The rumor that the $600,000 Waterfront study “Voices to Vision” completely overwhelmed the city’s shelf space (already crammed with similar studies stored there over the past 20 years) is apparently not quite true. One story said that the city had hired a public storage unit to accommodate the overflow, but Albany officials denied this: “They wouldn’t give us the first month free. We are very cost conscious these days in these iffy economic times. And we don’t have time to write up a grant to cover it.” “But,” another staffer confided, “We are eagerly awaiting our shipment of special hi-tech face masks for the workers who will have to deal with 20 years of dust as they go in to recycle some of the older studies and free up space for V to V."
The V to V volumes are printed on archival paper, guaranteed to last 100 years, and the Albany Historical Society offered to pop them into their time capsule. But others said wait until the Race Track leaves before you do that.
While city officials have tried to keep a lid on this story, it turns out that many of the counselors dispatched to the bulb never returned! The counselors went there, of course, to convince Bulb residents that a room in Oakland would be a better deal. But the story goes that during these discussions, the folks out there painted such a rosy picture of life on the bulb, with the new library and all, that many of the counselors decided to move out there instead and become residents themselves. Plans to send the Albany interns out to look for them were scrapped when a hastily convened ad hoc panel of psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, sociologists and a few anthropologists (but no archeologists) was consulted and opined that the impressionable young minds of the interns would be even more susceptible to the siren songs of the Bulb dwellers.
BUT PROGRESS IS SLOW !
As the “door hangers” found recently on many Albany knobs suggested, Transition Albany is planning to issue local Albany currency. That seems simple enough, but as they got into the details, glitches emerged. The first one was what kind of paper should be used for the currency. Some said that plain copy paper (good for copiers, Laser printers, etc.) would be fine, but others held out for 30% cotton content and watermarks, like the lawyers use for their stationary. Last reported, a compromise was brewing and members of the Currency Committee were authorized to search for recycled paper with a 15% cotton content.
But a more serious question emerged when it came to the matter of whose picture should go on the paper currency, known as Albany bills. Some said they should use a picture of Rob Hopkins, the Brit who founded the Worldwide Transition movement. But a check confirmed that Rob does not wear a beard, and others felt that a face with a beard would be more impressive and lend an air of legitimacy to the currency. Here again a compromise is being considered along the lines of a mustache and goatee. If Rob can be coaxed to grow at least that much, looks like he's got it locked.
Facial hair will not be a problem in respect to bills of larger denominations, because only women are to be honored on those. Several are under consideration to adorn Albany's largest bill, the &100.00 Albany (we believe it will be called). We are told that the purchasing power of this bill will roughly equal that of $1.00 U.S. When we asked how this ratio was selected we were only told that it was a matter of “monetary policy”. But another spokesperson confided that the ratio was to “inflation proof” the currency by making it very inflated to begin with.
Discussions between Transition Albany and Safeway, Lucky’s, and Trader Joe’s* about whether they would accept this new currency, came to naught, but did provide representatives from these stores with a good deal of merriment during the meetings.
*needed as backups in case the Gill Tract Farm has a bad year
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