Let's Not Monkey Around with Preparedness

My younger daughter took this picture at this past Saturday's Comcast Cares Day, and I've been thinking about it (both the day and the monkey) all week. First of all, because a whole pile of new community food gardens were built that day all over North Atlanta (including the 32 plots at the Alpharetta Community Garden), and that helps to create a more secure local food system. Then, of course, Monday night was the public hearing about the amendment to allow the continuation of our successful farmers market (see here for a couple corrections to the Dunwoody Crier story).

Think this doesn't affect you? Do you eat? It affects you. Sustainable cities worldwide are focusing a great deal of attention on their local food system--encouraging community, school and residential food gardens and urban farms; supporting farmers markets; involving all parts of their populations, and changing policies to ensure that their city will not be left behind. (Do I even go into the whole swine flu thing?!)

But that's just the start. The storm we had last week, right on the tail of our Dunwoody tornado anniversary, got me thinking again about natural disaster preparation:

* We have no tornado warning system in Dunwoody, for instance.

* I have no idea if we have established locations for shelter in case of any kind of disaster here in Dunwoody.

* I have never heard mention of any kind of evacuation plan or emergency communication system.

Listen, I know we are a new city, but are these things being talked about? Is there someone at City Hall who is tapped in to disaster preparation at the city, metro, state and national levels? Let's not monkey around (ahhh, there's the monkey tie-in!) about things that can help prepare our city for a changing world, and protect our citizens in case of emergency. And let's sharpen up our city communications methodologies so that clear, accurate information is disseminated in a timely manner.

At the recent excellent Lemonade Days event, I talked with the folks at the Homeland Security booth and picked up a simple little brochure listing emergency supplies. I know we've seen these lists a hundred times since 9/11, but this one was short and manageable and offered basic advice. See www.ready.gov.

September is National Preparedness Month. I hope by then I have answers to all these questions for you, in relation to the City of Dunwoody. We should be well along in our Comprehensive Plan by then, and a secure local food system and emergency preparedness ought to be part of those discussions. In the meantime, I am going to freshen up my old 9/11 emergency kit, and have discussions with my neighborhood about emergency preparedness. I have found that, for me, at home and in my 'hood are always good places to start.

A "Passion Project" in Need of a Leader

My backyard earned designation as a Certified Wildlife Habitit by the National Wildlife Federation about three years ago, but I just coughed up the small handful of bucks to get the cute metal sign to display on my garden gate. Since then, everyone who has visited has read the sign and said something like, "Hmmm. I bet my yard qualifies." If you have the following, then your yard may qualify, too:

* Food Sources - For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar

* Water Sources - For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream

* Places for Cover - For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse

* Places to Raise Young - For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond

* Sustainable Gardening - For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

Who cares? And isn't this just a money-making scheme by the NWF? As a marketing ploy, I think it's pretty brilliant (it costs $15 to certify your yard, plus you get a year's subscription to the NWF magazine AND a refrigerator-worthy certificate--the metal sign is an additional $25). But it also works to make people more aware of their environment, to make small changes that make a big difference, to educate our youth, and to collectively instill community pride (and potentially raise resale opportunities). Case in point: we as a community could work together to become a Certified Community Habitat. There is currently only one other Certified Community Habitat in the state of Georgia. Guess what city? If you guessed the city that has been called the Greenest City in the Southeast, then you're right. Yep, it's our friends and neighbors in Chamblee. Here is what the NWF website says about Chamblee:

Chamblee, GA

Certified: June, 2003
Population: 2,000
Located north of Atlanta, inside the I-285 perimeter

This project began as a collaboration of the Huntley Hills Neighborhood Association, the Georgia Wildlife Federation and the local Master Gardeners group. Huntley Hills is a neighborhood within Chamblee, characterized by older homes, lawns and mature oak and tulip trees, which were planted when the homes were built. By the time of certification, the project had spread to all of the City of Chamblee, and much of the outlying areas.
For more information, please go to www.chambleewildlifehabitat.com.

And here is what we would have to do as a community to make this happen. This is not on the ARC Green Community Checklist, so the Dunwoody Sustainability Commission is not focusing on it. However, it is a great example of a "passion project" relating to community sustainability in need of a leader. Could that leader be you? If so, please feel free to contact me at freshbakedcopy@mindspring.com and I'll connect you with the Chamblee leader for more information (and inspiration!).

Our City Arborist

These are flowers of the tulip poplar tree. They are starting to bloom now. My younger daughter and I discovered them a little over a year ago, when we had started walking through the woods on the way to school. And so I felt great affection when Kimberly Larson told me not long ago that the City, with the advice from the City Arborist, has obtained 400 tree seedlings, a mix of loblolly pines, redbuds and tulip poplars, that the Sustainability Commission will be giving away at the Comcast Cares event this Saturday.

Of course, the whole mention of the City Arborist raised a bunch of questions for me, especially because I had seen "the City Arborist" in various documents before. So, yes, for those who are wondering, we do have a City Arborist. Howard Koontz wears the dual hat of City Planner/City Arborist. After being graduated as a journalism major, he worked in the family landscaping business for ten years and achieved noted industry-recognized certifications. He realized that landscaping was being brought to the table by developers at the end of the process, in many cases (as Howard told me, "Landscaping and fire extiguishers were always the last things to be added.") He wanted to be able to have an impact earlier and thus decided to pursue a masters degree in city and regional planning. He has worked as a planner at the City of Roswell and the City of Norcross before joining us here in Dunwoody, where his landscaping background is being put to good use as well.

The City Arborist is responsible for the urban tree canopy in Dunwoody (trees do lots of good things for a City, by the way, including reducing the "heat island effect"). He is the chief administrator of the tree protection and tree replacement ordinance. Primarily, he consults on public trees in right-of-ways or those that are diseased or threatened, as well as the installation of new trees. (And, no, he does not offer advice about trees on private property!)

The City is currently working on a No Net Loss of Trees Policy and is pursuing Tree City USA designation, two measures from the ARC Green Community certification checklist with which the Sustainability Commission is helping (here is the City's spreadsheet indicating the order in which these measures are being pursued, plus the Q1 report of measures already achieved). I, personally, am interested in the possible inclusion of a designated fruit tree on the City list of allowable trees in public spaces, since many cities on the path to sustainability are including these in their local food system plans. Howard and I both recognize the challenge of this, since fruit trees can get diseased and can cause a mess if not managed correctly. I have much more research to do on this, but I just want you to know that other cities are doing it and it would be worth a bit of research to see if there were a way it would work on some small scale for our city as well.

If you do get a seedling Saturday, please plan to get it in the ground by Sunday morning. The window of opportunity for spring tree planting is just about closed. Oh, and in the spirit of managing expectations, these things are pretty much sticks--let's put it this way, Howard has 400 of them on ice in two coolers. Not big. But big on potential.

Happy Earth Day

I passed a household that had five garbage cans out Monday morning for pickup. Then, Monday night, there was a presentation at the City Council meeting about a company that offers a "cash for trash" recycling program where homeowners earn dollars for redemption at local and national businesses for every pound of trash they recycle, and I thought of those garbages and how the majority of items in them were probably recyclable. So, the program could certainly do some good to encourage more recycling in Dunwoody and to circulate local dollars at local businesses, thereby strengthening our local economy.

I've been thinking about this program ever since, however, and see one flaw in the system. I wonder if there is an option where instead of being compensated for every pound recycled, we get compensated for every pound below a certain threshold that we don't put in the landfill. You see, people who compost their kitchen scraps, consider packaging and waste when they shop and try to reduce both at the point of purchase, and grow their own food and purchase unpackaged food directly from farmers may not have an "impressive" amount of recycling by their curb each week (it is a goal of mine, for instance, to actually reduce waste in general, even recyclable waste), and the "Cash for Trash" program does not reward any of these eco-conscious actions. This is like the Gwinnett stormwater credit program that rewards having a sprinkler on a timer but doesn't reward simply not watering your lawn.

Anyway, I remember the City of Atlanta mentioning it was going to start using a Cash for Trash program, so I want to find out if it has done so and how that is going. Also, Atlanta's recent announcement of the first Zero Waste Zone in the country (downtown Atlanta), designed to encourage more convention business (we're losing conventions to cities considered more green, by the way), is a movement to keep an eye on, especially if we hope to grow our business meetings/tourism activities here in the Perimeter area.

Other green news of the day:

* See the Dunwoody farmers market update here. Other local food options include the Peachtree Corners CSA and the Alpharetta Farmers Market (among many others).

* Here's the latest on The People's Garden at the USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

* Our neighbors at the Newell Rubbermaid headquarters in Sandy Springs announced some new recycled office products today. See the press release here.

* Here are the area events going on as part of Comcast Cares Day Saturday, with the culminating event open to the public at the Dunwoody Nature Center from 1-4 PM.

* Marc Sommers of Parsley's Catering (formerly of Dunwoody but now in Marietta) sent me some pictures of the raised gardening beds Farmer D just built at Parsley's super-green event facility. Here's one:













* I saw two little third-grade girls almost get hit by a minivan this morning while crossing Meadowlake at Trumbull on their way to Vanderlyn. It is lighter out in the morning now and the weather is lovely. Please be aware that more children are walking to school.

* Take a look at the map of recent visitors to this blog in the sidebar (if you are getting this blog via email, go to the actual blog here to see the map on the right hand side). (I don't know what that Albuquerque blog mention is--I think that may be an ad.) People around the country (and world!) are interested in seeing what sustainable steps we take with our brand new city.

I joined the county recycling program two years ago today in celebration of Earth Day. Maybe there is some eco-thing you've been wanting to start doing as well. Perhaps today is a great day to kick it off. (Psssst--want an easy one that makes things just plain nicer? Use cloth napkins from now on. What a pleasant, paper-saving upgrade.)

The Future Is In Our Hands

Coming home to Long Island, New York, from visiting my grandmother's house in New Jersey, my dad would sometimes swing through a neighborhood in New York City named Corona. The visit was notable for several reasons. One, we rolled up our windows and locked our doors when we drove down the street where my dad grew up. Two, we bought homemade Italian ice from the Lemon Ice King of Corona, just as my dad did as a boy growing up in this neighborhood. The contradictory feelings (fear and joy) I had within those ten minutes have stayed with me a lifetime and have, perhaps, influenced me greatly in choosing to volunteer as the chair of the sustainability commission to try to make a positive difference in this brand new city we call home.

My friend John lives in Midtown. Two Friday nights ago, there was a knock on his door. When he opened the door, he found three generations of women standing on his porch. The grandmother and mother had grown up in his house and they wanted to know if they could show their child around. John spent an hour or so giving them a tour of the house and talking about "old times." When John told me about this, I thought of my father and how he must have felt when he brought us to his childhood community. I thought of my own children and what they might find here one day in Dunwoody.

And so that brings us here, now, to the very start of Dunwoody's first Comprehensive Plan. The process, to be managed by the consulting group, Pond, that was hired by the City, was kicked off last night at the City Council meeting and will include the formation and recommendations of a steering committee; the input of citizens, businesses, the consultant team and City staff; and revisions and approval by the City Council and mayor. This document is worth perusing. This process is worth considering for your participation.

If ever we had a voice in influencing the future, it is now. In fact, the Pond consultant who did the overview last night did an excellent job of stressing the need for the involvement of a diverse set of voices in our community--not just from the established and emerging leaders in various sub-sections of our City.

As we gather and engage in this conversation, imagining the possibilities of our future as a community, I, for one, will be spending a good deal of time immersing myself deeper in a concept called "transition." Transition Towns are towns that recognize and prepare for a post-peak oil future in their planning. Here are links to:

* A Transition Towns overview
* Transition US
* Transition Georgia

It's fascinating stuff, some of which is easy and some of which requires a fundamental shift in how we view our built environment, our business and education communities, our government services, our community relationships, and our personal contributions.

As we celebrate Earth Day tomorrow, I would like to suggest that "green" is just the start of sustainability. Imagining a very different future, and preparing our City to thrive in that future, is the bigger picture. Because one day, there will be a knock upon our door. And in front of that door will be a very different future than the one my father might have imagined. And whether or not we are prepared to embrace that future will be determined this year, by this Comprehensive Plan.

It All Simply Comes Down to Kindness (and Why There's Nothing "Soft" About That)

I walked a couple miles with a friend on March 22 at the Dunwoody High School track. I hadn't been there in ages (I'm the one who used to unicycle there, by the way, but stopped when the new blue surface was installed). I hadn't seen all the trailers with no beautification. I hadn't seen that that lovely plaque and garden that honored the wrestler who had died was gone. I hadn't seen the trash everywhere (I am hoping there was an event the evening before that explains the trash littered everywhere and that this is not the "new normal" at our high school).

This friend of mine had lost his wife to cancer three years ago this May (it had been a fast nine months from diagnosis to burial) and the walk and the trash got me thinking about kindness. Those nine months when my friend's wife (who was my friend also) was progressively sicker had been extraordinary examples of the depths of kindness of human beings as many members of this community rallied together to help this family. Most of all, the kindnesses were small ones, adding up collectively. And I am entirely convinced now that small things matter, positively and negatively, like each water bottle or candy wrapper that was littered around the field and track and collectively made a mess.

And so, when I consider sustainability, kindness ranks high up. That's because the swell of kindness for our fellow beings is what can cause someone to slow down, to notice, to reach out and to make a difference. Oh, sure, it sounds all soft and fuzzy, but really think about this today, if you will. At this age in my life (45), after so many years of pondering the meaning of it all, I am starting to believe that, however basic it may sound, it all simply comes down to kindness.

I ask the kindness question of myself more and more lately. When faced with a situation (traffic, trash, time constraints, cash shortage, you name it), I ask myself, "What would be the kind thing to do?" And you know what? I have found that if I act authentically in response to the question, it is always, without fail, the right decision and good always comes from it. It's just as simple as that.

And so, on our Sustainability Commission agenda today, there is mention of something called The Kindness Committee. My friend Lisa Macy is in charge of it, and it is not something that the City is endorsing since it does not directly relate to the ARC Green Community certification measures. Lisa's mention of it will be brief. She wants to encourage the planting of mailbox gardens in her neighborhood so that more neighbors can meet each other and share with each other. She also wants to encourage a system where neighbor needs and abilities can be matched up so that, for instance, an elderly person can have her bushes trimmed by a teenager willing to do it. This kind of stuff used to happen naturally in communities but doesn't so easily anymore.

Knowing your neighbors increases community safety, walkability, quality of life, and the vitality of the local economy.

If you would like to get involved with Lisa's mailbox garden project or "share and care" initiative, please email her at yogaUSA@earthlink.net. A connected community is more likely to support a walkable, bikable city and community gardens, and yes, those are on the ARC Green Community checklist.

Oh, and by the way, most other cities outside our region are looking at sustainability from the perspective of the triple-bottom-line--economic, environmental and social. Many kindness-related initiatives are built into these city sustainability plans. I'll add some examples in the coming weeks. The ARC Green Community measures are simply a starting point.

Is Your Family Part of the 37%?

I swung by Wills Park in Alpharetta Saturday on my way home from my seven-week Fundamentals of Organic Farming class at Cane Creek Farm in Cumming. Mike, who writes Sustainable Alpharetta, is in my class and he was telling me about the brand new Alpharetta Community Garden. There will be about 32 plots, for rent for $50 a piece per year. They apparently sold out in something like four days (Mike snagged one). The first two, which are already built (see photo), are "enabling beds," which means they are designed specifically for seniors or those with mobility limitations. The rest will be built Saturday, April 25, as part of Comcast Cares Day.

Comcast Cares Day is the annual event when Comcast employees volunteer in about thirteen different northern Georgia communities in the morning and then come together for a celebration in the afternoon. This year, the employees are building gardens, with the help of Farmer D. The celebration will be at our very own Dunwoody Nature Center from 1-4 PM April 25. In addition to Farmer D (who has a show on the Mother Nature Network), other "talent" from the network will be there, plus various other organizations with eco-things to demonstrate, a concert, some food samples, and more. More details will follow shortly. I just wanted you to have a feel for the community gardening impact that will happen in our region in the next two weeks, and the incredible opportunity we have to host such a positive event at our showcase nature center.

Speaking of gardening:

37 percent of all households (about 43 million families) plan to grow vegetables, fruit, berries or herbs in 2009, according to the National Gardening Asssociation. This is up 19% from 2008. If that statistic is right, that means more than one out of every three homes will have a garden. That means my neighborhood should have about 40 food gardens. I know of three. What about your neighborhood? What neighborhood in Dunwoody has the highest number of food gardens?

I admit this is a hard number to nail since most people plant their veggies in the back, and let's face it, we don't know our neighbors, as a society, the way we used to. (That's one of the reasons, by the way, that I planted one of my beds around my mailbox.)

If you have a food garden, please consider joining the Dunwoody Food Gardeners Group on the Dunwoody Sustainability social marketing site. The more connected we are, the more we can grow (literally and figuratively) as a sustainable community.

Music to My Ears

The rat-a-tat-tat on the windows is music to my ears as we round out our third year of drought here in Georgia (although apparently the drought was just deemed "over" the other day, a premature determination, if you ask me, considering the long, hot, summer ahead). Rain, for me as a food gardener, means another week my crops get watered, my rain barrel gets filled and I don't have to turn on my outside water yet. Last year I made it to June without having to turn on the hose (we're allowed to water food gardens, by the way, so integrate some vegetables into your flower beds if you want to water). I double-dug my garden beds and added more organic matter to them with the hope of increasing their water-holding capacity, so let's see how long I can go this year.

In the meantime, I find myelf reading everything I can about stormwater management, because let's face it, the massive runoff on our abundance of impermeable surfaces can't be good. And sure enough, all sustainability Best Practices roads lead to Portland, Oregon yet again, where its Green Streets sustainable stormwater strategy "meets regulatory compliance and resource protection goals by using a natural systems approach to manage stormwater, reduce flows, improve water quality and enhance watershed health."

What does that means? Well, through the inclusion of vegetative swales, planters, rain gardens and pervious pavers (see photos here), Portland can capture more rainwater, filter it through natural means and return it in a purer form to the watershed. What's more, the addition of these features adds greenspace, connects communities, beautifies the city, and increases cyclist and pedestrian safety. Considering that we're lacking in all those things (well, except the beautification--Dunwoody is a very pretty city), strategies such as Green Streets are worth a look as we begin the development of our stormwater management strategy.

Wanna' increase the water conservation attributes of your property? When planting, plant natives. They thrive in our soil and weather conditions. Dunwoody Nature Center's "Eye-Poppin' Natives" native plant sale ends tomorrow, so click here and order online.

Here's an easy one--add a rain barrel. My rain barrel (which I made at a class at the Oakhurst Community Garden two Augusts ago), fills up after one nice rainfall and provides enough water for about half my garden (I have about 200 square feet of food gardening space). I open the top and dip a bucket in and water where needed. It's a breeze. (I water my mailbox garden solely with kitchen water.)

Think twice about all those pesticides and herbicides we as a society are putting into our watershed. (Check out Beyond Pesticides.) I'm hearing lots of buzz about dogs that are getting sick from lawn chemicals. In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association has just added a feature to make it easy for veterinarians to report incidences of suspected pesticide posioning. Also, here is the Beyond Pesticides PDF titled What you show know to keep your pets safe.

As we move forward as a city and discuss stormwater credits, let's remember to reward conservation-minded, watershed-saving actions such as the addition of rain barrels, rain gardens, and pervious surfaces and the practice of chemical-free lawncare.

Another thing to consider--protect your neighborhood's pipes. Turns out all those fats, oils and grease that somehow get dumped down the drains stay in your neighborhood, harden and cause sewer backups and other problems. Not good! In fact, a recent problem in our neighborhood led to this shocking email from our homeowner's association president just yesterday:

The County will be performing an emergency repair procedure starting at 8:00 AM tomorrow morning. They estimate that it will take between 7-10 business days to complete their work. During this time you will not be able to flush your toilets, bathe or place any water down the drain. You can continue to drink and cook with our water, it just can’t be put down the drain. Doing so will cause sewage to back up into your home and it will become a smelly mess.

We have arranged to have a portable toilet placed at the entrance to each street in the subdivision. Please be considerate of your neighbors during the 6:30 – 9:30 AM bathroom rush. No reading material allowed. Also, any lines that form should be 40 feet from the toilet for privacy reasons. While this will have a negative impact on our early morning rush, the female members of our board insisted that I remind the men to use the portable toilets at all times. There will also be a toilet at the front entrance that will be designated for emergency use only. We have arranged to have these toilets cleaned every third day rather than the standard weekly schedule.

The County has given us special permission to use a privately enclosed cold water shower on each street. We must use biodegradable soap and shampoo since this water will drain into the storm water system. This soap will be provided to you by the HOA free of charge. Also, a sign-up sheet will be placed on the front of the shower. Please respect the 4-minute time limit. Please bring your own towel and a discrete bathrobe. On the bright side, this may be an opportunity for our neighbors to better get to know one another.

Unfortunately, I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks. Please call me with any questions or concerns that you may have. We have a special "hot line" at 1-800 (APR-FOOL).

Good Luck

P.S. This joke could become a reality if we continue to throw our fats, oils and grease down the drain.

And I was sort of looking forward to meeting more of my neighbors! :)