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    Welcome to Wynott: Rethinking the Way We've Always Done Things
    Welcome to Wynott: Rethinking the Way We've Always Done Things
    Welcome to Wynott: Rethinking the Way We've Always Done Things
    Ebook169 pages2 hours

    Welcome to Wynott: Rethinking the Way We've Always Done Things

    By Ray Harris

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    Why does it have to be this way?
    Why can’t someone come up with something better?
    Why do we keep running into the same problems?

    At some point, we need to stop saying “Why?” and start saying “Why not?” This is that point, and author Ray Harris has started the conversation. With a light touch and a lot of humor, Harris applies fresh thinking to existing systems and structures, and creates a blueprint for a new American urban community, called “Wynott.” Whether an inner-city neighborhood, an aging suburb, or a small town, Wynott can exist in any place where enough people agree to try something different, and commit to making it work. You could be one of those people...Welcome to WYNOTT!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRay Harris
    Release dateOct 12, 2011
    ISBN9780984666911
    Welcome to Wynott: Rethinking the Way We've Always Done Things

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      Book preview

      Welcome to Wynott - Ray Harris

      PRAISE FOR WELCOME TO WYNOTT

      Why not Ray Harris for president? Ray has solved many of the problems besetting our society. His witty and imaginative solutions, together with the charming illustrations, make this book a must-read and a great gift. I love it, and if you have any sense of humor, you will too.

      – The Honorable David S. Doty

      Senior U.S. District Judge, District of Minnesota

      Precisely what we need to hear at a time when top-down solutions seem to be failing us and when governmental decrees seem to be stuck in perpetual stalemates at the federal and state levels.

      – Thomas Fisher, Professor and Dean

      College of Design, University of Minnesota

      A refreshing serving of common sense about how to make our communities more prosperous and pleasurable. While some might mistake Wynott for Utopia, there’s nothing between these covers that is not a practical idea for real people in real places in the real world.

      – Jay Walljasper, Author

      All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons

      The Great Neighborhood Book

      WELCOME TO WYNOTT

      Rethinking the Way We’ve Always Done Things

      By Ray Harris

      With Lily Coyle

      Copyright © 2012 by Ray Harris and Lily Coyle

      Cover Illustration: Kevin Cannon

      Cover Design: James Monroe Design, LLC

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Printed in the United States of America

      E-Book Edition, 2012 ISBN: 978-0-9846669-1-1

      Curmerian Books, LLC

      210 West Grant Street

      Minneapolis, MN 55403

      This book is also available in print from select retailers and at:

      welcometowynott.com

      I dedicate this book to my parents:

      To my father, Leo, for passing to me his vision and commitment to the community.

      To my mother, Eleanor, for instilling in me her creative mind and the courage to follow my dreams and make them a reality.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Preface

      Introduction

      1. Where We Are Now

      2. How We Got Here

      3. Who’s In Charge

      4. Who Does The Work

      5. How We Pay For Stuff

      6. How We Get Around

      7. Where We Live

      8. What We Learn

      9. What We Buy

      10. When Does It Get Better?

      Acknowledgements

      About Ray Harris

      About Lily Coyle

      About Kevin Cannon

      PREFACE

      Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask, why not.

      – Robert Kennedy

      That’s been the modus operandi for my entire career. In 1950, at the dawn of the baby boom, I came out of Stanford with an industrial psychology degree. I then spent a hitch as an army officer, teaching recruits hand-to-hand combat. My first civilian position was as foreman at a toilet seat factory. These combined experiences inspired me to strike out on my own, sink or swim. For the next fifty-plus years I served as my own boss—and my own employee—making up my job description as I went. It worked out pretty well.

      Unfettered by any corporate rules or customs, I’ve been free to take risks and face challenges, sometimes to succeed, and occasionally to meet failure head-on. I fancy myself a problem-solver, always wondering why we act and live as we do, and what best practices elsewhere might improve our ability to afford and enjoy a better quality of living. Every project I’ve completed started out as a why not?

      Why not transform a neglected block into a hip urban retail center? Why not build some tony town homes in the scariest part of the city and bring up the value of the whole neighborhood? Why not open a new middle school that gets kids excited about learning? Why not serve the elderly with a campus designed specifically for their needs? Why not turn an overlooked scrap of land into a downtown dog park? All of these why nots came to fruition. And there were why nots that never made it off the ground. But each one was an invaluable education unto itself.

      A long-standing student of how and where we live, I’ve spent my career searching for more efficient, cost-effective, and sensible ways to work, to play, to learn, and to survive in our American milieu. I’ve come away with the firm belief that acknowledgement and management of change significantly improves every aspect of our lives.

      When you spend eighty or more years on this planet, you learn a thing or two. Again and again, project after project, I’ve had to break down irrational fears and push through resistance to change. I’ve had to overcome complacency, doubt, and every kind of obstacle you can imagine. I’ve learned a lot about the urban community specifically, and the human condition in general. I’ve learned enough that I could write a book about it!

      Hey…why not?

      INTRODUCTION

      Wynott?

      In our country, we hear a lot of Why?

      Why does it have to be this way? Why can’t someone come up with something better? Why do we keep running into the same problems?

      It is our right and privilege as citizens to grumble and complain about why things are the way things are. But at some point, we need to stop saying Why? and start saying Why not?

      This is that point.

      Things can be different, things can get better, and this book is here to show how it can be done. Borrowing from the US Marines, it’s time to adapt, overcome, and improvise. Few of us choose change, but none of us can escape it. Think about what we could do if we were open to change, and had the capacity to prepare for and even to shape it!

      Within these pages are some specific instructions for improving our way of life. But more important than any one detail is the all-encompassing idea that this is a book about change. Specifically, this is a book that questions why we show futile resistance to unavoidable change. In particular, we take a look at how our built environment and our way of life have changed and will continue to change.

      This book is a study of the savvy management of inevitable change, as applied to the new American urban community.

      This new community is called Wynott.

      1. WHERE WE ARE NOW

      Why do we allow change to manage us?

      Change is the only thing we can rely on. From the microscopic level to the macrocosmic level, everything that we know and experience is in a constant state of flux. Our earth is ever in motion, revolving at a rate of nine hundred miles per hour. By the time you reach the end of this sentence, our planet has traveled another twenty miles in its yearly orbit around the sun. And while our outer world hurtles through an endlessly expanding universe, our inner world is also in motion. Our bodies are in a perpetual state of decay and renewal as our cells die and regenerate themselves. Roughly every seven years we replace most of the cells in our bodies.

      The world spins. Time marches on. We grow and we age, and we have no control over any of this, no say in the matter. Which may be why we tend to cling so closely to the matters we feel we can control.

      If you’ve ever watched a baby turn into a toddler, you’ve had the chance to witness the discovery of the ego. It often happens in the high chair. Mom and Dad marvel at how cooperative their wonderful baby is—THIS baby isn’t fussy; this baby is curious and eager for new experiences. THIS baby will happily try any fruit or vegetable… until one day, Baby learns a new word. Baby learns to say no. The very same baby, the one who will pick any dirty thing up off the floor and put it into his mouth, will suddenly clam up and refuse to try a lovely new piece of fresh fruit when offered by Mommy.

      And it doesn’t get much better for us humans from that point onward. The moment we learn no, we apply the word early and often and we resist as much as possible. We don’t care if it’s good for us or not.

      When change is presented to us, we tend to stonewall, no matter the potential outcome. We are naturally distrustful of new ideas. Our natural first reaction is to resist change. Think about the popular strategy of reverse psychology—you can more easily sway someone toward your line of thinking if you can trick them into believing that they are actually refusing to do what you want them to do. We cling like crazy to our present situation, even if it’s making us miserable.

      The irony is, we resist change because it gives us the illusion of control. But we could experience the reality of control by embracing and initiating change instead of simply resisting it.

      An offer they can’t refuse

      There are some people who do seek change, voluntarily. And most people will be motivated to change if you make them an offer they can’t refuse. That means one of two radical motivators, in gangster speak:

      1. Pay them off—lure them in with a big profit-making opportunity.

      2. Lean on them—make things so unbearable that they’re forced to change.

      When we human beings are made an offer we can’t refuse, it can lead us to change what we are, by evolution; where we live, by migration; or how we function, by innovation.

      When are things so unbearable that we’re forced to change? Evolution gives us a clue. Most of our physical features developed as ways for our species to survive in this environment. The ones who failed to adapt have been left behind as artifacts on the path from Ardipithicus ramidus to Homo sapiens. Adaptation is our

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