Off-Season in Slab City, USA (Culture Honey article)

on

 


Off-Season in Slab City, USA

By Justin Chapman, Culture Honey, 6/7/2021

t was kind of an ironic way—Airbnb—for my wife and I to visit the “last free place in America,” as Slab City, California is known: a decidedly anti-capitalist, nomadic art community in the desert near the Salton Sea where fringe members of society live rent free in makeshift camps.

Far east of the gentrified ‘hoods of Los Angeles, well beyond well-traveled Joshua Tree, in the Sonoran Desert on the other side of the apocalyptic Salton Sea, under the cruel sun in the California badlands in the state’s poorest county—Imperial—and just an hour’s drive north from the Mexican border, is Salvation Mountain, an enormous work of art on the side of a parched three-story hill created by the late artist and Korean War veteran Leonard Knight.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

The hill is covered with Bible verses and brightly pastellic and psychedelic latex paints, concrete, and adobe, his tribute and monument to God and Jesus. In large letters across the colorful hill, it reads, unironically, “God is Love” and “Say Jesus I’m a sinner please come upon my body and into my heart.” Knight lived on site in a small trailer as he worked on the piece for more than two decades, and it remains a work-in-progress after his death in 2014 at age 82 after losing his hearing, sight, and a leg.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

On the other side of that hill is Slab City, the site of an abandoned World War II-era Marine Corps artillery training base and barracks called Camp Dunlap, named after Brigadier General Robert Henry Dunlap.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Camp Dunlap was dismantled in the late 1950s and the state acquired the land in 1961. All that remains are thick concrete pylons, hence the name Slab City. The state has essentially acted as an absentee landlord for decades, allowing drifters, squatters, loners, dropouts, fugitives, hippies, hobos, desert dwellers, gypsies, artists, freight-hoppers, nomads, drug addicts, and other fringe members of society to settle there and set up camp rent free, property tax free, and homeowner covenant free.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

There are about 150 residents, called “slabbers”, who live year-round in ad hoc camps, RVs, vans, trailers, school buses, campers, mobile homes, and other makeshift structures in a ramshackle grid format, off-the-grid—there are no services such as running water, power lines or electricity, streetlights, sewage service, or garbage pickup. Its bumpy, dirt roads have no stop signs. A few thousand more snowbird slabbers—those with somewhere else to go during the summer months when temperatures reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit—flood the 631-acre area during the winter months.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

For reasons still not clear to me, we decided to go in mid-July, when it is not just sickeningly hot, but unforgivingly bright.

As you head east out of Los Angeles, the desert becomes a caricature of itself when you reach the Salton Sea, a desolate, otherworldly rift lake located on top of the San Andreas Fault.  The Salton Sea formed in 1905 after massive flooding in the Colorado River broke through an irrigation canal headwork and flowed into the Salton Basin over a period of 18 months. The lake is shallow, saline, and endorheic (does not flow to the ocean). The communities that do exist around the sea are rundown, relics of a bygone era when Hollywood celebrities vacayed here in the 1950s and 60s. Long-since abandoned resorts dot the shoreline. Beautiful works of art exist among these ruins as well. The towns, such as they are, are eerily empty and quiet, though signs of life can be seen here and there. The smell is certainly overwhelming: a delectable aroma of beached fish, decaying birds, and the aforementioned sulfur.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Agricultural runoff from the surrounding farms have polluted the lake. That combined with the intolerable increase of its salinity has made life untenable here. Bombay Beach, a small former resort town that used to be Hollywood celebrities’ go-to destination, is now one generation removed from a ghost town. The 2010 census recorded a population of 295. However, as of a few years ago, the area has been undergoing a revitalization as artists led by filmmaker Tao Ruspoli, the son of an Italian prince, have launched an annual art festival known as the Bombay Beach Biennale, featuring impressive temporary pieces and permanent installations.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Upon arriving in Niland, a small town just a few blocks east of the Salton Sea, you make a left on Main Street—just past the Buckshot Deli & Diner—and then continue for about three miles. The splendor of Salvation Mountain will come into view. Further down the road, an abandoned guard post covered in graffiti, known as the Slab City Information Kiosk, serves as the entrance to the renegade community. That’s when you know you’ve officially left “The Beast,” the slabbers’ term for the outside world.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

There’s more here than you might think. Slab City boasts a church; an open-air library with thousands of books in surprisingly well-organized sections; a skate park in the empty, graffitied bowl of an Olympic-size pool; a communal outdoor concert venue called The Range; a pirate radio station; a community theater; a bird watching co-op; a memorial space for slabbers who died from terminal illnesses called Edge Road Rest Area Memorial Park; two pet cemeteries with colorful and creative tombstones; art museums; a thermal hot springs; even a grassless golf course called Gopher Flats.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Another attraction is East Jesus—as in, east of nowhere—an “experimental, sustainable, habitable art installation”, essentially a sculpture garden made of discarded materials. It was founded in 2006 by the late Charles “Container Charlie” Russell. Meanwhile, a rival art colony set up West Satan nearby. As I understand it, the two do not get along.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Our Airbnb was an RV in a camp called the California Ponderosa, a funky setup with three and a half RVs arranged in a horseshoe shape, a firepit in the middle, and an outdoor makeshift kitchen complete with a string of Christmas lights and a plethora of desert yard art. The actual owner was out of town for a few months, somewhere across the country. In his absence, he asked a 27-year-old gypsy girl named Jinxy Bonesaw to take care of his camp and run his Airbnb operation.

Jinxy looked just exactly what you think a desert gypsy would look like. Tattered wraparound skirt, leather shirt cut off at the shoulders and midriff, a raccoon’s tail hanging over her butt, piercings everywhere, chopped up short hair, a floppy felt hat, and homemade, self-administered tattoos covering every inch of skin, including all over her face, with scar tattoos over her nose. She told us that the reason for the tattoos and for dressing this way was “to make other people just as uncomfortable and awkward as I feel: ‘Ha, now we’re on the same level.’”

Jinxy is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps feminist. Among her many memorable one-liners was this gem: “A woman needs a man to survive like a fish needs a bike: she don’t.”

Just east of Slab City is an open-desert area called the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, which the Navy and Marines use for aerial bombing and live fire aerial gunnery practice. From Slab City we could see a fake Middle Eastern town up the hill nestled at the foot of the small mountain range. It’s an Afghan insurgent village training complex called Al Brutus, though Jinxy called it “Little Baghdad.” Rumor has it, Navy SEAL Team Six prepared for the Osama bin Laden raid there.

Jinxy told us about the “brassers”, desert bums who go looking for bomb fragments in the range. Some brassers misread the military’s signals (noises they emit to let people in the general area know if they are commencing or just commenced bombing) and get blown up. It had happened just the other day, before we arrived.

The whole area, indeed, was filled with danger. Separating Slab City proper from the bombing range is the Coachella Canal—a fast-moving canal teeming with catfish. Slabbers sometimes go swimming in the canal and float from one ladder on the walls of the canal to another. But if you miss the last ladder, you will get sucked into an underwater tunnel with a turbine and get chopped into tiny pieces before you even drown.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

One morning, I stepped out of our trailer at the Ponderosa and said, “Hey Jinxy, we’re going to the Cold Shower, want to come?”

“Gosh dangit, you done said the magic words!” she replied.

Back by the Information Kiosk and the entrance to Slab City, on a side dirt road, is a cold waterfall in a subterranean drainage pit shaded by small palm trees, which slabbers call the Cold Shower. It is the best thing ever in dry yet muggy 120-degree summer heat. You climb down a rusty metal ladder into the drainage pit and stick your head under the fast-moving waterfall. Instant relief.

We hopped into her truck and off we went.

For $20 and some edibles, Jinxy and her boyfriend Mikey took us on a tour of Slab City in their truck. People had some pretty sophisticated, long-term camp setups. Others, not so much.

Jinxy said that slabbers protect each other. If someone hurts others in the community, especially women or children, that person gets “burned out” by the community, meaning they torch the person’s place, destroy their stuff, and send them on their way. Slabbers are trying to live in peace. Internal justice. Though the Imperial County Sheriff’s deputies patrol the region, they rarely make an appearance.

During our tour, Jinxy’s truck stalled. In true bootstrap feminist form, she got out, popped the hood, and literally jumped into the engine to fix it.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

At night, they took us to The Range, Slab City’s communal space and outdoor music venue. Every Saturday they host an open mic and talent show, and occasionally throw a funky prom. Jinxy called The Range “a cozy womb of broken glass.”

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

Builder Bill, an elderly, white-haired man and lifelong slabber, manages The Range, which includes a wooden stage set up between two old blue buses. Torn couches and ratty chairs provide the audience seating under strings of lights. Numerous dogs roam the venue.

The first musician we saw surprised us with his soulful, beautiful music, and great voice. Totally unexpected.

The second musician was not from Slab City. He was a blonde, skinny, twentysomething hipster singer/songwriter guy, probably from Silver Lake.

He had visited in November the previous year during the high season when there are lots of partiers, and he expected the same good vibes, but instead it was just a scattering of tired, sweaty locals. It was a very low-key night.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

In between songs, as he kept trying to start a story, he was interrupted repeatedly from the peanut gallery by a slabber punk girl. For example:

Singer/songwriter: “When I was here last time in Slab City, I had such a magical, transformative experience. I met all these people… but they’re not here now.”

Punk girl: “Shut up, we’re dying.”

Or:

Singer/songwriter: “Where else but Slab City can you meet someone and make a friend right away?”

Punk girl: “Less talk, more rock.”

Or:

Singer/songwriter: “I had a long, deep story about what this place means to me, but I won’t bore you.”

Punk girl: “Good.”

Finally, singer/songwriter had had enough: “Oh yeah, why don’t you come up here and play then?”

Punk girl: “Okay.”

So she got up and grabbed a bass, plugged in, and played with him. And she was an amazing musician. I think it’s safe to say, it wasn’t what the singer/songwriter was expecting.

Jinxy was also a musician and singer. She played her banjolin around any campfire she could find, but when it came time to perform on stage at The Range, she was nervous. But she still put on a good show! The songs she sang—some covers, some originals—had an old-timey twang to them and were a lot of fun. Songs about train-hopping, being a desert gypsy, with lyrics about cocaine and traveling through the Mexican desert and trying to stand on your own two feet in this often seemingly senseless world.

During a visit to Calexico, a border town about an hour south of Slab City, we bought a piñata and stuffed it with little gifts to give to Jinxy. Jinxy told us she often played her banjolin outside the Walmart Supercenter in the nearby city of Brawley to make money, halfway between Slab City and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Off-Season in Slab City, USA

“I love thoughtful gifts,” Jinxy said. “But listen. Next time you visit, just pitch a tent out here rather than paying $60 a night on Airbnb. This is Slab City, after all.”

Photos by:  

Mercedes Blackehart and Justin Chapman

John Muir Scholar Noah Griffin Awarded $7,500 Scholarship from Filmmakers (Pasadena Black Pages article)

on

John Muir Scholar Noah Griffin Awarded $7,500 Scholarship from Filmmakers

Funding for the scholarship came from the proceeds and donations from the documentary film “Thorns on the Rose: Black Abuse, Corruption & the Pasadena Police”


By James Farr, Pasadena Black Pages, 6/7/2021 (Justin Chapman contributed to this article)


Last Thursday, in front of an intimate group of community members, John Muir graduate Noah Griffin accepted the $7500 inaugural Anthony McClain Social Justice Scholarship. Griffin will attend Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Fall.

Funding for the scholarship came from the proceeds and donations from the documentary film “Thorns on the Rose: Black Abuse, Corruption & the Pasadena Police.”

“I pray that my son turns out to be half of who you have become,” said Dr. Lawton Gray, principal of Muir. Griffin maintained a 4.0 GPA for most of his academic tenure as a Mustang.

During Griffin’s acceptance remarks, he questioned his worthiness and seemed to understand the responsibility in his 17 young years.  In his essay, Griffin wrote that being a young, Black male in Pasadena, the film “hit home” and “ultimately grounded” him.

“Having the opportunity to apply for this scholarship represents a responsibility to move forward and realize dreams that Anthony McClain may have had that he cannot achieve now,” Griffin wrote in his essay. “That was taken away from him. In a blink of an eye, many of us can be in his shoes.”

“I also know I represent the hopes and dreams of my community,” he wrote. “Watching the film was a very traumatic and troubling experience. Seeing people in the film who I have interacted with and see around Pasadena on a daily basis really struck a chord. Hearing the pain and frustration in their voices while they spoke was very difficult to watch. I was so bothered by the film it inhibited physical responses from me.”

Griffin wrote that the film reminded him of “why I started doing grass-roots social justice work with the Ignite Youth Rights & Responsibilities program in the first place; which is based here in Pasadena and geared towards youth in Pasadena. The lost lives of beloved and respected black people like Michael Bryant, Kendrec McDade, Reginald Thomas, and Anthony McClain should not be regarded as stories of the past, but as souls propelling the fight for justice.”

Griffin is a co-designer of the Ignite Youth program, which aims to prevent violence in the community and is sponsored by the Pasadena/Altadena Coalition of Transformative Leaders. The program teaches conflict resolution skills to local youth across PUSD. 

“In Ignite Youth one of our main goals is to inform youth of their rights so they are able to effectively communicate with the police,” Griffin wrote. “Through teaching youth their rights we empower them with the knowledge that puts the police on a more level playing field. Two important rights are the right to remain silent and the ability to not consent to searches. We also work on effective communication, and mindfulness of our demeanors in police interactions in hopes of better outcomes.”

Griffin said he plans to start a chapter of Ignite Youth in college in addition to continuing to represent the Pasadena community “wherever I end up.”

The $7,500 cash award created by Dennis Haywood, director of “Thorns on the Rose: Black Abuse, Corruption & the Pasadena Police.” Haywood also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Pasadena Black Pages. The scholarship resulted from the community standing in the gap, serving as a bridge and lighting a pathway. Haywood desired to take the tragic homicide of Bro. McClain and have a positive impact.  

Rochele Jones and James Farr produced the film.

The afternoon was full of joy and hope. But, it was also a day to remember the loss of Mr. McClain. His son Brice was there with his mother, Kim and Aunt Ebony. Each speaker spoke to the family and decried that the name #AnthonyMcClain would not be forgotten.

The award was presented to Griffin on June 3 in front of La Pintoresca Library. In attendance were Pasadena City Council member Tyron Hampton, Pasadena Unified School District Board member Michelle Richardson Bailey, Muir principal Dr. Lawton Gray and James Farr, who presented and made remarks on behalf of the film.

The painful circumstances that made this day possible were not glossed over. We were just a mere few feet from where McClain’s bled out, and where his body and life were stolen away from his children and community. And, now Griffin is are a part of McClain’s legacy. Griffin understood that he has a responsibility to himself and the community. 

Just before I awarded Griffin with the ceremonial check, I admonished the future Mountain Hawk with a quote from Pasadena’s very own Octavia Butler -- "All that you touch you change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God Is Change." Handing him the check with the only condition that returns to Pasadena and to be GREAT.

Justin Chapman contributed to this article. 

New episode of "NewsRap Local with Justin Chapman" featuring police documentary filmmakers Dennis Haywood and James Farr

on

 


Justin Chapman is writing, producing, and hosting a monthly show on Pasadena Media's TV channel, "NewsRap Local with Justin Chapman." The second episode aired today, Friday, May 21, 2021. The guests were Dennis Haywood and James Farr, talking about their new film, "Thorns on the Rose: Black Abuse, Corruption & the Pasadena Police." Watch the full episode below:



Continuing Our Collaboration on Foreign Reporting with USC (Pacific Council article)

on


Continuing Our Collaboration on Foreign Reporting with USC

For a third year, we teamed up with Philip Seib, a long-time Pacific Council member and renowned faculty member at Annenberg, for a graduate-level class on foreign reporting


By Justin Chapman, Pacific Council on International Policy, 5/20/2021

This spring, the Pacific Council continued its collaboration with the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. For a third year, we teamed up with Philip Seib, a long-time Pacific Council member and renowned faculty member at Annenberg, for a graduate-level class on foreign reporting.

Following the conclusion of this semester, Professor Seib retired after a long and storied career. The Pacific Council congratulates Professor Seib on a remarkable career and wishes him all the best in his well-earned retirement.

In addition to being a long-time professor of journalism, public diplomacy, and international relations at the University of Southern California, he served as director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy from 2009-2013 and as vice dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism from 2015-2016. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Headline Diplomacy; New Media and the New Middle East; The Al Jazeera Effect; Real-Time Diplomacy; and The Future of Diplomacy. His latest book is As Terrorism Evolves: Media, Religion, and Governance. He is editor of an academic book series on international political communication, co-editor of a series on global public diplomacy, and was a founding co-editor of the journal Media, War & Conflict. His work impacted and influenced countless students, journalists, and public diplomacy practitioners throughout his illustrious career, and will continue to do so.

"By having access to Pacific Council events and speakers, the students have gained real-world experience and have developed a new appreciation for the complexities of the topics the Pacific Council addresses," Seib said. 

The class engaged five graduate students—most of them in the M.S. Journalism program—to think critically about covering international issues with a focus on Africa. The students dove into stories about the Tokyo Olympics, vaccine distribution in Iran, heritage preservation in Cambodia, and more.

They also had access to Pacific Council events and met with Pacific Council President and CEO Dr. Jerrold Green to discuss the state of journalism today.

"These students are exactly the type of professionals who should be engaging with the Pacific Council," Green said. "They are the next generation, and their commitment to journalism and to covering the most important issues affecting our city, country, and our world will influence the future direction of our international policy."

Throughout the semester, the Pacific Council published the students’ work in our digital Magazine, our online platform featuring daily commentary, analysis, and news about international affairs and policy. Below you can find a complete list of articles written by the students this semester.

Read all stories by the USC students here:

__________________

Justin Chapman is the Communications Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Read about our collaboration with Professor Seib's foreign reporting class in 2018 and 2019.

The views and opinions expressed in the pieces above are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.

May 2021 issue of Justin's Newsletter is out now

on







Read the May 2021 issue of Justin Chapman’s Newsletter, featuring an episode of his show “Well Read” with an interview with legendary punk rock musician Brad Logan, an episode of his show “NewsRap Local” with an interview with Pasadena Public Health Department Director Ying Ying Goh, his Pasadena Now article about the Pasadena People’s Collective, some great reads recommendations, updates on international, national, California, and local news, and much more! Check it out and subscribe. It's free and monthly.


https://justinchapman.substack.com/p/may-2021

New episode of "Well Read" features an interview with legendary punk rock musician Brad Logan

on

 

In season two of "Well Read," host and journalist Justin Chapman provides analysis on news, politics, arts, and culture and interviews special guests. Featuring segments by Senior Influencer Correspondent, @BradtheInfluencer, and Senior Toddler Correspondent, Sienna. Justin also provides recommendations for good reads in each episode.

In Episode Thirteen, Justin interviews Brad Logan, legendary punk rock musician (F-Minus, Leftover Crack, The Adolescents) and author of Architects of Self-Destruction, out 8/10.

You can watch "Well Read" below, on YouTube, or on PasadenaMedia.org. Check that website for showtimes, or watch anytime on their streaming app.

Learn more at justindouglaschapman.com and sign up for my email newsletter at justinchapman.substack.com/subscribe.



Pasadena People’s Collective Provides Mutual Aid to Pasadenans Struggling During the Pandemic (Pasadena Now article)

on


Pasadena People’s Collective Provides Mutual Aid to Pasadenans Struggling During the Pandemic

By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Now, 4/27/2021

Few have been left unscathed by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year. Some people, however, have been hit harder than others.

A new group of grassroots volunteers called the Pasadena People’s Collective (PPC), founded in January by local residents, is providing mutual aid to their neighbors in need in Pasadena and surrounding communities.

“The pandemic really made it clear just how many people are on the brink,” said PPC founder August Walters. “People are experiencing homelessness and trying to make ends meet, and COVID only exasperated those problems. Our goal is to build up a community that’s helping to alleviate some of those needs in places where we haven’t seen those being met.”

Walters, a Pasadena resident for the past seven years, formed PPC as an extension of Mutual Aid Network Los Angeles, which provides the LA community with material support in response to the pandemic. That group “split up from being a single program operating countywide to being a bunch of more local groups being able to engage more directly with local communities,” Walters said. “We had an active volunteer network in Mutual Aid Network LA, and we contacted people that have either volunteered for us or received aid from us in the past to see if they would be interested in being part of this neighborhood program that we were transitioning into.”

Up to seven people hold PPC meetings regularly to handle logistics, field requests and establish partnerships. A broader group of volunteers help pack hygiene kits, deliver groceries and fulfill other aspects of the organization’s mission.

PPC has been collaborating with Pasadena for All, a houselessness advocacy organization in Pasadena, to put together hygiene kits to distribute to people in need in the Old Pasadena area and other areas around the city. They have also purchased and delivered about $500 worth of groceries. They collaborate with other groups as well, such as the Pasadena Community Job Center and the San Gabriel Valley branch of CAT-911, a network of people who respond to community needs as an alternative to law enforcement in areas such as conflict resolution between neighbors, police, domestic and sexual violence, mental health crises, and acute first aid needs.

So what is mutual aid?

“For us that means solidarity, especially with the people who have been most affected by the pandemic, with a focus on building up the community as opposed to having one-off transactions,” Walters said.

According to the group’s request form, in mutual-aid systems people “work cooperatively to meet the needs of everyone in the community. It’s different from charity, which features a one-way relationship between an organization and recipients, and often responds to the effects of inequality but not its causes. Mutual aid is an act of solidarity that builds sustained networks between neighbors.”

According to a report co-authored by Peter Dreier, a political science professor at Occidental College and Mark Maier of Glendale Community College, Pasadena “ranked second among California’s largest cities for both income concentration and wealth gap between the richest and poorest households” as of 2019.

“The richest 5 percent of Pasadena households have 25 percent of residential income, while the poorest 20 percent of households have 2.2 percent of residential income. Likewise, the median price of a single-family home in Pasadena has risen 41 percent over the past five years, from $680,00 to $960,000,” the report states. “Many of our Pasadena neighbors are struggling just to pay rent and keep food on the table. Mutual aid provides an alternative to government assistance and understands that elected officials and government programs will not save us. It is up to us to support each other and to share skills, money and other resources so that everyone in our community can survive.”

Counting the hygiene kits, produce boxes, grocery deliveries and connecting those in need to existing local nonprofits, Walters said PPC and its partners have already helped hundreds of people.

“In terms of how many people have received some form of aid, it’s quite a few hundred at this point, though I want to make it clear that in some of these cases, we’re working with organizations like Pasadena for All,” Walters said. “We’re pointing volunteers to existing programs. That’s been our niche: identifying organizations that are already entrenched in the community and already know what the issues are and what support people need. We’ve been finding resources and people to make sure they’re able to complete those requests.”

Although the collective was organized in response to the pandemic, Walters would like to see the group’s efforts continue after the pandemic winds down, while also ensuring that organizers don’t stretch themselves too thin.

“It’s very easy to burn out on organizing,” Walters said. “A lot of us have full-time jobs. There are so many people who are in need that there’s really no point at which we can say the work is completely done. These problems existed before the pandemic and they’ll continue to exist once the pandemic ends. It just made it clear how bad things were and it made existing problems worse. I would love to see our volunteer network grow and to also identify new ways we can contribute to new partnerships with other organizations so we can help out.”

For those who want to submit a request for aid, PPC has set up a request form online. People can also call or text the collective’s phone number, (323) 577-8824. More information is available on Instagram @pasadenacollective, on Twitter @pasadenapeople or by emailing pasadena.peoples.collective@gmail.com.

For those who want to volunteer or give aid, PPC has set up a separate request form online. People can also donate through the Cash App handle $pasadenacollective.

All of these resources are available at linktr.ee/pasadenacollective.

“There is a sense that organizing is a huge commitment and a really daunting task, and there are ways to get more involved to that degree if people are interested, but we’ve had people who reach out who have a weekend free and ask what they can do to help,” Walters said. For example, you can make a donation or “you can spend a couple hours assembling hygiene kits and then deliver them. There are ways to get involved and help without making a huge long-term commitment.”

Similar efforts to help neighbors have also sprung up during the pandemic, one of the most collectively challenging times for society since at least World War II. On Facebook, Pasadenans can join a hyper-local Buy Nothing group in which you can “ask” for an item you need or “give” items to those who need them. In this free-exchange project, there is no buying or selling, no trading or bartering and no soliciting for cash. It is an adult-only, hyper-local gift economy.

“Buy Nothing. Give Freely. Share creatively. We offer members a way to give and receive, share, lend and express gratitude through a worldwide network of micro-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors,” reads the project’s About page on Facebook. “Post anything you’d like to give away, lend or share in this Buy Nothing community group. Ask for anything you’d like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil.”

Learn more at facebook.com/BuyNothingProject and buynothingproject.org, or find a group at buynothingproject.org/find-a-group.