The quantity of quality.

The project has doubled in size this year. Our efforts have paid off. Questions have come up though. How big would be too big? What would happen if we doubled again in size? What is a respectable size for the lake? If we wanted to control the size how would we go about doing it?
We came out here to do things in an environment that was free of regulations and rules. As the project has grown we have found that we need to engage with more and more levels of local and private government. We are currently engaged with the Hennepin county water patrol, Hennipen Sheriff's department, we have talked to and needed to check with the Plymouth police, we have met and talked to the Plymouth Parks department. On a private level we are engaging with AMLAC, or the local entity of home owners around the lake.
In a place where there is so little the prospect of dealing with all of these agencies is becoming to be daunting.
The conversation has begun about that to do about the situation. Where should the project go from here. Can we impose limits in a place like this? We know that we can not technically say no to anyone wanting to come out and do something. There is however a thresh hold out here. A balance between what we are doing and the communities that exist. We must be considerate of this. We did not come out here to take over. We came out here with the understanding that we are infusing ourselves with in and into a community that exists and will exist. We do not want to disrupt the these communities. We know that we need to be very respectful of them. We intend to be.

Surrounding the lake are many communities. The industrial steel industry, private home communities, condominium communities, small businesses, and park land.
The lake works as the landscape for all of them to intercede. There are tempoary and permanent communities. The public comes and walks their dogs. They run and snow shoe. They recreate on their atvs. They ski and of course ice fish. When the ice is better they drive on the lake run their dogs behind the car. They whip shitties. They respect and disrespect the lake.
We are a group. A project our presence is highly visible, from the pages of the periodic periodicals to our presence on the lake. This year placed in the public beech area near the southern part of the lake. Last year farther out over the bad fishing holes. The first year, over at first 2 feet of water.
Our visibility places us in the lime light. It focuses a lot of attention upon us and the project. We need to have stepped up sense decorum. There are many people watching us. We are different. And we are a group. In many ways if we were simply just out here. Like the fisherman. We would not be watched as we are. We would just be one of many instead of many that make one.
The structure of the laws are such that complaints have procedure. If I were to say call the water patrol and complain about trash around any one fish house, or in our case with in the "bounds" of our project. The Water Patrol must respond. There is a procedure they must follow. Even if there is no actual trash, They must respond. And a record of the response it logged. There is not a a similar procedure process for positive feedback. People in general do not feel compelled to call up a government agency and say something is working and doing fine. The system is not set up to respond to this kind of feed back. How does one respond to a situation like this? How does one work with in this system? How can there be balance? Can the complaints be off set? Could they be over shadowed? one has to believe that with in the protective anonymous nature of the process there is a level which it is not anonymous. And there for the real numbers and a balanced perspective can be gained.
When we set out to do this project. One of the most significant goals was to work with respect and understanding of the existing community. There is hugh history of conflict and conflict resolution out here. As there is with in the whole country. The systems that are in place are set up to deal with this conflict and to limit it. This environment is a microcosm in away. Could it be said that Art Shanty Projects is analogous to a new family on the block from another part of the world. One with different cultural backgrounds. One that in time begins to attract other families from the homeland to the neighborhood? How does the neighborhood respond? How do the new families adjust to the unfamiliar customs and unwritten ways of doing things? How do the two communicate?

We have steps ahead of us to take. Our path is not yet cast. It will be interesting to see what steps we try and what happens.