Ciclovia Sunday, June 28, Quaker Road

Ciclovia, Ciclovia, where have you been? We've missed you. Ever since meeting you for the first time last year, down on Quaker Road. You made us feel free. You made us feel like there's a future. A road not pumping more fossil carbon up into the atmosphere for a whole afternoon. And such a beautiful name. Ciclovia, the Greek goddess of the open road. Or maybe she's Columbian, since Wikipedia says she shows up in Bogota and other cities every Sunday.

So venture on down, past Einstein's house on Mercer St, past the Princeton Battlefield, past the Friends School. Take your bike, your stroller, your unicycle, roller blades, whatever, for a spin on Quaker Road, which will be car-free from 1-4pm.  Updike Farm's giant mulberry tree may have some mulberries left. Check out all the programming, which includes some opening remarks by the mayor, an hour of swing dancing (on bicycles?), tours, and I think they've arranged for Nature to stop by with some fine weather.

Hamilton Gets Facelift

How does Alexander Hamilton do it? 260 years old, and his skin is smooth as a baby's bottom, or at least it is now, since Hamilton Ave. got resurfaced. And now I hear that Alex may be getting hitched up with a lady friend of considerable distinction on the ten dollar bill. And check out his jazzy sidewalks that dance around tree trunks.

Cars and bikes will founder no more on our founding father's potholes, now that they've been shaved down and covered over with a silky layer of blacktop. Our car tires made a different sound while rolling over this dream surface, and at least one roadside resident has noted a marked improvement in sleep.

During the anguished discussions over whether to include bikelanes as part of the renovation (thanks for the democracy, Alex!), some questioned how many bicyclists would actually use the street. Once word gets around, even those who haven't been in the habit of biking will dig their bikes out of the back of the garage, pump up the tires and take a spin, just to experience true smoothness.

And the detailing. Smooth grading around stormwater outlets makes a big difference for bicyclists hugging the curb.

It looked like the job was contracted out. I was surprised to hear that public works crews sometimes do these resurfacings, and that doing the work in-house can cut the considerable cost in half. But it depends on whether the necessary skill sets are present among the staff, and whether the town's road equipment is in good repair. The extra expense, it's been asserted, might be worth it if a contractor who specializes in road resurfacing does a better job that lasts longer. I saw town staff out there in the early stages, repairing the stormwater outlets. Maybe it was a mix of in-house and contracted work.

In any case, congratulations to Alex on a facelift worthy of a Founding Father.

Curbside Recycling in Princeton

A brief letter to the editor in the Town Topic's Mailbox section last week asks the question: Why can't Princetonians recycle all plastics? I went to the Princeton recycling website, which has lots of useful information, including a link to the county website--the county being the one that administers curbside recycling in a lot of towns around here--and sure enough, it says that we're supposed to recycle only plastics #1 and #2.

That's odd, because the rollcarts used for recycling by businesses downtown, collected by Waste Management, say to recycle plastics #1-7, and if you check what's recyclable in other cities and towns elsewhere in the country and NJ, you'll find they're collecting most or all plastics.

So what gives? I researched this in 2012, and wrote an OpEd and some blog posts detailing the results. One post describes the curious controversy that developed when I published my research in a Princeton Packet OpEd. Another describes a visit to the plant where our mixed recyclables are separated out. Others can be found either by going to the pop-out "labels" section on the right of the screen, or typing "recycling" into the search box.

My research, and the reaction to it, taught me as much about people as it did about recycling. As with human-caused climate change, recycling is not inherently controversial or polarizing, but is made so when someone's ego or ideology gets caught up in what really should just be facts we can all look at and draw sensible conclusions from.

Pride in what Princeton does environmentally should not get in the way of acknowledging that there are many ways in which curbside recycling could be improved. Begin with the round, uncovered green and yellow bins. If they're stored outside, as many people do, rain makes the paper heavier, and water collects in the cans and jars inbetween pickups, providing breeding habitat for mosquitoes. Heavy winds on recycling day send paper and plastics flying out into the street, where they get washed into our waterways, and the circular bins sometimes roll out into traffic lanes, creating a hazard. If we cared about clean streets and clean waterways, might we want to do what most recycling programs do and switch to rollcarts, which are larger, covered, and don't roll around? Rollcarts also have wheels, which is an advantage for the less muscle-bound residents trying to drag their rain-soaked recyclables to the curb. All of this is in the county's hands, since it administers the program.

Like yardwaste collection, curbside recycling makes clear people's desire for simplicity. Many or most people put all types of plastic out for recycling, rather than scrutinize each plastic container for its identifying number. Similarly, the complex yardwaste collection schedule, with five zones and seasonal shifts in service, is widely ignored in favor of putting yardwaste out on the street whenever. Robocall reminders seem to be helping with the latter, but in general the best collection policy is the one that's the easiest for residents to follow.

My research showed that most of the plastics end up getting recycled, even the ones we're told not to put in. There was a rumor recently that the official policy might change to reflect that. Where there are rumors, there is hope.

That Pesky FIOS Beep in the Basement

Every now and then, a beep begins to emanate from the basement. The first time it happened, I couldn't find the source, because the beep sounded only once every fifteen minutes or so. If I ignore it for a few days or a week, it begins to represent in my mind entropy's gradual nibbling away at the edges of life's order.

I finally tracked it back to the FIOS box. That's the box they install when you get Verizon FIOS service.

A similar post two years ago explains how to stop the beeping. You may be tempted to go out and buy a new battery, since that's what the beeping and the red light is signaling you to do, but that's not really necessary. The battery is slowly getting more eccentric. Fixing the problem no longer involves just unplugging and plugging back in the red wire. Now I have to unplug, then pull the battery out, put it back in again, then plug the wire back in. There's no obvious sense to this, other than it works.

Another previous post explains the box's contribution to your "vampire" energy use.

Circus This Weekend in the Park

Check out the free performance this Friday and Saturday of Circus in Wonderland at Pettoranello Gardens, 6-8pm, June 12 and 13. Just off 206 at Mountain Ave, Pettoranello Gardens is a lovely spot to see the Stone Soup Circus folks, who are now launching an initiative to bring the positive, transformative energy of circus to Trenton.

Monday Council Discussion of Solid Waste Issues with PEC

"Solid waste" really should be called "solid opportunities", because there are ways to save money and reduce the town's negative environmental impact if we get better at keeping compostables and recyclables out of the trash, and leaves out of the street. Come to this Monday's council meeting, which starts at 7pm, to lend your support for giving these issues the attention they deserve.

The Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC) will be on the Council agenda this Monday, May 11, to discuss waste issues with the Town, including many recommendations involving a single-use bag fee, leaf management, composting, government priorities and enforcement, etc.

Cleaner Streets, Lower Taxes, Healthier Yards

Today, May 1, property taxes are due in Princeton. In this post, we explore one way in which our tendency to work against nature rather than with it, and to value private space at the expense of public space, contributes to high property taxes and degraded streetscapes.

There are many yards in Princeton that demonstrate the same point, but I'll use this one as an example because it's the most dramatic. Most front yards are very plain--a patch of lawn, a few shrubs pushed against the foundation. But here's one in which many flowers--in this season daffodils--have been planted for the public's benefit. Such a contribution to the public viewscape, and the minimization of unused lawn, is to be celebrated.

And yet the whole floristic effect is contradicted by what's going on between sidewalk and street. Bare dirt, dead grass, a pile of brush and leaves. It's like a woman wearing a flowery print dress and worn-out workboots. This is a busy street, and the yard shows clear intention to present a grand display of flowers to the town. There's pride in yard and yet complete lack of pride in the public right of way.

Here's what it looks like from the street. One can't see the flowers for the yardwaste. Again, there are hundreds of similar piles of yardwaste in town, suggesting that this is not one homeowner's approach but in fact a horticultural norm. The contradiction of well-tended yard and brushpile at the curb is so jarring, and yet so common, that I start to get that emperor-has-no-clothes feeling, as if people are able to filter out what is right in front of their eyes.

One explanation for this is that while I may see leaves in their ecological context as nature's way of protecting and returning nutrients to the soil, many others may view it rather as a form of dust that must be swept away to create a clean appearance. It may be that the pile of yardwaste at the curb is actually a source of pride--proof that the homeowners work hard to take care of their yard.

There is, then, repeated in hundreds of yards all over town, an unwritten agreement that the shared streetscape must be sacrificed in order to sustain order and neatness on the private property on the house side of the sidewalk. This directly contradicts the shared sentiment distilled into town ordinances. Ordinances require that trash cans and recycling buckets not linger at the curb for more than a day. State and local laws restrict how long leaves, etc. can linger at the curb. Streets must be swept by a street cleaner once a month. Common practice among residents largely defeats these attempts to regulate and value the appearance and function of the streetscape.

One significant component of the scene is the stormdrain. Water can seep into cracks between storm drains and pavement, causing a progressive deterioration that undermines the pavement and leads ultimately to the collapse of the sewer grate that covers the storm drain. Given how much time and money the town must devote to collecting leaves and brush dumped year-round in the street, often illegally, it's important to ask to what extent other maintenance needs are being deferred, and what the budgetary consequences are.

The piling of leaves, etc. at the curb spawns imitation by neighbors looking for visual cues about how to behave. Pickups in most neighborhoods this time of year are monthly, and if a resident imitates neighbors rather than pay attention to the pickup schedule, the pile of leaves will kill the grass before pickup day arrives, further marring the streetscape.

One alternative is to pile or corral leaves in a back corner of the property, perhaps screened by shrubs, and let them return to the soil. This approach is less taxing on town services and the eyes of passersby, and is ideal for storing leaves while keeping them from blowing around. Its only drawback is that neighbors can't see it, and therefore won't think it's the way leaves are supposed to be handled. In other words, good behavior is invisible, while illegal dumping in the streets is highly visible and gets copied by neighbors.

Cleaning out some flower beds this spring, I decided to set an example and put the leaves in a leaf corral in the front yard, tucked behind some shrubs. It's neater than piling the leaves in the street, and even oak leaves quickly start to settle down in the green wire corral, making room for more cuttings through the summer.

Already, the pile has dropped a foot, and the green wire is almost invisible.

There's symbolism in this small corral of leaves. It says that, with just a little adaptation, we can play along with nature's endless cycling of nutrients from soil to tree and back again, rather than seeing nature as a nuisance or the enemy. It says our shared, public right of way is meant not to be a dumping ground, but rather a source of pride. And it says that public employees have more important things to do than chase after leaves that homeowners can easily use to their advantage on their own property.

99 Too Many Cars On the Road--Sung by Around Eight

Princeton High School's a cappella group Around Eight was a big hit at the March 13, 2015 premier of the Climate Change Cabaret at the Princeton Public Library. Here they offer ways both large and small to get from 99 down to zero too many cars on the road. Around Eight led by Landis Hackett. Lyrics and arrangement by Steve Hiltner.
Other postings and videos from the Climate Change Cabaret can be found at SustainableJazz.com, with performances of Complaint Training and Breaking Up With Your Car.

Last Neighborhood Wading Pool in Princeton

Some may recognize this house on Lytle Street, which has been in the news lately as a potential tear down to make room for an expanded park on Johns Street. Some town residents have called for the house to be preserved, noting its historic value.

Fewer people know that the wading pool in the park next door to it on Johns Street is the last of its kind in Princeton, and may well be torn out in favor of a spray garden. As recently as the 1980s, Princeton had wading pools in all the neighborhood parks. They were part of a program in which each park had its own summer camp counselor. Parents didn't have to chauffeur their kids around to various summer camps, because the kids could simply run out the door down to the neighborhood park and play under the supervision of the counselor stationed there. Kids in the various parks competed against each other in sports. And when it got hot, they'd climb into the wading pool and splash around.

Technically speaking, the Johns Street wading pool isn't actually the last one in town. Ben Stentz, head of the Parks and Rec Department, tells me there's one buried in tiny Pine Street Park. He goes on to say:

"I believe there were wading pools at Grover Park, Harrison St. Park, Pine St. Park, Mary Moss Park and a few others... I’ve heard stories that there were 6 or 7 of these pools at one point in time."

When Harrison Street Park was being renovated five or so years ago, some of us lobbied to save the wading pool, which at that time was surrounded by an ugly metal fence. The idea was to remove the fence, fill the pool with soil and make it into a "raised bed bog garden".

If the Johns Street park wading pool is demolished, we'll be saying a final goodbye to a more sustainable, neighborhood-based lifestyle, when cars were less needed and kids had free-range childhoods. Nature helped with the child rearing, and "Be back for dinner!" was summer's motto.

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.