Lightbulbs, Trucks and "Playbills" - Broadway Begins to Go Green

Nice little piece on NY's Broadway theater district beginning to go green. Fighting climate change will take the cumulative effect of many small actions... See it here at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/theater/26gree.html?_r=1

Finally A Candidate That Talks About Cities

Some of us have long hoped for a Presidential candidate that would actually talk about the challenges facing cities. It just doesn't happen, even though the majority of Americans have lived in cities for some time now. Barack Obama addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June of this year. He refers to cities as the backbone of regional development, and talks about appointing a White House staff person to focus on urban policy. See a video of his comments here:http://usmayors.org/76thAnnualMeeting/videolink.asp?video=satluncheon/01palmer.

Chicago + BRT

Chicago has a great opportunity before it: The city stands to draw in $153 million in federal money to establish Bus Rapid Transit routes on 4 key corridors. If done right - and this is the key - this could be the beginning of great things. At less than 1/100th the cost of extending subway lines, BRT has helped increase bus usage in cities worldwide, often speeding up bus lines and drawing in new riders who leave cars behind. Definitions of BRT vary, but plans usually include: bus-dedicated lanes, curbside fare collection, (sometimes) stations available only to passengers who've paid, (sometimes) double or triple extended buses, etc. BRT projects are often branded with catchy names (the Speedy One, Viva, etc) to stand out from what are perceived as slow, clunky bus systems. Curitiba, Brazil, is the granddaddy of BRT but many cities like L.A. and Bogota are putting effective systems into place.

Will Chicago go with a pure enough BRT plan to make a big enough dent in travel times and really make a splash? If the CTA sticks with curbside stations (rather than creating a median), allows cash-paying passengers to pay on board, starts out with relatively short dedicated lanes that then mix with normal traffic, and only gives a first stab at peak hours... will the dividends pay off? That and a large investment in TSP raise doubts. But there's a committed team putting the plan together and they're now starting to roll out community meetings and are open to suggestions...

To see the presentation that CTA has put together on the corridors it will focus on initially - Halsted, 79th, Jeffery, Chicago - go here.

Friedman on a Green Bailout

Let's look at the opportunity in the financial bailout: See it not just as survival but as the path to a 'thriving' future. See Thomas Friedman's piece here.

The Ins and Outs of Deconstruction

The New York Times has a piece by Jon Mooallem exploring the challenges and economics of painstaking 'deconstruction' - versus demolition - of homes. Focuses on Cleveland, where the city and the Cleveland Foundation are leading pilot projects exploring the economics of deconstruction. Challenges? One informal study showed that pulling nails can take up to 1/3 of the labor involved. Interesting factoids:
* 250,000 homes are demolished in the U.S. annually
* This 'liberates' some 1.2 billion board feet of reusable lumber alone
* Remodeling generates 1.5 times the debris every year as demolishing homes does
* The U.S. generates 160 million tons of demo and construction debris each year, 60 percent of which is landfilled
* As few as 300 homes in the entire U.S. were fully deconstructed last year
* On average, it can take a day to demolish a home and several weeks to deconstruct it
* However, the added cost can be more than recuperated when owners donate salvageable material to one of the more than 900 nonprofit, secondhand building-supply stores nationally (deducting the value from taxes)

See the full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/magazine/28house-t.html?scp=1&sq=deconstruction&st=cse

Greenest Chicagoan

It's sort of an absurd notion for a story, but fun nonetheless. Who has the 'greenest' lifestyle in Chicago? The answer, almost not surprisingly, is Ken Dunn. The founder and director of the Resource Center rides his bike year-round, eats veggies he grows in his own backyard and heats his home with a wood-burning furnace. Sounds vaguely familiar... like a fairly traditional lifestyle, right? "Much of our country had a very frugal attitude in the late '40s, when I was first aware of household practices, and I've been trying to stay true to that," he told the Trib. To see the story, go here.

MacArthur Grows Green Geniuses

"Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded..." To see more on Will Allen and the other MacGeniuses click here.

Buying Organic

Nice story in the Chicago Reporter this month on how hard it can be to find organic food in some Chicago neighborhoods - particularly if you're black. Kelly Virella does some solid, industrious reporting on the low number of stores in black neighborhoods that carry organic foods, as well as some effective myth-busting along the way. For example? A higher percentage of black people buy organic food than white people - 54 percent of black people surveyed said they had bought organic food in the past year, compared to 50 percent of whites. And black people are more willing than white people to pay a premium for organic food. The kicker? There's a probable link between adult exposure to pesticides and diabetes, cancer, birth defects, premature births and certain neurological diseases. See the story here.

Audio Slideshow of Hood Canal

Just finished and posted online a 5-minute audio slideshow of Hood Canal. It can be viewed at http://www.webng.com/gabilondo/Hood%20Canal.

Recycling Banquet Leftovers (& more)

Nice piece from the Tribune on a business that finds a new home for event leftovers - food, candles, table settings etc. We've talked with colleagues about whether there was an 'easy' way to handle the excesses left over from events - now at least one entrepreneur has begun to tackle the issue. Bravo.

To see the story, click here.

Seattle's Hood Canal

We're just back from a 10-day stay in Hood Canal, just outside of Belfair, Wash. (a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle and then short drive from Bremerton). This view is from one of the paths in the Theler nature center at the south end of Belfair. The area is extremely lush and green and on a typical day you can see seals in the canal, bald eagles, heron, etc.

Americans & Climate Change

According to a recent Harris poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans want the next president to take strong action on climate change. Four in 10 polled in the national study agree that if action is not taken to address global warming and climate change, the country's national security will be threatened by global instability. The poll was taken as the National Intelligence Council issued the first-ever National Intelligence Assessment on the link between global climate change and the nation's security. Interestingly, two of three of those with household incomes of $49,999 or less indicate that strong action to address climate change is important. For more, go to http://www.pcap.ncat.org/docs/PCAP_Harris_Poll_topline_summary_July08.pdf.

Chicago's Loyola Park Baseball

I've just posted an audio slideshow on the summer baseball team that Gabriel participated in. It's really a great program and the boys are from wonderfully diverse backgrounds. Kudos to team coach Clyde Coleman, to park head Mary Hopkins and to the many umpires, other coaches, staff, and to the boys and their families for coming together to create an amazing inner-city summer experience. To see the slide show (and make sure you're got the volume up to catch the audio) go to:
http://www.webng.com/gabilondo/Loyola%20Baseball%202008/

Story on Carbon Footprints Features C & E

A chicago tribune article on Web sites that measure carbon footprints - and how they've changed people's lifestyles - featured Carmen and Emilia and my sister Michele. Digital version doesn't include the shot of the two divas in our yard. Has a nice rundown of some of the Web sites out there - as well as a bit about the complexities involved in calculating emissions. See the story here.

"Coronation Street" rocks Girls Rock Chicago!

Check out this video of the up-and-coming girls rock band "Coronation Street" from their performance Saturday (Aug. 2) at METRO on Clark St. Emilia is the lead singer. They composed the song themselves! Click here to see the posting on YouTube.

Andre's Birthday

It was sooo much fun last night to celebrate Luis Andre Bispo de Jesus' (can I say it?) 39th birthday here on Norwood. Andre is a special friend of ours from Bahia whose many talents include gardening, woodwork, design, designing with nature, cooking and many other things. Oh, and mixing a mean Bahia-style caipirinha (is that honey? ginger?) which was the life of the party. And making seafood soup Bahia style. Thanks for coming everyone to celebrate his birthday - made lots of new friends!

InterAmerican Tree Planting

A week ago we organized a community garden project at my childrens' school - InterAmerican Magnet (located at Addison and Fremont). It was a great event that brought together lots of volunteers and happened thanks to Sao Paulo-Illinois Partners of America, The Organic School Project, The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Whole Foods and the McCormick Tribune Foundation. We now have a beautiful garden that will last many years! See the audio slideshow I did on the tree planting at http://www.webng.com/gabilondo/iams%20garden.

Visit to Beautiful Nueva York

I'm just back from gorgeous New York. Pictured are Amanda, Rob, James and Shawn. Park Slope is gorgeous in the spring time!

2 Big Steps for Chicago This Week

This week Chicago saw two environmental announcements that are worth noting - one is the big news that the city will be investing in BRT (bus rapid transit) and the other that the Blue Bag program is being scrapped to be replaced by recycling bins. The BRT announcement grows from a side trip that Mayor Daley took last year - while visiting the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro he and aides went south to the state of Parana to visit Curitiba. (See the panels that Carmen and I created on Curitiba here.) But will the city tap into the expertise of the nonprofit sector in launching this initiative? Will the city plan the new system well - and have the where-with-all to tweak it if the launch is less than successful? The city's oft-criticized Blue Bag program, created in 1995, will have few mourners. Lots of Chicagoans await a system that actually works!

See Tribune pieces on both announcements here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/iphone/chi-chicago-traffic-congestion-web-apr30,0,7671628,iphone.story

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-blue-bag-ends-web-may03,0,722263.story

Spring yard + plants in afternoon sunlight

CNT Launches Affordability Index

Ever wonder how housing can be so inexpensive in some metro areas compared to others? And more to the point, ever wonder how much higher the cost of living must be in some outlying areas where housing is cheaper but getting to work - and school, shopping and play - all require a car? The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology has just launched a 'housing-transportation-affordability index' that calculates just that, and in more than 50 communities. And they've done so in a very visual, easy-to-grasp way. This work is the result of a 2-year study, but in typical CNT fashion the result is not a dull report that you'll never read but a very user-friendly new web site.

CNT's Scott Bernstein explains:
“The index tells an alternative story of affordability than we’ve become accustomed to hearing. The real estate pages may list 2- and 3-bedroom homes for under $175,000 in suburban communities. That sounds affordable, right? But once you factor in transportation costs, the bargain goes away. Transportation costs can be as much or more than housing costs. The index protects consumers by divulging those costs and helps planners and decision-makers work toward providing truly affordable housing.”

Check out the new site here: http://htaindex.cnt.org.

The Reader Looks at Green Living

Kudos to the Reader's Mick Dumke for a nice piece on living green. This is a story that has been done over and over - but Dumke manages to pack it full of informed nuggets.

Filling the tub for a bath uses around 70 gallons of water, while showering generally takes 10 to 25 for every five minutes.

The average car produces five to six metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, and automobiles are responsible for about 9 percent of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Don’t rinse the dishes first—just put them in the racks and wait to run the dishwasher until the whole thing’s full. The average machine uses 9 to 12 gallons of water per load, while washing by hand typically takes up to twice as much.

A 2005 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that about 4 percent of all residential electricity went to power TVs, and the bigger the set, the more juice it requires. Cutting TV power consumption by 25 percent a year would save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars and keep about seven million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the study estimated.

See the story at http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/greenday.

Suburbs moving on alt energy

There's a story in the Sunday Tribune on suburbs that are moving forward in turbines at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-windpower_13apr13,0,552015.story.

While some popular models are still between 4 and 7 stories tall, Bright Idea Energy Solutions, an Illinois firm, is marketing bladeless, vertical-axis turbines as small as 4 feet tall for the residential market. Sales have doubled since last year, said Creede Hargraves, the firm's vice president of Midwest operations.

I want one now!

Edgewater at night

Here's a view of the el zipping by at the overpass near the Dominick's

Curitiba Exhibit + Cafe Igarai Artwork Up At Metropolis (Night Of)

Hey, thx to friends + family for coming out to Metropolis Cafe on Granville to see the Curitiba panels along with the amazing exhibit on Cafe Igarai from Sao Paulo state. Here is the link to Igarai's website (in English) which has a description of their women's business project built around embroidery. It's http://www.fafbrazil.com/fafbr/ip.asp?op=News&lg=E&sc=A.

New Yorker on Complicated Game of Measuring Carbon Footprint

Nice piece looks at the new Scarlet A - having an excessive carbon footprint, whether on the individual or corporate level. This piece looks at how complex though it is to accurately measure something's carbon wastefulness.

"Should the carbon label on a jar of peanut butter include the emissions caused by the fertilizer, calcium, and potassium applied to the original crop of peanuts? What about the energy used to boil the peanuts once they have been harvested, or to mold the jar and print the labels? Seen this way, carbon costs multiply rapidly. A few months ago, scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that the carbon footprint of Christmas—including food, travel, lighting, and gifts—was six hundred and fifty kilograms per person. That is as much, they estimated, as the weight of “one thousand Christmas puddings” for every resident of England."

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_specter

IAMS Festival 2008

InterAmerican Magnet School, a diverse public school and a leader in dual-language instruction, held its annual Fiesta Cultural March 27, 2008. Here is a slide show on the event. Enjoy!

http://www.webng.com/Gabilondo/iams%20slideshow/IAMS%20test/

Curitiba Exhibit + Cafe Igarai Artwork Up At Metropolis Cafe in Edgewater

Invitation for Metropolis Cafe
Sunday, April 6, 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Dear friends,
We are happy to invite you for the opening of an exciting exhibit at Metropolis Café in Chicago, this Sunday, April 6, 2008, from 6:30pm to 8:00 pm.

Address: 1039 W. Granville Ave, Chicago, phone: 773 -764 0400
site: www.metropoliscoffee.com

The exhibit is about Sustainability in Brazil: a rural and an urban project.
The theme of the rural project is crafts with coffee as a theme by the group Café Igarai.
The theme of the urban project is Curitiba, a city that is a model of sustainability.
Below you will find more detailed information about the two joint exhibits.

Sustainability in Rural Brazil
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza – an organic coffee farm
Mococa – Sao Paulo

Cafe Igarai is a project designed first for the women who live at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza, which grew into the neighboring village of Igarai. The women work in the coffee fields but that takes only 4 to 5 months of the year. So the project has the purpose of giving them another source of income. The theme of their embroidery is coffee. They were encouraged to draw what they see, their working environment: coffee trees, beans, cups, terraces, etc. The women are descendants of Italian immigrants so embroidery is very much part of their culture. They knew mostly only cross stitches when they started, but they had a natural talent for learning very fast all the new stitches they were taught.

The exhibit was designed to show and tell who these women are and how they started. We can see their faces, read a little about them. At the bottom of the banners are the original exams at the end of their training course: the new stitches they learned. The embroidered pictures that are for sale for $150.00 are a way to fundraise for them. The fabrics were natural dyed, another of their new skills, and all designs are theirs. Highlighting the importance of original design, natural dyeing and elaborate embroidery and crochet as a means of expression, as well as coffee as a theme is important to encourage them to evolve in a way that supports the development or their own identity. The prices of other items range from $9.00 to $28.00.

Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza sells its gourmet organic coffee to Metropolis Café.
See www.fafbrazil.com and www.igarai.blogspot.com

"Sustainability in the Big City:
What Chicago Can Learn From Curitiba"

This exhibit is an overview of the sustainable city of Curitiba in southern Brazil and lessons it offers our own environmental efforts here in Chicago. Curitiba has been at the forefront in urban sustainability for more than 30 years with outstanding policies in transit-oriented development and bus rapid transit (BRT), sustainable zoning, green space, architecture preservation, affordable housing, recycling and environmental education. This project was funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Architecture and is posted on the Center for Neighborhood Technology's web site. For more information contact Carmen Vidal-Hallett, LEED AP, International Associate AIA at cvidalhallett@gmail.com.

http://www.fafbrasil.com/fafbr/ip.asp?op=C-Metropolis&sc=C&m=xC00200Programs&lg=E

Lessons from South America

The Center for Neighborhood Technology just posted our Curitiba panels on their website (www.cnt.org). The 12 panels, which Carmen and I researched and photographed with support from the Graham Foundation, are all up on the CNT blog at http://info.cnt.org/~annette/Curitiba.pdf. Check the exhibit out - it's an exploration into a city that is trying to infuse sustainability into all it does and also not afraid to engage citizens as participants in that effort. Karen Girolami Callam helped us with editing. Mike and David Tanimura with design and layout. Adriana Lasso-Jimenez with graphic design. Steve Perkins of CNT with content editing. And thanks to Bill McKibben for his enlightening work on Curitiba.

Chicago To Go Dark This Saturday

Gimmicky? Yeah, sure. But a good exercise and way to take collective action to illustrate how excessively we use electricity. In recent years many of our household appliances have gotten much more energy efficient - but at the same time we now own many more and keep lots of them plugged in all night and day. Here's a description of what's up - led by the Windy City - for Sat. March 29: http://afreshsqueeze.com/chicago/articleDtl.php?id=47cef0872bb82.

Rain Garden in March

Here's a pic of the garden we've created at home in Edgewater. Can't wait to start planting again!

Motown Blazes Way in Teen Journalism + The Environment

How do you get urban teens interested in journalism? And to make it an even taller order – in environmental journalism, math and science?

We can all learn from what they’re doing in Detroit. The lessons drawn from the 3rd annual city-wide high school journalism conference (“Steroids, Makeup and Polar Bears: Journalism and the Environment”) that took place Wed. Feb. 27 read like a How To:

* First, invite some 200 DPS students and their journalism advisors/chaperones to take a day away from school
* Host the event at the very impressive Detroit Zoo, which has a great educational facility and interactive exhibits and an amazing array of guest ‘speakers’ from amphibians of all kinds to polar bears and arctic foxes
* Ask a group of high energy experts to organize and manage the program. In this case, vision and leadership came from committed people like Jim Detjen (director of Michigan StateUniversity’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism), Cheryl Pell (director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) and Emilia Askari of the Detroit Free Press
* Shape the agenda around topics that are relevant and news worthy to teen reporters, such as - steroids use, environmental justice, the dangers of make up, global warming and teen depression
* Invite local anchors like Carolyn Clifford and meteorologist Andrew Humphrey to provide truly inspirational opening remarks
* Ask eager young reporters like Chris Lau and Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press (who aren’t that far removed from high school themselves) to moderate sessions
* Oh, and finally have the whole thing piggyback on the steady coaching and nurturing of local talent by the likes of Erin Hill of the Detroit Free Press who heads the newspaper's inspired high school journalism initiative

Then add the energy, curiosity and giddiness of more than 200 high school students and you’ve got the mix for a winner. The high points of such an event are numerous but one stood out for me. At the end of his talk meteorologist Humphrey asked how many of the seniors in the audience were registered to vote. He then opened his bag and had voter registration forms distributed to all those that weren't.

Successful youth journalism programs like this are, after all, about much more than journalism alone. They're about inspiring young minds and opening up career possibilities but also about kick-starting interest in our communities and country and civic participation in our democratic society.

But what a great place to start.

Motown Blazes Way in Teen Journalism + The Environment

How do you get urban teens interested in journalism? And to make it an even taller order – in environmental journalism, math and science?

We can all learn from what they’re doing in Detroit. The lessons drawn from the 3rd annual city-wide high school journalism conference (“Steroids, Makeup and Polar Bears: Journalism and the Environment”) that took place Wed. Feb. 27 read like a How To:

* First, invite some 200 DPS students and their journalism advisors/chaperones to take a day away from school
* Host the event at the very impressive Detroit Zoo, which has a great educational facility, interactive exhibits and an amazing array of guest ‘speakers’ from amphibians of all kinds to polar bears and arctic foxes
* Shape the agenda around topics that are real-life and news worthy to teens, such as - steroids use, environmental journalism, the dangers of make up, global warming and teen depression
* Invite local anchors like Carolyn Clifford and meteorologist Andrew Humphrey to give truly inspirational opening remarks
* Ask eager young reporters like Chris Lau and Kirkland Crawford of the Detroit Free Press (who aren’t that far removed from high school themselves) to moderate sessions
* And have committed people like Jim Detjen (director of Michigan StateUniversity’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism), Cheryl Pell (director of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) and Emilia Askari of the Detroit Free Press behind the whole thing putting the pieces together with vision and energy
* Oh, and finally have the whole thing piggyback on the steady coaching and nurturing of local talent by the likes of Erin Hill of the Detroit Free Press who heads their inspired high school journalism initiative

Then add the energy, curiosity and giddiness of more than 200 high school students and you’ve got the mix for a winner. The high points of such an event are numerous but one speaks for the rest. At the end of his talk meteorologist Humphrey asked the crowded auditorium to see how many teens were of the class of ’11, then of the class of ’10, then of ’09 and finally ’08. He then asked how many of the seniors are registered to vote. A number remained standing and he responded by laughing, opening up his bag and distributing voter registration forms.

This is, after all, about much more than journalism alone – it’s about inspiring young minds and opening up career possibilities but also about kick-starting interest in our communities, country and ultimately our democracy.

But what a great place to start.

NYT Piece on Greening Suburbs

The New York Times had an excellent piece on the challenges involved in greening suburbs. See it here. Discusses the relationship between density and auto use to a community's carbon footprint. Great reporting. Average single-family home in the U.S. nearly doubled in size from 1970 to 2005, to nearly 2,500 square feet. I didn't know there was a 70-ft turbine in Lisle!

Sorry Mayor - Preservation = Green

This was my response to the Tribune's series on how City Hall lets much critical development/preservation decision-making take place at the ward level (see the series at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-code-overviewjan27,0,6181305.story). They didn't run it, so I'm posting it here!

"It was disheartening to read Mayor Daley’s assertion that architectural preservation is handled best at the most local level or becomes a perceived City Hall power grab. There is a third choice – actually creating a much-needed city-wide master plan for preserving our great architectural legacy. There are three critical reasons the Mayor should seriously reconsider this position immediately:

1. Preservation fosters community identity. Research shows that people feel a stronger connection to their community when the historic fabric is respected and preserved. They find more comfort in the area and become more civically engaged.

2. Preservation leads to investment. Research also shows that where architectural preservation is valued, investment follows. From restaurants to renovations, tourism to the film industry dollars tend to follow.

3. Preservation is Green. Sustainability is all about valuing existing assets.
Destroying our architectural legacy – whether the neighborhood icon buildings (movie theatres, stores, churches) or worker cottages – flies in the face of the Mayor’s wonderful ambition to make Chicago a truly green city. In addition, demolition debris makes up one of the largest categories of urban waste.

These questions are simply too important to be decided by a process so vulnerable to influences that do not take into account the city’s best interests. City Hall completed an ambitious Chicago Historic Resources Survey in 1995 that painstakingly evaluated all buildings constructed prior to 1940. To date this resource has essentially led only to minor delays in demolition. It’s time to use this valuable grid to help lay the foundation for a city-wide plan for preserving our neighborhood fabric.
After all, the city's job is not just to attract investors to Chicago - but to guide their dollars to projects that have a lasting, positive impact on our neighborhoods."

Teen Writers Take on Green Topics

The city-wide paper LA Youth took on a variety of green topics in their Sept. 2007 issue. Stories are on our role in global warming, ways to live a greener life, etc. The paper, now in its 20th year, is circulated to more than 400,000 readers throughout the city of Los Angeles. See the issue here.

CMAP's Summit on Climate Change

Last month CMAP, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, held a summit on innovation and integration. Various regional partners - from CNT's Peter Haas to Sadhu Johnston of the City to Adele Simmons of Metropolis 2020 presented on anticipated effects of climate change on the Chicago area as well as reactions. See the summit agenda - as well as most presentations -
here.