[Kzyxtalk] No reason to blame Budhha but...

[King Collins]

A related real and rhetorical question for Ukiah folks: 

Why do great spaces like the multi-block former Trinity school go begging? What a great space, located on the West side in the middle of Ukiah's most desirable, walkable residential area.  And who finally gets it (I hear) but the City of  10,000 Buddhas.! Great! 

They also got the State Mental Hospital in Talmage (many acres and many buildings) back in the 70s, when Reagan eliminated the big state hospitals. 
http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Mendocino_State_Hospital

Mendocino College, which was built about the same time, could have had all or part of the state hospital for virtually nothing, $1 a acre or something like that, I hear, but instead the College was built, blacktop and concrete and buildings and infrastructure where once there were vineyards and ag land.  (That truly sounds like a developer, real estate broker and contractor driven" project.

Anyway,  the City of 10,000 is known in Ukiah for serving excellent vegetarian lunch, and for the kindly mannered monks and nuns and others including many locals, all really good folks, and for the elementary and high school and even a sort of "university."  

However, the City of 10,000 Budhhas in Ukiah is essentially a clone transplanted from the Hong Kong monastery of the same name with a profoundly hierarchical and male dominated structure in both places Correct me if I'm wrong.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Thousand_Buddhas_Monastery

Recent reviews of 10,000 Budhhas: "They have transformed what used to be an insane asylum and turned it into heaven. 10.000 Buddas in one hall. Services daily. Peacoks wandering about and a great vegetarian restaurant.....An unexpected oasis of tranquility. A perfect place for meditation. It's very close to town, only a five minute drive, but a totally different world."

No reason to blame Budhha, or a Hong Kong Monistary.  Blame us. Why are we, local folks, so damned unimaginative and disorganized? Or are we?  Where is the muscle in our social imagination? Where are the thilnkers and the doers? Sure it takes money, but there has to be something worth raising money for.