Universal Brotherhood
Free classes, free meals, a chapterhouse within walking distance of anywhere. Seven years old and growing at a rate that makes people either grateful or uneasy.
A self-improvement organization with meeting houses. Free classes, free meals, meditation, somewhere warm to sit, and a chapterhouse within walking distance of most of the Westside. It started at UCLA about seven years ago and has grown since at a rate that makes people either grateful or uneasy, usually depending on whether they have eaten this week.
It does the thing it says it does. The kitchen at the bottom of Oceanwide Plaza feeds the water queue every evening, Ruth Alcántara works the counter, and nobody is asked for a name, a SIN or a donation. In a city with no government and no funded anything, that is the most functional institution most people here deal with.
The chapterhouse is in Westwood, a few minutes from the university it started in.
What the crew knows#
- They feed people, and the food is real. Ruth will feed you if you slow down, learn your name, invite you to Westwood exactly once, and then leave it entirely alone. There is no pitch.
- They place people in work, the way La Parada does, except they take no fee and keep no record anybody outside can read. Both institutions do the same job for the same people a mile apart, and nobody in either building has walked to the other.
- Everybody has an opinion and nobody has a complaint. Ask around and you get gratitude, vague unease at how fast it has grown, and no story about anybody being hurt.
Standing with the crew#
Nothing either way. The crew have eaten at the counter under Oceanwide, which is not a relationship. Nobody has asked them for anything and nobody has given them anything.