From a video lecture by James Howard Kuntsler, Our Civic Spaces, at minute 38:
“...Atlanta is now becoming perhaps the most miserable city to be in in America.”
To paraphrase, he was referring to the barracks-like concrete buildings on central Atlanta streets (including "about four miles of Peachtree Street") that are built more to repel people than to invite them in.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Traffic sewers
My favorite thing from my reading today for the new urbanism course I'm taking:
"Streets that once served vehicles and people equitably are now designed for the sole purpose of moving vehicles through them as quickly as possible. They have become, in effect, traffic sewers."
Still irritated by the lack of footnotes and conclusory nature of a lot of the statements in the book, though. That's probably the attorney in me.
"Streets that once served vehicles and people equitably are now designed for the sole purpose of moving vehicles through them as quickly as possible. They have become, in effect, traffic sewers."
--Suburban Nation, p. 64
Still irritated by the lack of footnotes and conclusory nature of a lot of the statements in the book, though. That's probably the attorney in me.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Per capita waste generation
If that last post wasn't enough, and you want to get really depressed about waste generation, you could start reading EPA reports on municipal solid waste generation and recycling.
Here's a tiny tidbit: despite steady improvements in recent decades, in 2007, the net per capita discard rate after materials recovery and combustion with energy recovery was 2.50 pounds per person per day.
Think about this: roughly, go take a good quality 10" skillet, or a pair of hiking boots (okay, I have big feet), or a one liter bottle of water or soda, package it up, and mail it to yourself for $4.95 (USPS priority mail; since you're mailing it to yourself, calculate it from your zip code to your zip code.) NOW DO THIS EVERY FUCKING DAY. That is the amount of trash YOU AND I generated per capita AFTER RECYCLING and energy recovery is factored in.
Perhaps I need to go back to pictures of container gardening and lay off the harping for a while...
Here's a tiny tidbit: despite steady improvements in recent decades, in 2007, the net per capita discard rate after materials recovery and combustion with energy recovery was 2.50 pounds per person per day.
Think about this: roughly, go take a good quality 10" skillet, or a pair of hiking boots (okay, I have big feet), or a one liter bottle of water or soda, package it up, and mail it to yourself for $4.95 (USPS priority mail; since you're mailing it to yourself, calculate it from your zip code to your zip code.) NOW DO THIS EVERY FUCKING DAY. That is the amount of trash YOU AND I generated per capita AFTER RECYCLING and energy recovery is factored in.
Perhaps I need to go back to pictures of container gardening and lay off the harping for a while...
Making it easy/easier: recycling
I really do think that most people want to do good, and would do good, if they could. Unfortunately, most people are also fundamentally lazy, or uninformed, or overworked, or stressed out, or some combination of the above, and don't have the time to do good.
I was thinking about this yesterday in the context of recycling. A friend just moved to Atlanta, and I was helping his partner move them into his new condo. We were generating a lot of cardboard (oh, Ikea, for all your grandstanding and fairly hypocritical claims of environmental responsibility, you really suck. Really bad. Here's a hint as to how to be more environmentally friendly: quit selling so much fucking crap with a built-in product life of a year or two. Quit selling junk food on paper and plastic plates, with plastic flatware, and a side of paper cup. Your in-store recycling is lovely, but how about more reduction so less recycling is necessary? How about you quit passing on the financial savings of flat-packing to the ecologies and communities which are impacted by the immense amounts of cardboard, styrofoam, and plastic your flat packing demands?
On a related note of Ikea sucking, check out this article in the Economist laying bare the revolting faux-charity corporate structure of the cheap furniture powerhouse:
My quest to find the recycling area is aided by several signs that say IN LARGE LETTERS THAT ABSOLUTELY NO GLASS CAN BE RECYCLED. Oh, and mandating that NO CARDBOARD CAN BE LEFT BY THE RECYCLING AREA. But there's another direction indicating that there is a special area for cardboard recycling at the back of the loading dock. Right on! Recycling obsessivist that I am, I don't mind walking a little farther to the special cardboard recycling area. What I do mind is that when I get there, it turns out the extra super special area for cardboard recycling is a HUGE DUMPSTER FULL OF ASSORTED GARBAGE. Booooooooo!
I left our friend a note on how to get to his recycling, and that he can recycle both his cardboard and glass at our building. I have faith in this particular friend that he actually cares enough to go to this extra trouble, and also to consider the issue in his purchasing.
But c'mon: do we really have to make recycling this difficult? Do we really have to contract it out to greedy private corporations who only care about making a profit on it? Isn't the value of keeping the material out of toxic landfills that destroy communities and water tables sufficient to have municipal recycling, even on relatively low energy return material like glass?
Let's remember, this is a waste hirearchy for a reason: think about this the next time you buy bottled water, a genuine and ongoing ecological catastrophe that even McNewspaper finds a problem:
I was thinking about this yesterday in the context of recycling. A friend just moved to Atlanta, and I was helping his partner move them into his new condo. We were generating a lot of cardboard (oh, Ikea, for all your grandstanding and fairly hypocritical claims of environmental responsibility, you really suck. Really bad. Here's a hint as to how to be more environmentally friendly: quit selling so much fucking crap with a built-in product life of a year or two. Quit selling junk food on paper and plastic plates, with plastic flatware, and a side of paper cup. Your in-store recycling is lovely, but how about more reduction so less recycling is necessary? How about you quit passing on the financial savings of flat-packing to the ecologies and communities which are impacted by the immense amounts of cardboard, styrofoam, and plastic your flat packing demands?
On a related note of Ikea sucking, check out this article in the Economist laying bare the revolting faux-charity corporate structure of the cheap furniture powerhouse:
What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover.But I digress: back to recycling. So, we have a lot of cardboard, in a high-rise condo in Atlanta. I wander down and ask the concierge/security guy where the building's recycling is, and get the somewhat obscure directions (it involves taking the elevator to a parking level, going through one set of doors, walking across the parking lot, then going through another set of doors, then finding the big mixed recycling bin in a moderately smelly and very humid loading dock.
My quest to find the recycling area is aided by several signs that say IN LARGE LETTERS THAT ABSOLUTELY NO GLASS CAN BE RECYCLED. Oh, and mandating that NO CARDBOARD CAN BE LEFT BY THE RECYCLING AREA. But there's another direction indicating that there is a special area for cardboard recycling at the back of the loading dock. Right on! Recycling obsessivist that I am, I don't mind walking a little farther to the special cardboard recycling area. What I do mind is that when I get there, it turns out the extra super special area for cardboard recycling is a HUGE DUMPSTER FULL OF ASSORTED GARBAGE. Booooooooo!
I left our friend a note on how to get to his recycling, and that he can recycle both his cardboard and glass at our building. I have faith in this particular friend that he actually cares enough to go to this extra trouble, and also to consider the issue in his purchasing.
But c'mon: do we really have to make recycling this difficult? Do we really have to contract it out to greedy private corporations who only care about making a profit on it? Isn't the value of keeping the material out of toxic landfills that destroy communities and water tables sufficient to have municipal recycling, even on relatively low energy return material like glass?
Let's remember, this is a waste hirearchy for a reason: think about this the next time you buy bottled water, a genuine and ongoing ecological catastrophe that even McNewspaper finds a problem:
Plastic water bottles produced for U.S. consumption take 1.5 million barrels of oil per year... That much energy could power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year...
Even if we can do a good job of separating and recycling water bottles, it still comes down to the fact that it's completely unnecessary... Strictly speaking, tap water isn't free — it costs about $0.00002 per ounce. But single-serve bottled water costs between 1,000 and 4,000 times more...
Thursday, August 13, 2009
My bike helmet hack
I saw this "bike hack" on someone's motorcycle helmet while I was on the motorcycle tour.
It made all sorts of sense, and I'm only surprised I didn't think of it before. This way if I'm splashed all over the road by some fossil fueled death machine, emergency responders and the hospital will know i don't have any known drug allergies (NKDA = No Known Drug Allergies) and that they don't need to waste AB blood on me, since my blood type is the most common in the country. It also tells them how to contact J (on a piece of duct tape inside); I.C.E. = In Case of Emergency.
It made all sorts of sense, and I'm only surprised I didn't think of it before. This way if I'm splashed all over the road by some fossil fueled death machine, emergency responders and the hospital will know i don't have any known drug allergies (NKDA = No Known Drug Allergies) and that they don't need to waste AB blood on me, since my blood type is the most common in the country. It also tells them how to contact J (on a piece of duct tape inside); I.C.E. = In Case of Emergency.
New York, and more garden pics
Just back from a busy but good trip to NYC, including a zany bike ride to the north Jersey coast for a lovely wedding/commitment ceremony. I have a bunch of pictures from the bike trip, but want to try to organize them into a trip report rather than just posting random ones. Here is one, however, of the sidewalk/bike path on the Passaic River bridge between Jersey City and the Port of Newark:
You can't really tell it clearly, but the "path" becomes primeval forest thick here at the end, as it was at the beginning, and you essentially have to bushwack to get a bike through. From everything I could tell, they just don't really give a damn about maintaining bridge crossing facilities for cyclists or pedestrians in New Jersey.
Someone gave me a beater commuter bicycle to use while I'm in NYC, and I'm abusing the kindness of another cyclist friend by stuffing it in his bicycle closet (thanks, T!) I had a great ride with the person who gifted the bike on me from Queens to the financial district in Manhattan. I discovered that there is basically no reason to even try to obey traffic regulations in Manhattan, since the cars, trucks, taxis, hired cars, and NYPD traffic officers don't. There were several cases where it was actually reckless to try to obey the law.
My favorite was when the asshole NYPD officer directing traffic yelled (literally) at us to get out of the way when we were at the front of a left turn lane just before turning into Chinatown (it was Delancy Street, I think at Allen Street, just after we got off the Williamsburg Bridge.) Baffled, we did, and the cop proceeded to yell at the cars behind us to ignore the no left turn red light and turn. He completely ignored us and after a while started to yell at more cars to drive through the still red light. Dumb asshole. This was basically the only thing this cop was doing, which caused the intersection to devolve into chaos, since the other drivers didn't know what to do, and we had to make our own way through the intersection. Dumb dumb dumb asshole.
While I was gone J watered the plants, and both the herb garden and tomato plantings are doing well:
the Bonnie Original hybrid
the herb garden planting and individual sweet basil...
Okay, I have some errands to run, and really need to get in a bike ride.
You can't really tell it clearly, but the "path" becomes primeval forest thick here at the end, as it was at the beginning, and you essentially have to bushwack to get a bike through. From everything I could tell, they just don't really give a damn about maintaining bridge crossing facilities for cyclists or pedestrians in New Jersey.
Someone gave me a beater commuter bicycle to use while I'm in NYC, and I'm abusing the kindness of another cyclist friend by stuffing it in his bicycle closet (thanks, T!) I had a great ride with the person who gifted the bike on me from Queens to the financial district in Manhattan. I discovered that there is basically no reason to even try to obey traffic regulations in Manhattan, since the cars, trucks, taxis, hired cars, and NYPD traffic officers don't. There were several cases where it was actually reckless to try to obey the law.
My favorite was when the asshole NYPD officer directing traffic yelled (literally) at us to get out of the way when we were at the front of a left turn lane just before turning into Chinatown (it was Delancy Street, I think at Allen Street, just after we got off the Williamsburg Bridge.) Baffled, we did, and the cop proceeded to yell at the cars behind us to ignore the no left turn red light and turn. He completely ignored us and after a while started to yell at more cars to drive through the still red light. Dumb asshole. This was basically the only thing this cop was doing, which caused the intersection to devolve into chaos, since the other drivers didn't know what to do, and we had to make our own way through the intersection. Dumb dumb dumb asshole.
While I was gone J watered the plants, and both the herb garden and tomato plantings are doing well:
the Bonnie Original hybrid
the herb garden planting and individual sweet basil...
Okay, I have some errands to run, and really need to get in a bike ride.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Flights, but no flights.
I'm at the airport for a flight to JFK, which yes, I will walk out of instead of paying for the fucking Airtrain.
Being at the airport, I thought I'd book another set of flights, but Delta's crappy website isn't cooperating. So I have time to BLOG!
Or I could read my new(ly checked out) book, Suburban Nation: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the american dream . It's assigned reading for a really neat online course in New Urbanism I just signed up for through the University of Miami called The Principles and Practice of New Urbanism . I'm really, really looking forward to it.
Okay, back to about the best dried fruit mix I've ever seen in an airport lounge (yes, I did take a picture, but I don't have a cable) and trying to get delta.com to actually do its job.
Being at the airport, I thought I'd book another set of flights, but Delta's crappy website isn't cooperating. So I have time to BLOG!
Or I could read my new(ly checked out) book, Suburban Nation: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the american dream . It's assigned reading for a really neat online course in New Urbanism I just signed up for through the University of Miami called The Principles and Practice of New Urbanism . I'm really, really looking forward to it.
Okay, back to about the best dried fruit mix I've ever seen in an airport lounge (yes, I did take a picture, but I don't have a cable) and trying to get delta.com to actually do its job.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Compare and contrast...
A little sad, that this year's garden pics in the preceding post don't have quite the, uhh, grandeur of last year's garden in Alaska. At least I should actually yield some $44 tomatoes this year.
Back by popular demand!
I know my regular readers have been desperate for pictures of gardening, so to address all the clamoring, here are some pictures of my container gardening on the balcony:
Probably the prettiest thing on the balcony, this is container herb gardening. From the bottom, clockwise: kitchen sage (Salvia officinalis); French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus); lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla); Greek oregano (Origanum heracleoticum); and in the center, sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum). All are organic except the basil (which is oddly difficult to find except at the Home Despot.)
In the foreground, Bush Goliath tomato, Lycopersicon lycopersicum, and in the background, Bonnie original, Lycopersicon esculentum. The garden center guy told me to sacrifice one of the two stalks on the Bush Goliath, but I'm currently glad that I didn't. After a little insitial transplant shock, both are starting to show some new flowers. Not organic, as the picking were super slim this late in the season (purchased and planted two weeks ago.)
More of the tomatoes and herb garden.
Another view of the tomato plantings with a view to the east. If there were less haze, you could see Stone Mountain in the middle of the image, about 20 miles away.
A lower view of all the plantings, with more diffuse light. Hey, gardening is part art, right?
Probably the prettiest thing on the balcony, this is container herb gardening. From the bottom, clockwise: kitchen sage (Salvia officinalis); French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus); lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla); Greek oregano (Origanum heracleoticum); and in the center, sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum). All are organic except the basil (which is oddly difficult to find except at the Home Despot.)
In the foreground, Bush Goliath tomato, Lycopersicon lycopersicum, and in the background, Bonnie original, Lycopersicon esculentum. The garden center guy told me to sacrifice one of the two stalks on the Bush Goliath, but I'm currently glad that I didn't. After a little insitial transplant shock, both are starting to show some new flowers. Not organic, as the picking were super slim this late in the season (purchased and planted two weeks ago.)
More of the tomatoes and herb garden.
Another view of the tomato plantings with a view to the east. If there were less haze, you could see Stone Mountain in the middle of the image, about 20 miles away.
A lower view of all the plantings, with more diffuse light. Hey, gardening is part art, right?
Monday, August 03, 2009
Bikes and planes and weddings, oh my!
Rode a little over fifty miles yesterday, and accepted an invitation to do a really amazing sounding week+ of riding on the Great Divide mountain bike route in September. Woo-hoo!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, including a somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. I had to lie to google maps to get even a remotely accurate map, and tell it I was walking from Fort Lee, NJ. It simply refused to acknowledge that anyone would want to go down the Jersey side of the Hudson River rather than the Manhattan side. Damn New York provincialism. Should be around 60 miles all told. Big times!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, including a somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. I had to lie to google maps to get even a remotely accurate map, and tell it I was walking from Fort Lee, NJ. It simply refused to acknowledge that anyone would want to go down the Jersey side of the Hudson River rather than the Manhattan side. Damn New York provincialism. Should be around 60 miles all told. Big times!
Bikes and planes and weddings, oh my!
Rode a little over fifty miles yesterday, and accepted an invitation to do a really amazing sounding week+ of riding on the Great Divide mountain bike route in September. Woo-hoo!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, including a
somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. I had to lie to google maps to get even a remotely accurate map, and tell it I was walking from Fort Lee, NJ. It simply refused to acknowledge that anyone would want to go down the Jersey side of the Hudson River rather than the Manhattan side. Damn New York provincialism. Should be around 60 miles all told. Big times!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, including a
somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. I had to lie to google maps to get even a remotely accurate map, and tell it I was walking from Fort Lee, NJ. It simply refused to acknowledge that anyone would want to go down the Jersey side of the Hudson River rather than the Manhattan side. Damn New York provincialism. Should be around 60 miles all told. Big times!
Riding
Rode a little over fifty miles yesterday, and accepted an invitation to do a really amazing sounding week+ of riding on the Great Divide mountain bike route in September. Woo-hoo!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, and a somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Big times!
Yesterday was basically nice riding, with a long-time local riding friend, largely using the PATH Foundation trail from central Atlanta to Stone Mountain. Some downpour rain right at the end on our ride back home, but not for too long.
Later, we biked to dinner with other friends at a pretty good vegetarian Chinese restaurant a couple miles from our house, Green Sprout . The highlights were probably the seaweed tofu roll appetizer and the moo shu "chicken"; I was underwhelmed with the vegetable lo mein, and thought the basil "beef" with crispy (read: breaded & deep fried) portobello mushroom quarters was very tasty, which was good, since it's about the most expensive thing on the menu (!) at $10.95. Minimal beverage selection, large portions, friendly but vacant service, and a spare atmosphere: this place is all about the food.
Next weekend: a trip to NYC, and a somewhat ridiculous bike ride from the south Bronx to a friend's wedding in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Big times!
Saturday, August 01, 2009
A new layout
Why not? I'm in yet another new city, so why not a new blog layout?
I'm not actually certain that I like this enough to keep it, so more changes might be on the near horizon. What do you think?
I'm not actually certain that I like this enough to keep it, so more changes might be on the near horizon. What do you think?
A very long time
Well, it's also been a very busy time, so deal with it. We completed the move to ATL, and are messily and about half settled in. We have fantastic views, though I haven't yet taken any pictures to do them justice. Maybe soon.
Bicycling in Atlanta is some of the most terrifying I've ever done. The drivers are astonishingly bad: slow to move, slow to react, and in a misguided attempt to be courteous, are actually often quite dangerous to the cyclist and other cars. The road are in horrendous condition, bike lanes practically non-existent, and even dedicated PATH Foundation bike lanes have significant brekas in them with mediocre signage, so they're difficult to follow when the trails has a break. This hasn't stopped me from riding well over 200 miles in the city in the last two weeks, but it sure has made it annoying.
Hoping to go mountain biking tomorrow, rain dependent, so hopefully that'll be better. Unfortunately, it does require a 45 minute drive.
I'm gardening on the balcony, right now just tomatoes and herbs. I know y'all are clamoring for pictures of plants, so I'll try to get those soon.
I have Great Divide Hercules Double IPA on tap (visitors welcome!) Incidentally, I would link directly to the brewery's page for that beer, but it's really annoying flash, so to hell with them.
Here are the muppets most on my mind right now. Those of you who know what my primary legal volunteer activity is can probably guess what this references:
More later, I hope.
Bicycling in Atlanta is some of the most terrifying I've ever done. The drivers are astonishingly bad: slow to move, slow to react, and in a misguided attempt to be courteous, are actually often quite dangerous to the cyclist and other cars. The road are in horrendous condition, bike lanes practically non-existent, and even dedicated PATH Foundation bike lanes have significant brekas in them with mediocre signage, so they're difficult to follow when the trails has a break. This hasn't stopped me from riding well over 200 miles in the city in the last two weeks, but it sure has made it annoying.
Hoping to go mountain biking tomorrow, rain dependent, so hopefully that'll be better. Unfortunately, it does require a 45 minute drive.
I'm gardening on the balcony, right now just tomatoes and herbs. I know y'all are clamoring for pictures of plants, so I'll try to get those soon.
I have Great Divide Hercules Double IPA on tap (visitors welcome!) Incidentally, I would link directly to the brewery's page for that beer, but it's really annoying flash, so to hell with them.
Here are the muppets most on my mind right now. Those of you who know what my primary legal volunteer activity is can probably guess what this references:
More later, I hope.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Even more obscure than usual
Okay, here's a hint since I was even more unclear than usual in that last post: CH is a very technical carpentry term.
City by the bay
Rode my motorcycle from Anchorage to Skagway, took the ferry to Bellingham, and then rode down to San Francisco. What a long, strange trip it's been.
Discovery #1: sitting in a motorcycle seat for 300-400 miles a day, and for single stretches of up to 120 miles, really really sucks. Really bad. I have a beaded seat pad sitting in a box (hopefully) at the traditional homestead, which should help.
Discovery #2: wow, vegetarianism isn't easy for hundreds of kilometers at a time in the Yukon and northern British Columbia.
Discovery #3: turns out that a certain someone is a hell of a good project manager, and managed many good projects with some other outstanding project managers, making for a lovely few days. As usual it involved just a skoosh too much beer, a CH really, but when you're dedicated to your craft, well, it's all worth it.
Headed for the east bay today, and then Saccaminnow sometime this weekend. (Confidential to mom: please clear the decks in the laundry area, as I have some seriously decrepit laundry that has come down in zploc bags from Alaska. But I'm sure that A's neighbors in the Tenderloin have enjoyed seeing my underwear drying on a hangar in the window after being sink-washed.
Discovery #1: sitting in a motorcycle seat for 300-400 miles a day, and for single stretches of up to 120 miles, really really sucks. Really bad. I have a beaded seat pad sitting in a box (hopefully) at the traditional homestead, which should help.
Discovery #2: wow, vegetarianism isn't easy for hundreds of kilometers at a time in the Yukon and northern British Columbia.
Discovery #3: turns out that a certain someone is a hell of a good project manager, and managed many good projects with some other outstanding project managers, making for a lovely few days. As usual it involved just a skoosh too much beer, a CH really, but when you're dedicated to your craft, well, it's all worth it.
Headed for the east bay today, and then Saccaminnow sometime this weekend. (Confidential to mom: please clear the decks in the laundry area, as I have some seriously decrepit laundry that has come down in zploc bags from Alaska. But I'm sure that A's neighbors in the Tenderloin have enjoyed seeing my underwear drying on a hangar in the window after being sink-washed.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
bright, slow, relief, adventure
bright: it's an amazingly beautiful day here, with fantastic sunlight. I walked from downtown to the library, drinking in the views that I'll only be around for another month.
slow: The speed of this library computer is astonishingly slow. It reminds me of the days when A and I used modems as slow as 300 baud, and when 14.4 felt like traveling at the speed of light. Oh, and we had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow, no shoes, and it was 124 degrees.
relief: We're closing on the house in a couple hours. I can't wait.
adventure: I'm seriously considering riding my motorcycle down the Alaska Highway, through Canada, and probably from there down to Sacramento. Details to be worked out.
slow: The speed of this library computer is astonishingly slow. It reminds me of the days when A and I used modems as slow as 300 baud, and when 14.4 felt like traveling at the speed of light. Oh, and we had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow, no shoes, and it was 124 degrees.
relief: We're closing on the house in a couple hours. I can't wait.
adventure: I'm seriously considering riding my motorcycle down the Alaska Highway, through Canada, and probably from there down to Sacramento. Details to be worked out.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Belgium = vegetarian friendly!
How friggin' great is this?
Ghent declares every Thursday 'Veggie day'
In other news, Atlanta was lovely, and it looks like we have a place to live, though as in all things real estate, the devil remains in the details.
On the food theme, we're both extremely excited about the food in Atlanta: we had half a dozen fantastic meals, and zero bad meals. To top it all off, there's a beer bar with an outstanding and expansive tap list in the ground floor of the building we're looking to move into.
Ghent declares every Thursday 'Veggie day'
In other news, Atlanta was lovely, and it looks like we have a place to live, though as in all things real estate, the devil remains in the details.
On the food theme, we're both extremely excited about the food in Atlanta: we had half a dozen fantastic meals, and zero bad meals. To top it all off, there's a beer bar with an outstanding and expansive tap list in the ground floor of the building we're looking to move into.
Friday, May 08, 2009
A bike ride, a condo, a volcano!
1. A bike ride. I've been trying to plan one from NYC (the south Bronx, specifically) to the north Jersey coast for M & E's wedding union in August (yay! super exciting!) T has a bike I can borrow, and I've been poring over online maps. Long and short story: if I did the entire ride, it might well amount to the least pleasant bike ride in the history of bike riding.
(Okay, there have been some dodgy -20 days of biking in Alaska, too, but you know what I mean.)
A brief summary of what the ride would entail before it gets pleasant in southern Middlesex County and Monmouth County: the GW bridge, Fort Lee, Jersey City, Newark (including a highly unpleasant skirting of EWR, in the shadow of the Jersey Turnpike), Elizabeth, Linden, and Perth Amboy. There are other options, but they involve much, much more riding, as they require getting east of Newark, and I really want to be able to do this ride in one day, arriving for the 5pm event.
All this because there is NO BICYCLE OR PEDESTRIAN ACCESS for either of the bridges from Staten Island to New Jersey. (Side-rant: why are a third of American adults, and 16% of American children obese, we wonder? Why are 66% of Americans adults overweight???)
I could do almost all pleasant riding if I could just ride over the Outerbridge Crossing from Staten Island to Perth Amboy, NJ, and ride from there. I found one account of a guy who ignored the no-bikes rule, in 1997, on the Goethals Bridge, but he wisely did so in the middle of the night. He writes: "I decided to sneak across the Goethals Bridge under cover of the night." Unfortunately, I really really don't want to start from the south Bronx at 2am in order to be able to accomplish same, and couldn't get a Staten Island ferry that early anyway.
So I'm strongly considering taking the NJ Transit train for the first half of it, to Elizabeth or so, and riding from there. I bet I'll be in a lot better shape for the festivities that way.
2. A condo. What J and I fly out tonight to go look for in Atlanta over a very long weekend. We're focusing on Midtown, and are both excited to get into something smaller, with a better carbon footprint, and where we actually want to go walk in the neighborhood. Those of you who have been to our place in Anchorage know how less-than-pleasant it is to walk from our house, at least the first 1/2 mile or so.
3. A volcano. To wit, Mt. Redoubt, which might keep us from making the above-referenced trip. Or not.
(Okay, there have been some dodgy -20 days of biking in Alaska, too, but you know what I mean.)
A brief summary of what the ride would entail before it gets pleasant in southern Middlesex County and Monmouth County: the GW bridge, Fort Lee, Jersey City, Newark (including a highly unpleasant skirting of EWR, in the shadow of the Jersey Turnpike), Elizabeth, Linden, and Perth Amboy. There are other options, but they involve much, much more riding, as they require getting east of Newark, and I really want to be able to do this ride in one day, arriving for the 5pm event.
All this because there is NO BICYCLE OR PEDESTRIAN ACCESS for either of the bridges from Staten Island to New Jersey. (Side-rant: why are a third of American adults, and 16% of American children obese, we wonder? Why are 66% of Americans adults overweight???)
I could do almost all pleasant riding if I could just ride over the Outerbridge Crossing from Staten Island to Perth Amboy, NJ, and ride from there. I found one account of a guy who ignored the no-bikes rule, in 1997, on the Goethals Bridge, but he wisely did so in the middle of the night. He writes: "I decided to sneak across the Goethals Bridge under cover of the night." Unfortunately, I really really don't want to start from the south Bronx at 2am in order to be able to accomplish same, and couldn't get a Staten Island ferry that early anyway.
So I'm strongly considering taking the NJ Transit train for the first half of it, to Elizabeth or so, and riding from there. I bet I'll be in a lot better shape for the festivities that way.
2. A condo. What J and I fly out tonight to go look for in Atlanta over a very long weekend. We're focusing on Midtown, and are both excited to get into something smaller, with a better carbon footprint, and where we actually want to go walk in the neighborhood. Those of you who have been to our place in Anchorage know how less-than-pleasant it is to walk from our house, at least the first 1/2 mile or so.
3. A volcano. To wit, Mt. Redoubt, which might keep us from making the above-referenced trip. Or not.
Monday, May 04, 2009
How to walk out of JFK for fun and profit
There are many questions about it online, but few clear answers: how do I get out of JFK using public transit without getting screwed for $5 to go approximately one mile on the Airtrain, that used to be free? Here are detailed directions for how to get to the New York City subway system from JFK airport without paying the Airtrain that outrageous $5 fee.
Background: until about 2003 or 2004, there was a free shuttle from JFK to the Howard Beach station, on the A train of the New York City subway system. Then they put in the supposedly more convenient Airtrain, and started charging $5 for the formerly free system (not including standard subway fare, currently $2.00, and very soon to be $2.50.) Well, you can take the Airtrain to within about 200 yards of the Howard Beach station (Station A of the Airtrain), but unless you want to jump over barb wire fences and walk across the dreaded 600+ volt third rail, you can't actually get there from there.
GOOD NEWS! You can easily (and legally) walk from Station B of the Airtrain, which is the Long Term Parking / Kiss 'N Fly / Lefferts Blvd station, with about a 15 minute walk to the Aqueduct / North Conduit Ave station on the A train, which is the first stop north of the Howard Beach/JFK station. Here's how:
OPTION 1, EASY with SIDEWALKS, APPROX 20 MINUTES WALKING:
Get on the Airtrain from any JFK terminal. If you fly Delta, like I often do, you'll likely be getting on from Terminal 2 or Terminal 3. Make sure you take the Howard Beach-bound train, *not* the Jamaica-bound train. The LED signs and audible announcements often aren't particularly helpful: ask one of the (usually nice, usually helpful, usually omnipresent) staff wearing the Airtrain/information blazers. I think the blazers are maroon; they're usually looking around for people who look lost or confused. DO NOT ask any other apparent airport employees: they are usually WAY less than helpful. They don't seem to know how to get anywhere other than their individual destinations/homes.
GET OFF THE TRAIN at Long Term Parking, which is Station B, also sometimes referred to as Lefferts Boulevard, and/or Kiss 'N Fly (use your imagination.) It's the last free stop before the Howard Beach/JFK stop for the subway. If you miss it, just stay on the Airtrain: it'll soon turn around and go back toward the airport, and the first stop on the return will be yours.
When you get off the Airtrain, you can orient yourself by looking out the windows. On the south (wrong) side, you'll see a whole bunch of parking. On the north (correct) side, you'll see a bunch of parking, and what looks like about two or three freeways all running parallel behind it. (In case you care, it's the 878/Nassau Expressway, 17N/Belt Parkway/Southern Pkwy, and you might see South Conduit Ave/Route 27, which basically looks like a freeway.) You're looking north if you see the freeways. The subway station you want, Aqueduct/North Conduit, is northwest of you, but you can't see it from here. If you look to your right, which is east (toward the airport/direction you came from) you'll see a street, which is Lefferts Blvd. This is important.
Okay. Look for the escalators going down to exit the station. When you go down the escalator, turn left (north) and walk out the sliding doors, turn right, and walk about 50 feet to Lefferts Blvd. You'll see busstops. Do not cross the street. Turn left and walk north up Lefferts Blvd. You'll be walking along the parking lot chain-link fence with razor wire on top.
TWO CHOICES PRESENT THEMSELVES: first left on Aqueduct Road is the more direct, scenic route, but the sidewalks suck or are non-existent: this is MORE DIRECT/AQUEDUCT, below. The other choice is to keep walking on Lefferts Blvd to North Conduit Blvd, which is INDIRECT/SIDEWALKS below.
INDIRECT/SIDEWALKS
Approximate walking: 15-25 minutes to subway.
Walk along Lefferts, cross the street at Aqueduct Road, and start walking over those various freeways mentioned above. In about five minutes of walking, you'll come to the first road after the freeways, which is North Conduit Avenue. Cross the street to the north side of North Conduit and turn left onto it. Walk along the sidewalk for about another fifteen minutes. You'll pass some soccer fields on the south side of the street, and some residential neighborhoods on your right, then you'll pass the parking lots for the Aqueduct Racktrack. You might see the overhead subway trains chugging along to the west (the direction you're walking.)
Just after the racetrack parking lots, you'll walk under an overpass, which is the subway tracks.
Take a hard right through the doors into the subway station, buy your Metrocard if necessary. Ignore the somewhat incredulous looks of the station agent that you're standing there with luggage and just beat the system. Presumably, take the Manhattan-bound train via the stairway to your right (unless you want to go to Coney Island.) Congratulate yourself on saving $5.
MORE DIRECT/AQUEDUCT
Approximate walking: 10-15 minutes to subway.
Follow the instructions above from the airport, exit the same station, and orient yourself similarly. When you start walking up Lefferts Blvd, you'll take the first left after the parking lot, onto Aqueduct Road. Don't cross over any freeways. Also don't cross the street; there's zero sidewalk on the north side of Aqueduct Rd.
Walk along the annoyingly sloped sidewalk, along the chain-link, razor-wire fence of the long-term parking lot. (You'll pass a car entry to the parking lot, which you could use as a shortcut if you're so inclined.) Toward the end of the parking lot, Aqueduct will curve gently to the left, then curve sharply to the right (heading north.) It's now running parallel with the subway tracks, which you can look through the brambles and up the slope and see trains occasionally running along. If you're feeling lucky or stupid, I guess you could hop the fence, then jump over the tracks, and climb up into Howard Beach/JFK station on the A train. (Officially Not Recommended.)
Keep walking north/northwest along Aqueduct Rd, which will soon run out of sidewalk. Fortunately, there's minimal traffic, but it's still preferable to take the first route and stick to sidewalks if you have a rolling bag or significant luggage. You'll be walking over a long overpass (over the Southern/Belt Parkway, and then North Conduit Avenue.) It'll slope back down, and you'll see some fences and gates and the racetrack parking lot behind these. Look for a footpath down the hill to your left, which takes you down to North Conduit Avenue, and immediately, the subway station doors on your right. If you start walking along the racetrack parking lot (this will be obvious) you've gone too far.
Follow directions above, being sure to congratulate yourself on saving $5.
Personally, I like the direct/limited sidewalk route along Aqueduct Road, but only with a backpack or less. The sidewalk route is a somewhat clearer to follow your first time, but also much more trafficked and louder.
Enjoy!
Later, I may post directions for walking out of other major airports, including a personal favorite, Melbourne airport, Australia. La Guardia is so simple you should be able to figure it out by yourself. Sacramento is also easy, but much preferable to bike out of, since it's a hell of a walk to town. San Diego is simple as pie.
Background: until about 2003 or 2004, there was a free shuttle from JFK to the Howard Beach station, on the A train of the New York City subway system. Then they put in the supposedly more convenient Airtrain, and started charging $5 for the formerly free system (not including standard subway fare, currently $2.00, and very soon to be $2.50.) Well, you can take the Airtrain to within about 200 yards of the Howard Beach station (Station A of the Airtrain), but unless you want to jump over barb wire fences and walk across the dreaded 600+ volt third rail, you can't actually get there from there.
GOOD NEWS! You can easily (and legally) walk from Station B of the Airtrain, which is the Long Term Parking / Kiss 'N Fly / Lefferts Blvd station, with about a 15 minute walk to the Aqueduct / North Conduit Ave station on the A train, which is the first stop north of the Howard Beach/JFK station. Here's how:
OPTION 1, EASY with SIDEWALKS, APPROX 20 MINUTES WALKING:
Get on the Airtrain from any JFK terminal. If you fly Delta, like I often do, you'll likely be getting on from Terminal 2 or Terminal 3. Make sure you take the Howard Beach-bound train, *not* the Jamaica-bound train. The LED signs and audible announcements often aren't particularly helpful: ask one of the (usually nice, usually helpful, usually omnipresent) staff wearing the Airtrain/information blazers. I think the blazers are maroon; they're usually looking around for people who look lost or confused. DO NOT ask any other apparent airport employees: they are usually WAY less than helpful. They don't seem to know how to get anywhere other than their individual destinations/homes.
GET OFF THE TRAIN at Long Term Parking, which is Station B, also sometimes referred to as Lefferts Boulevard, and/or Kiss 'N Fly (use your imagination.) It's the last free stop before the Howard Beach/JFK stop for the subway. If you miss it, just stay on the Airtrain: it'll soon turn around and go back toward the airport, and the first stop on the return will be yours.
When you get off the Airtrain, you can orient yourself by looking out the windows. On the south (wrong) side, you'll see a whole bunch of parking. On the north (correct) side, you'll see a bunch of parking, and what looks like about two or three freeways all running parallel behind it. (In case you care, it's the 878/Nassau Expressway, 17N/Belt Parkway/Southern Pkwy, and you might see South Conduit Ave/Route 27, which basically looks like a freeway.) You're looking north if you see the freeways. The subway station you want, Aqueduct/North Conduit, is northwest of you, but you can't see it from here. If you look to your right, which is east (toward the airport/direction you came from) you'll see a street, which is Lefferts Blvd. This is important.
Okay. Look for the escalators going down to exit the station. When you go down the escalator, turn left (north) and walk out the sliding doors, turn right, and walk about 50 feet to Lefferts Blvd. You'll see busstops. Do not cross the street. Turn left and walk north up Lefferts Blvd. You'll be walking along the parking lot chain-link fence with razor wire on top.
TWO CHOICES PRESENT THEMSELVES: first left on Aqueduct Road is the more direct, scenic route, but the sidewalks suck or are non-existent: this is MORE DIRECT/AQUEDUCT, below. The other choice is to keep walking on Lefferts Blvd to North Conduit Blvd, which is INDIRECT/SIDEWALKS below.
INDIRECT/SIDEWALKS
Approximate walking: 15-25 minutes to subway.
Walk along Lefferts, cross the street at Aqueduct Road, and start walking over those various freeways mentioned above. In about five minutes of walking, you'll come to the first road after the freeways, which is North Conduit Avenue. Cross the street to the north side of North Conduit and turn left onto it. Walk along the sidewalk for about another fifteen minutes. You'll pass some soccer fields on the south side of the street, and some residential neighborhoods on your right, then you'll pass the parking lots for the Aqueduct Racktrack. You might see the overhead subway trains chugging along to the west (the direction you're walking.)
Just after the racetrack parking lots, you'll walk under an overpass, which is the subway tracks.
Take a hard right through the doors into the subway station, buy your Metrocard if necessary. Ignore the somewhat incredulous looks of the station agent that you're standing there with luggage and just beat the system. Presumably, take the Manhattan-bound train via the stairway to your right (unless you want to go to Coney Island.) Congratulate yourself on saving $5.
MORE DIRECT/AQUEDUCT
Approximate walking: 10-15 minutes to subway.
Follow the instructions above from the airport, exit the same station, and orient yourself similarly. When you start walking up Lefferts Blvd, you'll take the first left after the parking lot, onto Aqueduct Road. Don't cross over any freeways. Also don't cross the street; there's zero sidewalk on the north side of Aqueduct Rd.
Walk along the annoyingly sloped sidewalk, along the chain-link, razor-wire fence of the long-term parking lot. (You'll pass a car entry to the parking lot, which you could use as a shortcut if you're so inclined.) Toward the end of the parking lot, Aqueduct will curve gently to the left, then curve sharply to the right (heading north.) It's now running parallel with the subway tracks, which you can look through the brambles and up the slope and see trains occasionally running along. If you're feeling lucky or stupid, I guess you could hop the fence, then jump over the tracks, and climb up into Howard Beach/JFK station on the A train. (Officially Not Recommended.)
Keep walking north/northwest along Aqueduct Rd, which will soon run out of sidewalk. Fortunately, there's minimal traffic, but it's still preferable to take the first route and stick to sidewalks if you have a rolling bag or significant luggage. You'll be walking over a long overpass (over the Southern/Belt Parkway, and then North Conduit Avenue.) It'll slope back down, and you'll see some fences and gates and the racetrack parking lot behind these. Look for a footpath down the hill to your left, which takes you down to North Conduit Avenue, and immediately, the subway station doors on your right. If you start walking along the racetrack parking lot (this will be obvious) you've gone too far.
Follow directions above, being sure to congratulate yourself on saving $5.
Personally, I like the direct/limited sidewalk route along Aqueduct Road, but only with a backpack or less. The sidewalk route is a somewhat clearer to follow your first time, but also much more trafficked and louder.
Enjoy!
Later, I may post directions for walking out of other major airports, including a personal favorite, Melbourne airport, Australia. La Guardia is so simple you should be able to figure it out by yourself. Sacramento is also easy, but much preferable to bike out of, since it's a hell of a walk to town. San Diego is simple as pie.
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