NorCalUrban

Sam, Melissa and I went to see M. Ward last night. The newly renovate Fox Theatre in Oakland is truly amazing. It's a restored 1920's movie palace. It could now be my favorite venue for shows in the Bay.  M. was amazing. He's the real deal, for sure. An amazing guitarist, intriguing vocalist and brought along a stellar backing band. He'll be around for a long time - I'm sure. Here's video: 

Reflections from Jackson For the better part of the last year I’ve been working on the Emerging Leader’s Initiative for the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). This initiative is designed to recognize and empower the emerging leaders within CCDA. John Perkins, Wayne Gordon, Mary Nelson and many others originally founded CCDA in the 1980’s. These men and women were very tight-nit and have a strong bond of friendships. CCDA has now grown to be many thousands of people. As a board we’ve been concerned about the aging of the leadership of the Association and I was tasked to develop and lead this initiative. The initiative revolves around choosing 20 or so individuals, we call them cohorts, to journey together for a year. The cohorts are mostly leaders under 40 years old who are in primary leadership in a CCDA member organization. During the year there is a focus on relationships, on transfixing the ‘legacy’ of the founders and considering the future of CCDA. Last w...

See the entire article here. Menlo Park's City Council tonight will consider an innovative approach to preventing foreclosure for struggling homeowners - but one that comes with a big up-front price tag for the city. "To me, the most important thing is to keep people in their homes and not disrupt families, not take kids out of school," said Councilman Andy Cohen. "This is the only program on the horizon that does that." The Foreclosure Prevention Program targets owner-occupied homes with mortgages more than 90 days past due. Program administrators would approach the bank that holds the defaulting mortgage and ask it to sell the mortgage at the home's current fair market value - the same amount the bank would receive if the home went through foreclosure, but with fewer expenses and less time and trouble for the bank, said David Shapiro, CEO of the EARN Group, a Los Gatos company that develops real estate financing tools. A local community bank would then ref...

Sam's gonna be a star! No doubt! This is his rap group. Song: Glommy Day Priduced by Samuel J. Liotti Vocals: Samuel J. Liotti, Malik R., Sierra and Cody K.

Cross post from  Urban Onramps For thise who are attending the Mobilazation to End Poverty (M2EP) we're meeting Sunday night. Come on - all you west coasters will be hitting your stride at 8:00 pm! DC MEETUP THIS SUNDAY NIGHT: Here’s a Meet-Up in conjunction with the Mobilization to End Poverty (MEP). The MEP starts on Monday morning, and for those who are in town on Sunday night and would like to connect, the spot is Lauriol Plaza Restaurant in DC, 1835 18th Street NW (about three blocks from DuPont Circle). We’ll be there for dessert (or whatever else you choose) starting at 8 p.m. So far… it’s me, John Liotti from NorCal Urban CDC, and Glory Okeke from Harambee Prep. Open Invitation - All Are Welcome. Email me if you plan to attend (or send a tweet).

Evidence suggests that these types of (financial literacy) programs can be successful in helping the unbanked and underserved improve their financial skills and develop successful banking relationships. For example, a survey of participants in the FDIC's Money Smart program, showed that financial education training can positively change consumer behavior and improve knowledge about the basics of checking, saving, budgeting, and credit. Money Smart is a financial education curriculum launched in 2001 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that is in wide use today. The survey results indicate that participants, 6 to 12 months after taking the Money Smart training, were more likely to open deposit accounts, save money in a mainstream deposit product, use and adhere to a budget, and have increased confidence in their financial ability. In addition, more than half of the respondents reported that their level of savings increased, their debt decreased, and they were more likely to...

My friend Travis recenty returned from a trip to Africa. He joined in a tribal dance.

Last Sunday, the choirmaster was jumping out of his skin ... stormy then still, playful then tender, on the most upright of pianos and melodies. He sang his invocations in a beautiful oaken tenor with a freckle-faced boy at his side playing conga and tambourine as if it was a full drum kit. The parish sang to the rafters songs of praise to a God that apparently surrendered His voice to ours. I come to lowly church halls and lofty cathedrals for what purpose? I search the Scriptures to what end? To check my head? My heart? No, my soul. For me these meditations are like a plumb line dropped by a master builder — to see if the walls are straight or crooked. I check my emotional life with music, my intellectual life with writing, but religion is where I soul-search. The preacher said, “What good does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” Hearing this, every one of the pilgrims gathered in the room asked, “Is it me, Lord?” In America, in Europe, people are asking,...

Check out the new NCUD website.  See it here. Let us know your thoughts.

Editorial in the Almanac: "Quick Action Needed." See the article here. If you know one of the Menlo Park city council or government leaders, please reach out and indicate your support for NCUD and other's efforts.

My friend and CCDA "emerging leader" Andrew Marin of the  The Marin Foundation just had his first book published "Love is an Orientation". Andrew is elevating the important conversation between the evangelical and homosexual community. You can get his book here. You can also read his blog here or check out the recent Christianity Today review of the book. This is obviously an important for us living in the SF Bay with our active and large homosexual community. We've been feeling the backlash from the California Proposition 8 decision and the impact it has had on both communities. I'm proud of Andrew, thankful that he is elevating an important conversation.

As I mentioned in my post about about my 'blogcation' we've been working diligently on a shared equity or 'third sector' housing solution for our community. This has occupied much of my mental bandwidth, along with the important curriculum development project for our youth program, Future Profits. We're beginning to see some light. On April 24th the city of Menlo Park will vote on a proposal for funding for our housing project. If approved, we will have the funding to save around ten homes and families from foreclosure. This will happen through an investment of public funds as an equity partner and a write down of the current (underwater) mortgage by the lender to a level where, with the public funds, will place the homeowner in a fair mortgage with a payment they can afford. However, the homeowner will give up some of their future appreciation by which the city will be paid back it's funds. We're also looking at a similar project with private funding....

So I've finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. You can see my Twitter updates on the right of this page. One more way to keep up with my life...

This week our close friend passed away suddenly. Mark was my wife Melissa's pastor and served as a second father to her when her own dad passed. Mark and his wife Gloria introduced Melissa to Christ when she was a child and served as her pastor throughout her childhood and teenage years. Mark and my relationship started rocky. When I showed up in Delhi, CA courting Melissa I was a young 18 year old, brash, arrogant and opinionated. I still have some of that going on. Understandably and justifiably, Mark was skeptical and not too thrilled about Melissa and my relationship. We had a lapse in our communication for a number of years. After we left Mexico with YWAM in '94 we landed in the Central Valley broke and burned out with a newborn baby. We were struggling to get back on our feet. Mark and Gloria gave Melissa a job that she held for 6 years at La Morenita. Mark helped us with a car, with furniture, with a house, with groceries, on and on... He eventually gave me a job at the ...

To all of my deprived readers (if there are any left), Please forgive my absence. Frankly, blogging started to feel more like work than fun - so a break was in order. Going forward, I hope to be more focused with my posts. They may be less frequent but hopefully will have slightly more content. Over the past three months I've focused my attention on a few key issues. The first and main issue is formulating a response to the current housing crisis. We've been working on a Housing Market Stabilization Initiative (HMSI) which would work to intervene for families who are losing their homes. Secondly, NCUD's  youth program, now dubbed "Future Profits"is growing and needing more and more attention. Lastly, I've been working on an Emerging Leader Initiative (ELI) for CCDA . The ELI will be a one year cohort program designed to pass on the CCDA legacy from the founders including Dr. John Perkins. Overarching all of this is the economy - which is making all of us in th...

Just returned from a wonderful CCDA board meeting in Cincinnati. Just made it out before the snow and frigid cold. Boy, do I love the Bay Area! You HAVE to check this out. here is a wonderful article on Dr. John Perkins called Radical Faith: The Revolution of John Perkins that was in the Jackson Free Press. It's a wonderful read... especially in light of the upcoming inauguration of President Obama. I'd love to hear your comments.

I found this interesting record by The Fireman  yesterday named "Electric Arguments". This is essentially a disguised Paul McCartney record. As my regular readers will know I listen to a lot of music from diverse styles (from opera to speed metal). I'm not wowed by a record very often, this one did for me. To be honest, I've been less than impressed with Paul's solo work. There are bright spots like the records 'McCartney', 'Ram', 'Band on the Run'and 'Flowers in the Dirt' - but for the most part his solo career can't compare to wonderful and transparent Lennon records like 'Plastic Ono Band', 'Double Fantasy' and 'Mind Games'. However, this record really grabbed me, starting with the searing blues on the first song, "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" and the transcendent "Sing the Changes" with the repeating lyrics (is there a faith influence here???): "sing his praises as y...

Happy New Year everyone!  I'm back now after a few weeks off. I needed some down time. Meliisa and I intentionally spend lots of time together over the holidays. It's a season to reconnect and remember that we're friends. We had a great time, saw family, ate a ton, watched movies and worked on our house. This time around in home ownership I seem to be enjoying  the experience more. We owned (and still do) a house in Modesto when we lived there 9 years ago (yes, it's been 9 years since we moved to EPA!) - but working on the house seemed much more a drudgery. I guess I'm older and slightly more patient. We're looking forward to 2009 - and I'm certainly glad 2008 is over. However, in spite of the turmoil we personally and with NCUD had a prosperous and successful year. We bought a house, had a credit union grand opening and saw it grow and succeed, expanded and further developed our youth programs and watched Samuel continue to mature into a fine young man. Oh...

This recently happened on my street. I'm thankful that the police made this arrest, but I also have great concern for the families that live on our street. Please pray for those of us who live on Saratoga Ave! We're prayng for the Kingdom of God to impact and change our neighborhood. The police team also arrested two Pacific-Islander men, whose names were not available, for having two guns, including a loaded Uzi machine gun with 300 rounds of ammunition. The two also had scales for weighing drugs and night-vision goggles. Packaged narcotics for sale were also seized in the arrest, which occurred in the 1100 block of Saratoga Avenue in East Palo Alto. You can see the whole article at Palo Alto Online. This is in response to the recent shootings and violence that I blogged about here. Update: Here is another version of the story.