St. Louis Urban Sustainability Bike Tour 2005

August 13th 2005, 9:00 am until 1:00pm or 2:00pm
Free and open to anyone with a bicycle.

See innovative projects in the city addressing the ecological and social sustainability of food, housing, transportation, and recreation.

Meet others interested in sustainability in the city.

Get some excercise and explore the city.

About the stops:

We will see the use of natural building materials (earthen plaster and straw bale construction) for both new construction and gut rehab, as well as visit a 1/2 acre farm that supplies 13 households and local foodbanks with fresh local organic produce. The tour begins at a community center which provides free bicycles and bike repair classes to local children and ends at a greenway along the north riverfront which serves as a wildlife and recreation area as well as serving other ecological functions.

About the ride:

The ride itself will be a non-athletic, non-competetive ride of less than 15 miles. There will be four stops and a break for a snack / lunch. The tour begins at 9:00am at the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP), located at the corner of Cherokee and Minnesota streets in South City (map it). The final stop will be at the Mary Meachum underground railway crossing along the Confluence Greenway Riverfront Trail. We will return to CAMP along the trail and pass through downtown near several MetroLink stops.

Other information:

Please bring a snack or light lunch and plenty of water. Parking near CAMP is limited, so if you intend to drive to the first stop, please consider spreading out along Cherokee St. There will be a bike mechanic accompanying us on the ride.

For more information:
andyandy at riseup.net
or (314) 776-1721

Work Has Stopped on Downtown Parking Garage

Word on the street is that work has come to a halt on the parking garage for the Old Post Office Project. This is the site where the Century Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was razed last year despite pleas from preservationists and downtown residents.

Developer Steve Stogel was seen this week yelling at someone on the site where work has stopped. Could the stoppage somehow be payback for the bad Karma created from tearing down a historic structure and then suing two residents that tried, legally, to question the process?

– Steve

Chicago’s Millennium Park Making A Splash

I spent some time this evening in Chicago’s much heralded new Millennium Park. Pretty impressive but not perfect.

Above is probably my favorite spot in the park, the Crown Fountain, which features the faces of 1,000 Chicago residents on a 50ft tall LED glass block screen/fountain. Kids were having a blast as were many adults. I took off my sandals and walked through.

In the morning I’ll get a chance to see it in the daytime. Not sure if it can live up to its hype and price tag.

– Steve

Watchin’ the asphalt grow…

Tonight TV Land is having a ‘Good Times’ mini marathon. I enjoyed watching the show as a kid even though they were not well off. I would have gladly traded our life in suburban Oklahoma City for life in urban Chicago.

We all probably know the opening theme lyrics:

But it is the closing lyrics that lend some insight into living in the projects in the 1970s.

The projects were supposed to be this great place for the masses but they were design failures. I often hear people say the residents didn’t appreciate what they were “given” and simply destroyed their own places. But in reality the poorest people in our society had their homes in real neighborhoods taken away from them and like pawns they were placed in these artificial towers. What’s to appreciate?

“Just lookin’ out of the window. Watchin’ the asphalt grow. Thinkin’ how it all looks sanitized”

– Steve

Rally for Peace April 13, 2007

I think we need to organize a rally for peace on Friday April 13, 2007. Why you ask? Simple, that is the opening date for the 2007 NRA Convention in St. Louis, according to today’s Post-Dispatch.

On second thought, maybe I’ll go out of town that weekend. I can just picture a car backfiring and thousands of NRA members pulling out their concealed weapons like a scene from the old West.

– Steve