Founder's Statement:

Nearly 15 years after formation, this site represents the current status (and synopsis-storytelling) of what has often been affectionately called “an evolving experiment in Unintentional Community”. After ten years, it felt like this vision had finally become “Intentional”. However, a few more transitional or semi-Intentional years passed instead, with an ever-increasing effort to create a more “Lesstensional Community”. So this second half of the second decade continues with the spirit of all of these in mind… and heart. Annnnd an official listing in the Communities Directory (www.ic.org). Truly, it is a longer story than a few web pages could ever tell… and one day soon it will in fact be written down and told in more detail. For now, it remains a work-in-progress and a labor-of-love – striving to become a progressive working model based on one group’s love-of-labor.  ;-)

Call it what you will, but hopefully it will at least show how a core group of people and projects can initiate, maintain and further develop a successful working model of sustainable urban interdependence during these changing and challenging global times. With a more focused clarification of procedures, energy, and reinforcement in the near future, it will hopefully function in practice as well as it has [or to some debatable degree does] in theory. It is called “fortunity” – quite simply and practically defining those who live and work more directly within The Fortune Building’s Urban Community. However, it is also the obvious and unavoidable name, given its entire existence is based on…

…the FORTUNate use of serendipITY

or, a more personal description would be:

…the process of investing a small FORTune to create a system of commUNication facilitating appropriate responsibilITY
for our Selves & the Planet.

In essence, fortunity represents a conscious effort to train, forge, and maintain a functionally productive alliance between a limited core group of people and the core family of projects they’re engaging. The general goal is to build meaningful relationships and use various communication tools to implement these related projects in the broadest most tangible ways. More specifically, the process by which everyone’s capacity to identify conflicts and problems, effectively heal wounds and/or creatively find and test solutions within themselves, each other, and the local community is the challenge.

fortunity is one potential vehicle showing exactly how to do just that. It is not for everyone, and not meant to be. As safe and simple for some as it can be dangerous and radical for others, if appropriately engaged it should be nothing short of a quiet (r?)evolution within the intentional community movement and one small part of an overall cultural paradigm shuffling in the U.S. today.

Read these words and feel free to offer some feedback, join in, share a parallel vision you're working on, or simply choose another vehicle and walk away. Either way, that's OK.  But please remember that there's a little fortune building within you and within all of us -- the true value of which has yet to be fully seen, experienced and shared. May we all be blessed or lucky enough to see and readily exchange such fortunes with each other down the road.

~Jonah Goldwag
(a founding fortunite)