To our Common Grounders--volunteers and donors and collaborative friends--as always, we need money to keep it going. We've had an amazing year and now with Make It Right at our doorstep and a training program in the works, we're still busy doing what needs to be done and we need your help.

We hope you'll read our end of year letter and make a donation to Common Ground. Starting January 1st, Common Ground, utilizing its new non-profit status, will become an independent entity and all the work will be done, on the ground in the Lower 9th Ward. We think this is an exciting time and we hope you'll continue to journey along with us.

While plans to demolish public housing has drawn many protests marches and lawsuits, many informative websites are covering these issues by providing regular updates and action requests.

If you haven't heard, a last minute lawsuit filed only a few days ago received an Louisiana State Court Order that halted demolitions at C.J. Peete, Lafitte, and St. Bernard until the New Orleans City Council votes to approve them Thursday. Coverage in mainstream media sources like the Times Picayune newspaper have been inaccurate, so independent information sources stand alone in factual coverage of this critical issue.

A decidedly unusual site now greets visitors to the Lower Ninth ward: lots which have remained mostly vacant since August 29, 2005, have been transformed into a village of bright pink cubes.

Formally unveiled on December 3, the structures, which are constructed from scaffolding covered in custom tarpaulin, cover 12 city blocks. The installation will remain in place until January 8, open for visitors to walk through during the day, or drive through at night, when they are dramatically illuminated from below. The cubes represent homes simultaneously past and future. In their current, scattered state, they reflect the post-Katrina devastation. As contributions are made to the show’s organizers, the Make it Right Foundation, the cubes will be gradually rearranged into a neighborhood, symbolic of the homes that can and will be built.

NA MU MYO HO REN GE KYO by Tim Congdon

A small Buddhist temple, inspired by Nipponzan Myohoji, has been erected in a tent at Common Ground Relief, Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, along the stretch of Deslonde Street where a mega ton barge broke through the levee and flooded the area, resulting in hundreds of lives lost.

One ticket	Three Tickets

You can purchase the raffle tickets using the paypal links, or by sending a check made out to "Common Ground Relief" to 221 Idora Avenue Vallejo, California 94591. Please indicate "Raffle" on the check.
Thanks for your support, and good luck!

Common Ground planting bulrush in the wetlands outside of New Orleans. Planting bulrush helps stop soil erosion and wetlands loss. The wetlands are important barriers against hurricanes. By planting bulrush, Common Ground is simultaneously restoring habitat and helping to prevent damages from future Hurricanes. Watch Video

On November 2-4, the quiet, abandoned streets of the Lower 9th were filled with N.O.P.D. vehicles, strings of parked cars, and the sounds of jazz and people. All of this was brought to the Lower 9th Ward by Creative Time's production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a tragicomedy directed by Christopher McElroen and Paul Chan, starring Wendell Pierce (of HBO's "The Wire"), J. Kyle Manzay, T. Ryder Smith, Mark McLaughlin, Tony Felix, and Michael Pepp. The production was enormously successful, and because of the unprecedented response, a third day was added in the Lower 9th to accommodate the many people who were turned away the first few nights. Even on the extra night, the number of people who attended were in excess of 400.

In an effort to consolidate and better support the community, Common Ground Relief is in the process of moving its legal/media/tech center in Mid City to a restored house in the Lower 9th Ward, near the epicenter of the levee break on the Industrial Canal. In anticipation of this move, volunteers have allocated hundreds of hours rewiring, installing drywall, and bathrooms in the house at 1800 Deslonde Street, which will serve to house project coordinators and volunteers for a variety of rebuilding projects around New Orleans. The upstairs will contain five bedrooms and be big enough to house up to 40 volunteers. The yard is being re-landscaped with two ponds - one pond is a wetlands presentation pond.

Common Ground recomends checking out What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, And The State Of The Nation available at AK Press. This is the first book published discussing the origins of Common Ground Relief's projects.

This short and accessible anthology, features many voices, including several anarchist perspectives, that have largely been left out of the dialog around Katrina and New Orleans. Included in this book are writngs from: Malik Rahim, Lisa Fithian, scott crow and Sue Hilderbrand from Common Ground Relief, Roger Benham from the Common Ground Health Clinic, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Suheir Hammad, Jordan Flaherty, Dylan Rodriguez , with an afterword by Joy James.

Marina Drummer, dedicated advocate of Common Ground Relief and the Angola 3, passed a pleasant visit with friend and ally Robert King (of the Angola 3) at New Orleans' House of Excellence before they proceeded on to Baton Rouge.

Recently, Common Ground Relief was excited to welcome a very special friend as she visited Common Ground sites with co-founder Malik Rahim.

Common Ground is different from many organizations in that it was not begun in an office building, with a budget laid out and a board in place. Common Ground began with friends reaching out to each other in a time of deep need, in the spirit of mutual aid. Marina was just such a friend who answered the call for help even before Katrina's waters had left the city, and right beside Common Ground is where she has stayed, giving assistance and guidance in countless forms.