The Unnecessary Expense of Fighting Nature

Is nature our friend or enemy? The answer to that question has significant consequences not only for Princeton's landscape and quality of life, but also for its municipal budget.

This past week I awoke to the plaintive groan of leaf blowers somewhere in the neighborhood.

Slight digression: Have you ever noticed how machines fill our world with sounds reminiscent of sadness and anger? I had long been aware that my brain has to do extra work to filter out the background noise of planes, cars and other machines. But I didn't really think about what emotion those machine sounds might be carrying until my dog started reacting to the sounds certain trucks or cars make as they pass by on busy Harrison Street. Some must sound angry to him, as he responds as if challenged. A leafblower fills the neighborhood with a groaning sound, as if letting the world know the perpetual burden it must carry. Machines are basically slave substitutes, and the sounds they make reflect all the onerous chores we expect them to do. 

Oftentimes, we don't hear the sadness, whining or anger in the sound, because there is a positive association we have to the sound of machines: work is getting done. It was only through my dog that I was able to hear the actual sound, rather than the association we have with the sound. That positive association may not be very strong, though, when it comes to leaf blowers. The only small comfort to be found in their drone is that one lives in a neighborhood prosperous enough that neighbors can afford to hire landscapers. Fortunately, in our neighborhood, the noise has thus far been rare.

Back to the storyline: The sound, it turned out, was emanating from the small park behind our house, where a crew was blowing last fall's leaves into piles, then raking them onto tarps and hoisting them up into a truck. The cluster of white oaks had kept its leaves all winter before releasing them this spring. In years past, the leaves were simply mowed back into the lawn, avoiding all the bother and extra racket of blowing them in piles and then hauling them out of town. The old system worked fine. Though physical work is admirable, why do work that in past years was found to be unnecessary?

I actually went over and asked one of the workmen, and the response perfectly conveys a prevalent opinion, one that drives much of the landscaping in town, public and private. There were too many leaves, he said. Removing them should make the grass better, and there was a concern that varmints might use leaves under the trees as a hiding place.

For years, decades really, the Princeton Environmental Commission has been making the opposite case, that Princeton yards are not made better by depriving the soil of the nutrients and organic matter the leaves contain, and that wildlife is a good thing, to be invited into the yard rather than feared. Back when I was a member of the PEC, we wrote a manual about how to utilize leaves rather consider them a nuisance.

The case, it seems, is very strong. Leaves are our friends. It's the rejection of them, by piling them in the street and launching fleets of trucks to pick them up and haul them out of town, that is dangerous, polluting, and unnecessarily time-consuming.

For years the environmental side of town government has made this case, and yet there remains an entrenched belief, even in municipal departments that could be modeling a more nature-friendly approach, that leaves are like dust in a house--a sign of neglect and a lodging for pests.

The view of nature as enemy can be expensive. To export leaves from a tiny park required five workers, three trucks, and two hours going on three or four, counting leaf disposal.

At the recent Princeton Environmental Film Festival, perhaps the best film was Inhabit, about the permaculture movement. It was all about working with nature rather than against it. To work with nature, one must study its ways. Its complexity, which many people find intimidating and inconvenient, becomes a source of endless fascination.

But park maintenance largely involves keeping nature at bay. Grass grows. Leaves and sticks fall. Nature's growth energy is a constant inconvenience that must be suppressed or whisked away with machines. Many people view their yards the same way. There is satisfaction in cleansing a yard of all its loose organic matter, leaving a clean, uncluttered expanse of grass. But the irony hangs in the air, mixing with the fumes of the leaf blowers, that in suburbia we surround our homes with nature, have parks with nature, and yet even the simplest of nature's processes--that nutrients taken from the ground should be returned to the ground--is fought against.

There is promise that this can change, that ecological principals so long expressed can finally become integrated into the daily work of maintenance, both residential and municipal. It will take communication, persistence, and ultimately a change in culture, so that culture begins working with nature, for mutual benefit.

Spring Takes its Lumps

Spring in Princeton, and though the flowers are slow to bloom, the first few warmish days have brought a bloom of little lumps of yardwaste out onto the streets. Spring can really hang you up the most, as the song goes, that is if you have some persistent notion that public streets should be attractive, or at least not a three season dumping ground for yarbage. That's my new term, conflating yardwaste and garbage. Trademark pending.

Remember those old movies where the shopkeeper is sweeping the sidewalk in front of his shop? It's almost as if people used to take pride in keeping the shared public space they fronted on clean.

Question: So what are these strange tracks in the street?
Answer: A street cleaner trying to clean streets that can't be cleaned because they're littered with yarbage.

Pick up of loose yarbage is once a month in the spring in our section of town. The next pickup for this particular street is three weeks from now, and already there are five or six little piles of leaves foiling the street cleaner's attempt at street cleaning. All of this violates the town ordinance, but to follow the ordinance, a homeowner would have to track down and closely inspect detailed instructions as to when to put yardwaste on the streets. There are five different zones in town, and each has its own individual 2-page long schedule. What these ill-timed piles are saying is that 1) people desire simple, consistent service like we have for trash and recycling collection, and 2) rather than follow directions, people tend to imitate whatever they see their neighbor doing.

So, two things aren't working here. One is the loose leaf/brush pickup, whose complex schedule homeowners show little interest in following. The other is the self-defeating nature of the current approach for both homeowners and municipal government. Homeowners sabotage the look of their tidy yard by messing up the street directly in front of it, and the perpetual presence of piles of yardwaste sabotage the street cleaner's mission.

It doesn't have to be this way. Princeton could be a leader in New Jersey in finding a solution to this widespread dilemma, and likely save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

Question: What is that long white scar running the length of the block?
Answer: The mark left by the metal blade of The Claw that picks up all the loose yarbage.

But The Claw doesn't pick up all the organic debris, as is apparent in the photo. All that crud--residue from the dumping of yardwaste on the street--adds to the volume of stuff the small street cleaner has to pick up, thus causing the street cleaning machine to need to be emptied more often, thus slowing down the street cleaning. More manhours, more gas, all because loose organic yardwaste keeps getting dumped on the streets year-round. One can make the case for loose leaf pickup in the fall, but there's got to be a way to avoid having to look at messy, scarred pavement for the other nine months.

There is, in fact, a solution, one that will bring Princeton into a new era of clean streets while giving people the simplicity and consistent service they want. It's presented in a highly entertaining form here. And presented in an informative form here.

See beyond this mess and imagine. Though loose leaf pickup could continue in the fall, keep the streets clean the other nine months out of the year. Containerize, or compost, or both.

Sign Up for OASIS Solar Jam--Kids in Grades 3-8

Kids in grades 3-8 are encouraged to participate in a Solar Jam next month, by designing and building "anything that uses the sun". There are two events: a Solar Car Race and a "Photon Fair".

Very cool. Organized by OASIS (Organizing Action on Sustainability in Schools) and funded by PSEG. Register by May 1. Event is May 16.

More info below:

SolarJam 2015 May 16, 11-2pm
* You must pre-Register by May 1: [ http://goo.gl/forms/3iDZcThJn5
]http://goo.gl/forms/3iDZcThJn5
 Contact person for questions and/or to volunteer is: Andrew Lloyd
alloyd@pennington.org
Event Basics:
1. Event to be held at the outdoor tennis facility at Princeton High
School on Saturday 11-2pm on
May 16th; Rain Date the next day, Sunday May 17th
2. Two age divisions: Lower (K-5) and Middle (6-8)
3. Two events: Solar Car Race and open “Photon Fair”
4. This is a No/Low Waste Event. Water Fountains are available inside the
building. A
small complimentary refreshment (like an ice cream cone) may be available
to
participating students, but as far as lunch/snack items people are welcome
to
bring their own food.
5. Each team must have at least one registered adult as on-site chaperone
Car Race:
1. Materials: must use the stock panel and motor from either PITSCO or
SolarMade
(see links below)
2. Vehicle must carry an empty soda can, with its tab intact, as its cargo
3. Vehicles will race along wires .” from the ground – Therefore
vehicles must have
eyelets or other method attached either on their underside or at their
sides, for wire to pass through.
4. Teams can use the kit to build the vehicle (see links) or create their
own body – as
long as it satisfies #1 and #2 above.
5. Teams can devise vehicles that can easily have panels placed and
removed, so that
panels can be shared while practicing and during race.
6. Vehicles must pass a “Drop Test” from 12 inches off of the ground.
Vehicle must
stay intact with motor and panel and all parts during test. Contestants
are responsible for conducting their own tests, but race officials may ask
to observe.
7. The vehicle will start from behind the starting line with all wheels
touching the
track. The solar panel will be completely shaded by a supplied opaque
material cover held above the panel by a team member. When the MC signals
the start of the race, the team member will remove the cover so the panel
will be exposed to sunlight. Once the judge starts the race, team members
cannot touch the car or guide wire until the race is final and vehicles
are asked to clear the track by the MC. If a car is touched after the
start of the race and it moves, it will count as a disqualification.
8. In both Lower and Middle divisions, awards will be presented for 1st,
2nd and 3rd
place, as well as Most Innovative Use of Alternate/Recycled Materials
Registering and Grant Opportunity: Event is May 16, deadline for
registration is May 1. Schools can receive up to $100 in funding, but must
submit receipts on race day.
Links for Car parts and build info:
http://www.pitsco.com/Ray_Catcher_Sprint_Deluxe_Solar_Vehicle?SKU=21211&
(link to kit and individual parts)
http://www.pitsco.com/Ray_Catcher_Solar_Panel ( for panel only)
http://www.pitsco.com/Clubs_and_Competitions/Sustainable_Energy_-_Competition/Motor_280
(to buy just the standard “280” motor).
http://www.solarmade.com/JuniorSprint.htm (link to kit and individual
parts)
http://jrsolarsprint.org/ (Link to the existing Junior Solar Sprint
National events’ page, with good design and build resources)
“P h o t o n   F a i r ”
1. This is an Open opportunity to present anything a student or team has
devised that
derives its form and/or function from the Sun.
2. Each individual or team will be provided a table or suitable spot to
present their
project.
3. At least one member of the team should be on hand to demonstrate and
discuss the
project.
4. Suggestions for projects include but are not limited to:
solar water heating, solar ovens, sundials, the use of light, color and
shadow in solar art, etc.
Registering and Grant Opportunity: Event is May 16, deadline for
registration is May 1. Schools can receive up to $30 in funding, but must
submit all receipts on the SolarJam day.

A Mountain of Concrete's Multiple Meanings

When I look at that massive pile of pulverized concrete that once was the hospital on Witherspoon St, I see a temple, like the Mayan's Chichen Itza, built for some god I don't fully understand. I see the Three Little Pigs, really worried now that their secure house of concrete has been torn down, to be replaced by Avalon Bay's house made of fireprone sticks. I see a disconcerting human enterprise working to increase entropy rather than reduce it. And I see the gravestone of massive amounts of embedded energy.

I doubt the words appeared in any reports on the hospital demolition, but embedded energy is the energy that went into making a building. For ancient buildings, that energy might have come from slaves, but slaves have since been replaced by the sacrificial burning of ancient life and future climate. Mining, harvesting, processing, transport, construction--all add to the carbon footprint of a building. The physical manifestation is the building itself, but the carbons that donated that energy from their bonds are still doing their polygamous, transformative waltz up in the atmosphere, each with the two oxygens they met during the building's construction many decades ago.

It may not look it, but concrete is very energy-intensive to make. And as Avalon Bay has discovered, concrete is also very energy-intensive to tear down.

Could the hospital have been reused? I couldn't track down the articles that would tell what happened to initiatives to repurpose the hospital after it closed. I'm glad questions are being raised about the laxity of building regulations that have allowed Avalon Bay to build large wooden apartment buildings vulnerable to conflagration. A related question, apparently not yet asked, is whether the regulations controlling the repurposing of buildings might be too restrictive. Whether regulatory hurdles discouraged repurposing the hospital, and thereby led to the current mess, is a question that lingers amidst the mountain of debris.

Basketball and Beyond

A shout out to the Princeton University women's basketball team, which won 31 straight this season before falling to Maryland Monday night. Even though the University of Maryland is five times larger than PU, has completely dominated the Big Ten conference, and was playing at home, Princeton held its own. If not for the stunning long-range accuracy of Maryland's guards, Princeton might well have pulled it out.

I'm not the usual basketball fan. If Jadwin Gym was really trying to recycle, and fans were slam dunking their empty bottles into the right receptacle, I'd be cheering for that as much as for the team. But there's something about seeing a full tilt team effort, well conceived and well executed, with crowd cheering them on. Well, in Princeton, the cheering is not exactly exhuberant, but you know everyone's at least cheering really loudly in their thoughts. I'm as reticent as most everyone else, though lately I've taken to shouting "VanESSaaaaa" every time sophomore Vanessa Smith makes a basket--something that's happening with increasing frequency of late.

I get the same good feeling watching the PU soccer games in the fall--women's and men's--framed by the boundaries like a pretty picture of what it could be like if America took on its problems with the same sense of spirit and people pulling in the same direction. Collective action is celebrated in sports, but sabotaged at every turn in real life, where most people, for instance, mix trash and recyclables with complete indifference to the notion of team ethic or shared goal.

Watching women's basketball evolve in intensity and skill in recent years, I have to think that the psychology and mechanics of the game have largely been solved. Might similar advances be possible in the greater human arena? The Princeton women have given us a season for the history books, and an inspiration to carry far beyond the boundaries of a basketball court.

The Walking Revolution Coming to a Town Near You

The Princeton Environmental Film Festival is in full swing (kicked off some ten days ago by our Climate Change Cabaret) at the public library. This Tuesday, March 24, is looking to be a big day, with The Walking Revolution at 4pm. What was that catchy phrase I heard on the radio the other day, that sitting is the new smoking? And that if exercise could be bottled, it would make some pharmaceutical company billions? Something like that. You can actually watch the half hour movie online while slouching on the couch. Much better to walk on down to the local library and see it on the relatively big screen, followed by a panel of experts:

• Kathy Smith, Program Officer at 'Partners for Health' (Montclair, NJ) and Board Chair of 'America Walks'.
• Janet Heroux, Former chair of the Princeton Sidewalk and Bikeway Advisory Committee, and  Physical Activity Specialist at the New Jersey Department of Health.
• Jim Constantine, Principal, Looney Ricks Kiss Architecture, a planner in Metuchen, and an expert in walkable and transit-friendly land use.
• Jerry Foster, Greater Mercer Transportation Managment Association, who is helping to coordinate 'Safe Routes To School here in Princeton.

At 7pm comes Antarctic Edge, a dramatic film about climate change that's showing in Princeton prior to its theatrical debut next month in New York. It will show simultaneously at the Garden Theater (sold out) and the library community room. 

Remembered Joys of Biking and Golfing in Snow

Fond memories of snow, golf and bicycling may run against the norms and general mood of the populace this time of year, which is growing rebellion against winter's snow and cold. But here goes:

This snowbound winter has brought back memories of childhood winters in Wisconsin, where the snow came and stayed through to spring. If there was any interruption, it would have come during a "January thaw"--words that stick in memory with no images attached. Sometime around March, the snow would slowly release its grip on the sprawling lawns of the Ohmsted landscape I grew up in (designed by John, brother of Central Park designer Frederick), bringing revelations of green.

Drawn outdoors by the warming breeze, golf club in hand, I would practice hitting a golf ball from one green patch to another. When my aim was off and the ball landed in a distant snowdrift, I might get lucky and find the hole in the drift where the ball had entered, then follow the tunnel to retrieve the ball. Otherwise, it was one more ball lost, at least until the snow melted further. A colored ball would have helped, but those hadn't been invented yet.

It may seem strange that a nature lover--particularly one who cheers the digging up of lawn to plant a wildflower garden--had a passion for golf early on, since golf is predicated on avoiding anything botanically interesting. On a golf course, there is an inverse relationship between the height of the vegetation you find your ball in, and your degree of happiness. One aims for the green, which has the shortest, least diverse grass of all, and ultimately for the hole, which has no vegetation whatsoever. But it did get me outdoors, under a big sky with endless variations of clouds drifting by. The wondrous capacity of my body to invent new variations on slices and hooks often landed me in the rough, where I learned to scrutinize the foliage closely, even if the object being sought was a Titleist rather than a wildflower.

The golf course where I played, next to the observatory where my father worked, would not measure up to anything in the present day. The fairways were a patchwork of different grass species with scrubby trees dotting the edges. If you were lucky, your ball would land on a short, tightly knit kind of grass that grew in flat, even patches, like brain corral on a reef, surrounded by much more scraggly species. If my slice was acting up, my drive might fly over the fence into a field of alfalfa, risking the wrath of the farmer if we went in search of the ball. All this made it easier to understand how the great early golfer Sam Snead might have started out with a knotty piece of wood for a club and a hickory nut for a ball.

Though I pursued a low score, with just enough success to keep at it, there were peripheral joys, like the feel of contacting the ball just right, or the beauty of the arc a well-hit ball made, cutting through the air. Even though trees were intended primarily as obstructions, theirs was a sporting presence that added to the meaning and challenge of the game. The ball's flight was all the more pleasurable if it just barely cleared the top of a tree standing between me and the green.

And that may be one reason why I bear less resentment towards a lingering winter, perhaps seeing winter less as a dreary presence than an obstacle that requires some sport to overcome. Which finally brings me, or you, to the picture at the top of this post, intended to illustrate another sport associated with the spring thaw--bicycling in the snow. There was the look of the bike tire's tread in the snow and mud, which was satisfying for some reason--maybe because the imprint in the softening snow marked another winter outlasted--and the slippery, slidy sport of staying upright while plowing through drifts of snow with my red, 3-speed Schwinn on the dirt road that led to school.

It takes a real winter to get that special feeling when the snow finally begins to melt.

World Premier: Climate Change Cabaret, Friday, March 13, 7pm

It's time to forge comedy out of angst, to take carbon and make carbonation, to have some serious fun with a subject that people feel so strongly about yet talk about so little. Attend the premier of the 

*** Climate Change Cabaret ***

to gain fresh perspectives on Carbon (a seductive renaissance atom, but beware--not all carbons are the same!). Meet the new, improved, and highly lovable Mr. Sustainable. Witness a man's tragicomic breakup with his car. Take an Ironic Ride to the Dinky, and explore Earth Logic in Space. These theatrical sketches were born and raised in Princeton by writer/director Steve Hiltner, better known as me.

The music portion of the evening will be provided by members of the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble, featuring a wind-powered saxophone and an incredibly acoustic piano, with a special appearance by Princeton High School's fabulous a cappella group Around 8. There may even be a Special Delivery at the end--a surprise solution to all our earthly problems--followed by light refreshments. The event is free! (We're all working on the carbon-free part.)

This trail-blazing, consciousness-raising event is being hosted by the 2015 Princeton Environmental Film Festival, Friday, March 13, 7-9pm, in the Princeton Public Library Community Room.

Winter Parking and Shoveling Strategies

What's the sustainable feature in this photo? No, I'm not referring to the Prius, which gets little use because we bike or walk most everywhere, even in winter. Nor is the red oak the subject of this post, though it shades the pavement and cools the air around our house in the summer.

The answer relevant to bicycling, actually, is the asphalt the Prius is standing upon. Not that asphalt is so great; in fact, the world would be better off with much less of it, and I'd rather the car were perched on pervious pavers instead. But there's something in that small patch of pavement, extending far enough towards the house from the sidewalk to fit a parked car, that could contribute in a big way to making Princeton more sustainable in the future.

The logic goes like this: Tuesday evening at the town council meeting, organized in opposition to bike lanes along Hamilton Avenue, residents argued with at least temporary success that the loss of their street parking privileges would leave them hugely inconvenienced. There was at the same time a strong expression, including from council members, of the need to make Princeton more bike-friendly. To do that along main routes like Hamilton Ave, street parking will need to be curtailed or banned altogether.

Given the strong support for a more bike-friendly town, bike lanes may be seen as inevitable on Hamilton Ave. If it's just a matter of time, then homeowners there should be taking advantage of the imminent street repaving to request additional or wider curb cuts in front of their homes to accommodate short driveway spurs of the sort in the photo.

SHOVELING STRATEGY

There's another sustainable aspect to these small spurs for off-street parking. To the right of the car in the photo is a driveway that extends down to a garage, blocked by snow for weeks now. Rather than shovel the long driveway, or pay for a snow-blower or plowing service, I took a more back- and pocketbook-friendly approach and left the car parked close to the street as the snowstorm approached, then shoveled only the top portion, which is wide enough to accommodate two cars side by side. Though we have no street parking in front of our house, if a friend or workman stops by, they can park in the extra space next to our car.

More off-street parking options also aid the town's plowing of streets, which can be complicated by cars left on the street.

It may seem like a minor thing, yet the lack of this sort of off-street parking plays a big role in scuttling progress towards a more bike-friendly town. Seemingly mundane changes like these determine whether high-minded goals like sustainability can be reached.

Hamilton Ave. Bike Lane Proposal--Salient Points and Potential Solutions

Even in the 21st century, when there is so much to recommend using bikes to get around in a town like Princeton, it's still a makeshift, improvised affair. Bicyclists are frequently caught between a line of parked cars on the right, the door of any one of which could open at any moment, and impatient automobiles trying to pass on the left. The most sustainable form of transportation is still considered fringe, tolerated but not fully welcomed.

That's why the proposal to make bike lanes along Hamilton Ave. between Snowden Lane and Harrison Street is significant. It seeks to create a space, no matter how localized, specifically designated for bicyclists.

It's common in Princeton for any proposed change to draw opposition. That public input can either lead to a better final result, or it can create long delays for worthy projects.

The big point of contention with the bike lanes is that neighbors would no longer be able to park on the south side of Hamilton Ave. I live on Harrison St. just up from Hamilton, so know the territory, having all too thoroughly dog-walked the area. I've also driven up and down that stretch of Hamilton Ave. enough to witness how its ample width promotes speeding. The police department uses that stretch as a speedtrap, teaching memorable lessons while feeding the town's coffers.

Since no parking is allowed along North Harrison Street, except for deliveries, I can attest that no on-street parking creates some inconvenience, but we are fortunate to have a driveway that's wide enough in places to allow a car to park without blocking others in the driveway. For parties, guests park on side streets. It's been gratifying to see a growing number of pedestrians and bicyclists along Harrison Street, even though it means an extra level of alertness as we back out onto the street.

First, a few salient points about the Hamilton Avenue situation:

• Because that part of Hamilton Ave. is wide, cars tend to speed. 
• Because so few cars park there, on-street parking does little to calm traffic. How many cars park there on average? The town has done some recon over time, according to Mayor Lempert. The average is two. I've seen nothing during my trips down the street to contradict that assertion.
• If bike lanes help calm traffic, the lack of a bike lane on the south side will perpetuate the tendency of drivers to speed.
• All houses have driveways. 
• However, the lack of on-street parking may mean more car shuffling if the family has more than one car, and will require guests who can't fit in the driveway to park on nearby side streets. 
• It appears that the road width will remain the same. I had heard that the road might be widened, requiring removal of shade trees. This link shows five options, only two of which would widen the street beyond its current 30 feet. It's illuminating, though, to see that the actual right of way is 60 feet wide, meaning that the first fifteen feet of people's front yards is not fully under their control. Right of way widths vary significantly from street to street in Princeton.
• Two of the four side streets, Stanley Ave. and Leavitt Lane, lack sidewalks, requiring that pedestrians walk out into the street to get around parked cars. Again, the minimal use of Hamilton Ave. for on-street parking means that installing bike lanes would seldom displace more than a couple cars to side streets.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

• To calm traffic, the car lanes need to be narrowed, and bike lanes seem the best means of doing this. A bike lane on the north side of the street, where parking is currently not allowed, seems an obvious means of narrowing the lanes. A bike lane on the south side as well would do more to constrict the lanes and calm traffic than the parked cars currently do. 
• One way of reducing inconvenience for residents who would lose on-street parking would be to allow widening of a portion of each driveway to accommodate two cars side by side. 
• Since bike lanes appear to require nothing more than a coat of paint, the minimal investment could make it easier to try out bikelanes now, then review the decision at a later date. 
• Since the street is currently minimally used for parking, a novel compromise would be to demarcate the bike lane along the south side with a dotted line, meaning that residents are discouraged from parking there, but may if they have no other option. Sharrow symbols could be located in the dotted lines. This would provide some flexibility for residents while also having a calming effect on traffic by narrowing the car lanes. Some precedent for this approach may be found at this link. It's somewhere inbetween a solid lined bike lane and a sharrows.

A link to other proposed bike-friendly street modifications in Princeton is here.

The Princeton Joint Bike and Pedestrian Committee answers some common questions about the proposed bikelanes here.

A discussion at the Jan. 12 Town Council meeting can be watched on TV30 video starting around the 1 hour 23.5 minute mark. The URL is http://vimeo.com/116685252#t=1h23m25s. Things start with a presentation by Assistant Municipal Engineer Deanna Stockton, followed by comments from the general public, and finally the dialog/vote by council. Later comes a separate presentation by Deanna Stockton about engineering improvements proposed for Prospect Ave between Harrison and Riverside. http://vimeo.com/116685252#t=2h39m45s

(Thanks to Steve Kruse for some of these links)

A Trenton Times article on the neighborhood meeting this past Wednesday, Feb. 18, can be found at this link. It's mostly a series of opinions, informed or not.

Actual ordinance being considered is at this link. It doesn't mention that the north side of the street is already a no parking zone.

IceLax

What's missing from this wintry scene on Carnegie Lake, just as a weekend snow began covering the ice?

A lacrosse stick, of course, which come to think of it looks like it might work as an emergency snowshoe. During this extended freeze, we'd already skated with hockey sticks, so why not try a bit of lacrosse?

Always keeping an eye out for interesting patterns in the ice, I noticed a shape I hadn't seen before. And then another exactly the same. Interesting. Finally figured out that it's the shape a lacrosse ball leaves behind when it hits the ice. The ball's impact squashes the snow in the middle while blowing a perimeter of snow out some distance from the point of impact, in the shape of white flecks. Looks like a frozen fried egg, sunny side up.

The ball kept eluding our sticks, which for someone who didn't grow up playing the sport are just way too small. If we got tired of chasing the ball down as it rolled off across the ice, we could always watch dogs pull their masters up and down the lake.

A few skaters, usually solitary middle-aged men, would skate by with their hands held behind their backs. Taking the arms out of the equation makes for a purer feeling of stride, and tilts the torso forward nicely. It reminds me of an earlier era, my father's generation and before, when men might walk with their hands behind their backs. Daniel Day-Lewis does it briefly in the movie "Lincoln". It may seem too modest and self-effacing for our era, because the gesture has otherwise disappeared, surviving only in speed skating, where one hand is held behind the back.

A pin oak, with its weepy lower branches extending down and into the ice, made a good seat.

On the way back to our boots, by now covered with fresh fallen snow, we felt at one with the snowflakes floating along with us as we glided across the ice.

If a camera could paint a scene, it might look like this. Maybe today's winds will have cleared the ice of snow, bringing still more days of winter fantasia.

Princeton Perfection Thus Far for Women's Basketball

Time out from sustainability for a bit of sports.

Jadwin Gym is home to a quiet phenomenon this year. The Princeton women's basketball team is undefeated, standing head and shoulders (at least figuratively) above its competition in the Ivy League and beyond. Is there anyone who can beat Princeton, and thereby spoil a potentially perfect season? Sometimes even a great team can have a bad night. It happened with Princeton last year in the last game of the season, when they lost to Penn. The hard lessons learned in that loss have added to the passion and consistent performances this year.

Some quick internet research suggests that this Saturday's game against Yale is the most plausible spoiler. The case runs this way: Each weekend, Princeton plays back to back games, Friday and Saturday. For the past two weekends, Princeton has won by smaller amounts on Saturday. Maybe they played weaker teams, or maybe there's a slight drop in energy the second night. Yale is the most winning team next to Princeton in the Ivy League, and they have a home game against Princeton this Saturday.

The potential threat of Yale seems diminished after their winning streak was broken by Harvard last week, but there can also be a rebound in intensity after a loss.

If you plan on going to one of the home games, and happen to mix an interest in sports and sustainability, check out these two past "sportscasts" on the trials and tribulations of improving recycling at Jadwin Gym.

Sunday's postgame update: A squeaker it was. I hadn't expected to be that right. The pattern of lesser winning margins on Saturdays continues. Princeton won by six, the first time in 18 games that they didn't win by double digits. But a win's a win. Now, if we could just start talking stats in sustainability like we talk about them in sports, we might make more progress winning today for a winning tomorrow.

Climate-Related Events Today and Wednesday

I'm posting a couple events today and next Wednesday, sent to me by a friend. The article about Sam Daley-Harris' efforts to reconnect people to government is relevant beyond working for action on climate change, because it focuses on developing relationships across ideological divides. The Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) is using this approach. The Princeton chapter meets the first Saturday of each month.

Our February meeting of Princeton's Citizens' Climate Lobby chapter is this Saturday, 12:30-2:30, at 28 Laurel Road, Princeton. For more info about these monthly meetings, which feature a different speaker each month, call Callie at 609-240-2425.

And on Wednesday, February 11 at 12 noon at the Princeton Public Library,"CCL coach" Sam Daley-Harris will be the featured speaker in the series Spotlight on the Humanities: Justice, Ethics, and Public Life. Here is an article in this week's Princeton Echo on RESULTS, and the 20th anniversary edition of Sam's book Reclaiming Our Democracy, featuring Citizens' Climate Lobby:
http://www.mercerspace.com/news/people-can-make-a-difference-in-government/

How Leaf Blowers Increase Erosion

It's a bleeding of sorts, not of blood but of clay eroding from a yard that was meticulously cleared of leaves in the fall. The ground was left bare and unprotected from the impact of raindrops that loosen soil and then carry it into the street. Leaves not only provide a protective mulch for the soil and fertilizer as they slowly break down, but also provide habitat. Birds, in need of protein to feed their young, can often be seen in the spring flipping leaves over in search of the insects that live underneath.

The homeowner surely thought it was the right thing to do, to blow all the leaves out into the street and have a nice tidy yard. But the result is not so tidy, neither for the street nor for the sidewalk months later. A mulch mowing, rather than a leaf blowing, would have ground the leaves up and deposited them back on the soil, where they could do some good in a tidy enough way.

Avalon Bay and "Lightweight" Wood Construction

A friend asked for help tracking down an article on the Edgewater inferno that destroyed 240 units in an Avalon Bay complex. The article mentioned the role lightweight wood construction likely played in the fire's rapid spread. A compilation of past fires and violations at Avalon Bay facilities can be found at this link. Interestingly, Avalon Bay's Edgewater project burned down not once but twice. The first time, in 2000, adjacent homes also were destroyed. So it's not surprising that officials are calling for a review of the Avalon Bay structure to be built in Princeton. Meanwhile, Avalon Bay is finding it much harder than expected to intentionally destroy the old hospital that has occupied the site up to now. There's irony in all the effort being spent to destroy a tough old building, so that a vulnerable new one can be built.

The Edgewater fire brought back memory of an article about how wood used these days, often laminate or made of compressed chips, has a lower flash point and thus allows fire to travel faster through a building. Newer furniture also tends to be made of materials that catch fire at much lower temperatures than solid wood. The idea being that fire in one room will heat the air in the next room, which will suddenly burst into flame once the flashpoint is reached. The lower the flash point, the quicker adjacent rooms ignite.

Using Parks To Demonstrate Best Practices for Leaf Management

How do we reduce parks maintenance costs, energy consumption and street mess in Princeton? The Princeton Environmental Commission has been recommending for years that people make simple leaf corrals to put leaves into in the fall. These sorts of corrals are used in New York's Central Park, and I've seen them in Paris.

Scarsdale, NY has a helpful video showing another way to effectively process leaves on-site in town parks: mulch mowing.

Princeton could easily and economically be using its parks to demonstrate these methods, rather than, as was seen this past fall at Barbara Sigmund Park, bringing in heavy machinery to gather leaves up and haul them away. All this extra work is being seen at a time when parks maintenance is reportedly understaffed. All the more reason for Princeton's parks to be demonstrating best practices for utilizing leaves on-site.

65 Things -- When the Library Became a Living Internet

Could a committee have come up with such a great idea? If so, then it's time to rethink our stereotypes about committees. For five hours last Saturday, Jan. 10, during "65 Things @ 65 Witherspoon", the library became a living internet with live tutorials on an outrageously diverse spread of subjects. This was not the internet of annoying pop-up windows or dubious claims, but the internet that has become a channel for human generosity, a massive sharing of know-how and experience. I first became aware of this incredible outpouring of generosity when I wanted to learn to play guitar. Just an internet search away stood thousands of video tutorials showing how to play every tune and finger every note.

At the library's learnathon, each tutorial lasted about a half hour, with subjects constantly changing. Walk in the front door and a magician was explaining how to mount a unicycle. A few steps further in, there was a demonstration of face painting, and then beyond that, a woman providing a tutorial in singing, while all were invited to join a drum circle forming in the library's community room. Already in the archive of memory from earlier in the day were tango lessons, and a how-to on creating picture albums.

My contribution was a demonstration of a Kill-a-Watt meter--a device available for checkout at the library that you can use to measure how much energy this or that item uses in the house. I began with comparing light bulbs. An old-style incandescent used 60 watts, a compact fluorescent used 14, and the latest technology, an LED, provided the same amount of light while using just 9 watts. The LEDs have come way down in price at the big box hardware stores, last for decades, and provide quality light. 

Then I plugged a small fan into the Kill a Watt meter, which read 20 watts. Electricity is great for running motors. Our newer frontload washing machine, for instance, if used with detergents formulated to perform best in cold water, uses very little energy. Then I plugged in an air dryer and asked for estimates. 50 watts? 100? The hair dryer uses 1300 watts--the big jump being due to the extreme inefficiency of electricity when it comes to generating radiant heat. Things like toasters and hair dryers fortunately are used only in short bursts. An electric clothesdryer, however, can be on for an hour, while steadily consuming 4000 watts of energy during that time. 

To measure a clothesdryer's energy use, it's necessary to have a whole house energy meter, which can cost a couple hundred dollars but is worth considering. Getting immediate feedback on energy use makes much more real the consumption that is otherwise hidden in a monthly bill with lots of small print. It led us to get clothes racks and use the clothesdryer only occasionally. 

65 Things vanished as quickly as it appeared. The next day, only the demonstrations of flower arranging remained to hint at what had been.

Skating Permitted Today (Jan. 15) on Carnegie Lake!

A friend called to tell me the ice is glorious, deep and dark. Weather looks good at least through Saturday, which should allow people time to find their skates. Check Princeton Recreation Dept. hotline, (609) 688-2054, for details.

This photo shows a strange dimpling of the surface. Other photos of the many mysterious patterns locked in the ice can be found at this link.

Yardwaste Bags are a Mixed Bag

Among those who are passionate about the need to revise our leaf/brush/yardwaste collection policy, one sent word of another town that doesn't allow loose dumping of leaves on the street, even in the fall. Her description went like this:

"Summit NJ policy has been in effect for a long time. We lived there until 2003 and either landscapers took the leaves or the homeowner composted or the homeowner took the leaves to the drop off center. Remarkably few bagged their leaves."

Though the simplified proposal I put together with some help from friends recommends keeping the loose leaf pickup for 2-3 months in the fall, plus providing year-round pickup of leaves/yardwaste containerized in roll carts and yardwaste bags, the programs that ban loose dumping altogether are worth learning from.

What would a year-round ban on loose leaf dumping in the streets mean?

Our streets would finally be clean. There'd be no more piles large and small, year-round.

Necessity being the mother of invention, people would be more apt to rake leaves into a back corner of the property.

These 4-man, three-vehicle, street-scraping caravans would perhaps be needed only for special pickups of brush, or clearing after big storms.

There'd be no more noisy leaf-blower operations running amok in the streets.

But there are many drawbacks to yardwaste bags as the only allowed container. They lack stability.

They are not waterproof, and have to be manually lifted into the trucks, so putting wet, soggy leaves in them is not a good idea.

Unlike roll carts, reliance on yardwaste bags offers no potential to expand service later on by also allowing foodwaste to be put in the rollcart with the yardwaste. With foodwaste comprising a third of our trash, any convenient way to remove it from the wastestream will yield big savingsin landfill tipping fees. This approach has been used to good effect in Ann Arbor, MI, as well as western cities like San Francisco, Seattle and Portland.

Roll Carts Used By Downtown Merchants

When I speak glowingly (you really need to watch this fun 2-minute video to get into the spirit) of roll carts as a vital component of a yardwaste/leaf collection program, some are skeptical. One concern expressed is that the workers would have trouble emptying the carts, which have two to three times the capacity of yardwaste bags. This is easily solved by retrofitting a hydraulic "tipper hook" on the back of existing trucks, at a cost of $5000 per hook. When compared to the roughly one million dollars spent collecting leaves and yardwaste each year, this is a very minor expense that, by eliminating the need for loose leaf pickup ten months per year, could bring several hundred thousand dollars in annual savings.

There've been claims that, if roll carts are to be used for containerizing leaves/yardwaste, the best approach is to spend $250,000 on a brand new truck with an automated hook. This would reduce workers needed to one driver, which could save money over time, but as we can see along Nassau Street, cost-conscious WasteManagement is doing just fine collecting recyclables with two men, plus one of those hydraulic hooks on the back that relieves back stress by doing the lifting. The big advantage of two men in areas of the former borough is that having one worker on the ground makes it much easier to get the carts out from behind parked cars and other obstructions that might be problematic for the expensive new truck with an automated lift on the side.

Here's a close-up of the "tipper hook". It has a low profile, and is safe to use.

How much would the carts cost? I've heard estimates around $50-60 each. Each one has the capacity to eliminate the need for 150 yardwaste bags/year, which means the cart pays for itself in the first year and can continue serving indefinitely.

Roll carts are not only the preferred approach for cost-conscious private haulers like WasteManagement, but also for many yardwaste collection programs around the country. Ann Arbor's program is most relevant because of its similar climate, but also relevant are programs in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Durham, NC, and doubtless many other municipalities (Who could forget Enid, Oklahoma, with its rollcart parade video?). The roll carts--with wheels, easier filling, reusability, larger capacity, greater stability, a cover to protect contents from rain, and the potential for large additional savings by adding foodwaste--are a much more plausible alternative to loose dumping than yardwaste bags, which still could be used to supplement the roll cart's capacity. With the carts, council can do away with loose yardwaste pickups for 9-10 months out of the year, and still feel like the town's offering a credible and much more efficient service while stripping away all the negatives associated with loose dumping in the streets.

Scarsdale, NY Ends Fall Loose Leaf Collection

When several of us this past month presented to Princeton municipal council a proposal to change the way leaves/brush/yardwaste are collected in Princeton, council member Heather Howard said that Scarsdale, NY, has also, like so many towns, been struggling with this issue. Turns out that Scarsdale has made a big change. Beginning in 2015, it will no longer be in the business of picking up loose leaves from the curb. Instead, the town will make weekly pickups of autumn leaves only if they're placed in paper yardwaste bags. Residents and landscapers will be able to drop off leaves at a local site, and the town will truck them from there to a composting center.

While Scarsdale's program is impressive, there are reasons to question its adaptability to Princeton.
The expectations of Princeton residents have been made very high by the year-round pickup of loose leaves/yardwaste/brush traditional in the former borough. Also, Scarsdale's dropoff site may be much more convenient than the Lawrenceville Ecological Center. Though lack of looseleaf pickup would encourage residents to use their leaves in their yards, many residents and landscapers would be apt to take their leaves to the dropoff site. All those little individual trips may not be the most efficient way to deal with leaves.

Still, here is info on the Scarsdale program and why they chose to make a dramatic change.

Drivers of Change
This change is driven in part by economics. The $800,000 annual cost of vacuuming up loose street leaves in a town of 17,000 (Princeton's closer to 30,000) every fall competes with other budget needs. But another driver of this change is that leaves can be utilized in people's yards. In particular, lawn mowers can be easily retrofitted with a "mulching blade and deck plate", so that leaves can be ground up and returned to the lawn as fertilizer.

Retrofitting Lawnmowers for Mulching Leaves In-Place
The Scarsdale website has a very helpful video that shows the sort of mower retrofit residents and landscapers need to convert their mowers for effective mulching of leaves. Residents essentially have to replace their regular blades with mulching blades available at the hardware store. Importantly, Scarsdale staff are using town parks to demonstrate for residents how to use mulching mowers rather than expect leaves to be hauled away. Princeton's policy in recent years has been a mix. For instance, leaves were traditionally mulched in Potts Park when it was in the borough, but were hauled away last year after consolidation, for no clear reason. Like the Princeton Environmental Commission, Scarsdale recommends the Love 'em and Leave 'em website for more information.

Brush Collection
A visit to the town website did not reveal any info about brush collection. They may simply provide a convenient dropoff site.

Tracking Expenses
The Scarsdale sustainability plan suggests using "Fleetmax software" to generate monthly reports of fuel usage for each employee. Princeton has been struggling to track all the expenses associated with loose leaf collection, e.g. vehicle purchase, operation (including fuel costs), maintenance, staff time, extra passes with the streetcleaner, additional cost of contracting out services that employees could otherwise be performing, lost income from parking spaces blocked by leafpiles, etc.

Even if Princeton's "claw" method of picking up leaves is more efficient than Scarsdale's vacuum trucks, Princeton's larger size and essentially year-round loose yardwaste/brush/leaves pickup service likely means an annual price tag of well over $1 million.

Council's Public Comment on Goals/Priorities This Tuesday

Those who want to influence the town's priorities this year should get down to the main council room this Tuesday, Jan. 6. Princeton's council members will meet at 6pm in the main council room on Witherspoon Street to hear from the public about goals and priorities for 2015.

Princeton's 2014 Council Goals and Objectives can be viewed here.

Another Princeton House Goes Solar

When days are short, it's time to celebrate another home that's using sunlight to feed the grid that powers holiday lights that feed our spirits.

Solar can now be mounted on roofs at no cost to the homeowner. Check it out.

And a happy, sun-filled new year to PrincetonPrimer readers.