To Be Able to Ride Your Bike Safely

The wheels are turning here in Dunwoody about sustainability, and I’ll tell you where I’m seeing it the most. Not in a big push for home or community gardening or pesticide-free lawns, although interest is rising. Not in a sea of residential eco-renovations or an enthusiastic embrace of recycling, although there certainly do appear to be more blue boxes out there. Not in noticeable support of No Idling efforts. Not in rain barrels or certified backyard wildlife habitats or an explosion of pedestrian traffic or MARTA use.

I’m seeing it (and I’m guessing you are, too) on the roads, or should I say, on the sides of the roads. On bikes. In lycra. Our city is apparently home to an ever-growing group of enthusiastic, informed and connected adult cyclists. As a result of my work in sustainability (and the fact that I ride that paint-splattered, pannier-equipped bike of mine), I keep crossing paths with the Bike People. In fact, two passionate cyclists (Paul Lowry and Mitch Garber) are on the Sustainability citizen advisory commission and are fonts of knowledge about cycling issues and opportunities in Dunwoody and beyond.

Last night, I had the opportunity to interview Wallace McRoy, president of the Southern Bicycle League (and a Dunwoody resident). Retired from BellSouth, Wallace is tough to catch because he in out there on that bike for hours every single day. But it was dark. It was late. He was home.

The Southern Bicycle League is a riding club that consists of about 1,000 members. Other groups include the Dunwoody Cycling Club, which has a Yahoo group consisting of about 300 members. Many cyclists who prefer trail riding are part of the Southern Off-Road Biking Association (SORBA). There is also a passionate constituency of triathlon enthusiasts. And, of course, there are folks just riding their bikes, without any group or affiliation.

Considering there is so much talk about bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes in the media as more citizens and city leaders debate ways to make their communities more livable, Wallace surprised me by saying that he is not a fan of them.

“With bike lanes, every single driveway becomes an additional intersection,” he explained. “What many cyclists want are wider shoulders so that they can ride with the traffic more comfortably and safely."

Wallace agrees with an Atlanta Regional Commission recommendation about narrowing lanes down to 11 feet on roads with speed limits 35 miles or below in order to slow traffic, and then dedicating the additional space to wider shoulders for cyclists. He says that this is an easy change to make whenever a road is repaved or restriped and it should be a requirement.

Other easy changes Wallace recommends:

• Public education about safe driving around cyclists. Wallace suggests that if you cannot safely cross the yellow line to get around a cyclist, then you don’t have enough room to pass. People driving cars typically pass way too closely, and three feet is a minimum standard for how much room you need to give. Wallace says he is passed regularly by drivers whose cars he can touch or whose side-view mirrors graze him.

• Police ticketing of drivers who drive too aggressively around cyclists.

Mostly, Wallace wants you to know that those cyclists you see out there are your neighbors, your friends, and your coworkers. If you hit them , you can kill them and leave their families without a parent or a son or daughter.

Joe Seconder, founder of Bike Cobb and a new Dunwoody resident, started a group on the Dunwoody Sustainability community forum site called Bike Dunwoody. He posted several documents, which I read last night. The Complete Streets information gives an overview of the national movement to reclaim our streets for everyone, not just motorists. (If you want to see Complete Streets in action, click here.)

The ARC Atlanta Region Bicycle Transportation and Pedestrian Walkways Plan (the Bike/Ped Plan) updates a previous plan with task force recommendations for creating both a regional-scale bicycle network that includes both on-road facilities and shared use pathways, and a pedestrian network focused around major activity centers. I draw your attention specifically to Chapter 4, which outlines recommended bicycle-friendly policies for local jurisdictions as well as examples of local best practices, and I invite you to join the Dunwoody-wide conversation starting soon about the specific components of a City of Dunwoody Transportation Plan.

Here are a few links to initiatives that pop up when reading the Bike/Ped Plan and other related documents:

ARC Livable Centers Initiative (LCI)
ARC Regional Transportation Plan (RTP)
Safe Routes to School (SR2S)

As for children, you can see as plainly as I can that there are hardly any children out there riding on our streets. I wonder if they think to themselves, “Cycling is something that grown-ups do.” Wallace says that if he had a 12-year-old, he wouldn’t let him or her ride in the streets without him right now. Can you imagine being a 12-year-old and not being able to ride your bike? I’m not sure where you grew up, but for me this would have basically cut me off from my entire life at that age. (FYI: children under age 13 are allowed to ride bikes on the sidewalk.)

Wallace and I talked about the importance of “transfer of knowledge” from generation to generation. When I was a child, we took a field trip each year to a county-sponsored place called Safety Town, where we learned the “rules of the road” for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists through hands-on (feet-on) experience. Currently in Dunwoody, we have no formal education for our children about these important life skills. An organized series of Bike Rodeos where we tap into the knowledge base of our community’s dedicated and experienced cyclists, along with that of REI and Performance Bikes, could go a long way toward engaging our youth in the joys, convenience, cost savings, and health and environmental benefits of cycling as a mode of transportation and a plain old fun thing to do.

As for right here in Dunwoody, right now, look for a group of cyclists next Tuesday morning, March 3, at around 9 AM as they make their way to Roswell City Hall for the 4th Annual Georgia Rides to the Capitol (in which 20 mayors and over 1,000 cyclists are participating) in order to raise support for improved conditions for cycling, including the development of regional systems of both on-road bicycling facilities and multi-use-trails.

Give them room, please, and if they slow you down briefly, take a moment to remember what it felt like to be 12, and to be able to ride your bike safely. If you grew up here in Dunwoody and never had that experience, you are in for a treat one day in the not-too-distant future, perhaps right here in Dunwoody (if not, most definitely in neighbor cities, such as nationally-recognized Bike-Friendly City Roswell). Start thinking about what color bike you have always wanted. And, yes, you can get pretty pink streamers or add baseball cards in the spokes. Like you’ve always dreamed of.

Local Food Is All About Links, and This Post Has Lots of 'Em!

A comment on John Heneghan's blog the other day asked what the effect of a farmers market in Dunwoody would be on our local supermarkets, and this got me thinking yet again about what it takes to build a secure foodshed. Here's my "concentric circles" post about this from FoodShed Planet, plus I found this document illuminating, specifically in relation to the economic impact of farmers markets on local businesess (in short, farmers markets have a documented positive economic impact on area businesses). Specifically in regards to our supermarkets, the farmers market enhances the supermarket offerings since the farmers markets carry locally-grown and produced food and artisan items and the supermarkets have practically none of this but do carry many other items of need. In short, they work together.

However, be forewarned. Federal officials announced on February 20 that they may not be able to provide the agricultural water supply to more than 200 water districts in the Central Valley of California for the upcoming growing season unless drought conditions improve. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:

It marks the first time in 17 years that the Federal Bureau of Reclamation has announced that it does not have enough water to fulfill its agricultural contracts to parts of the Central Valley, including about 3 million acres of farmland typically irrigated by the agency.

Virtually all non-tropical crops are grown in the Central Valley, which is the primary source for a number of food products throughout the United States, including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus. Four of the top five counties in agricultural sales in the U.S. are in the Central Valley. This means we are most likely going to see either less supply or higher costs at our local supermarkets.

Building a diverse local food supply system is a proven strategy for not only maintaining some control over costs but also ensuring the continuity of our food supply, controlling quality, building local relationships, keeping money circulating close to home, and connecting our children with the people who grow their food.

Here are some ways to do this right now:

Home Gardening: Want a feel for how much you can really grow on a small piece of land? Take a look at Roger Doiron's recent email (pasted below) from a community gardening listserv to which I belong. Roger runs Kitchen Gardeners International and he is the one behind the move for a Victory Garden on the White House lawn (and did you hear that just last week Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "broke pavement" on the inaugural USDA The People's Garden on the grounds of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)? He plans to put a People's Garden at every USDA site). Most important for you to know? Roger grows all this in Maine.

My wife and I kept track of this last year, weighing every thing that came out of our garden over the course of our growing season. We totaled it up and calculated what it would have cost us to buy the same items using three different sets of prices: conventional grocery store, farmers’ market and organic grocery store (Whole Foods, in our case). The total value came to $2200, $2400, and $2500 respectively. We had about $200 in out-of-pocket costs for seeds and supplies. The costs of our labor are not included because we enjoy gardening and the physical work involved. If I am to include my labor costs, I feel I should also include the costs of the gym membership or country club membership I didn’t have to buy.

Clearly, this data is just for one family (of five), one yard (.3 acre), one garden (roughly 1600 square feet), and one climate (Maine, zone 5b/6), but it gives you some sense of what’s possible. If you consider that there are roughly 90 million households in the US that have some sort of yard, this really could add up. Our savings allowed us to do different things including investing in some weatherization work for our house last fall that is making us a greener household in another way, buying more expensive, yet better quality meat from a local farmer, etc.

If you really want to play around with the data, you can calculate how much a home garden like ours produces on a per acre basis. If you use the $2400 figure and consider that our garden is roughly 1/25th of an acre, then it means that home gardens like ours can gross $60,000/acre. You can also calculate it on a square foot basis which in our case works out to be roughly $1.50/ft2. That would mean that a smaller garden of say 400ft2 would produce $600 of produce. Keep in mind that these are averages and that certain crops are more profitable and space efficient than others. A small garden planted primarily with salad greens and trellised tomatoes, for example, is going to produce more economic value per square foot more than one planted with potatoes and squash. We plant a bit of everything because that’s the way we like to garden and eat.

Ready to dig in? Oakhurst Community Garden has seasonally-appropriate organic transplants for sale right now. If you have not been to this place yet, you are in for a treat. Walk around, check it out, and imagine something like that here in Dunwoody someday. Also, I love the fact that you simply leave your cash or check in a box. That's the kind of community place it is.

Also, if you like to plant from seed, check out Seeds of Change and Seedsavers Exchange. The farmers seem to really like Johnny's and High Mowing Seeds as well. The best planting guide specifically for Atlanta is available for free at Hastings Garden Center in Brookhaven (it's a one-page list of crops and planting dates for spring, summer and fall). I'll see if they will let me post a PDF of it.

Community Gardening: These are sprouting up all over the Atlanta metro region. I'll be visiting some more soon (Berkeley Lake, Buckhead, and some affiliated with the Atlanta Community Food Bank) and will report back to you on them. In the meantime, don't miss the beautiful veggie garden at Temple Emanuel on Spalding Drive. Thinking of suggesting a community garden here in Dunwoody? Check out these ten tips to getting started from the American Community Gardening Association.

CSAs: That stands for the awkward name Community Supported Agriculture and it means you pay up front to a farmer and then get a box of fresh produce every week. Data collected in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates that 12,549 farms in the United States reported marketing products through a CSA arrangement. I have participated for the last seven years and it has changed my life in more ways than I can tell you. It is, frankly, how I got so involved with all this sustainability stuff.

CSAs near us include Riverview Farms (Peachtree Corners, Morningside), TaylOrganics (Chamblee, Buckhead), Cane Creek Farm (Alpharetta, Cumming), and Moore Farms and Friends (Sandy Springs, Buckhead). Riverview used to deliver at Parsley's Catering but Parsley's has moved to Marietta so the only CSA deliveries in Dunwoody are through our farmers market, which offers a weekly box of assorted items from the participating vendors. (Here's a FoodShed Planet post about the CSA-focused documentary Growing Awareness.)

Farmers Markets: Interested in finding out more about our farmers market (previously named the Spruill Farmers Market) and the people who have been growing our food for the last five years? See here for market standards and here for the faces of our farmers and other local food providers. Interested in keeping this farmers market in Dunwoody? Please let your council members know. We are currently trying to make it legal in our new City of Dunwoody for there to be a farmers market. Current zoning does not allow it. If need be, we can travel to communities that do allow farmers markets, including Norcross (new this year!), Roswell, Alpharetta and Buckhead, and of course the mother of them all, Morningside, but having one (or more!) right here in our city is a true asset.

Classes: The first class in the new Sustainable Living series is being offered at the Dunwoody Nature Center Saturday, March 28 from 10 AM-noon. Titled The Sustainable Pantry, it is being taught by my good friend Robin from Sustainable Peachtree Corners and I am sure it is going to be fantastic. Here's the class description:

What's in YOUR pantry? Fill it with foods that are good for you and good for the earth. Eat what's in season and locally available; plan ahead for last-minute meals and hard-to-find items. Robin Montri Fosdick, founder of the Sustainable Peachtree Corners website website, will lead this class for anyone interested in living the "green life" from the pantry out. Robin is a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, and Georgia Organics. She helps to coordinate the Peachtree Corners CSA (community supported agriculture) program and is an active member of the Norcross Freecycle Group.

The Dunwoody Nature Center is also offering square foot gardening and chicken-keeping classes. Also, see the Oakhurst Garden's always-excellent lineup of classes.

Additional local foodshed sources include Local Harvest and The Eat Well Guide. Also, I know The 48th Street Market right here in Dunwoody buys some produce from a local farm. 5 Seasons Brewing Company (Sandy Springs, Alpharetta) and World Peace Cafe (Sandy Springs) are big supporters of local farms as well.

If you haven't been involved in the local food movement yet, it's a whole other world, right here at home. Welcome.

"Service Above Self," and Other Good Things Happening in Dunwoody

So I'm returning library books one Saturday morning recently--that one that was so warm after weeks of cold--and I see a group of people working away in the little island across the street on Chamblee Dunwoody by the library. I go over and get to talking and it's Mimi Bounds (pictured), Fred Bounds and other members of the Dunwoody Rotary Club. They've adopted this little piece of the world, as part of the Keep Dekalb Beautiful program, and were fixing it up for the season ahead.

For those who don't know (like me), here's what the Rotary Club of Dunwoody is all about:

Dunwoody Rotary Club Mission

To support the members in fulfilling the Object of Rotary by:

* Fostering friendship among members, partners, communities we serve

* Strengthening and expanding our impact locally and internationally

* Communicating the work of Rotary

* Providing a structure, process and opportunity to maximize value to members and continuity of club impact.

Rotary International is the world's first service club organization. Its more than 1.2 million members volunteer their time and talent to further the Rotary motto, Service Above Self. The Dunwoody Rotary Club has a rich tradition of service - in the metro Atlanta area, our schools and around the world. Fred told me that the club is currently holding a coat drive for the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children. As you are "spring cleaning," please consider passing on coats that no longer fit by dropping them in the bin at Alice Cleaners, right here in Dunwoody Village. Fifty coats have already been donated.

Just a few days later, when I was visiting St. Patrick's Church with the board of the farmers market to determine if that site would work for the relocation of the market this year due to construction planned at Spruill (see here for the farmers market update), I got to talking with Wendy Lauber, the outreach coordinator there, about the food bank the church hosts each week. Who knew? Not me, and I've lived in Dunwoody for 13 years.

Turns out that the food bank, called Malachi’s Storehouse, has been feeding area families for nearly 20 years now. On each Wednesday afternoon from 3:30-5:30 the doors of the parish hall open and upwards of 70 families are served staples, meat, dairy, canned goods and produce. Thanksgiving and Christmas are traditionally very large events which include giving hams, turkeys and holiday trimmings. Also at Christmas, the Sunday School hall becomes a “store” for parents in need of presents for their children. Parents choose gifts which are then freshly wrapped by parishioners. Christmas 2008 saw 230 families served.

Malachi’s Storehouse is funded by the generosity of the parishioners of St. Patrick’s. St. Patrick’s purchases food with those funds at a greatly reduced rate from the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Opportunities to contribute are plenty and growing. You can volunteer on Wednesdays to serve, give money directly to Malachi’s, and transport groceries from the Atlanta Community food bank to Malachi’s. We are also discussing the possibility of setting up a way to give to Malachi's if the farmers market is located there.

* The farmers are talking about donating excess produce at the end of the market hours (which would be at noon).

* If we arrange CSA drops with additional farms (such as Riverview Farms and/or TaylOrganics), boxes that aren't picked up could be donated.

* Market customers could contribute produce purchases as well (or money toward food).

* There is also a program called Plant a Row for the Hungry, where home gardeners grow a portion of their garden specifically for food bank donations. In Atlanta alone, gardeners donated almost 49,000 pounds of fresh garden produce in 2008.

Here are some photos of Malachi's Storehouse in action:














Do you know of more great things happening regarding social sustainability right here in Dunwoody? Please post a comment or email me at freshbakedcopy@mindspring.com. One of the greatest joys I'm experiencing as a result of this local sustainability involvement is getting to know the place I call home so much better--and being continually shocked at all the good things that are going on here about which I had no idea.

"Where's Your Garden, Miss Pattie?"

Long story short. I used to host these Open Garden events and neighbor kids came and helped dig and plant in my backyard food garden (plus, there always seemed to be some art projects going on). After seeing how much they learned, and how much they seemed to enjoy it, I decided to plant a "demonstration garden" around my mailbox so more kids could see how things grew. It ended up being my most productive bed last year, with okra and tomatoes and peppers and basil and potatoes and peas and radishes and lettuces and . . . AND I ended up meeting so many neighbors whom I hadn't met before. But then my neighborhood got all new mailboxes right before Christmas (and we recycled most of the old ones, which was a project unto itself!) and I had to dissassemble the garden (I put that wooden bed on the side of the house).

Two months have passed, and a few neighbors have asked me if I planned to redo that garden. One neighbor even said she didn't buy basil all summer--she simply walked around the block and plucked a few leaves every time she needed some! A teenage girl admitted she nibbled on the cherry tomatoes, and another teenager saved okra seeds to plant in a garden she plans on starting this year.

This past weekend, I was pulling out of the driveway to pick up my mother at MARTA (I had been borrowing her car for the last few weeks since mine is broken down for good and I am between a mom-van and a Prius right now, and I have scootered, walked, bike-rode, trained, bussed, carpooled and borrowed several cars in the meantime) when I noticed a neighbor and his grandson standing by my mailbox. The three-year-old said to me with outstretched arms,

"Where's your garden, Miss Pattie?"

And that was all it took. The next day, I headed on out and got what I needed to build a new one. I was going to buy a custom-made raised bed garden from Farmer D for $79 (the one I built last year cost $50, but Farmer D's is much nicer), but then I saw those scalloped concrete edgers for $1.16 each and decided I would see just how cheap and easy I could make a garden, with the hopes that more people would be inspired to join me in growing their own food--and opening up the eyes of children to the possibilities of this aspect of sustainability. (Also, expanding the garden is a snap when designed this way.)

I did the whole thing for about 25 bucks, folks, and it took less than 30 minutes. I double-dug the dirt, lined the space with the edgers and added compost and some scoops of casings from my worm bin. I planted some onions already, plus an arugula plant, a couple of spinach plants and some cilantro, all taken from my back garden. I'll add more as things warm up, and I'll share the progress with you. But most importantly, I called that little boy and left a message, telling him to come see the garden.

By the way, here is the mailbox garden last August (tomatoes, okra, basil, peppers) and November (lettuces, potatoes, peas, radishes--you can see in the picture that I just picked something):

Impermanence (or What I Got to Thinking About When David Said The Businesses That Built This Market Are Gone)

When I met with David Southerland and Sarah Bartlett of the Perimeter Transportation Coalition recently, I thought of this photo I took down in Florida not long ago. Of the mark made on the sand by a single foot. Of its undeniable impression, but also of its impermanence. I thought of this because of something David said.

"The businesses that built this market are gone."

I thought of that line as I rode my bike back to the MARTA bus stop, the wind whipping in my face that frigid morning, a feeling of gratitude rising as I realized that the buses can carry two bikes on the front and the #150 bus would take me just about anywhere I needed to go in Dunwoody. Including home.

The businesses that built this market are gone. That means that new businesses have come in, and that they have brought with them the possibility of change. However, they can be hamstruck by infrastructure and groupthink and the collective actions of the others in this business district and elsewhere. We can all be hamstruck by these things.

The Perimeter Transportation Coalition (PTC) works with all the business in what's called the the Perimeter Community Improvement District (PCID) on particular aspects of change--improving access and offering a variety of commuting alternatives to help employees find cheaper, easier and less-stressful ways of getting to and from work. By doing this, the PTC also reduces congestion and improves air quality. This is no small matter when you consider that 115,000 employees, shoppers, and residents travel the Central Perimeter everyday. (The City of Dunwoody's new City Hall will be located within the PCID and both a van and a bus currently connect that office building with the MARTA transit station.)

But that's only part of the change. Major corporations in the PCID (which spans both Dunwoody and Sandy Springs, by the way, and presents an opportunity for more partnership between the two cities) are on their own sustainability journies, links about which I'll provide as I research each company more thoroughly. And many Dunwoody residents currently live in the "live/work/play" condos and apartments within the Dunwoody portion of the district (and I, for one, am interested in hearing their voices as part of the sustainability conversation).

The businesses that built this market are gone. New ones have come in. New ideas have come in. New opportunities have come in.

I see my role on the sustainability citizen advisory board as one of researching best practices, building relationships, inviting as many people into the sustainability conversation as possible, and suggesting ways to leverage opportunities for a positive step forward, one foot in the sand at a time. I consider myself to be a good fit for these challenges during this start-up phase but the time will come when more appropriate administrative hands will take the baton from me, and perhaps the changes we make together as a community--residents and businesses combined--will not be impermanent.

Making Connections

This is one of two Southern folklore bottle trees that are in my garden. I have "repurposed" them to recycle plastic bottles that visitors may happen to bring, as opposed to the glass liquor bottles traditionally used to ward off evil spirits. This tree base is my friend John's Christmas tree from 2007, which I dragged home from Midtown in the back of my minivan the day before Easter last year. Want a weird experience, smell the pungent fragrance of Christmas tree as you're getting ready to hunt for colored Easter eggs.

I use this tree to connect to the historic significance of this region of the country more fully. I'm also able to make a literature connection to the Newbery Honor book, Because of Winn Dixie--there is a scene in Gloria Dump's jungle yard (beautifully filmed in the movie) that features a bottle tree.

But the connections don't stop there. John of the Bottle Tree just connected me to Lewis Perkins, who is the director of sustainable strategies at Mohawk Industries, the carpet people. For those who don't know, 80% of all carpeting manufactured in the world is made right in Dalton, Georgia. Another fun fact, 35% or so of all the Mohawk products is recycled material. And the fun goes on--one fourth of all plastic bottles recycled in the United States are used by Mohawk to make recycled carpet fiber.

What does this have to do with Dunwoody? Well, Lewis and I got to talking yesterday and it turns out that Mohawk is pilot-testing a program to collect bottles from schoolchildren in the Dalton area. Mohawk pays the schools for the bottles and the schools use the money toward environmental projects. He'd like to roll this program out nationwide.

"Wouldja' be interested in a brand new school right here in Dunwoody?" I asked, and Lewis said yes. (For the record, TerraCycle does a similar thing, and also recycles juice boxes and more.)

So, here's the sustainability thing. You recycle bottles. Good for the environment. You earn money for the school and strengthen local communities. Good economics. You teach children about job creation and security through repurposing of the waste stream, plus the fact that Mohawk employs people with disabilities for specific jobs. Good social equity. And, let's throw in the lessons about creativity and eco-literacy here and, frankly, you have a slam-dunk learning opportunity that aligns perfectly with the eco-stats of this new school.

Oh, and by the way, I have those stats now. The Dunwoody Cool School (this is just my little pet name for it) will have the following LEED certified requirements:

* Bike racks
* Parking for low emission and fuel efficient vehicles
* Light colored roofing and paving (the Cool Roof!)
* Parking for carpooling
* Native plantings and irrigation
* Low-flow plumbing fictures and sensors
* Natural and constructed exterior shading
* Energy efficient lighting fictures and lamps
* Low VOC material
* Building occupant recycling program

I don't see anything listed here about an established No Idling zone or toxin-free landscaping care, but I'm hoping those standards are going to be demanded by our community. I know the Dekalb County School Go Green initiative specifies nontoxic indoor cleaners, so perhaps that is assumed here. Also, there has been talk about a school garden (and I have suggested the repurposing of surplus cinderbocks used in the construction of the building to make raised garden beds--very pretty with herbs planted in the cinderblock holes!) and rock star farmer Farmer D (who just came in 16th in the entire country as a potential Farmer-in-Chief for the White House) has expressed interest in consulting on the project.

But most importantly, I'm interested in the unique opportunity we have with this school to make sustainable connections--between the built environment, the natural environment and the learning environment. And perhaps my bottle tree is simply a metaphor for what is possible when we think outside the landfill.

And speaking of landfills, 6% of all landfill space is take up by old carpeting, which is completely recyclable. If you are replacing your carpeting (even if you are going to hardwoods instead), be sure your dealer recycles the old carpeting. Mohawk has relationships with the dealers about this. If your dealer gives you any trouble about this, find another dealer or call 877-3RE-CYCL (877-373-2925). (Here is the excellent Mohawk Greenworks site, by the way.)

As for the parking for low emission and fuel efficient vehicles? Since my van has officially bit the dust, I have recently test-driven a Prius. And let me tell you, it was one of the best test-drives I've ever had. Of course, switching from a van to a sedan as a mom in suburbia will require changing my life a bit. But I'm cool with that.

"Cool School"

When I worked at Turner, my colleagues and I came up with a promotion called TBS Cool School. It was aligned with a back-to-school programming stunt and it involved an opportunity for a select number of kids to win a trip to a private island where they could learn all kinds of very cool hands-on things. Many times over the last fifteen years (since I left Turner), I've thought about Cool School and how much I believe in that kind of hands-on experiential learning.

Well, what do you know, we have our very own Cool School right here in Dunwoody. I'm not so sure how hands-on this place will be, and it certainly doesn't look too inviting right now but I can tell you for sure that its roof (no matter what you think of its final color) will definitely be cool. For those who don't know, a "cool roof" is one that reflects and emits the sun's heat back to the sky instead of transferring it to the building below. According to the Cool Roof Rating Council website, a cool roof provides the following benefits:

* Saves energy and global warming mitigation
* Reduces urban heat island effect and smog
* Improves occupant comfort
* Complies with codes and green building programs

In fact, having a Cool Roof on a government-owned building qualifies for points on the Atlatna Regional Commission Green Community certification checklist. However, since the City of Dunwoody doesn't own our school buildings, this one won't qualify, but it does qualify for being a good thing. I'm hoping the school leaders take advantage of the learning opportunity inherent in this cool feature on the school.

The Dunwoody Cool School has lots of other eco-credentials as well. A list of them is coming my way from Pat Pope's office and I'll be sure to share it with you when it does. In the meantime, take a look at the architecture firm that is building this thing.

And speaking of Cool School, here are a number of very cool learning oppportunities coming up:

Sustainable U: No, not here in Dunwoody just yet--I'm waiting until we can more directly align the classes with the education requirements of the ARC Green Community certification, and until we have a larger groundswell of support for sustainability here in Dunwoody. Our friends at Sustainable Peachtree Corners, however, are running with this idea and offering Sustainable U classes every Friday at noon starting February 20 at the YMCA just six miles or so up the road. According to mastermind Robin Montri Fosdick:

Fri., Feb. 20th at 11:45-1:00. Free and open to the public, but must call the Y to sign up. The first topic is Green Living 101. We are going to briefly introduce/cover the following topics (which will turn into future workshops based on the participant's interests): The Sustainable Consumer, Your Green Home, Sustainable Food Choices, Recycling (specific to Gwinnett Co., but will be applicable to all) and composting.

The coming months will focus on each topic area. Also doing a "Teen and Green" workshop in April. Should have a full schedule to send out & post in early March.

Other sustainable classes/workshops of interest:

Georgia Organics Annual Conference--Michael Pollan of Omnivore's Dilemma is speaking, and there are farm tours and numerous classes.

Greenprints-This is a green building symposium that showcases trends, strategies and the latest environmental technologies. It takes place down in the beautifully redesigned Midtown Atlanta area.

Oakhurst Community Garden--Find classes on beekeeping, fruit growing, composting, paper-making, and more, but don't even try to sign up for the chicken-keeping class (this sweeping-the-nation phenomenon is selling out classes like never before).

Dunwoody Nature Center--Join your neighbors for square foot gardening, photography, meditation, yoga and more, right here in Dunwoody!

Oh, and David Southerland, director of the Perimeter Transportation Coalition (PTC) (I'll do a whole separate post on that next week), tells me that the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign offers effective cycling classes, and that the PTC is sponsoring a Confident City Cycling Class on May 16. If you live in zip codes 30319, 30328, 30338, 30342, 30346, and 30350, you can take the class for $10. The full price is $25.

Cool!

An Ownership. A Pride. A Responsibility.

This ominous sign is from the parking lot at Temple Emanuel. I took the photo in August and couldn't imagine when I would use it, but here it is. John Heneghan has an excellent blog post today about the school crossing tragedy that occurred yesterday (plus, in case you missed it, an 87-year-old man in a wheelchair was killed in a crosswalk in Buckhead just a couple days ago as well). This could very easily have been in our own community. The unsafe conditions in our city for children are well documented. Some points to consider:

* From what I understand, Austin Elementary didn't even officially participate in National Walk to School Day last year because school leadership deemed their routes too unsafe.

* Kingsley Elementary has taken a major step forward by applying for a Safe Routes to School grant to improve infrastructure to make walking to school safer.

* My daughter and I stopped walking and biking to school because it took up to 25 cars, on average, every day, before one would stop, as required by law, so we could cross Mt. Vernon Road in a clearly marked school crossing.

* I noticed that someone, somehow has erected metal poles and one of those wonderful "Stop for pedestrians" signs in the middle of Mt. Vernon Road between Chamblee Dunwoody and Abernathy. How did this happen (I had asked the county for ages for this by Vanderlyn) and how do we get more of them?

The thing is, I have been feeling this odd pride thing starting to really bubble up in me lately about this place, Dunwoody, that I call home. It reminds me of when I had my weekly Open Garden events last spring and my yard would be filled with neighbor children working away in my veggie garden, no school garden to call their own yet. A core group of kids came every week, and I noticed something interesting start to happen. When children who hadn't come before would come, the "core kids" would tell them the rules (things like "stay on the hay," not the planting beds, and "leave the garden a little better than you found it"). One time, some new visitors starting throwing the hay all over the place, and the core kids got very upset about it. And I realized, right then and there, that these children felt some ownership of my garden, and some pride in the work they had done, and some responsibility.

And this is the feeling I've been recognizing in myself lately. An ownership. A pride. A responsibility. When I drive 25 in the school zone on Mt. Vernon Road and I see cars on my tail in my rear-view mirrow, I hear a voice inside of me say something like, "We won't let you speed through a school zone in our city," or when I see those endless landscape crews in the dead of winter with their massive leaf blowers when there aren't even any more leaves to blow, I think to myself, "You leave our city, but we don't. We live with your toxins. And there may just come a day when we as a community just don't think that's okay anymore." And when I am the recipient of yet another kind stranger who lets me make that horribly difficult left turn out of my neighborhood, I am grateful, yet again, for fellow Dunwoody residents who know how hard those lefts can be and have let me in.

This is our city. We have the ability to make it a friendly, safe and healthy place. We have the ability to decide what are its defining traits, what kind of civility we want here. We have the ability to demand a lawful behavior from those who choose to cut through our city with no regards for our citizens. And we can create the kind of city that we are all proud to call home. But this will require conscious thought and deliberate action, and not just by our City Council. By each of us every day.

I hear large dogs who are not under command-control are running loose and terrorizing people and small, leashed dogs at the Dunwoody Nature Center. Ball fields, where children will soon be playing baseball, are speckled with dog feces. Our creek is getting poisoned with E.coli. Owners, when approached, seem not to care, even though there are already laws about leashing and picking up after dogs. How can this be? How can we be like this? Must we wait for some child to get bit, or hit, or worse?

Does this stuff matter? Dead right it does. Do we have the ability to make a difference? You bet we do. This is our city now. What kind of city do we want?



See the proposed brochure draft and other materials here.