Reclaim Your Street

Back to school time is here for most kids, and there will be much more traffic in neighborhoods as parents rush off to get them to school on time. I live on a fairly busy street as it is, and when school starts I'll see about a ten-fold in the amount of traffic. This makes for a fun bicycle commute some mornings. Thinking of this leaves me wondering what can be done to calm the traffic that goes darting through my neighborhood each morning and evening. The city can and will only do so much. Speed limit signs are nice, if anyone actually notices them and more importantly, obeys them. We have a couple of electronic signs along our street that displays the motorist's current speed. More often than not, the displayed speed is above the limit, usually way above. We have traffic lights and crosswalks at just about every intersection. They bring cars quickly to a halt, and then quickly back up to speed again. My street is busy enough that speed bumps or other traffic calming measures will probably never be an option. And, short of a worldwide catastrophe, I doubt the number of cars will decrease anytime soon. So, I am left wondering what I can do to at least make the average motorist take notice that they are driving through my neighborhood and if nothing else be a little more alert than usual and maybe slow down a bit. I found a site that talks about reclaiming the streets, a do-it-yourself approach. Less Traffic has some articles that discuss this. By creating "intrigue and uncertainty", the motorist is forced to slow down and take an active role in driving down a street. This can be accomplished by getting the residents back out to their streets. The cycle of residents retreating to inside their homes because the streets are too busy and dangerous needs to be reversed. I admit that we currently will not let our children play in the front of the house unsupervised. On our street you rarely see people hanging around in front of their houses. It is a shame and needs to change. Some people have created "living rooms" out of their streets. More people need to take back to the streets - on foot, not in car. Back to school time is the perfect opportunity to raise the awareness to parents, teachers, and local community leaders that children can and need to walk to school. Obesity is continuing to rise, and kids need to exercise. Too bad kids and their parents are too scared to let them walk to school. Walk to School looks like a good program to at least begin to raise awareness. Now I have to see if I can get my local council member and school to participate. And I need to start planning a "living room" for the street in front of our house.

Everyone Needs One of These

Over the weekend I saw this commercial on TV about a little gadget that easily cuts open the plastic casings that many products come in today. Just about everything now comes in that wonderful hard plastic that makes the product look good, but is nearly impossible to open. The little gadget claims it can cut these things open like nothing. It sure did look slick on the commercial. My kids were watching too and my 6 year old son commented that we should get one of those. He also comments that we should get just about everything he sees on a commercial, especially toys. (Yes, kids are very impressionable, and I know he should not be watching that stuff anyway). I make the comment that we should just not buy anything that comes in plastic like that. Now my 8 year old daughter also hears this, and she comments that we would never buy anything then, since everything comes in plastic. Her comment was pretty accurate. So many things comes packaged for convenient display in plastic that it is not funny. It is such a shameful waste. Not only is there a lot of energy used to make this useless packaging, but the disposal of it also makes such a mess. Kids toys can be the worst. Toy makes obviously want their products to be attractive on the shelves, so they are encased in plastic and strapped in with many little wire ties, rubber bands, etc., that it is a parents nightmare just to open them. Last Christmas I know I spent at least half an hour opening just two of my daughters dolls.
I wish manufacturers would stop the gross plastic packaging and place their products in recyclable boxes. I can try to boycott these products as much as practically possible, but I think it will take a united effort to really get manufacturers to change.

Little Things - 50 Little Things

Here is a cool article that lists 50 little things you can do to help the environment and live a healthier life.
50 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Although some of the information is specific to the San Jose/San Francisco Bay area, there are plenty of good ideas that just about everyone can use. Some may be obvious, some may be new to you. It is a great list to refer to for some inspiration.

Little Things - Grow Your Own

What better way to get back to nature than to get your hands dirty and grow your own food? The new revolution is taking place in our backyards and neighborhood garden plots. This article gives some good reasons to grow your own food - (http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1657).
With our global economy, food now gets shipped all over the world. We can practically have any type of food available to us year round. But, there is a cost to shipping food around the world. There is the obvious costs of fuel, and then there is the pollution created by shipping, and the potential for global spreading of any number of diseases and illnesses too. When you grow your own food, you know exactly where it came from and what went into growing it. If you are careful and raise your food organically, you can enjoy eating it knowing that you are not putting toxic chemicals into your body. Plus, you are doing a small part to help ease up the consumption of fuels and lower the amount of pollution related to food transport. Sure, your one small backyard garden won't make much difference related to the worldwide consumption of food, but every little bit does help. And, it is when many of us have the same attitude and all do our little parts that add up to a big change. Join the revolution.

Dead Batteries

Yesterday evening my family and I went to the zoo. We are members, so we can go whenever we like. As usual, I had the camera in hand to catch those "Kodak moments". However, when I turned it on to take the first pictures of some flamingos, it did not respond. Dead batteries, with no spares. Oh well. I proceeded on to simply watch the animals. After a few moments, I realized that the experience was much more relaxing without the pretense of capturing the animals or family at the perfect moment. They were all perfect moments. I then began noticing much more that just the animals. I noticed the spectators and the surroundings. It almost became more fun watching the people than the animals. It was amusing in a way to see how individuals scrambled to the glass to capture that prize winning photo of a gorilla. I am willing to bet that most will never view the photos after downloading them to their computer (if they get that far). It was neat to just experience being there. I probably did miss a few prize winning shots, but I think the memories of the occasion will do nicely.