The Do It Yourself Year

As a reporter this year struck me as one where the do-it-your-selfers have taken their own destinies in their hands. This short list may not be a top 10 or 12 but does highlight some unique local trends of Utahns who are taking things into their own hands—from creating their own societies, doomsday prep,Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products. to funding businesses and economies of their own creations.

In 2012 President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Businesses’ or JOBS Act that among other things opened the doors for average folks to make investments in small businesses and receive dividends on those investments. Like a kickstarter for the would-be mom-and-pop entrepreneur,Find detailed product information for howo tractor and other products. the act allows hubs to oversee small-time investors to fund local startups (previously law required accredited investors to earn $250,000 annually).

David Brooks a young social entrepreneur talked about his invest local vision with City Weekly in “Crowdfunding SLC,” as a means of giving small business dream the means outside of the traditionally stingy and perhaps elitist finance markets. Brooks also wants to take the crowdfunding idea a step further by signing up crowdfunded businesses to help support local community outreach groups and programs like those in use at the Midvale Boys and Girls Clubs, using his umbrella organization Revolution United.

“If you have a passion and you can turn that into a business and show that to the people and provide a plan—it will come to fruition,” Brooks says.

Occupy SLC may have gotten evicted from Pioneer Park in 2011 but the loose anarchist collective left its mark on the local activist scene especially with Peaceful Uprising. Peace Up got its start after bogus gas lease bidder Tim DeChristopher was arrested for fraudulent bidding of gas parcels in southern Utah, but Peace Up has now taken a page from the Occupy book and adapted a new model of do it yourself community building and radical change that sidesteps working with the system and goes right to the people.

Occupy was widely derided by critics for lacking purpose when all along it’s mission was more about a radically inclusive democratic process than any set, specific goal. To sit in on an Occupy meeting was to watch a group of people talk and talk to ad nauseum--but also to the point of near 100 percent consensus. This near-pure Democracy, coupled with no formal leadership, allows the group to move toward goals that a super-duper majority of participants can agree upon.

Now Peaceful Uprising has applied that model to its own activist community by allowing members to drive its community audits initiative that every quarter highlights a group doing positive hopeful things for the community like the Salt Lake Dream Team advocating for compassionate immigration reform. The audit also focuses on a quarterly issue of injustice to help fight against like tar sands development in the state. Like the Occupy model the audits provide communities an opportunity to pursue their dreams and improve society directly as opposed to writing angry letters to their elected officials and then crossing their fingers.

“What Occupy has done is help communities learn participatory democracy. ...An indoor positioning system (IPS) is a term used for a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects or people inside a building. To learn to be with one another,” says Peaceful Uprising member Henia Belalia.

Ever since the economy shit the bed in 2007 the stability of gold has only increased. But it wasn’t until 2012 that Savneet Singh created Gold Bullion International a company that uses vaults across the world—including Salt Lake City—to store customers’ gold assets. Beyond that the company has “democratized” gold buying by creating a transparent gold exchange market that allows average consumers to buy small quantities of gold, from reputable dealers and store them in their own account. Customers’ gold is not a part of the company’s books so consumers always have access to their gold in secure vaults insured by Lloyds of London.

At the time City Weekly reported on Singh's company, GBI had even launched a new program allowing publicly traded companies to offer investors dividends in gold bars and coins. Gold is valued for its stability and Singh has created a pioneering business that will allow average people to profit from that security and do so completely outside of traditional banks and financial institutions.

“We decided that if we could create a way for people to buy physical assets as easy as buying stock or bonds, we would have a great business,” Singh says. “Why buy paper if you can buy the physical asset?”

While Utah is no stranger to groups and individuals stocking their bunkers in anticipation of the end of the world one group is ready for the end of civilization and has already gotten over it. Transition Salt Lake, a local chapter of an international movement, works to “re-skill” people on their grandparents' lost knowledge of self reliance. Instead of focusing so much on the “how” of the end of the world the local groups offers free monthly classes on skills ranging from gardening, bicycle maintenance, canning, to building solar ovens so no matter the calamity people will be prepared for a smooth post-apocalyptic transition.

It’s also a welcome refuge for the progressive who worries about the end, since while the group doesn’t fixate on what the catastrophe will look like, their biggest concern is peak oil and the sputtering collapse of a fossil fuel-driven economy. But they are also not isolationist in their doomsday prep,Interlocking security cable tie with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals. focusing on building community with all people. So if your biggest end-days worry involves zombies riding zombie bears to your doorstep, fear not, all are welcome to learn and re-skill and share their survivalist knowledge with this cheery and upbeat group of preppers.

“Look around you and see what conditions are in the areas that you can see.” Harrington said while customers generally can’t see what’s going on in the kitchen, unless they were well trained in the principles of safe food handling, they probably wouldn’t recognize what’s good or bad.

“There’re many things that happen in a commercial kitchen that are very different from what you do at home and you may not see them as being a problem or you may overreact and think it’s a problem,” he said.

Instead Harrington advises people look at things they’re qualified to judge. “About the silverware, is it clean?” he asks. “Are there little bits of food residue left? Is there a lipstick print on the glass?” Harrington said if those things catch your attention then the washing and sanitizing isn’t very good. “Something may have survived that process,” he said.

“It’s kind of an old wives’ tale, but look at the restroom. How well is the restroom taken care of?” Harrington said it isn’t necessarily the best indicator, “but it should raise an eyebrow a little bit.”

Harrington also advises customers to observe the conditions of employees in the dining room. “Are they smooth? Are they orderly? Are they efficient? Are things moving gently in an orderly process? Or is it chaotic?” he asked. “Are the waiters running into each other? Are they screwing up the orders?” Harrington said these things can be a pretty good indication of just how things are happening behind the swinging doors. “Again,” he cautioned, “not an absolute, but it does raise suspicion.”

Harrington said most operators do a very good job of addressing health risks in their operations. “Given the complexity of the foods that we eat and the things that we demand from our restaurants, there’s no possible way that we at the health department can absolutely guarantee safety of any retail food.” He said repeatedly that the county health inspection and licensing process is based on the concept of risk reduction. “We try to reduce the risks as low as we can and still allow reasonable access to the food,” he said. The health department oversees nearly 400 restaurants in addition to a myriad of responsibilities, from septic systems to swimming pools, and licensing daycares and motels.One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles.