Skate of Grace

I'm executive director of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and co-owner of Comet Skateboards.

BALLE is a growing alliance of more than 5,400 entrepreneurs and small-business owners from across the U.S. and Canada who are dedicated to building Local Living Economies, and to a different way of doing business that enhances community life and natural systems. These entrepreneurs are committed to the long-term health of a particular place -- whether it's a big city like Philadelphia, a medium-sized town like Grand Rapids, Mich., or a rural area like the Rogue River Valley in southern Oregon.

We're creating a local stock exchange for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area that will support small, community-based, triple-bottom-line companies. We're also implementing a new approach to economic development in California that we hope will be a model for other regions. Instead of the 20th century model of throwing tax breaks and subsidies to large corporations, we are working closely with city and county governments to identify opportunities for small, locally owned companies in growing markets such as sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, green building, and zero-waste manufacturing.

I skateboard three-quarters of a mile to BART (the transit system), go six stops while reading the paper, get off, and skateboard another half mile.

My ancestors were Quaker farmers and small-business owners from the Philadelphia area. I studied American history at Cornell. And I bicycled cross-country, hiked 800 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, and had a very close encounter with a mountain lion in Olympic National Park. After college, I taught high school, helped grow a for-profit education company, and helped start/grow a multimedia software company.

Princeton, N.J. Berkeley, Calif.

Several years ago, I worked closely with an entrepreneur who was starting a beer company. He raised almost $1 million from angel investors. Two weeks after the close, he stole the money and lost it all at a casino in South Lake Tahoe. The investors filed a lawsuit against everybody. Though I didn't do anything wrong, I was dragged into it. Lessons: take your time when evaluating a business partner and develop thick skin for hard times.

Wendell Berry.

I don't compost at home.

I try to eat well, sleep well, and spend unstructured time with my wife and our close friends. I need to exercise more.

America's Constitution by Akhil Reed Amar.

Pasta with homemade tomato sauce from the Bensadoun organic farm in Newfield, N.Y.

I'm as idealistic as I was when I was 18.

The Valle Grande in north-central New Mexico, near Bandelier National Monument. Most amazing stars you will ever see. Camp there in August, make a small fire, get in your sleeping bag, and watch the show.

Neil Young. Neil Young.

CSI: Miami. (We don't have cable.)

Witness.

Nick Nolte. Robert Redford. No, actually it's probably closer to Matthew Modine.

Take the 5 percent challenge. Do an audit of your personal spending and investing -- then commit 5 percent more every month to locally owned farms and businesses in your region. This could mean a trip to a local bookstore instead of Barnes & Noble, or supporting a local artisan instead of a national brand of clothing, or investing $50 in a community loan fund instead of a conventional mutual fund, or buying lettuce at the farmers' market instead of the supermarket. Experiment, have fun, spend a few dollars to help create a healthy, diversified local economy in your area.