Progressive Wednesday

Students Sustaining Oregon One City at a Time

Undergraduate service learning isn’t a new notion for colleges and universities. And most law schools offer clinics which combine students with people who can’t afford traditional legal services. But the University of Oregon has taken altruism and learning to another level altogether. U of O’s Sustainable Cities Initiative is “a cross-disciplinary organization … that seeks to promote education, service, public outreach and research on the design and development of sustainable cities.” Every year, the SCI picks one city in the Beaver State and many courses from various disciplines work with the city on sustainability projects and goals.

Last year, SCI chose Gresham, Oregon, the fourth largest city in the state, and 350 students in 19 courses worked on nine projects, including:

a redevelopment and design plan for the Rockwood neighborhood, programming and potential designs for a new city hall, mixed-use transit-oriented development adjacent to a light rail station, sustainable development recommendations for the Springwater area and city-wide projects related to commercial design standards, housing prices & walkability and climate preparedness.

For this academic year, the program has selected Salem, the third largest city in the state. 500 students (a fortieth of the school’s total enrollment) in over 25 courses will donate over 80,000 hours and will be tackling 14 projects, including:

redevelopment schemes for areas north and south of downtown, restoration efforts on Minto Island, a city-wide civic engagement strategic plan, an integrated plan for safe bicycle and pedestrian access to downtown parks and paths, potential design schemes for city departments and a new police station, strategies for industrial by-product re-use and economic development plans.

The ultimate goal is to make Salem more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

At Progressive Wednesday, sure, we believe in books (I mean, my job kind of demands it), but this is taking education to levels that simply make sense in a culture that is sliding apart in so many ways, and this is a kind of learning that cannot be recreated in a classroom. And, maybe most of all, this is the kind of activism we believe in, the kind, with clear goals, that encourages people to continue doing it over time.

Photo clicked by this fantastic photographer.

This Wednesday: Reviving Niagara

Problem:

The first years of my memory are of Niagara Falls. We lived on Orchard Parkway in a tiny second-floor house apartment. And as I grew up in the surrounding area, I learned to think of my hometown as the honeymoon and suicide capital of the world.

I grew up with daredevils risking life, limb, and the lives and limbs of their rescuers, by plummeting in various contraptions over the Horseshoe Falls. I saw news reports of poor fools who fell and drown to their deaths on kayaks and jet-skis as they tried to conquer the cataracts. I watched national television coverage of the lawsuits connected to Love Canal, a neighborhood that was the site of one of the worst toxic-waste-dumping scandals in American history.

My first job, as a bakery assistant, was in Niagara Falls at the headquarters of Di Camillo Bakery, a family business still thriving in this city. And I watched as department stores and jewelry stores and restaurants evaporated from Main Street, turning the road into an assortment of seedy bars, adult novelty stores, and boarded up buildings, each empty as the pockets of the homeless wandering the city. And I watched as the factories closed their doors, and added good, hard-working souls to the unemployment lines– ¦.

.

Make Progress:

But I also grew up next to a place where people teem to see one the natural wonders of the world. And I grew up in an area where my relatives worked the bluest-collar of jobs, but managed to put lasagna on the table (we're good Italian-Americans, after all). And I grew up where my grandfather landed after traveling the Atlantic to move to America, the same city where my father was raised and remained, the same city where my sister got married. And I grew up next to one of the marvels of electrical science, the Niagara Power Project.

And so I believe in this place. And I love this place. And it's time we all helped this treasure of not just New York, but of America, and not just of America, but of the world. We're ready, if you are, to make progress in Niagara Falls.

• Buy
• Sign
• Give
• E-mail
• Eat

- – - – -

Editor’s Note: Below you’ll find photos of some of our favorite locations in the city of Niagara Falls.

- – - – -

The Little Italy neighborhood and business district.

*

The genius that is the Niagara Power Project. To learn more about it, click here.

*

Di Camillo Bakery, where they make the best Italian bread you’ll ever eat.

*

The Niagara River in autumn (if it wasn’t obvious from, you know, the leaves).

Reviving Niagara: Buy

Buy:

For 80 years, The Book Corner has called Niagara Falls home. Since it's inception in 1927, the store has moved twice, but has remained in the Falls. It's the largest independent bookstore in Niagara Falls (and all of Western New York for that matter), and at 10,000 square feet it's one of the biggest privately-owned bookstores where we've ever dropped a dollar. I've been in more bookstores than I can count, and I've never seen anything quite like this. The store has a googolplex of used books for sale (I once snagged a first-edition of Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas at a price far under its “value– ), and they feature one of the most complete collections of books about Niagara Falls that you'll ever see.

Now, unless you live in Western New York, this Wednesday we're not going to recommend you hop on an airbus to Buffalo just to check this place out. Though, if you're a book-lover like me and happen to be in the area, it's worth more than a look-see.

But here's the deal (or the “dealio,– if you prefer): The Book Corner is one of the few businesses surviving on Main Street in Niagara Falls, and Main Street in Niagara Falls is to roads as Bob Hope is to comedians: it's dead. Okay, that's hyperbole. It's dying. No, that's not right either. It's working toward a serious reincarnation, and The Book Corner is a ray of hope.

So, what we're asking you to do is plain as paper and quite simple: please order your books from The Book Corner. Find them however you want online — Amazon, Powells, Barnes and Noble, Borders — but place your order through The Book Corner. They'll even gift-wrap the book or books for nothing, nada, zilch — in other words, for free, my peeps. If you want, you can also order books they have in stock through AbeBooks and get free shipping.

And if you're trying to find an out-of-print book or a book whose title is fuzzy, turn to Pete and Jeff Morrow. Skilled as librarians, they'll find your tome of choice. I've placed several orders through the shop for poetry books that were either out-of-print or printed by an obscure press, and they've dug and hunted and found me what I was after.

But don't just take our word for it, you can read some reviews by clicking here or here. Or you can take the New York Times’ word for it – “ they describe The Book Corner as “a beacon of light in the pall of the blight.– And lest we forget, you can take a tour of this fantastic store by playing the video below. So much to read, so little time– ¦

Reviving Niagara: Sign

Sign:

This one might be a little confusing for those of you reading in Texas or Taiwan, but stay with us here because we know that, as progressives, you believe in being a good steward to the environment.

The Robert Moses Parkway is a small roadway in Western New York. A portion of it — which stretches from Lewiston to Niagara Falls — has been changed from a four-lane highway into a two-lane 40-miles-per-hour road. This section is barely used. It's rundown. To call it “maintained– would be insulting to the word “maintained.– It's ugly. It's all-but useless since there are plenty of other ways to get from Niagara Falls to Lewiston and back.

One of the main reasons folks come the American side of Niagara Falls is because of the enormous state parks. Ecotourism best describes the hundreds of thousands of travelers to this area. So an area organization, Niagara Heritage Partnership, has started a petition to remove 6.5 miles of the Robert Moses Parkway and turn it into a bike path and a hiking trail with socially responsible development. (To learn more about the Robert Moses and the Niagara Heritage Partnership, click this sentence.) Basically, they'd like to return the area to its more natural state, and attract even more folks interested in the environmental beauty of the Niagara region. In addition, removing the parkway would reroute folks through areas of the city that could use some rerouted folks. There’s an added conservation benefit: since the roads need to be salted come the frigid Western New York winters, this would reduce runoff into the Niagara Gorge.

So, all you've got to do, is electronically sign the petition that they've set up online (just click this sentence). Right now, they've got 69 organizations supporting their proposal, including the Sierra Club, Buffalo Audubon Society, Niagara Frontier Wildlife Habitat Council, and 22 different block clubs of the city of Niagara Falls. They have over 2,000 signatures from concerned and conscientious citizens. Now all they need is you.

The Big Apple starts to look like a Granny Smith.

13,000 taxis plow along on New York Cities streets. That factoid alone amazes me since that’s 10 times the number of people who live in my hometown. But here comes the green hitch:

Every yellow cab in this city will be a fuel-efficient hybrid by 2012, and stricter emissions and gas mileage standards for taxis will be phased in starting next year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said [on May 22].

There are now 375 hybrid vehicles among the 13,000 taxis rolling on New York City streets. Under Bloomberg’s plan, that number will increase to 1,000 by October 2008 and will grow by about 20 percent each year until 2012.

Let me be one of the first to lift of a glass to the Mayor of the greatest second greatest city in the world for being bold as gold (Buffalo, which is in my neck of the woods, will always be numero uno in my heart). Sure, this will cost the cab companies some cabbage at first, but in the long run they’ll save Benjamins by spending less on fuel. I think it’s interesting to note that this is the exact reason the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers is in favor of the move.

But what’s the real impact of this move?

According to Terra Pass, a Ford Crown Victoria, which is the standard cab used in la Grande Pomme, unloads approximately 1 pound of CO2 for every single mile driven. That’s an ugly one-to-one ratio if you ask me, my friends. Or, as the AP puts it: “The Ford Crown Victoria, gets 14 miles per gallon. In contrast, the Ford Escape taxis get 36 miles per gallon.”

To find the aforementioned stats, I searched around a bit for the best carbon calculators on the web, and I think the EPA has got it right. Theirs figures in recycling (or a lack thereof), and offers a way to see how small changes individuals or families make can dramatically reduce their overall emissions. Give it a look-see, yo.

Cab snapped by this fine photographer.

Cement-imentality

Strolling around NYC one winter with my Brooklyn born-and-bred bud, Jay, I looked up at the skyscrapers surrounding us like they were monuments to the gods. From my vantage point, that of someone who grew up in a town where a three-story building was considered excessive, these buildings boggled my imagination.

“Man, those are beautiful,” I said. “I can’t believe we made these.”

To that, Jay, making every effort to dismantle my sentimentality for his city, said: “I wish cement had never been invented.”

Maybe we both had a point. And maybe Jay, an avid reader of Progressive Wednesday, will smile a bit over what Time magazine has just plopped into my mind, which I will now plop into his and yours: cement can help save the planet.

Read for yourself:

As head of research and development for Italcementi, Enrico Borgarello knows cement isn’t considered the most high-tech–or environmentally friendly–of products. But under his direction, the Bergamo-based Italian company has developed a substance that could turn an ordinary building into a weapon against air pollution.

It’s called TX Active, and it’s an additive for cement that literally eats surrounding smog.

According to Mr. Borgarello, when the sun hits TX Active, the substance “neutralizes surrounding pollutants like nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide.” TX has the potential to cut local air pollutants from 20-70%.

The Italcementi company paints an even clearer picture:

In a large city such as Milan, researchers have calculated – “ on the basis of test results – “ that covering 15% of visible urban surfaces with products containing TX Active® would enable a reduction in pollution of approximately 50%.

Testing continues because similar catalytic agents like TX can lose steam over the long haul. But considering the building boom going on in some underdeveloped but industrializing countries, TX could make minuscule and monstrous buildings alike more eco-friendly and life more sustainable.
If so, Jay and I might see the world a little more similarly, and call me selfish for ignoring the environment for a split-moment, but I’d kinda dig that, too.

My brothers and sisters, I’ve seen the future, and it’s made of rubber

Creative recycling is a great way to leave less of a footprint on this planet [1], and at the same time, save money, resources, and improve the quality of life, in terms of convienence and cost and… (I couldn’t think of any other good “c” words).

So here’s Philly, the land of cheesesteaks and Rocky and the Liberty Bell, considering an inventive change:

A Philadelphia official wants the city council to look at whether the city’s sidewalks should be made of rubber.

City councilman Jim Kenney recently toured Chicago to see environmentally-friendly city projects there. He came back with a number of ideas on which he plans to hold hearings.

These sidewalks won’t result in the kind of bouncing around one sees in the Fred MacMurray vehicle, The Absent-Minded Professor. These walkways are made from recycled tires, and, according to the EPA, only 56 million (or 19.4%) of “our annual scrap tires are recycled or used in civil engineering projects.” Additionally, these suckers (the sidewalks, that is) don’t crack, something that would greatly increase the life of the sidewalk given the need for salting during the northeast’s winters. These “rubber-walks,” as I call them, also reduce “slip-and-fall accidents.”

If you’re so inclined, you might write a brief letter to the editor praising this kind of smart recycling, for the way it helps conservation, tax-payers, and the general safety of citizens. Maybe your city could put used tires to a similar use. Plus, you know, a sidewalk made of tires is kinda funny, too.

Photo tireless taken by this dude.

* * * * * *

[1] You really might want to take this quiz to learn about your environmental impact. I did. I was shocked.