Eric: Wait, Amirah…Think of it like a hotel. You can’t just let people in, even if it was free, you can’t just let people in because you need to keep track of people who are coming in. You can’t have too many people inside the building, that’s a fire hazard. First of all, then…Yeah, so we have a lot of stuff, the whole building is worth a lot, it's pretty much like, in this like, apocalyptic area, the building is all we have so if we lose control of it in any way, too many people, too many bad people, too many good people…
Jocelyn: I don't think we should keep track of whether they’re good or bad people, I think just knowing what they're for, because if people are going for the Commune, it would make sense to have them check in…
Maya: Or if they’re here for the Public Garden…
Yared: Okay so there are a lot of people living in New York, there are a lot of people staying in New York…There are millions of people. Let’s say about two thirds of them get killed off by whatever the hell happens here, that’s a lot of people that are going to be outside your door for whatever we have here, whether it’s food or anything here, you want to make sure that the people we want in are in and the people we don't want in are out.
Ava: No, but I don't think…
Jocelyn: No, I don't agree with that.
Ava: We don't necessarily know people that we don't want in are gonna come. I think everyone should be welcome, you just have to sign in. No matter who you are, you could be an expert or… and you just have to sign in….You could be an ax murderer…
Amirah: But why do you have to get and ID code? Why do you have to get an ID number?
Yared: Because you don’t know when someone’s gonna come back.
Ava: I think you could just put your name, you could say your name.
Amirah: I feel like ID number, ID code is a little…
Carol: Seeing it as an almost like a refugee center. Like for people who have been affected by the event, so it’s not like the ideal situation to be outside because there’s nothing, there’s not much outside, so you ideally you wanna be in like a safe shelter…that how I’m viewing this.
Amirah: But the Garden isn’t… like it’s off MoMA’s property, it doesn't have that big wall, um, and…
Eric: We could change that.
Amirah: We could. Like we could put security outside. It’s not impossible; I don't think that the Glass Dome should be outside. I think people need, um, an environment where they can go outside and just breathe. It’s too much artificial, like, stuff going on, and…
Billy: I feel like if you put the Dome, if you don't have protection, the Garden won’t exist because of what happened and like, we need some sort of protection for the Garden to function.
Anatola: I think that, the sun, like the sun still exists and wind and rain and stuff.
Yared: Yeah, I assume this all going to be a lot a worse so…
Eric: But the Dome is retractable. So we can get sun.
Anatola: We don't wanna retract the Dome every time we need to get sun…
Yared: We could have retractable days…
Amirah: Yeah, we’re totally down for retractable days, so like you could look at the stars at night and stuff and actually remember what the outside world looks like. But to make it kinda like this artificial way of living …that’s not sustainable in my opinion, because after, after everybody gets over the event you want them to live this new type of lifestyle, I don’t…I don’t.
Yared: I mean how long do you expect people to be able to live here? That’s the real question…
Amirah: It’s not about how long people are expected to live here, it’s about sustainability regardless. Because even if it’s a year, ten years, twenty-five years, a century, you don't want things to be so disconnected from the actual ways of living. If that’s the case, then what’s the point of humanity?
Bianca: Does that mean that the housing is separate per group, or per, like, what you’re coming for?
Ava: I think there should just be housing for everyone.
Emily: But then if people come in, they’re joining us are they gonna be, are they automatically part of the Commune? Like will that be the governing system?
Bianca: That’s what I was trying to get at…
Jocelyn: I don't think so because the public garden wanted to be a space where people could just come in, right? I think that part could still be part of the building, like people can still just enjoy the space.
Carol: Okay, if you work in the Garden you can live in the Communes.
Billy: But it’s the same in exchange for teaching yoga or running, help running the library…
Carol: Yeah, if you teach
Jocelyn: Oh, so like the workers live there.
Emily: You can trade your labor for…
Carol: For housing…
Emily: For a stay… A lot of what we’re talking about in the Glass Dome was like people who aren’t doing well are gonna be here too, it's not like the healthy people are coming in. So it’s like, hypothetically, let’s say I want to join but like I don't have any skill I can contribute. Like I don't, I can’t teach yoga, I can’t farm, I can’t do whatever, but I still want to like, be part of the education, be part of like, this…
Carol: If you’re enrolled in a class….
Emily: I mean like how do I become part of like an accessible, like, environment?
Carol: What if you were enrolled in a class in the Learning Center, not even as a teacher but as a student?
Anatola: But then when it's over are you kicked out?
Jocelyn: Yeah, that’s true.
Carol: I think as long as you stay, you keep learning, you're allowed to stay.
Anatola: If there’s a membership fee…Is there a membership fee?
Group: No. I say no. No.
Anatola: Because then, it’s like as long as you….
Jocelyn: No because I think the whole payment is that you’re working.