Winter's Souvenir

 With snow on the ground yesterday morning, there was no time to waste. Winter's visits can be as fleeting as snow shadows cast by trees.

A S.W.A.T. family--Snow Division--answered the call to stage a snowball fight on the Westminster Conservatory lawn.

By afternoon, winter had largely melted away, but not before leaving behind a souvenir.

Light Recycling

Finally, some snow! There's been a real drop in light recycling this winter, compared to winters past. Which is to say that snow has been scarce, and instead of light getting bounced around on white surfaces, it's been swallowed by the drab browns and grays of a snowless landscape.

This impacts the earth's energy budget, as well as our light-starved psyches. Energy secretary Steven Chu encourages people to install white roofs so that sunlight will be reflected back into space rather than absorbed and turned into heat energy. Snow serves that purpose well, when it's around.

A light snow also makes an excellent energy detective, telling you where heat is escaping from your house. This roof shows an apparent gap in insulation, where indoor heat escapes and melts the snow on the roof.

Energy Event at Library--Review

As part of an energy event during the Princeton Environmental Film Festival's second weekend, volunteer Lindsey Kayman helped kids roast marshmallows using what was supposed to be a solar heater. Given the clouds, a spotlight served as surrogate for the sun.

 Even on cloudy days, a hand generator can get light bulbs glowing. The compact fluorescent on the right was a lot easier to light up than the incandescent. Some exercise gyms have picked up on the human generator theme and purchased exercise machines that generate electricity.

These are handy devices for exploring how much various electronics use in your home. Knowledge is power, or, rather, knowledge leads to reducing the need for power. Here, the meters compare the energy drain of two different kinds of cell phone chargers. The one on the left is an older design that has a big coil in it that uses 3.4 watts of energy even when it's not recharging anything. The one on the right doesn't draw power except when it's actually being used.

You can buy this sort of meter for $20 online, or hopefully the library still has some available for borrowing--a gift from the Princeton Environmental Commission.

The Kill a Watt meter has limitations for measuring home energy consumption. To track electrical energy use by your A/C, furnace, oven, electric dryer, and other appliances without standard plugs, you need a whole-house energy monitor. One such device that's easy to install is produced by a local business whose website is at wattvision.com. Worth taking a look at.

Public Swimming at JW Middleschool

One stealth service provided by the Princeton regional schools is public access to the swimming pool at JW Middleschool. I went a few times with my daughter a couple years ago. Plenty of open lanes, and though the water is kept cooler than the YMCA pool, one can get used to it. Cost is $40 for ten swims. Hours are 8-9pm, M, W, Th, when school is in session. More info here.

Note, Feb. 21: I went last week, and found lots of free lanes. The life guard says sometimes there are swim team practices, but at least four lanes are always available for public lap swimming. The water was comfortable. It's kept around 78-80 degrees, compared with 85 for a warmer pool. There's very little hint of chlorine, which may have to do with the cooler water and very active ventilation system. Access the pool from the Guyot St. side, next to the newer gym.

Environmental Film Festival's Last Weekend

Highlights this weekend at the Princeton Public Library include two films by Ian Cheney on Saturday at 4 and 7pm, and a presentation by underwater photographer Stan Waterman at 3pm on Sunday.

Sustainability initiatives at local schools will be presented by the students on Saturday. Here's info:

Please come to the Next Generation Environmental Fair Feb. 11, 11am-1pm,
free at the Princeton Public Library, where student delegates from  public
and independent, elementary, middle, and high schools will be sharing
their school's sustainability initiatives.  This fair is sponsored by the
Princeton Environmental Film Festival and organized by the students of the
Environmental Action Club (EnAct) at Princeton Day School.  Please forward
this information to adults and students of all ages.

Full schedule here.

Bus Stop For Bottles

A street drain serves much like a bus stop for trash. This is where bottles, cans and various insundries wait to catch a ride to Harry's Brook, which takes them down to the main line--better known as Carnegie Lake and the Millstone River. I'm sure service is slowed by lots of stops along the way, but eventually they get dropped off at the Atlantic Ocean, for destinations that include the Sargasso Sea.

These newer grate designs prevent bottles from launching on that journey, and for better or worse also make life harder for raccoons.

Recycling Televisions and Other Electronics

The state very quietly passed a law about a year ago banning televisions from the trash, in part because of all the lead and other toxics in them. One still sees TVs put out on the curb, but I've noticed the trash haulers often adhere to the law now and don't take them.

There are several options for recycling televisions and other electronics. One is to drive out to one of three Mercer County recycling events this year, the first one being March 10. A friend sent me a link to Best Buy's offer to take all manner of TVs, whether you bought it there or not. That might be the easiest option, if you're out at the mall anyway.

Princeton Township accepts computers at its location at Witherspoon Street and Valley Road, but by appointment only, and no televisions. The Mercer County recycling website may be of general interest, since they handle all curbside recycling in Princeton.

Note: Here's another friend's suggestion if you're headed up to Ewing. "I confirmed in Jan. 2012 that the Goodwill store in Ewing (1628 N. Olden Ave; 609-392-2865) will take all sorts of electronics for proper recycling, including CRT-based TVs and computer monitors.  The Donation Center is open Mon-Sat, 9am-8pm, and on Sundays (check hours)."

Videos of Recycling Sorting Plants

If you're curious about where Princeton's curbside recyclables go for separation at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), there are a few pictures at the Colgate Paper Stock Company's website. For a more dynamic rendering of the very impressive sorting technologies now being deployed, there are many videos on the web that give virtual tours of various recycling processes. They are likely analogous to the Colgate plant.
            
Here's a new sorting plant built by Waste Management in Philadelphia.
            
If you like a tour with a British accent, try this video from Northumberland, UK. 

Environmental Film Festival in progress

In case people don't already know, there are lots of great environmental documentaries over the next three weekends at the Princeton Public Library. Go to www.princetonlibrary.org/peff for a schedule.

Recycling Update

An announcement sent out by Princeton Township, apparently in reference to a column I had published in the Jan. 13 Princeton Packet, has caused considerable confusion. Over the course of a week, I made multiple attempts to reach township staff for a clarification, but heard nothing back. The announcement, sprinkled with capital letters to add emphasis, says that "Plastics marked #3-7 ARE NOT COLLECTED OR RECYCLED through the curbside recycling program." My research showed that these plastics are indeed collected and recycled. What the township announcement probably meant to say is that their official policy is to collect only plastics #1 and 2. Whether its leaf pickup or recycling, policy and realities on the streets of Princeton often part company.

The township announcement goes on to say, "While the facility accepts the materials, they are shipped overseas, which is not environmentally friendly." Experts I've spoken to question these assumptions. In fact, one told me that the availability of plastics 3-7 has prompted businesses to spring up in NJ to make use of them, whether to make plastic timbers or some other use. Even if the plastics are sent overseas, they likely ride in otherwise empty ships that were delivering products to the U.S., and whether they are used in an environmentally friendly way would be hard to determine.

The recycling business is very complex and constantly evolving. The truth, or some semblance thereof, takes a lot of digging, and it's all too easy to speak with an air of great authority and be completely wrong. Years back I was told with conviction by Princeton Township recycling staff that I must keep tearing those annoying cellophane windows out before recycling envelopes. This was contradicted by an expert I tracked down at the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection. The misinformation remains on the township website to this day.

For years, most residents have been putting all manner of plastics in the curbside bin. I contacted the hauler to ask if they've ever complained to Mercer County (which administers Princeton's curbside recycling service) about the lack of adherence to the list, but got no response. I'm aware of no attempts to enforce the limitations imposed by the county list, which is hard to find both via google and via the county website. The township's concern about people placing plastics beyond #1 and 2 in the bin, then, is coming a bit late in the game.

So, for those who worry about doing the right thing, be happy. You don't have to tear those silly windows off of envelopes, and if you happen to accidentally drop a plastic #3-7 (or aluminum foil and trays, or an empty aerosol can) in the bin, like many of your oblivious neighbors are already doing, the good news is that it will get recycled. Maybe someday policy will catch up with practice.

Of course, the best thing to do is to somehow avoid buying unnecessary packaging, and thus minimize both one's garbage and one's recyclables.

Dinky Debate Updates

Press the "The Dinky Debate" tab at the top of the page to see a couple personal updates on the Dinky issue. I assembled information about the proposed move of the Dinky station on the premise that conflicting views might in part be due to misinformation or lack of information. Improve awareness, reduce acrimony. Though people are very busy and distracted, and may sustain misconceptions no matter what, I had two conversations recently in which worry about the proposed move of the station was based on misinformation about where the new station would be located.

Contrasting Recycling in Montgomery and Princeton

A recent newspaper article announced that Montgomery, Princeton's neighbor to the north, accepts plastics #1-5 and 7 curbside and also pizza boxes. Somerset County runs the recycling program for Montgomery and other municipalities and, unlike Mercer County, runs its own separation plant (a Materials Recovery Facility, or MRF). They ask that homeowners take the plastic lids off of containers, but it's okay to put the lids in the bin.

Princeton contracts with Mercer County for curbside recycling service, which by contrast requests that residents recycle only plastics 1 and 2, and throw plastic lids and pizza boxes in the trash (apparently because the tops get caught in machinery and the grease on the boxes is thought of as a contaminant in paper recycling). This limitation to plastics 1 and 2 may have to do with their contract with Central Jersey Waste and Recycling, which hauls the curbside recyclables to a MRF. If you throw plastics 3-7 in the curbside bucket, it will probably get recycled, but Mercer County is only paying to have plastics 1 and 2 picked up. There's also a question as to whether plastics 3-7 are recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.

Hopefully, all this confusion will end when it comes time for Mercer County to sign a new contract with its hauler, which, given the area trend towards expanding recycling of plastics, could well include plastics 1-7.

Event Tuesday: Waste NOT in Schools, 4:30p

Establishing and maintaining effective recycling programs in schools is an extraordinary challenge, given the many pitfalls of low administrative priority, a distracted population, and under-motivated custodians. I certainly encountered these and other impediments in the process of helping Princeton Regional Schools revive its recycling programs. The high school was perhaps the hardest to make any progress with, though with great effort we were able to lift the school's recycling program, at least for awhile, above many others in the area (according to a truck operator who did pickups of recyclables at various businesses and schools.)A list of lessons learned from the effort, applicable to recycling in any building, can be found at www.recyclingcontainers.blogspot.com.

OASIS is making as much progress as anyone in overcoming entropy and apathy. Should be an excellent program. OASIS announcement below:

EVENT IS THIS TUESDAY 1/24 4:30pm  --Great speakers!

OASIS (Organizing Action on Sustainability in Schools) and the Princeton
Public Library

Waste NOT in Schools

Did you know that the average American creates 4.4 lbs of garbage every
day?

What are schools doing to reduce waste, to teach students about waste, to
help us understand that we can't throw it away because there is no "away"?

Learn from some of New Jersey's experts at a panel discussion featuring:

Dr. Kevin Lyons, Rutgers University
Norm Torkelson, Hopewell Valley Regional Schools
Dr. Joy Barnes-Johnson, Princeton High School

Jan. 24 at 4:30 in the Princeton Public Library Community Room.

Refreshments graciously provided by The Bent Spoon.
A prize will be given to the school with the most participants.

Recycling at Jadwin Gym Still Looking For a Win

At Jadwin Gym last night, the Princeton women extended their winning streak to five, beating Cornell by a 2:1 margin.

The cheerleaders look very confident this year as they build themselves into high pyramids and come falling back to earth knowing someone will be there to catch them.

 The audience got an "A" for attendance.

Tigers in the pep band were kept well caged. The band was particularly notable for its unusual instrumentation, with bagpipes (not in  photo), cello and a bizarre brass instrument or two.

But what's this? Looks like someone has dropped the ball with the trash and recycling. Time and again, recycling containers were left unguarded by trash cans, insuring a mixing of trash and recyclables. And the nearly look-alike cans required close inspection to tell which goal was which.

Most of the players were out of position and lacked a winning attitude. Those in the lobby gave mixed signals of the "I know I say recycle but really I'm for trash" variety.

Fundamentals are SO important. Rule number one is pair each recycling bin with a trash can. I know that in basketball the opposing baskets are spread apart, but in the game of recycling, trash and recycling receptacles need to be TOGETHER.

And their best player, clearly labeled and with small holes on the top to discourage trash, was off to the side where no one would use it--a needless waste of talent. You've GOT to recruit more containers like this one and position them in key spots, like at the top of the stairs. People will be going for the hoop with their empty gatorade bottle at the first receptacle they encounter on the way out. By the time they reach the lobby, it's too late. Control the lanes. That's the way to win at recycling.

Here are some ideas for a winning strategy:

• Step #1: paint over those green recycling triangles on the old, poorly designed receptacles. They just confuse people. 
• Use all of those old containers for trash. Buy new recycling containers with attitude, that say recycling from head to foot. The star players, like the blue one in the photo above, are cheaper than the attractive but poorly designed laggards. 
• Put your best players in key spots and, most importantly, pair them with trash cans. For a demonstration, and links to a manufacturer, click here.
• Since the bottles accumulating in the clear plastic bag help show that the receptacle is meant for recyclables, don't empty the bags until they're nearly full (not after each game). 
• Princeton University is an educational institution. When it invites the public to a basketball game (or a football game), it should be showing us how to win at recycling.

Note: Ten recommendations for starting and sustaining a successful recycling program in the workplace can be found here.

Note, 2.25.12: There's also a recycling container that looks like a bottle. The university has, or at least had, one of these at the football stadium. One supplier sells them for about $90 each. From the photos, it looks like companies like Coke and Pepsi might provide these at minimal or no cost, with their logo attached.

PU Art Museum Hosts Sustainability Games

The Princeton University Art Museum hung the community's clean laundry out to dry on the campus green last night as part of a "Sustainability Games" event. Given that an electric dryer uses 4000 watts when it's on, air-drying laundry is one of the best ways to reduce your home energy use, so there's considerable substance to go with the symbolism here.

The event, put on by students, was cleverly conceived. We "earned" pieces of pizza by first learning which of its ingredients can be grown locally, and then went on a sustainability scavenger hunt on campus that led us to a key on the steps of Nassau Hall. Take the key back to the museum and you got to open a chest full of free water bottles to take home. Free food, free bottle--my daughter was quite pleased. And she even learned some factoids, like that India is one of the world's leading producers of bananas.

The art museum invites the community in for special events every other Thursday evening, and will be collaborating with the Arts Council of Princeton, Labyrinth Bookstore and other local businesses for a second Art Walk on March 1. My jazz trio, the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble, will be performing at Labyrinth as part of that event, probably starting around 6pm.

Recycling in Princeton

The Princeton Packet published an "As I See It" column I wrote entitled The Struggle To Improve Recycling. For those seeking the lists of accepted curbside recyclables mentioned in the column, here's a link.

Note: Thanks to a reader for notifying me that one of the links here was wrong. It should work now.

Curbside Foodwaste Pickup in the Borough

One of the easier and more satisfying ways to reduce the amount of trash you put out for pickup is to compost food scraps, either by composting in the backyard or by participating in Princeton's curbside pickup program.

For backyard composting, this bucket costs about $20, prevents any odors in the kitchen, and is still like new after 15 years of service.

Backyard composting is the most ecological approach to dealing with foodscraps and yard trimmings, but the other option is the curbside program now available to all Princeton residents. Though pickup of kitchen scraps, often mixed with low-grade paper and garden trimmings, has been practiced in cities like San Francisco and Seattle, Princeton township is reportedly the first town in New Jersey to offer the service. The program has about 250 participants thus far.

This service has recently been extended to borough residents, who can participate for $10/month. Hopefully, consolidation will provide a means to greatly expand the number of people taking advantage of this service. Presumably, after consolidation there would not be an extra charge for the service. Full participation would bring a reduction of 30% in the trash Princeton generates.

Below is some QandA with the township recycling coordinator, Janet Pellichero:

Q: What is the cost for borough residents to participate?
A: It is $20.00 per month (editor's update: recently reduced to $10/month) for weekly collection of organics. Collected every Monday.

Q: Where is the foodwaste taken for composting?
A: It is taken to Peninsula Compost Group, in Wilmington Delaware. It is marketable compost in 80 days. (meat, fish, bones, pizza boxes, waxed cardboard, shellfish, oils etc. anything that grows goes)

Q: I've heard the program would have to be terminated if not enough households participate. How long is it guaranteed to continue?
A: It is a permanent program. (editor's update, 2.28.12: I now hear that the program has to reach 500 participants to remain viable)

Q: What is the best response to people who have worries about flies and odors?
A: There have been NO complaints regarding flies or odors.  The containers have a snap lock lid.


More info and contact info can be found here.

Philadelphia Story, Part 2--Waterworks

The first post entitled Philadelphia Story, as some readers may remember, was a tragicomic tale of the hazards of parking in the historic district. That drama took place on the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin Bridge, Penn's Landing, Delaware River side of town, where I-95 streams through. That was the only part of Philadelphia I knew until recently, other than WHYY's inauspicious Shadow Traffic reports, which detail the endless permutations of rush hour congestion.

One beautiful fall day last month, some friends introduced me to Philadelphia's flip side, west of the Delaware and just beyond the Art Museum, along the Schuykill River. A google-eyed view of Philadelphia shows the Delaware and Schuykill rivers looking like two sides of a vase, with downtown in the middle. Traveling the I-95 corridor and occasionally straying downtown, one sees only one side of the vase.

To visit the Schuykill River side, then, is akin to getting a glimpse of the far side of the moon.

We owe the lovely vista in this photo to the water pollution that, by the late 1700s, forced Philadelphia to seek a cleaner drinking water supply. The Schuykill River was dammed in 1822, and land upstream was purchased to prevent polluting development.

All that land is now the long and lovely Fairmount Park, with bike trails extending all the way westward to Valley Forge. The impoundment is used for rowing races.

Until 1909, the dammed water passed through a Waterworks, turning big drums that in turn pumped fresh drinking water up the hill to a reservoir. From there it was piped down into the city. All very elegant and sustainable. You can see the whole layout in the photo, just as it once looked, except that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is perched on the hill where the reservoir used to be (upper left), and the downtown in the distance has sprouted skyscrapers.

Inside the Waterworks is a first rate, federally run interpretive center that explores all matters having to do with water. You can learn where wastewater goes after it leaves one's house, how the city is trying to reduce stormwater runoff,

and how the shad that once migrated upstream in enormous numbers each spring to spawn played a critical role in keeping George Washington's troops alive at Valley Forge. (Presumably the dam has fish ladders to allow them access these days.)

Along with the appealing ingenuity and sustainability of 19th century technology was a greater valuing of public spaces, and a belief that beauty and utility can cohabit in architectural design.

All in all there was much to cheer about during this visit--a beautiful public space on a beautiful day, and we found our car just where we had left it.

Are Rollout Bins Right For Princeton?

If New York is the city that never sleeps, Princeton has become the town whose streets are never clean. The dumping of yardwaste in the streets is now year-round. Municipal fear of taxpayer outrage may be the reason that ordinances meant to control the dumping activity, and to bring Princeton in to compliance with state regulations, go unenforced.

There are places in America that have clean streets. I know because sometimes I jump on my horse and ride towards the horizon to see how other people live, and can say definitively that we can rescue ourselves from this self-imposed squalor.

Take San Francisco as an example. Once a week, three rollout bins are placed at the curb. Gray is for trash. Blue is for recyclables. Green is for a combination of foodwaste and yardwaste.

Because the yardwaste is containerized, collection is efficient and the streets remain clean. Of course, this neighborhood has fewer trees than Princeton does and thus less generation of leaves and brush. But there are many tree-packed municipalities that don't allow dumping of leaves on the street, and instead expect residents to compost most of them in the backyard and place the rest in rollout bins and yardwaste bags at the curb.

This sign shows what goes in the green bin: food-soiled paper, food, and yard trimmings. All of this gets composted outside of town. Princeton township began offering this service last year, and recently extended service to anyone in the borough willing to pay $20 a month. (More on this in another post.)

One of the benefits of rollout bins is that their contents are mechanically emptied into the trucks. Princeton's recyclables and the borough's trash are lifted manually into trucks, which puts workers at risk of back injury. The lack of rollout bins also means that residents must do heavy lifting to get their trash and recyclables to the curb.

Some trucks can actually grab the rollout bin at the curb and dump its contents without having a worker on the street.

When in the past I've recommended that Princeton shift over to rollout bins, the idea was reflexively rejected due to concerns about the cost of this sort of truck. Imagine my surprise when I saw one of these trucks collecting trash in Princeton township. Midco, one of the private haulers township residents can contract with, has obviously seen the cost savings in this approach.

Consolidation of Princeton township and borough into one entity offers an opportunity to reshape services. Rollout bins have worked elsewhere and are now being utilized by private haulers in the Princeton area. It's time the municipality look at ways to put them to use.

What's Recyclable and Where Our Recyclables Go

If you live in Princeton, you may occasionally wonder what items are supposed to be going in the green and yellow recycling bins residents put at the curb every other Monday. Though local government websites are useful, they may not for various reasons be able to provide the most up to date information. Here's what I was able to find out recently:

Mercer County: The county, not Princeton township or borough, is in charge of the curbside recycling program. (Note: The county's recycling website was revamped in late Feb/2012. Its list of recycling do's and don't's can now be found here.)

That list is useful to some extent, but the private company that the county contracts with to pick up the recyclables posts its own list, which I've pasted below in quotes. (If you like pictures, here's a downloadable flyer.) The hauler lists several additional items as recyclable, which I've marked in red, that the county does not include on its list.

(The list below is from the Central Jersey Waste and Recycling website)

"The following material can be recyced ONLY if they are clean (free of food waste.) A good rinse should be sufficient for most items!

• Plastics marked with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (but not compostable #7)
• Aluminum cans
• Aluminum trays and foil (cleaned)
• Aerosol cans
• Steel and tin cans
• Glass jars and bottles
• Metal lids
• Newspapers and inserts (remove plastic sleeves)
• Magazines, catalogs, phone books
• Office and school paper
• Cardboard
• Boxboard (cereal boxes, etc.)
• Brown paper bags
• Paperback books
• Paper-only junk mail"

Update, Aug/2012: I've adjusted this list to reflect changes on the Central Jersey Waste website. They've added #6 plastic as acceptable, and removed plastic lids from their list.

Why the contradictory lists? It turns out that the county is reluctant to expand its list, in part because any change requires an amendment to the Mercer County Solid Waste Management Plan. The county also wants to make sure there is a longterm market for any item it adds to the list.

Where our recyclables go: The hauler (Central Jersey Waste and Recycling) takes the recyclables down to Trenton, then transfers them to semis to haul them up to the Colgate Paper Stock Company in New Brunswick, where all the various recyclables are separated out. Colgate is a so-called MRF (materials recovery facility) that has its own list of items it accepts or rejects for recycling. That list includes plastics numbered 1-7.

Plastic lids: I always thought that, since there are rings on the plastic bottles that are made of the same material as the lid, then the lid must be recyclable along with the bottle. The Colgate sorting plant, though, makes it clear they don't want plastic lids. What I've been told is that the rings are detached from the bottle by the plant that makes new products from the bottles.

Plastic bags: Many bins put curbside have recyclables in plastic bags. A representative of Colgate told me that plastic bags occasionally gum up their sorting machinery. He also said that though they accept all numbered plastics 1-7, the plastics 3-7 end up getting shipped out of the country, to destinations and fates unknown. 

Styrofoam: Some residents put styrofoam (#6) out for recycling. I've heard contradictory opinions about its recyclability. This link, which has info on what various plastics are used for, says styrofoam is one of the more useful plastics to recycle. But obviously it's so bulky that it's hard to transport efficiently, which may be why the Central Jersey hauler excludes it from its list.

Princeton Township has a web page with lots of links to info on recycling, though its list, like the county's, does not include all the items that are accepted by the private companies actually doing the recycling. 

Cargo Bicycle On Princeton's Streets

Of all the vehicles that parade by my house on busy Harrison Street, this one stood out as distinctly different. Two big rollout bins on a trailer being pulled by a bicyclist. Having long imagined a world in which bicycles are adapted to fill varied transport needs, I decided to head off in pursuit to find out where this one-man sustainable parade was headed. He was moving along at a good clip, but I caught up with him on Valley Road, and learned that the vehicle is owned by the Whole Earth Center grocery store on Nassau Street.

Every year, staff vote on what to buy with the accumulated loose change found on the floors during cleanup. Last year, they bought this bike and trailer.

It often carries their food up to the farmers market in good weather, but on this particular day, it hauled a week's worth of salvaged plastic packaging to the municipality for recycling.

At the same location (corner of Valley Road and Witherspoon Street), the township makes yardwaste bags available for residents, and you may be able to recycle your electronics there as well.

Free B Expanded Service

The Princeton Packet reported this past Friday that the Free B shuttle will now run on weekends for the Christmas season. The "Free B Jitney Shuttle" link on the princetonboro.org website does not tell the whole story, since the Free B now apparently runs straight through from 5:30am to 9pm. These two links

http://princetonboro.org/jitney.cfm
http://princetonboro.org/inc/cf/polImage.cfm?doc_Id=872&size_code=Doc

along with the text below, borrowed from a public library newsletter, should tell the whole story of the stealthy shuttle's current schedule.

"Starting at the Suzanne Patterson Center at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, the free jitney will stop at Elm Court, Palmer Square, the library, Princeton Shopping Center, Community Park Pool, Princeton Community Village and many popular intersections throughout Princeton. Thanks to Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, Princeton University and the Community Transportation Coordination Initiative for extending this service on a trial basis."

It really takes conscious effort to change one's habits and take advantage of this service, which is not exactly advertising its existence in a big way. This photo was taken back in February, at the Dinky station, where I searched in vain for a posted schedule.

Princeton's Downtown Scarcity of Recycling Receptacles

You're looking at the only downtown location I know of where recycling containers can be found on the streets, at Hinds Plaza next to the public library. They are expensive stainless steel models, but their design could be improved to better distinguish them from the trash containers they are, or should be, paired with.

I've informally explored and documented recycling receptacle designs--which vary from effective to self-defeating--in Princeton and elsewhere, many of which are posted at www.recyclingcontainers.blogspot.com. A post about how the Hinds Plaza containers could be retrofitted to improve their function can be found here.

Princeton's Community Park Pool--Endings and Beginnings

Princeton's Community Park Pool, poised for the wrecking ball beginning tomorrow, September 12, cast quite a spell on longtime Princeton residents. For most of my seven years as a member, it seemed serviceable but not extraordinary in any way, except of course for Larry Ivan's signature closing refrain. Only when I began hearing the eloquent testimonials, delivered at public meetings about its planned redesign, did I begin seeing this unassuming pool complex in a new way.

Surprisingly, it was the changing rooms, which looked like dull boxes from the outside, that received the most rhapsodic treatment by residents at the meetings. Inside, they were lavishly spacious, with large portals to the sky. The building breathed effortlessly, and like a deep breath conveyed to those within a feeling of expansiveness and relaxation.

If there was a theme that permeated the complex, it was the way it played with light. Lap swimmers had plenty of time to notice the infinite patterns of light dancing on the bottom of the pool. The buildings, as if to emulate the water, would allow light to pass through open beams, or portals in the roofs, casting shadows whose angles would shift through the day--quiet reminders of the sun's arcing passage across the sky.

The complexity of patterns in the water was mimicked by the weathering of the wood.

A new, redesigned pool complex will emerge in coming months, to open next summer. It will no doubt have more efficient pumps, better filters, and make more efficient use of space. Solar panels may sprout on the rooftops. A waterslide will entertain.

But for now, I'm grateful to have caught a glimpse of something soulful and profound beneath the old pool's simple facades.

Another homage to the pool, with more photos and text, is posted at http://princetonnaturenotes.blogspot.com/2011/09/homage-to-swimming-pool.html.

Communiversity and Recycling

Princeton borough just received an $18,000 "tonnage grant" from the state. This is an annual grant, fluctuating year to year, to be used for recycling in the borough. In the past, the borough has simply used the money to help pay the county for routine curbside recycling service, but the money can also be used for initiatives that would actually improve recycling in town. Here's a post started back in April that shows one of the many ways recycling could be improved in Princeton, through a mix of education and smart placement of receptacles.

Traffic streeeeetched all the way to Moore Street,

as Communiversity 2011 drew some 40,000 people to downtown Princeton.

It was a fun party, and everything appeared to go smoothly, except for the traditional lack of recycling. I'm sure that outdoor events in Princeton have to conform to various rules and regulations, and one of them should be that, when an event includes vendors selling beverages in recyclable containers, receptacles for recyclables need to be paired with all trash cans.

When people have a clearly marked choice, they recycle, as shown here in a borough park.

And We Shall Go A' Sharrowing

Aye, if roads they are

a' narrowing,

and bicycling

grows harrowing,

try sharrowing.

-- Burma Shave

Background Info On Campus Sculptures

Anyone seeking edification about the various sculptures to be encountered on the Princeton University campus, click here for photos and short descriptions on the PU website.

Climate Ride 2011 Passes Through Princeton

(The post below is from 2009. Climate Ride came through town this past Friday. I saw they had their tents pitched at the YMCA, but didn't have my camera. Saturday they biked to Philadelphia. You can read their daily accounts here.)

What is a tent village doing in the YMCA field? My daughter wanted to know. We stopped to inquire, and learned that Climate Ride was coming through town. Bicyclists, including a family with an eight year old, rode yesterday from New York City to Princeton, on their way to Washington, D.C. via Philadelphia.

The purpose of the ride is to draw attention to the need to confront the increasing impact of climate change on spaceship earth. They have a website, climateride.org, that includes live feeds of the five day journey.


Long before there were cars, Princeton served just as it is now for the bikers, as a rest stop halfway between NY and Philadelphia.

Princeton's Energy Use

Remember all those nice sounding goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by this or that percent by such and such a year? Whether it's 50% reduction by 2050, or 80% reduction by 2020, or 100% reduction by 2100, the numbers were meant to stir action, but instead serve as place holders for good intentions while life goes on as usual.

Princeton's contribution to goal setting came in 2007, when mayors Miller and Trotman signed the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7% from 1990 levels by 2012. Though the founders of Sustainable Princeton got some potentially useful data for 2006, no one knows how much energy Princeton used back in 1990, and no one's looking at how much energy we're using now.

Numbers matter, particularly those that slowly build and build, just below the radar screen of the news media until suddenly we have a brand new crisis on our hands. In an effort to at least track some of Princeton's contribution to a global problem, I looked into how we could get numbers from PSEG for Princeton's consumption of electricity and natural gas. It turns out that PSEG can provide these numbers back to 2007. With some help from municipal staff and the chair of the Princeton Environmental Commission, I was able to gather all the information needed by PSEG for them to provide energy use data for Princeton's residential, business, industrial, public school and municipal sectors.

Now it's a matter of waiting until PSEG provides the numbers.

Current Public Transportation to the Dinky Station

In Princeton, it's possible to travel to farflung places without getting in a car. I have tested this a couple times, most recently back in February, for a trip that included four trains to get to the Philadelphia airport, one plane, and another train to get within two blocks of my destination in downtown Cleveland. The trains to Philadelphia are well-timed so there was very little wait inbetween.

When I returned, using the same combination in reverse, I arrived at the Dinky station at 5pm--what seemed like an auspicious time to catch the FreeB shuttle (click to follow link). That would have dropped me just a block from my home--truly a public transit advocate's dream. But the sign was buried in a snowdrift, and I couldn't find any schedule posted, so asked a woman who also seemed to be waiting for a shuttle.

She was waiting for a Tiger Transit shuttle, and was checking the website with her cellphone to see if one would arrive soon. Turns out the public is welcome to use Tiger Transit shuttles at no charge (that's what one university rep told me, anyway.) And you can even track their movements on TigerTracker, which could prove to be even more exciting than reality TV, and more useful. One of their routes appears to reach within a short walk of the Windsor Green Shopping Center (Whole Foods, Staples, etc.) out along Route 1.

Not knowing when the FreeB might arrive, or if it even still existed, I ended up making the mile and a half walk home, which in scenic Princeton can be a pleasing thing to do, even with a suitcase in tow.

A 2009 post on the FreeB can be found here.

Arts and Transit Neighborhood Letter To the Editor

The Dinky has been giving Princeton quite a ride, in more ways than one. Though I ride it occasionally to get to the main line, I had been avoiding hitching a ride on the debate over its 460 foot move to a new station as part of the university's proposed Arts and Transit Neighborhood. Given how much community brain power was being brought to bear, the Dinky's dilemma was sure to be propelled to a win-win solution.

That the result was, and may still be, looking more like a lose-lose shocked me into seeking out opinions. The result was a letter to the Princeton Packet and the Town Topics, and the page of Dinky Q and A above, accessible via the tab entitled "The Dinky Debate".

Below is the letter:

Catch a ride on the Dinky opinion train and you will find that, like the Dinky, it sweeps you vigorously from one terminus to the other, with no stops in between. Respected friends will have opposite views, delivering you either to the conclusion that a rail line really should reach up to Nassau Street, or that the best chance for sustaining the Dinky is to move it 460 feet down the hill, as the university now says it will do, regardless.

   The debate about the university’s proposed arts and transit neighborhood would be greatly expedited, and needless ill will avoided, if people would look at the university’s proposal as a whole, not just one aspect. The Dinky, though its horn sounds like a cross between a tugboat and a mourning dove, has taken on the qualities of an elephant being intently scrutinized at too close a range. Some aspects of the beast that I’d like to mention are these:

   The 460 Feet: Having made the locally famous 460 foot, two minute walk to the proposed new Dinky station location, I found it to be a surprisingly minimal change. For those parking at the nearby Lot 7 university garage (free to the public after hours and on weekends), the new location will actually reduce the walk by that same 460 feet. Though the university plan would lose the appealing interface with University Place, it offers improvements for traffic congestion, parking access, and train station facilities.   

Extending tracks to Nassau Street: If extended to Nassau, as would reportedly still be possible via Alexander if the university’s proposal goes forward, the Dinky or any other heavy vehicle (“light rail” is not necessarily lightweight) will encounter steep inclines that could substantially reduce energy efficiency compared to the current relatively flat route. The combination of steep inclines, longer route, more stops and interactions with streets could affect the most important factors determining Dinky ridership: dependability and frequency. Though a train stop on Nassau Street has symbolic power, even with more downtown density most Princetonians would still live well beyond the 10 minutes people are supposedly willing to walk to a train stop.

   It’s important that we defend town traditions and dream of an even better Princeton. Sustainability, whether environmental or in reducing the Dinky’s dependency on state subsidies, is a vital part of any vision for the future. The danger comes when the strong sustainable, cultural and civic aspects of the university’s proposal are ignored due to focus on 460 feet. Nor is it fair to delay the university’s vision for years while the serious logistical and budgetary challenges of alternative proposals are indefinitely explored.

   If people agree on a foundation of facts as they can best be determined, look at the big picture, and are as skeptical of their own opinions as those of others, then there’s hope this four-year opinion ride can finally pull in to a pleasing destination.I have assembled a summary of information about the university proposal and the Dinky at http://princetonprimer.blogspot.com/p/dinky-debate.html.

Free Jazz Performance at the Arts Council

A fine series of upcoming performances and movies at the Princeton Arts Council includes a free performance by top-flight jazz musicians this Sunday. Info from the Arts Council website below:

Sunday, April 3 | 3 pm | Solley Theater | FREE
Anthony Branker & Word Play
The Arts Council of Princeton and the Program in Jazz Studies at Princeton University present Anthony Branker & Word Play, featuring Ralph Bowen (tenor & soprano saxophones), Kenny Davis (acoustic bass), and Adam Cruz (drums). The title of the program is "Dialogic" and will include special guest pianist Jim Ridl. Funding is provided by the Program in Jazz Studies at Princeton University, Bloomberg, and the Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation.