The Vine

For people wondering what The Vine is all about, our website and other materials will tell you the (carefully crafted) story with background, characters, who-what-why, beliefs, purpose statements, etc. etc.

But if I distill it all down to its core, the raison d’etre for creating these gatherings (and now this online forum), it comes to this:

Inspired people create inspired places. And vice versa.

Very few businesses or entities, including the government, will influence people’s quality of life (for better or for worse) quite like community development. The places we create will either enhance or diminish the innate human desire for a sense of community and interconnectedness—to one another, to the built environment, and to the natural environment. Place affects people. People affect place. And so on.

From what people tell me (maybe they’re just being nice), The Vine has inspired quite a few of you over the years. The Pumpkin Festival collaboration between Newland Communities and Life is Good has raised nearly $1 million for children in need. The Ratkovich Company, moved by Dave Eggers’ unforgettable talk in 2007, built the 826 LA tutoring center in Echo Park. Actress/playwright Claytie Mason and musician/performer Rebecca Jackson have joined forces to create “The Wind and Rain,” a theatre piece hailed as “lovely, lethal and lyrical” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

And yet as much as The Vine may have given its members over the years, I can safely say you’ve given us more in return.

The circle continues.