks about the possibility of brining Target to the Downtown Plaza. They eat at the bar and get to know the proprietors of their favorite restaurants and shops. They buy art from local artists. They know their place and they choose to stay and make it better by participating and contributing.

They are people like us: people who care about Sacramento and want to see it become the next Austin, a place that marries economic prosperity with its local talent, creativity and innovation. They are stay-at-home moms who think critically about things like the food they eat while they are pregnant, the kind of food they feed their kids and where they buy their baby paraphernalia. They are full-time employees who demand more of their city, shop at the farmer’s market and support local nonprofits like 916Ink or Fit For Girls. They are state workers who have a photography business on the side. They are college students already working on their first business idea. They are marketing directors who find value in regular round-table brainstorming and idea sharing.

Do you have to be a freelancer or an indie biz person to be part of the Creative Class? Absolutely not. You just have to care about this place called Sacramento. This place we all call home.

That is why we created ThinkHouse Collective: because we believe Sacramento is a great city and we want be part of making it the best place to live and work.

Last summer, in his post called, “Staying,” ThinkHouse member Ryan Walton invited us to participate in creating fabulous culture here in Sacramento rather than move elsewhere to find a “ready made” culture. Creating local culture is a focal point here at ThinkHouse Collective. Co-founders Janna and Jeremy were inspired, in part, by Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class.

Florida’s book was on the agenda last May at the Book Club Pub Crawl where we had great dialog about the book and Sacramento’s Creative Class; those who, regardless of their line of work, create and implement innovative ideas that benefit their own business, but, more importantly, provide value to the local community that they serve. Florida describes the qualities of city culture that this group tends to gravitate towards and contribute to as a Street Level Culture with a “teeming blend of cafes, sidewalk musicians, and small galleries and bistros, where it is hard to draw the line between participant and observer, or between creativity and its creators” (p. 166).

Inspired by Ryan’s invitation and Florida’s book, I find myself coming up against the question: How? How do I become an active participant in creating the culture of the place where I live? I’m sure there are many varied and unique ways to answer this question. Exploring this for myself, I’ve come to believe that one important ingredient in becoming a creative participant in the city where you live is to really come to know the place.

Two years ago, I began an exploration of Sacramento’s public art. I found myself drawn to murals and sculptures, my head craning to see them better as I whizzed by on some errand or other. This was neither a safe nor satisfying way to take in the art. So I decided to stop, pay attention, and feed my curiosity by spending time with each piece and taking photographs. This led to blogging about the art with online research about the piece itself, the artist, and any interesting stories that emerged. As the blog posts accumulated, I realized that not only was I learning about individual pieces of art, I was building a more interesting relationship with my city.

Take, for example, the abstract “L” shaped metal sculpture Downtown at 6th & L Streets. We have all seen this piece, but I had never paid it much attention. Finally stopping to examine it, I learned that it is a kinetic sculpture whose movement is powered only by gravity and wind. I had always only seen the shape and never taken the time to notice the subtle, rhythmic movement. According to the artist, the piece is all about the movement of the sculpture, rather than the shape. He says, “I wanted whatever eloquence there was to come out of the performance of the piece—never out of the shape itself.”

Where I once barely noticed a single piece of static art that evoked limited meaning for me, I now saw multiple layers of meaning. A once flat two-dimensional experience transformed into a more vibrant holographic scene, and I now felt myself as a participant in the scene rather than a passerby.

Following my curiosity led me to the accidental discovery that public art is a playful and meaningful way to get to know this place called Sacramento. Our city is full of public art. In the downtown and midtown areas alone there are more than 300 public art pieces from commissioned works to urban tattoos. Works of art in our public spaces (“the commons”) are an important part of a vibrant local culture.

Public art is local in the most basic sense of the word; each piece is a physical presence in the local space. Esthetics is one element of public art, but regardless whether a piece is esthetically pleasing to you or not, the art typically evokes something on an emotional level: interest, curiosity, joy, surprise, shock, irritation, confusion…. Public art brings us into the moment and engages us emotionally in the physical space where we stand.

It is often local in other, less obvious ways. Many artists live locally including Stephen Kaltenbach, Fred Ball, and others. Local groups such as Midtown Alley Project promote public art at a grassroots level. Russ Andris, a retired Sacramentan, walks the streets with a camera and prolifically documents murals (as of today, his site has more than 1,300 images). Many pieces, including Gold Rush, Ishi, and others, have something to teach us about local history. Others, like the Alhambra Reservoir, remind us of Sacramento’s remarkable natural resources.

Through public art, we are invited into a more alive relationship with the city that extends beyond the art itself. Getting to know the public art here has given me a more multifaceted relationship with Sacramento that is both direct and personal. These days, as I move through the city, I’m more aware of the living culture that surrounds and includes me.

So, whether it is through public art or another avenue, get to know your place, and let’s see what interesting things transpire from there.

About the Author: Tara Ingram is a ThinkHouse member with a perfectly good day job, but she has more fun out and about exploring Sacramento through its public art. You can visit her and the art at sacpedart.com

The big news for the ThinkHouse Collective is that we recently moved to a new, bigger and (dare I say it) more business-friendly location.

It starts with a little backstory:

A few months ago we put out a survey asking questions related to coworking, pricing and amenities. The feedback we received completely changed our view of our space and how it got used. One of the biggest shocks to me was a comment that said,

“I have a home office and when I work away from home I don’t want to work in a house.”

The reason it shocked me was that it made perfect sense. As soon as I read it, I knew exactly what that person meant. In our effort to create the “un-office,” we took it a little too far. We realized that while our members don’t want an “office” environment, we still needed to provide a business setting complete with the all the necessary amenities and less of the homey trappings that can distract from being productive.

1617 18^th Street

We starting looking at new locations. 1617 18^th Street was the first space we saw. It was as if the building was tailor made for us. Seven private offices, a huge room for open coworking, a generous conference room, parking and even a garage with a roll up door for special events. More than that, while the outside of the building was non-descript (intentionally by the owners), the inside had features like crown-molding, hardwood floors and French doors. This new space, while promoting a stronger business vibe than the big yellow house, retained the character and personality needed for a proper coworking space.

Calls were made, hands shaken and papers signed. On August 1, ThinkHouse said goodbye to the big yellow Craftsman downtown that had been our home for almost two years and moved in near the Handle District of Midtown. And the response has been fantastic. And most importantly to us: our members have given their approval. Some have even upped their membership and gotten offices. Everyone loves the new space.

New Membership Options

With the new location also comes a new level of membership that we are excited to announce: The Daily Coworker membership is just $49 month (with a 12-month commitment) and includes unlimited open coworking access during hosted hours (Mon-Fri, 9a-6p). This is a perfect, inexpensive way to join the Collective for those who don’t need the 24-access of our Basic Membership but still want all the benefits of coworking.

Close to any number of great restaurants and bars (Zocalo, Hot Italian, and Pour House to name a few), our new location is one block from lightrail and across the street from what may be the best sandwich spot in Midtown (aptly named the Sandwich Spot). If you haven’t had a chance to come out and see our new location, or if you’ve never experienced coworking, let me take this time right now to extend an invitation.

We believe in collaboration and community. And to prove it, your first day of coworking is on us. Come to ThinkHouse Collective and see why coworking is taking over the business community all over the county and world. One coworker at a time.