BROWARD SCHOOLS
Top Broward school officials to fill in as teachers
The Broward County school district has approved a plan to send high-level administrators -- possibly including the superintendent -- to the classrooms to fill in as substitutes.
More education news
Back-to-school shopping -- without the struggle
Workers seek time for school involvement
Broward schools chief keeps his job through 2014
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
pmazzei@MiamiHerald.com
There's something oh-so-satisfying about the big boss occasionally doing the work of the little people.
Turns out, it also feels good on the pocketbook.
The Broward school district is sending administrators back to the classroom as substitute teachers this year, at a savings of $200,000.
Will that include Superintendent Jim Notter?
``Yeah, man!'' said Notter, who could very well lead a kickball game at Fort Lauderdale's Sunland Park Elementary, where he has been assigned to teach.
Notter, who taught special education in New York, is certified to teach vocational education, health and physical education in Florida.
A similar project is in the works in Miami-Dade, where Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has proposed creating an ``Everybody Teaches'' Academy to bring district administrators into classrooms of struggling schools at least six times a year, though not as substitutes.
High-level staff -- including Carvalho, a former high-school science and math teacher -- pitched in last year to teach special Saturday classes for at-risk schools. His program will let administrators teach or co-teach classes, give guest lectures, tutor or mentor students and continue to teach on Saturdays. More than 200 administrators have signed up, Carvalho said.
The schools chief plans to teach at Miami Edison High, where he's also set up an office. ``Just because I'm superintendent today does not mean I abdicate my teacher's heart,'' he said.
The idea of using administrators to substitute teach at Broward schools came from second-grade teacher Kathie Herrera after the county initiated the ``Harness the Power'' program last year for employees to submit money-saving -- or money-raising --ideas.
Herrera's winning plan will require 111 district administrators who are certified to teach to go back to the classroom as substitute teachers twice a month.
``It's very good for the teachers,'' Herrera said. ``It does make them feel like the higher-ups -- the ones promoting the curriculum, deciding on the standards that we should be teaching -- actually get a feel for what goes on in the classroom.''
Herrera was rewarded $5,000 at Tuesday's School Board meeting for her suggestion.
And it couldn't come at a better time.
Last spring, Herrera, a special education teacher, was placed on a surplus list of teachers who would probably lose their jobs. She was lucky: Nearly 400 teachers were laid off, but Herrera stayed at Stephen Foster Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, although she'll be teaching second grade rather than special ed.
``We are going to be paying off some bills,'' said the mother of two sons in college and a daughter at South Plantation High.
Thomas Giglio, who works in the district's maintenance department as a supervisor of logistics and relocation services, received $500 for proposing to use larger vehicles to drop off supplies at schools.
The two proposals were the only ones adopted from 77 submissions reviewed by an 11-member committee.
Most submissions did not go anywhere because the proposed programs already existed --or because Broward would not be able to implement them for legal or bargaining reasons.
Among them: Requiring each student to submit one ream of copy paper (that would be charging students for public education and prohibited by law), and eliminating hard-copy pay stubs (which goes against the district's contracts with some of its labor unions).
There's more money to be saved -- so the review committee is hoping more ideas will be submitted. Legal ones preferred.
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Comments: 15 Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first
Richard18 wrote on 08/19/2009 08:01:20 PM:
Replying to cyn2steve (08/19/2009 03:14:26 PM):
"Will they be paid that the 77.00 dollars a day that the subs are paid? Are will they get their top salary for that day? If they are paid the 77.00 dollars, that would really save some money.":
Either they are overpaid subs or under worked administrators.
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Richard18 wrote on 08/19/2009 07:59:36 PM:
Either they are over paid subs or underworked administrators.
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cyn2steve wrote on 08/19/2009 03:14:26 PM:
Will they be paid that the 77.00 dollars a day that the subs are paid? Are will they get their top salary for that day? If they are paid the 77.00 dollars, that would really save some money.
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paulamikenicole wrote on 08/19/2009 11:22:57 AM:
I don't remember the last time I actually received a hard copy of my paystub. Since direct deposit and on line time keeping, this should be a no brainer. But we are talking about the union here.......
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joachim wrote on 08/19/2009 11:10:52 AM:
They will most likely do more useful work in the classroom. And it saves on the cost of hiring substitutes.But they will be crying like babies, about having to leave their nice offices, and actually do a days work.
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seventhelement wrote on 08/19/2009 10:16:02 AM:
An excellent idea. Sometimes it's good for the Generals to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Privates. It reminds them how tough it is on the front line.
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can545 wrote on 08/19/2009 10:10:30 AM:
Most administrators cannot teach to save their lives. I feel sorry for the kids.
avernus1 wrote on 08/19/2009 09:51:25 AM:
HAHAHAHAHHA
does anyone realize how out of touch these administrators are from reality? is anyone else terrified of what these slobs are going to teach YOUR kids?
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ConyoMen wrote on 08/19/2009 09:31:19 AM:
Possibly the most brilliant plan ever conceived. Make them work and remember what it's like to be in the classroom.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Florida Catfish Feast On Forclosed Pool's Algae
August 22, 2009
Florida's foreclosed homes don't just have unmowed lawns and broken windows. Some also have swimming pools full of stagnant rainwater and overrun with algae. One village has taken a novel approach to cleaning those pools; instead of hiring pool services, residents are letting the catfish loose.
Dave Hoy of the Shiner Shack fish farm says many aquarium owners would recognize the fish as a larger version of a pleco, the docile, sucker-mouthed fish usually stuck to the side of a tank. Hoy's plecos have been hired by the village of Wellington in Palm Beach County to chow down on the scum collecting in the pools of abandoned properties.
Plecos are a kind of catfish, Hoy says, and are very communal, very social. For a medium-sized pool, he'll drop about 15 fish in the water and "let nature kind of take its course."
These aren't the same catfish you'd usually find in a sandwich bun, but Hoy says they could be good eating. "We did do a little study with the university," he says. "[We] gathered them up some of these fish, cleaned them up, and they sent them over to Italy. I believe they had some chefs that experimented with some dishes there and said that it is quite good."
Considering all the fish the village is fattening up, Hoy might be on to something. "There might be another use here," he laughs. "We might be developing a new marketplace."
Krista Capps (armoredcatfish) wrote:
I study fish ecology in Mexico and am working in areas that have been invaded and negatively impacted by introduced plecos. Due to introductions to attempt to control algae and releases from the aquarium trade, these fishes have been introduced to warm water systems throughout the globe. In Mexico, pleco invasion has been attributed to collapses in local fisheries and subsequent economic losses from impoverished regions. These patterns have also been documented in the Philippines and Thailand. In Florida, pleco invasion is negatively affecting natural spring systems, destroying river banks, and altering manatee behavior.
Plecos may provide a novel and cheaper approach to cleaning pools; however, NPR listeners considering using them for pool maintenance should know to make sure to keep them in captivity to prevent future invasions. Although plecos were described as “communal and social" in the story, they can attain huge populations, decrease water quality, and negatively affect native species.In this time of a changing climate and environment, we all need to consider what we are adding to and taking away from our local ecosystems.
Monday, August 24, 2009 9:04:15 PM
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cathleen farr (SuperNova) wrote:
i had an aquarium some years ago and i loved my little Pleco! he was awsome at keeping the tank clean & alge free. i'm quite certain these pools have been drained and are chemical free but fill up with rain water. It is a great concept but should be approached intelligently
Sunday, August 23, 2009 9:01:55 AM
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Allison Pease (aapease) wrote:
I am in complete agreement with Joseph. "Pleco" catfish have been introduced (they're native to tropical South America) throughout the world, and it has become a very serious problem. Established, non-native populations are a nuisance in tropical and subtropical areas across the globe (including in Florida). Placing these fish in outdoor pools, especially in places like Florida with lots of very hospitable habitats nearby for them to invade, is very irresponsible. The effects these fish have on native ecosystems in not yet fully understood. Please don't try this at home, and check out plecoinvasion.org for more information on this issue. I encourage NPR to report on the serious ecological risks involved with this kind of practice.
Sunday, August 23, 2009 12:11:52 AM
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linda maddox (lindagm) wrote:
I heard this on the radio - interesting solution to I'm sure a big problem in FL. But ditto Johnathan - what about the chemical treatments in these pools? That can't be hospitable to fish. Secondly, the comment about piecos being good eating? Ugh - you eat what the fish ate. I uh, really have no interest in eating a fish that was fed by eating the pond scum and algae out of stagnant pools. No thanks.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 11:52:19 PM
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Joseph Middleton (Joe_Middleton) wrote:
There is nothing natural about this, and it should not be encouraged. The release of non-native fish into a habitat where they did not exist previously causes all sorts of issues. A pool may sound like a captive environment, but as pools have drains and overflows the fish can be released into local waterways very quickly.
Instead of letting the pools go scummy green -- and create health hazards by allowing mosquitos to breed there -- why not simply empty them?
Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:21:48 PM
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Jonathan Addelston (Listener3_14159) wrote:
I have two questions: (1) Do these pools with algae still have chlorine treatment? I'd think it is dangerous to put small fish into pools without checking the pH and other water conditions - they would die quickly. (2) Do the fish get retrieved from the pools and get used again or are they left and forgotten in the pools? The story is interesting, but a bit incomplete from these perspectives. As a tropical fish hobbyist, I think the discussion of what these plecos might be like as food was a bit bizarre.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 5:46:46 PM
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Elizabeth Kennedy (Yipee) wrote:
What a great idea! Always like to see a natural, symbiotic approach.
Florida's foreclosed homes don't just have unmowed lawns and broken windows. Some also have swimming pools full of stagnant rainwater and overrun with algae. One village has taken a novel approach to cleaning those pools; instead of hiring pool services, residents are letting the catfish loose.
Dave Hoy of the Shiner Shack fish farm says many aquarium owners would recognize the fish as a larger version of a pleco, the docile, sucker-mouthed fish usually stuck to the side of a tank. Hoy's plecos have been hired by the village of Wellington in Palm Beach County to chow down on the scum collecting in the pools of abandoned properties.
Plecos are a kind of catfish, Hoy says, and are very communal, very social. For a medium-sized pool, he'll drop about 15 fish in the water and "let nature kind of take its course."
These aren't the same catfish you'd usually find in a sandwich bun, but Hoy says they could be good eating. "We did do a little study with the university," he says. "[We] gathered them up some of these fish, cleaned them up, and they sent them over to Italy. I believe they had some chefs that experimented with some dishes there and said that it is quite good."
Considering all the fish the village is fattening up, Hoy might be on to something. "There might be another use here," he laughs. "We might be developing a new marketplace."
Krista Capps (armoredcatfish) wrote:
I study fish ecology in Mexico and am working in areas that have been invaded and negatively impacted by introduced plecos. Due to introductions to attempt to control algae and releases from the aquarium trade, these fishes have been introduced to warm water systems throughout the globe. In Mexico, pleco invasion has been attributed to collapses in local fisheries and subsequent economic losses from impoverished regions. These patterns have also been documented in the Philippines and Thailand. In Florida, pleco invasion is negatively affecting natural spring systems, destroying river banks, and altering manatee behavior.
Plecos may provide a novel and cheaper approach to cleaning pools; however, NPR listeners considering using them for pool maintenance should know to make sure to keep them in captivity to prevent future invasions. Although plecos were described as “communal and social" in the story, they can attain huge populations, decrease water quality, and negatively affect native species.In this time of a changing climate and environment, we all need to consider what we are adding to and taking away from our local ecosystems.
Monday, August 24, 2009 9:04:15 PM
Recommend (2)
Report abuse
cathleen farr (SuperNova) wrote:
i had an aquarium some years ago and i loved my little Pleco! he was awsome at keeping the tank clean & alge free. i'm quite certain these pools have been drained and are chemical free but fill up with rain water. It is a great concept but should be approached intelligently
Sunday, August 23, 2009 9:01:55 AM
Recommend (2)
Report abuse
Allison Pease (aapease) wrote:
I am in complete agreement with Joseph. "Pleco" catfish have been introduced (they're native to tropical South America) throughout the world, and it has become a very serious problem. Established, non-native populations are a nuisance in tropical and subtropical areas across the globe (including in Florida). Placing these fish in outdoor pools, especially in places like Florida with lots of very hospitable habitats nearby for them to invade, is very irresponsible. The effects these fish have on native ecosystems in not yet fully understood. Please don't try this at home, and check out plecoinvasion.org for more information on this issue. I encourage NPR to report on the serious ecological risks involved with this kind of practice.
Sunday, August 23, 2009 12:11:52 AM
Recommend (1)
Report abuse
linda maddox (lindagm) wrote:
I heard this on the radio - interesting solution to I'm sure a big problem in FL. But ditto Johnathan - what about the chemical treatments in these pools? That can't be hospitable to fish. Secondly, the comment about piecos being good eating? Ugh - you eat what the fish ate. I uh, really have no interest in eating a fish that was fed by eating the pond scum and algae out of stagnant pools. No thanks.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 11:52:19 PM
Recommend (1)
Report abuse
Joseph Middleton (Joe_Middleton) wrote:
There is nothing natural about this, and it should not be encouraged. The release of non-native fish into a habitat where they did not exist previously causes all sorts of issues. A pool may sound like a captive environment, but as pools have drains and overflows the fish can be released into local waterways very quickly.
Instead of letting the pools go scummy green -- and create health hazards by allowing mosquitos to breed there -- why not simply empty them?
Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:21:48 PM
Recommend (5)
Report abuse
Jonathan Addelston (Listener3_14159) wrote:
I have two questions: (1) Do these pools with algae still have chlorine treatment? I'd think it is dangerous to put small fish into pools without checking the pH and other water conditions - they would die quickly. (2) Do the fish get retrieved from the pools and get used again or are they left and forgotten in the pools? The story is interesting, but a bit incomplete from these perspectives. As a tropical fish hobbyist, I think the discussion of what these plecos might be like as food was a bit bizarre.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 5:46:46 PM
Recommend (4)
Report abuse
Elizabeth Kennedy (Yipee) wrote:
What a great idea! Always like to see a natural, symbiotic approach.
Florida Fish Clean Foreclosed Pools
HOUSING=======
Wellington, Florida, responsible for maintaining vacant and abandoned properties, is using plecos, a type of fish, to feast on algae accumulating in the stagnant water of untended swimming pools. A year of cleaning the pools with the fish costs around $700, compared with the more expensive and less eco-friendly measure of hiring pool services and chemically treating the water.
[ http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/734275.html ]Fla. fish called in for a foreclosure buffet------------------------------------------------------------------
Florida's foreclosed homes don't just have unmowed lawns and broken windows. Some also have swimming pools full of stagnant rainwater and overrun with algae. One village has taken a novel approach to cleaning those pools; instead of hiring pool services, residents are letting the catfish loose.
Wellington, Florida, responsible for maintaining vacant and abandoned properties, is using plecos, a type of fish, to feast on algae accumulating in the stagnant water of untended swimming pools. A year of cleaning the pools with the fish costs around $700, compared with the more expensive and less eco-friendly measure of hiring pool services and chemically treating the water.
[ http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/734275.html ]Fla. fish called in for a foreclosure buffet------------------------------------------------------------------
Florida's foreclosed homes don't just have unmowed lawns and broken windows. Some also have swimming pools full of stagnant rainwater and overrun with algae. One village has taken a novel approach to cleaning those pools; instead of hiring pool services, residents are letting the catfish loose.
NASA, Post Office Going Green
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT=======================
The government continues to upgrade its facilities to be more energy-efficient. NASA is building Sustainability Base which, when completed, will most likely be the greenest building in the federalgovernment. It will utilize solar panels, fuel cells, and water recycling systems, among other technological marvels. It will power itself and use 90 percent less potable water compared to other buildings of equal size.The U.S. Postal Service has also opened up its first, and New York City slargest, green roof. Expected to last up to 50 years twice as long as theroof it replaced it provides a green place for workers to sit, keeps the building cooler, and reduces polluted runoff.
Newsletter produced by: Jim Cooney, editor; Brendan St. Amant, researcher and writer. [ http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/709333.html ]NASA goes green with new Sustainability Base
The government continues to upgrade its facilities to be more energy-efficient. NASA is building Sustainability Base which, when completed, will most likely be the greenest building in the federalgovernment. It will utilize solar panels, fuel cells, and water recycling systems, among other technological marvels. It will power itself and use 90 percent less potable water compared to other buildings of equal size.The U.S. Postal Service has also opened up its first, and New York City slargest, green roof. Expected to last up to 50 years twice as long as theroof it replaced it provides a green place for workers to sit, keeps the building cooler, and reduces polluted runoff.
Newsletter produced by: Jim Cooney, editor; Brendan St. Amant, researcher and writer. [ http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/news/709333.html ]NASA goes green with new Sustainability Base
Food For Thought
'The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still.'
For whom the bell tolls.. it tolls for you...
The sands of time trickle slowly thru the hourglass... at first....
For whom the bell tolls.. it tolls for you...
The sands of time trickle slowly thru the hourglass... at first....
What political leaning are you?
CENTRISTS espouse a "middle ground" regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice.
Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind,
tend to oppose "political extremes," and emphasize what
they describe as "practical" solutions to problems.
Click on the link below...
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html.. take the quiz...
.......................................
12,981,790
THAT'S HOW MANY TIMES THE QUIZ
HAS BEEN TAKEN SO FAR SINCE 1995.
......................................................................
Other Political Philosophies
Right (Conservative)
Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom, but frequently
support laws to restrict personal behavior that violates "traditional
values." They oppose excessive government control of business,
while endorsing government action to defend morality and the
traditional family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong
military, oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market
economy, and endorse strong law enforcement.
Left (Liberal)
Liberals usually embrace freedom of choice in personal
matters, but tend to support significant government control of the
economy. They generally support a government-funded "safety net"
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation
of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,
defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action
to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles.
Libertarian
Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and
economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one
that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.
Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose
government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate
diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.
Statist (Big Government)
Statists want government to have a great deal of power over the
economy and individual behavior. They frequently doubt whether
economic liberty and individual freedom are practical options in
today's world. Statists tend to distrust the free market, support
high taxes and centralized planning of the economy, oppose
diverse lifestyles, and question the importance of civil liberties.
Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind,
tend to oppose "political extremes," and emphasize what
they describe as "practical" solutions to problems.
Click on the link below...
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html.. take the quiz...
.......................................
12,981,790
THAT'S HOW MANY TIMES THE QUIZ
HAS BEEN TAKEN SO FAR SINCE 1995.
......................................................................
Other Political Philosophies
Right (Conservative)
Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom, but frequently
support laws to restrict personal behavior that violates "traditional
values." They oppose excessive government control of business,
while endorsing government action to defend morality and the
traditional family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong
military, oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market
economy, and endorse strong law enforcement.
Left (Liberal)
Liberals usually embrace freedom of choice in personal
matters, but tend to support significant government control of the
economy. They generally support a government-funded "safety net"
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation
of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,
defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action
to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles.
Libertarian
Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and
economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one
that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.
Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose
government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate
diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.
Statist (Big Government)
Statists want government to have a great deal of power over the
economy and individual behavior. They frequently doubt whether
economic liberty and individual freedom are practical options in
today's world. Statists tend to distrust the free market, support
high taxes and centralized planning of the economy, oppose
diverse lifestyles, and question the importance of civil liberties.
Friday, September 4, 2009
The Green Mayor's Green Policy Maker Leaves for Vancouver
The Green Mayor's Green Policy Maker Leaves for Vancouver
Posted by Mick Dumke on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 5:34 PM
Mayor Daley has been saying for years that he wants to make Chicago the greenest city in the country, but his environmental record is decidedly mixed.
After the mayor, no one has been as deeply involved in the administration's successes and as evasive about its shortfalls as Sadhu Johnston, Daley's chief environmental officer, deputy chief of staff, and frequent cheerleader.
But Johnston won't be on hand to offer justifications or lead the applause for Mayor Daley much longer: he's leaving at the end of this month to become the deputy city manager of Vancouver.
Under Daley the city has embarked on aggressive tree planting, installed a green roof atop City Hall, and mapped out an ambitious plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions—but failed to ensure basic recycling services, force dirty power plants to clean up, or confront the city's traffic and transit problems.
This being Chicago, the news about Johnston hasn't officially been announced here, even though Johnston was just profiled in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as the guy tapped to carry out "Mayor Gregor Robertson's 'Greenest City' initiative aimed at turning Vancouver into North America's pacesetter on clean energy."
When I called the mayor's press office, a Daley spokeswoman confirmed that Johnston is leaving on September 30 but didn't know why he'd taken the new job. She said the mayor hasn't decided whether to pick a new chief environmental officer, a post Daley created for Johnston two years ago. Before that Johnston had served as the commissioner of the Department of Environment. His successor in that job, Suzanne Malec-McKenna, is the mayor's next highest green policy maker.
Johnston has been widely viewed as an innovative thinker and advocate for environmentally friendly issues such as developing green jobs and cutting energy waste by making buildings more efficient. I also give him props for riding the CTA when he wasn't driving his hybrid—I've even seen him on the bus.
Yet he also serves under Mayor Daley, which has meant that he's repeatedly had to try to explain why it's taken 20 years—and counting—for the administration to develop a comprehensive recycling and waste-reduction strategy, or why it did nothing to force the coal-fired power plants on the southwest side to cut emissions. In 2005, for example, I asked him about a proposed ordinance that would impose tougher standards on the plants. He said the administration was of course interested in improving the region's air quality but wasn't sure it had the legal standing to do anything about the coal-burning facilities. "We at this point don't have a position on the ordinance," he said. He didn't sound to me like he believed it himself.
This summer, four years later, environmental advocates were still wondering why the city hadn't done a thing about the plants—couldn't it at least have pressured the state and federal governments to act? Local clean-air groups got fed up and announced plans to sue the plants themselves—and a few weeks later the federal government responded with its own lawsuit.
It sounds like Johnston may have a much different sort of boss in Vancouver. As the Post-Intelligencer described him: "Mayor Robertson is a biker, hiker and founder of a successful company called Happy Planet that produces organic juices, preaches nutrition and fitness, and supports family farms."
Tags: environment, Chicago politics, Mayor Richard M. Daley, green city, Sadhu Johnston, chief environmental officer, clean air, power plants, Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson, environmental enforcement, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, Suzanne Malec-McKenna
This city is still too obsessed with the eye-candy projects and not doing enough on the rubber-meets-the-road front, ie, diverting from landfills.
look at San Francisco, why can't we do this? Chicago's rate is abysmal, are we even at 20%?
http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/email.ht…
San Francisco achieves 72% recycling rate in 2007
May 13 -- San Francisco achieved the nation´s highest recycling rate at 72% in 2007, according to Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The city has a goal of 75% landfill diversion by 2010 and said a construction and demolition debris recycling ordinance passed in 2006 is helping push the percentages higher each year, the city said.
Posted by Carter O'Brien on September 4, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Posted by Mick Dumke on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 5:34 PM
Mayor Daley has been saying for years that he wants to make Chicago the greenest city in the country, but his environmental record is decidedly mixed.
After the mayor, no one has been as deeply involved in the administration's successes and as evasive about its shortfalls as Sadhu Johnston, Daley's chief environmental officer, deputy chief of staff, and frequent cheerleader.
But Johnston won't be on hand to offer justifications or lead the applause for Mayor Daley much longer: he's leaving at the end of this month to become the deputy city manager of Vancouver.
Under Daley the city has embarked on aggressive tree planting, installed a green roof atop City Hall, and mapped out an ambitious plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions—but failed to ensure basic recycling services, force dirty power plants to clean up, or confront the city's traffic and transit problems.
This being Chicago, the news about Johnston hasn't officially been announced here, even though Johnston was just profiled in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as the guy tapped to carry out "Mayor Gregor Robertson's 'Greenest City' initiative aimed at turning Vancouver into North America's pacesetter on clean energy."
When I called the mayor's press office, a Daley spokeswoman confirmed that Johnston is leaving on September 30 but didn't know why he'd taken the new job. She said the mayor hasn't decided whether to pick a new chief environmental officer, a post Daley created for Johnston two years ago. Before that Johnston had served as the commissioner of the Department of Environment. His successor in that job, Suzanne Malec-McKenna, is the mayor's next highest green policy maker.
Johnston has been widely viewed as an innovative thinker and advocate for environmentally friendly issues such as developing green jobs and cutting energy waste by making buildings more efficient. I also give him props for riding the CTA when he wasn't driving his hybrid—I've even seen him on the bus.
Yet he also serves under Mayor Daley, which has meant that he's repeatedly had to try to explain why it's taken 20 years—and counting—for the administration to develop a comprehensive recycling and waste-reduction strategy, or why it did nothing to force the coal-fired power plants on the southwest side to cut emissions. In 2005, for example, I asked him about a proposed ordinance that would impose tougher standards on the plants. He said the administration was of course interested in improving the region's air quality but wasn't sure it had the legal standing to do anything about the coal-burning facilities. "We at this point don't have a position on the ordinance," he said. He didn't sound to me like he believed it himself.
This summer, four years later, environmental advocates were still wondering why the city hadn't done a thing about the plants—couldn't it at least have pressured the state and federal governments to act? Local clean-air groups got fed up and announced plans to sue the plants themselves—and a few weeks later the federal government responded with its own lawsuit.
It sounds like Johnston may have a much different sort of boss in Vancouver. As the Post-Intelligencer described him: "Mayor Robertson is a biker, hiker and founder of a successful company called Happy Planet that produces organic juices, preaches nutrition and fitness, and supports family farms."
Tags: environment, Chicago politics, Mayor Richard M. Daley, green city, Sadhu Johnston, chief environmental officer, clean air, power plants, Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson, environmental enforcement, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, recycling, Suzanne Malec-McKenna
This city is still too obsessed with the eye-candy projects and not doing enough on the rubber-meets-the-road front, ie, diverting from landfills.
look at San Francisco, why can't we do this? Chicago's rate is abysmal, are we even at 20%?
http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/email.ht…
San Francisco achieves 72% recycling rate in 2007
May 13 -- San Francisco achieved the nation´s highest recycling rate at 72% in 2007, according to Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The city has a goal of 75% landfill diversion by 2010 and said a construction and demolition debris recycling ordinance passed in 2006 is helping push the percentages higher each year, the city said.
Posted by Carter O'Brien on September 4, 2009 at 1:14 PM
U S Open Goes Green
The US Open: Now 100% Wind Powered & Recycled - Locally Grown and Composted Too
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 09. 4.09
The US Open is pretty staggering in scale when it comes to one-a-year sporting events. Over 700,000 people attend over the tennis tournament's two weeks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. So when an opportunity to see how the USTA, working in conjunction with NRDC, has ramped up their green efforts this year I jumped at the opportunity. Overall it's really an impressive effort and commitment encompassing increased recycling and composting efforts, renewable energy offsets, transportation, food service and merchandising. Here are the details:
Recycling Covers 100% of Facility Space
After a pilot program in 2008 which covered 15% of the the Tennis Center's grounds, recycling efforts have expanded in 2009 to cover 100% of the facility's space.
To enable this some $200,000 was spent this year to ensure that wherever there is a trash bin, a recycling bin is right alongside it -- a decision made based on last year's pilot program experience, during which consultants Environmental Research Management studied how tournament attendees actually used then available recycling facilities.
As far as how much waste actually makes it into the recycling bins: This won't be actually known in detail until after the tournament is over and an audit completed.
Tennis Ball Cans = Recycling Nightmare
Unless you're involved intimately with recycling, the average tennis ball can -- plastic sleeve, metal ring, aluminum pull-top, and plastic cover -- probably seems pretty innocuous. It's not. That little metal ring at the top makes it incredibly hard to recycle using ordinary methods.
In fact, this really presented the USTA with a problem. Over the US Open itself and the qualifying rounds preceding it somewhere between 17,000-20,000 cans of tennis balls are used.
The balls themselves (up to 60,000 of them) can be reused post-match at recreational tennis facilities for a while, and then reused again for myriad non-sporting uses. But the cans remain.
Recyclers initially said it couldn't be done, efficiently removing the metal rim from the plastic sleeve -- which incidentally has been redesigned by Wilson and made with 25-30% post-consumer recycled plastic.
Finally, however, Sims Recycling Solutions came up with, urr, a solution to the little metal rim and all the tennis ball cans used during the tournament are now collected and recycled.
Renewable Energy Credits Purchased for All Electricity Use
Though recycling is really the public face of the Open's green efforts, in terms of environmental impact, its energy usage perhaps has far greater impact -- USTA Senior Director of Corporate Communications & chair of green initiatives, Rita Garza says approximately 2000 MWh of electricity are used during the qualifying matches and tournament itself. Efficiency efforts have knocked that down 4% over the past 4-5 years, but it's still a lot of power.
Which makes it a decidedly good thing that renewable energy certificates have been bought for all of that electricity usage. Constellation Energy has supplied to RECs (100% wind power) and, good financial news for the USTA, supplied them at no premium over normal electricity rates.
That last part may not seem like a big deal, put when you're purchasing that much electricity over such a short period of time, that small premium paid for green power can add up. Quick back of the napkin math shows that the tournament saved about $20,000 by paying their normal electricity rate for wind power.
Restaurant Composting, Recycled Paper Products, More
Now this is a pretty startling stat: 2.4 million napkins are used over the course of the tournament and in 2007 all of those were made from virgin paper. In 2009, however, things have changed. Now all these napkins contain 90% post-consumer content.
Behind the scenes, in 2009 a composting pilot program has been launched in the two largest of the Levy Restaurants-run kitchens at the Open. Both compostable pre- and post-table waste is gathered in 65-gallon bins and taken offsite daily. It's expected that this will be expanded to four kitchens in 2010.
First steps are being taken to incorporate more local produce as well: This year about 10% of produce has been sourced locally. Considering the number of meals made over the tournament -- unlike other sporting events, the US Open is an all day affair, with fans often attending through two or three meals -- this is an very important step.
Public Transportation + Hybrid Player Transport
Transport has not be neglected: In 2009, the US Open worked with New York's MTA to increase the number of trains heading out to the tournament as well as increase public outreach and education.
In terms of getting players to their matches, this year 52% of player transport vehicles are hybrids -- Lexus hybrid SUVs in fact, which while a definite improvement over their non-hybrid cousins and the average New York taxi, aren't exactly hyper-efficient vehicles compared to other hybrids on the market. All in all, a good effort there, nitpicking aside.
Organic T-Shirts + Recycled Tote Bags
Now, not all of the merchandise available at the tournament is eco-friendly, but there are now organic options available, in the form of a Venus Williams designed organic cotton/recycled polyester t-shirt.
US Open tote bags made from recycled materials are also available -- this part being pushed on by the efforts of ban-the-plastic-bag evangelist Billie Jean King.
OK, so probably more could be done here too, but some good first steps nonetheless.
"You Can't Force Values on People"
The bigger thing in all this really is leading by example: Rita Garza described the greening of the US Open as a kind of evolutionary change, adding that "you can't force your values on people, you have to lead by example." And that's obviously the next step in all this, when it comes to greening tennis more broadly -- expanding the efforts begun at the Open to other tournaments, clubs and public courts across the country.
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 09. 4.09
The US Open is pretty staggering in scale when it comes to one-a-year sporting events. Over 700,000 people attend over the tennis tournament's two weeks at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. So when an opportunity to see how the USTA, working in conjunction with NRDC, has ramped up their green efforts this year I jumped at the opportunity. Overall it's really an impressive effort and commitment encompassing increased recycling and composting efforts, renewable energy offsets, transportation, food service and merchandising. Here are the details:
Recycling Covers 100% of Facility Space
After a pilot program in 2008 which covered 15% of the the Tennis Center's grounds, recycling efforts have expanded in 2009 to cover 100% of the facility's space.
To enable this some $200,000 was spent this year to ensure that wherever there is a trash bin, a recycling bin is right alongside it -- a decision made based on last year's pilot program experience, during which consultants Environmental Research Management studied how tournament attendees actually used then available recycling facilities.
As far as how much waste actually makes it into the recycling bins: This won't be actually known in detail until after the tournament is over and an audit completed.
Tennis Ball Cans = Recycling Nightmare
Unless you're involved intimately with recycling, the average tennis ball can -- plastic sleeve, metal ring, aluminum pull-top, and plastic cover -- probably seems pretty innocuous. It's not. That little metal ring at the top makes it incredibly hard to recycle using ordinary methods.
In fact, this really presented the USTA with a problem. Over the US Open itself and the qualifying rounds preceding it somewhere between 17,000-20,000 cans of tennis balls are used.
The balls themselves (up to 60,000 of them) can be reused post-match at recreational tennis facilities for a while, and then reused again for myriad non-sporting uses. But the cans remain.
Recyclers initially said it couldn't be done, efficiently removing the metal rim from the plastic sleeve -- which incidentally has been redesigned by Wilson and made with 25-30% post-consumer recycled plastic.
Finally, however, Sims Recycling Solutions came up with, urr, a solution to the little metal rim and all the tennis ball cans used during the tournament are now collected and recycled.
Renewable Energy Credits Purchased for All Electricity Use
Though recycling is really the public face of the Open's green efforts, in terms of environmental impact, its energy usage perhaps has far greater impact -- USTA Senior Director of Corporate Communications & chair of green initiatives, Rita Garza says approximately 2000 MWh of electricity are used during the qualifying matches and tournament itself. Efficiency efforts have knocked that down 4% over the past 4-5 years, but it's still a lot of power.
Which makes it a decidedly good thing that renewable energy certificates have been bought for all of that electricity usage. Constellation Energy has supplied to RECs (100% wind power) and, good financial news for the USTA, supplied them at no premium over normal electricity rates.
That last part may not seem like a big deal, put when you're purchasing that much electricity over such a short period of time, that small premium paid for green power can add up. Quick back of the napkin math shows that the tournament saved about $20,000 by paying their normal electricity rate for wind power.
Restaurant Composting, Recycled Paper Products, More
Now this is a pretty startling stat: 2.4 million napkins are used over the course of the tournament and in 2007 all of those were made from virgin paper. In 2009, however, things have changed. Now all these napkins contain 90% post-consumer content.
Behind the scenes, in 2009 a composting pilot program has been launched in the two largest of the Levy Restaurants-run kitchens at the Open. Both compostable pre- and post-table waste is gathered in 65-gallon bins and taken offsite daily. It's expected that this will be expanded to four kitchens in 2010.
First steps are being taken to incorporate more local produce as well: This year about 10% of produce has been sourced locally. Considering the number of meals made over the tournament -- unlike other sporting events, the US Open is an all day affair, with fans often attending through two or three meals -- this is an very important step.
Public Transportation + Hybrid Player Transport
Transport has not be neglected: In 2009, the US Open worked with New York's MTA to increase the number of trains heading out to the tournament as well as increase public outreach and education.
In terms of getting players to their matches, this year 52% of player transport vehicles are hybrids -- Lexus hybrid SUVs in fact, which while a definite improvement over their non-hybrid cousins and the average New York taxi, aren't exactly hyper-efficient vehicles compared to other hybrids on the market. All in all, a good effort there, nitpicking aside.
Organic T-Shirts + Recycled Tote Bags
Now, not all of the merchandise available at the tournament is eco-friendly, but there are now organic options available, in the form of a Venus Williams designed organic cotton/recycled polyester t-shirt.
US Open tote bags made from recycled materials are also available -- this part being pushed on by the efforts of ban-the-plastic-bag evangelist Billie Jean King.
OK, so probably more could be done here too, but some good first steps nonetheless.
"You Can't Force Values on People"
The bigger thing in all this really is leading by example: Rita Garza described the greening of the US Open as a kind of evolutionary change, adding that "you can't force your values on people, you have to lead by example." And that's obviously the next step in all this, when it comes to greening tennis more broadly -- expanding the efforts begun at the Open to other tournaments, clubs and public courts across the country.
Life Lessons From a Dying Friend
Paul LoebAuthor of 'Soul of a Citizen'
Posted: September 4, 2009 09:24 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Life Lessons From a Dying Friend
Read More: Barack Obama, Dying, Health, Health Care Reform, Life, Living, Lupus, Moving, Open Letter, Personal, Robert-Gordon, Politics News
My friend Robert Gordon is dying of lupus. He's a novelist who spent a decade teaching in the Washington State prisons and written essays for everywhere from Esquire, to The Christian Science Monitor, to the Boston Globe. Two months ago he wrote a wise and powerful open letter to Obama, asking him to tell the truth to America about our economic predicament, how deep a hole we've dug and how difficult it will be to get out of it. He sent it out to his friends. I was so moved by it, that I offered to post it here. It touched reader's souls, as it had mine, and Robert got hundreds of emails in response.
With his death approaching closer, Robert has now sent out a follow up letter to his friends, a more personal reflection, looking back on a life approaching its close. Again, it seemed too powerful to be seen by just a handful of intimates, and so again, I'm posting it as Robert's gift to a broader public community. I hope it touches your heart as much as it did mine.
Paul Loeb
8/31/09
Dear Friends:
As many of you know, back in September of 2003, I experienced a medically inexplicable "miracle" remission that lasted five years; a remission that enabled me to slow down and explore the Spiritual side of life. I trained and practiced Reiki healing, and strove, with mixed results, to become a less insufferably driven writer, teacher, partner and friend.
Writing? In time, I left writing behind. Just walked away. No regrets. Never again. Done.
Politics? Too stressful. No mas. Done. I devoted more time to my first love, music, and spent as much time as possible in the wild.
So it went for five years. I re-entered the work force as an assistant trailer hitch installer for U-Haul. Up to my elbows in grease all day. Learning how to read blueprints, solve problems and to drill through metal under the patient tutelage of the lead, Grandma Butterfly. Her story was such that working with her was like working side-by-side with a living beat poem.
Butterfly earned the same minimum wage I did. And--so that U-Haul wouldn't have to give her benefits--was designated as a part-time employee even though she worked 60+ hours per week. In order to feed her financially struggling children and their children, Butterfly made weekly stops at a local food bank.
For my part, I found trailer hitch installation to be absorbing. However, the pay wasn't high enough to enable me to make a dent in my medical debt. In time, I returned to teaching, and augmented my income by counseling ex-convicts and establishing a Reiki practice.
Teaching, counseling, Reiki, music, wilderness. Couldn't ask for more. Setbacks? Yes. Some life-threatening, all annoying. And none worth going into. Better to focus on the good, and the good was very good. A good life. A sweet life. One I savored all the more because I'd come so close, on so many occasions, to losing it.
Then? In September of last year, the miracle remission came to an end. My decline was precipitous. And much to my consternation, even as I was forced, for reasons of health, to resign from three jobs I loved, the literary muse awoke.
I did my best to resist, but the poetic frenzy is the poetic frenzy. Moreover, since the locus of this untreatable hence fatal flare is my brain -- well, the secret to permitting the muse to take over is simple: bypass the intellect. Don't think. Hence, with an increasingly compromised intellect -- with windows of lucidity closing daily -- bypassing the intellect was a breeze.
Within a matter of weeks, and against my will, I had an outline for a book I never wanted to write. An outline, mind you. Just an outline. I had no obligation to sweat every word in an attempt to turn that outline into a living breathing entity, aka a story. No way was I about to embark on this project. No way no way no way. And I stuck to my guns. For a week.
Then in mid-February, I met up with Barry Lopez: friend, mentor, whose every word, written or spoken, is in service to the Sacred. Barry Lopez is the Thoreau of our times. A National Book Award winner, yes. But above all a decent and generous man. A light house to many, myself included, for when we met, 25 years ago, I was most certainly drowning. My old friend took one look at me and before I had a chance to break the news to him, he broke it to me: He said "Bobby, your time is short. Please write the book."
How could I say no to this great man, this friend of the land and all who love it and mourn its passing? How, above all, could I say no to a cherished friend? So. I stand at the edge of the River. I stand there and yearn to go Home. I yearn in the deepest way. I miss my dad. I miss Bobby Kennedy. I miss the Blessed Mother.
Sometimes, during windows of peace, during windows of lucidity, during times, in short, when I ought to be at the computer, I just lie on the couch, reach over for my 15-year-old bodhisattva dog, Three Bears, and pet her soft ears, her soft soul. And weep because the time is soon, and when it comes I'll go with joy. But even as Home floats towards me and I float towards Home, I tell them, "Not yet, not quite yet. I have a promise to keep."
Writing from the middle of the crossing, writing from a place of transcendent death makes for a quiet life. I walk Three Bears. I enter the wilderness of my soul by playing Leonard Cohen's repertoire. I spin a yarn, the final yarn. I spend time with the people I love.
Looking back on my life I suppose I feel like Lou Gehrig must've felt. Yes, I know it's corny. Yes, I know: writing is an assault on cliché. (Except when it isn't.) But I really am the luckiest man alive.
Except, that is, when I'm not. I'm not St. Francis, people. I don't praise suffering while in the midst of it. Indeed, while in the throes, I have been known to utter "not nice" words as my proper Bostonian Ma might put it. Many many not nice words.
Still, during periods of peace I know in my heart, in my blood, in my bones, how fortunate I am. And I know of my good fortune (albeit in the head if not the heart) when the already-swollen brain goes on an inflammation bender, and, by so doing, renders me unable to write, to do much else besides lie on the couch and remember.
I think of the wilderness, the wolves I heard while canoeing solo for nine days in North Central B.C. years ago. Dwarfed by the Cariboos-- an astonishingly epic spur of the Rockies. There is no valley up there. The vast glacial peaks simply crash into the pristine lakes and rivers. Moose and eagles, black bears and grizzlies. The howls of the wolf packs every night. So many stars it took me minutes, some nights, to pick out the Milky Way. To find the North Star. And paddle as my late father taught me to do: using the North Star to guide me. There's no sun at night, of course. Which means, if it's not stormy, there's no wind. No chop. Just still deep water.
The music was the silence, then the sound of my paddle or a distant waterfall. I'd never felt so alone and at the same time so protected. By the stars that danced and pulsed; that lit up the glacial peaks; that reminded me of how small and insignificant I was, but that I was, simultaneously, a part of something more vast than the human mind can begin to begin to comprehend.
I think of the ex-convicts I taught. Some, many, were too predatory and violent to be set free. More than a few of those men told me they were, in fact, glad they were locked up, unable to shatter any more lives.
But then? There were the angels. Some are my friends, my brothers. These are men who performed acts of moral courage; acts that would do Gandhi proud. Prouder, even, for they did so in obscurity. In the bowels of Walla Walla prison. Where no one but God bore witness.
Risking their lives to save a fresh fish from getting raped, a fresh fish they didn't know from Adam. Simply because it was the right thing to do. Walking away from a fight, knowing that their rep would be destroyed, that they'd be viewed as weak, as prey. But deciding nonetheless that violence was not the answer, even if the price was death.
It was not by design but necessity that I spent the years after college getting beyond and beneath the shelter of wealth and academia; living in the America that was invisible back when I attended Harvard; working blue collar jobs (as starving artists must) burnishing my soul-- beginning to, at any rate-- with calluses. Living small paycheck to small paycheck. This was during the early 1980's.
Politics? Foreign policy? Reagan's policy of torture in El Salvador, Guatemala and God knows where else? We trained the death squads, the Atlacatl Brigade, right here on U.S. soil. We threw nuns out of helicopters, tossed them into the sea. The Flying Nuns, as our Black Ops folks, the CIA's worst kept secret, used to joke. Which, for some reason, The Great Communicator neglected to mention.
Me? I was framing houses, installing mobile homes, laying sewer pipes, doing whatever it took to get by. And I experienced the decency of those "Reagan Republicans" that were scorned by some I knew back east. Not because my east coast friends are scornful by nature. They would not be my friends if they were. But children of privilege (of which I am one) do not, sometimes, appreciate what our education provides: the ability to extrapolate. To see how a policy affects those beyond our town, our state, our borders. And our concomitant responsibility to take action.
Now I was receiving a different sort of education: acquiring a visceral understanding of what it means to be poor, and discovering that the poor, the folks on the margins, watch out for one another (because no one else will) in a manner and to an extent that I hadn't experienced while growing up in a time and place where we viewed economic security as a birthright.
Then? I began to publish and became a prison teacher. The hardest (and therefore the best) twelve years before I took ill.
Life? This bittersweet life? I've experienced the extremes of beauty and suffering and who could ask for more? So. A quiet end. Music. Tale-telling. Friends and family. Infusions, hospitalizations, yes, of course, but peaceful nonetheless.
One not marred by the rough and tumble of the politics I grew up with. (Massachusetts in the 1960's? And you wonder why I have Bobby Kennedy as well as lupus on the brain?)
No more political writing. No more. If I knew anything, just one simple thing, I knew that. Which pretty much brings me to the present.
While surrendering to the gentle and poetic musical muse, the cacophonous political muse awoke. I resisted. For an hour. Less. And then surrendered to an utterly ridiculous exercise: the writing of a personal letter to the President of the United States. Knowing that my letter would never but never reach the Oval Office, I did the reasonable thing: with a timeline of weeks or months, I took three weeks off from the final tale to write a letter that would never reach the addressee.
Sent it to my wise friend Arnie Miller. Who said, "Bobby, your audience isn't Obama. This is a Public Letter." Public. Got it. The audience was not the President. The audience was the body politic. Of which I am a part.
But how to get it out there? Put it up on a major blog. Or two. Or three. Or four. Or six I was informed. (I meander. I write in spirals. The prerogative of those who've lost their minds.) I was saying: the blogs. As many of you know, I am a stubborn cuss when it comes to technology or doctors who misdiagnose me. I've made peace with my errant but truly compassionate physicians. When they tell me that my symptoms are imaginary, I only holler "Freud's hysterical women!" two to three times per minute. ( I've mellowed as you can see. )
Technology is a different matter. I was and remain a technological idiot. I will not budge. It will be a war until the bitter end. On this matter, there is no compromise. I fully intend to lose every battle. So there was no way that this public letter would go public, no way I would learn about blogging. Then? My friend, the astute and insightful writer, Paul Loeb, read my Public Letter to the President and offered his space on the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos, and several other major blogs so as to get the letter into the Public Domain. An uncommonly generous act. The letter was posted.
I woke up expecting another slow, gentle day of walking, music, writing, an intravenous infusion to keep me somewhat lucid and...
The letter had struck a nerve. The deluge commenced at six am. And as I was responding to the growing numbers of comments and emails, my technologically savvy assistant, Amy, reported that the letter was spreading to other posts, to blogs and websites that no one had sent it to, and the emails kept coming and... I never got to the music.
Confession. I've never before felt a moral imperative to get an essay, a novel, any piece of writing into the public domain. If people read my books, that was fine. If they didn't, well, as time went on, as my ambition diminished, I was happy enough to have been a solid triple A minor leaguer who once made it to the Show. For all of fifteen minutes. Which turned out to be fifteen minutes too long. Obscurity, I discovered, is a gentler place to live.
But this piece? This Public Letter? This piece felt different. I felt that moral imperative to put it out there. And thanks to my friends it happened.
The power of the Net is daunting, amazing, and more than a bit frightening. The Public Letter began to go national in a matter of hours. And the trend accelerated. Our new president may or may not have read it. But that is of no consequence. My friend Arnie is right. This letter was for the Public. A public that is ill-prepared for the adversity that lies ahead. (Except for the disenfranchised, the ones who became visible for two weeks in the aftermath of Katrina, and, just as swiftly, became invisible again. Not because they don't exist, but because we chose, as per usual, because it is easier, to avert our eyes. Our loss as well as theirs. For they are the ones who can teach hence prepare us. They are the ones who know what the rest of us are about to find out: that life isn't a Make-a-Wish Foundation. That life isn't, in fact, supposed to be easy.)
Illness and impending death has served two wonderful purposes. The first and by far the most important: an opportunity to re-connect with many I have missed.
The second, provided I die on schedule, a delicious opportunity to beat the banks. You see, given the size of my existing medical debt, a second miracle remission is simply out of the question. It would do more than amplify my existing and catastrophic medical debt: it would raise my debt at an exponential rate and the resulting stress would prove to be fatal, notwithstanding the fact that I'd already be dead.
True: that's a minor detail, or so the nice manager at the credit union told me. He said that dead or twice-dead, the credit union owed it to their healthy depositors to send me post-mortem bill after post-mortem bill until my debt is paid off. That they had a moral obligation to their healthy depositors to hound my gullible 78 year old mother -- to badger my old Ma aggressively -- even though she'd be in no way liable.
"I never thought about it that way," I told the nice banker.
"That's what all our dead clients say."
The first time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The second time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The third time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The fourth time was either in December of 1998 or January of 1999, I forget. What I do remember is this: when I hit number ten before the end of that year, I made a decision about those ten fingers of mine: I could either use them to count or play music.
Bobby
Robert Gordon is the author of When Bobby Kennedy Was a Moving Man and The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison. He's written for Esquire, the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Ploughshares, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and taught writing in Washington State prisons, juvenile institutions and inner-city high schools. He wrote Funhouse Mirror while undergoing chemotherapy, collaborating with six of his incarcerated students to let their voices be heard. The book won the 2000 Washington State Book Award. As one critic wrote of Bobby Kennedy, "Gordon's vision is at once radical and healing. It teaches us a little about Heaven and a lot about Hell."
Although I do not believe that I am close to dying at this moment, I am aware that my time is growing closer. For that reason I am drawn to stories about Living and Dying. They talk to me in a way that I understand fairly well now, and its become important for me, something I can relate to. For years I never bothered giving Death more than a passing thought. With Death comes the consideration of the hereafter, and spirituality, new concepts for me to seriously consider.
Posted: September 4, 2009 09:24 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Life Lessons From a Dying Friend
Read More: Barack Obama, Dying, Health, Health Care Reform, Life, Living, Lupus, Moving, Open Letter, Personal, Robert-Gordon, Politics News
My friend Robert Gordon is dying of lupus. He's a novelist who spent a decade teaching in the Washington State prisons and written essays for everywhere from Esquire, to The Christian Science Monitor, to the Boston Globe. Two months ago he wrote a wise and powerful open letter to Obama, asking him to tell the truth to America about our economic predicament, how deep a hole we've dug and how difficult it will be to get out of it. He sent it out to his friends. I was so moved by it, that I offered to post it here. It touched reader's souls, as it had mine, and Robert got hundreds of emails in response.
With his death approaching closer, Robert has now sent out a follow up letter to his friends, a more personal reflection, looking back on a life approaching its close. Again, it seemed too powerful to be seen by just a handful of intimates, and so again, I'm posting it as Robert's gift to a broader public community. I hope it touches your heart as much as it did mine.
Paul Loeb
8/31/09
Dear Friends:
As many of you know, back in September of 2003, I experienced a medically inexplicable "miracle" remission that lasted five years; a remission that enabled me to slow down and explore the Spiritual side of life. I trained and practiced Reiki healing, and strove, with mixed results, to become a less insufferably driven writer, teacher, partner and friend.
Writing? In time, I left writing behind. Just walked away. No regrets. Never again. Done.
Politics? Too stressful. No mas. Done. I devoted more time to my first love, music, and spent as much time as possible in the wild.
So it went for five years. I re-entered the work force as an assistant trailer hitch installer for U-Haul. Up to my elbows in grease all day. Learning how to read blueprints, solve problems and to drill through metal under the patient tutelage of the lead, Grandma Butterfly. Her story was such that working with her was like working side-by-side with a living beat poem.
Butterfly earned the same minimum wage I did. And--so that U-Haul wouldn't have to give her benefits--was designated as a part-time employee even though she worked 60+ hours per week. In order to feed her financially struggling children and their children, Butterfly made weekly stops at a local food bank.
For my part, I found trailer hitch installation to be absorbing. However, the pay wasn't high enough to enable me to make a dent in my medical debt. In time, I returned to teaching, and augmented my income by counseling ex-convicts and establishing a Reiki practice.
Teaching, counseling, Reiki, music, wilderness. Couldn't ask for more. Setbacks? Yes. Some life-threatening, all annoying. And none worth going into. Better to focus on the good, and the good was very good. A good life. A sweet life. One I savored all the more because I'd come so close, on so many occasions, to losing it.
Then? In September of last year, the miracle remission came to an end. My decline was precipitous. And much to my consternation, even as I was forced, for reasons of health, to resign from three jobs I loved, the literary muse awoke.
I did my best to resist, but the poetic frenzy is the poetic frenzy. Moreover, since the locus of this untreatable hence fatal flare is my brain -- well, the secret to permitting the muse to take over is simple: bypass the intellect. Don't think. Hence, with an increasingly compromised intellect -- with windows of lucidity closing daily -- bypassing the intellect was a breeze.
Within a matter of weeks, and against my will, I had an outline for a book I never wanted to write. An outline, mind you. Just an outline. I had no obligation to sweat every word in an attempt to turn that outline into a living breathing entity, aka a story. No way was I about to embark on this project. No way no way no way. And I stuck to my guns. For a week.
Then in mid-February, I met up with Barry Lopez: friend, mentor, whose every word, written or spoken, is in service to the Sacred. Barry Lopez is the Thoreau of our times. A National Book Award winner, yes. But above all a decent and generous man. A light house to many, myself included, for when we met, 25 years ago, I was most certainly drowning. My old friend took one look at me and before I had a chance to break the news to him, he broke it to me: He said "Bobby, your time is short. Please write the book."
How could I say no to this great man, this friend of the land and all who love it and mourn its passing? How, above all, could I say no to a cherished friend? So. I stand at the edge of the River. I stand there and yearn to go Home. I yearn in the deepest way. I miss my dad. I miss Bobby Kennedy. I miss the Blessed Mother.
Sometimes, during windows of peace, during windows of lucidity, during times, in short, when I ought to be at the computer, I just lie on the couch, reach over for my 15-year-old bodhisattva dog, Three Bears, and pet her soft ears, her soft soul. And weep because the time is soon, and when it comes I'll go with joy. But even as Home floats towards me and I float towards Home, I tell them, "Not yet, not quite yet. I have a promise to keep."
Writing from the middle of the crossing, writing from a place of transcendent death makes for a quiet life. I walk Three Bears. I enter the wilderness of my soul by playing Leonard Cohen's repertoire. I spin a yarn, the final yarn. I spend time with the people I love.
Looking back on my life I suppose I feel like Lou Gehrig must've felt. Yes, I know it's corny. Yes, I know: writing is an assault on cliché. (Except when it isn't.) But I really am the luckiest man alive.
Except, that is, when I'm not. I'm not St. Francis, people. I don't praise suffering while in the midst of it. Indeed, while in the throes, I have been known to utter "not nice" words as my proper Bostonian Ma might put it. Many many not nice words.
Still, during periods of peace I know in my heart, in my blood, in my bones, how fortunate I am. And I know of my good fortune (albeit in the head if not the heart) when the already-swollen brain goes on an inflammation bender, and, by so doing, renders me unable to write, to do much else besides lie on the couch and remember.
I think of the wilderness, the wolves I heard while canoeing solo for nine days in North Central B.C. years ago. Dwarfed by the Cariboos-- an astonishingly epic spur of the Rockies. There is no valley up there. The vast glacial peaks simply crash into the pristine lakes and rivers. Moose and eagles, black bears and grizzlies. The howls of the wolf packs every night. So many stars it took me minutes, some nights, to pick out the Milky Way. To find the North Star. And paddle as my late father taught me to do: using the North Star to guide me. There's no sun at night, of course. Which means, if it's not stormy, there's no wind. No chop. Just still deep water.
The music was the silence, then the sound of my paddle or a distant waterfall. I'd never felt so alone and at the same time so protected. By the stars that danced and pulsed; that lit up the glacial peaks; that reminded me of how small and insignificant I was, but that I was, simultaneously, a part of something more vast than the human mind can begin to begin to comprehend.
I think of the ex-convicts I taught. Some, many, were too predatory and violent to be set free. More than a few of those men told me they were, in fact, glad they were locked up, unable to shatter any more lives.
But then? There were the angels. Some are my friends, my brothers. These are men who performed acts of moral courage; acts that would do Gandhi proud. Prouder, even, for they did so in obscurity. In the bowels of Walla Walla prison. Where no one but God bore witness.
Risking their lives to save a fresh fish from getting raped, a fresh fish they didn't know from Adam. Simply because it was the right thing to do. Walking away from a fight, knowing that their rep would be destroyed, that they'd be viewed as weak, as prey. But deciding nonetheless that violence was not the answer, even if the price was death.
It was not by design but necessity that I spent the years after college getting beyond and beneath the shelter of wealth and academia; living in the America that was invisible back when I attended Harvard; working blue collar jobs (as starving artists must) burnishing my soul-- beginning to, at any rate-- with calluses. Living small paycheck to small paycheck. This was during the early 1980's.
Politics? Foreign policy? Reagan's policy of torture in El Salvador, Guatemala and God knows where else? We trained the death squads, the Atlacatl Brigade, right here on U.S. soil. We threw nuns out of helicopters, tossed them into the sea. The Flying Nuns, as our Black Ops folks, the CIA's worst kept secret, used to joke. Which, for some reason, The Great Communicator neglected to mention.
Me? I was framing houses, installing mobile homes, laying sewer pipes, doing whatever it took to get by. And I experienced the decency of those "Reagan Republicans" that were scorned by some I knew back east. Not because my east coast friends are scornful by nature. They would not be my friends if they were. But children of privilege (of which I am one) do not, sometimes, appreciate what our education provides: the ability to extrapolate. To see how a policy affects those beyond our town, our state, our borders. And our concomitant responsibility to take action.
Now I was receiving a different sort of education: acquiring a visceral understanding of what it means to be poor, and discovering that the poor, the folks on the margins, watch out for one another (because no one else will) in a manner and to an extent that I hadn't experienced while growing up in a time and place where we viewed economic security as a birthright.
Then? I began to publish and became a prison teacher. The hardest (and therefore the best) twelve years before I took ill.
Life? This bittersweet life? I've experienced the extremes of beauty and suffering and who could ask for more? So. A quiet end. Music. Tale-telling. Friends and family. Infusions, hospitalizations, yes, of course, but peaceful nonetheless.
One not marred by the rough and tumble of the politics I grew up with. (Massachusetts in the 1960's? And you wonder why I have Bobby Kennedy as well as lupus on the brain?)
No more political writing. No more. If I knew anything, just one simple thing, I knew that. Which pretty much brings me to the present.
While surrendering to the gentle and poetic musical muse, the cacophonous political muse awoke. I resisted. For an hour. Less. And then surrendered to an utterly ridiculous exercise: the writing of a personal letter to the President of the United States. Knowing that my letter would never but never reach the Oval Office, I did the reasonable thing: with a timeline of weeks or months, I took three weeks off from the final tale to write a letter that would never reach the addressee.
Sent it to my wise friend Arnie Miller. Who said, "Bobby, your audience isn't Obama. This is a Public Letter." Public. Got it. The audience was not the President. The audience was the body politic. Of which I am a part.
But how to get it out there? Put it up on a major blog. Or two. Or three. Or four. Or six I was informed. (I meander. I write in spirals. The prerogative of those who've lost their minds.) I was saying: the blogs. As many of you know, I am a stubborn cuss when it comes to technology or doctors who misdiagnose me. I've made peace with my errant but truly compassionate physicians. When they tell me that my symptoms are imaginary, I only holler "Freud's hysterical women!" two to three times per minute. ( I've mellowed as you can see. )
Technology is a different matter. I was and remain a technological idiot. I will not budge. It will be a war until the bitter end. On this matter, there is no compromise. I fully intend to lose every battle. So there was no way that this public letter would go public, no way I would learn about blogging. Then? My friend, the astute and insightful writer, Paul Loeb, read my Public Letter to the President and offered his space on the Huffington Post, the Daily Kos, and several other major blogs so as to get the letter into the Public Domain. An uncommonly generous act. The letter was posted.
I woke up expecting another slow, gentle day of walking, music, writing, an intravenous infusion to keep me somewhat lucid and...
The letter had struck a nerve. The deluge commenced at six am. And as I was responding to the growing numbers of comments and emails, my technologically savvy assistant, Amy, reported that the letter was spreading to other posts, to blogs and websites that no one had sent it to, and the emails kept coming and... I never got to the music.
Confession. I've never before felt a moral imperative to get an essay, a novel, any piece of writing into the public domain. If people read my books, that was fine. If they didn't, well, as time went on, as my ambition diminished, I was happy enough to have been a solid triple A minor leaguer who once made it to the Show. For all of fifteen minutes. Which turned out to be fifteen minutes too long. Obscurity, I discovered, is a gentler place to live.
But this piece? This Public Letter? This piece felt different. I felt that moral imperative to put it out there. And thanks to my friends it happened.
The power of the Net is daunting, amazing, and more than a bit frightening. The Public Letter began to go national in a matter of hours. And the trend accelerated. Our new president may or may not have read it. But that is of no consequence. My friend Arnie is right. This letter was for the Public. A public that is ill-prepared for the adversity that lies ahead. (Except for the disenfranchised, the ones who became visible for two weeks in the aftermath of Katrina, and, just as swiftly, became invisible again. Not because they don't exist, but because we chose, as per usual, because it is easier, to avert our eyes. Our loss as well as theirs. For they are the ones who can teach hence prepare us. They are the ones who know what the rest of us are about to find out: that life isn't a Make-a-Wish Foundation. That life isn't, in fact, supposed to be easy.)
Illness and impending death has served two wonderful purposes. The first and by far the most important: an opportunity to re-connect with many I have missed.
The second, provided I die on schedule, a delicious opportunity to beat the banks. You see, given the size of my existing medical debt, a second miracle remission is simply out of the question. It would do more than amplify my existing and catastrophic medical debt: it would raise my debt at an exponential rate and the resulting stress would prove to be fatal, notwithstanding the fact that I'd already be dead.
True: that's a minor detail, or so the nice manager at the credit union told me. He said that dead or twice-dead, the credit union owed it to their healthy depositors to send me post-mortem bill after post-mortem bill until my debt is paid off. That they had a moral obligation to their healthy depositors to hound my gullible 78 year old mother -- to badger my old Ma aggressively -- even though she'd be in no way liable.
"I never thought about it that way," I told the nice banker.
"That's what all our dead clients say."
The first time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The second time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The third time I received Extreme Unction was in the fall of 1998. The fourth time was either in December of 1998 or January of 1999, I forget. What I do remember is this: when I hit number ten before the end of that year, I made a decision about those ten fingers of mine: I could either use them to count or play music.
Bobby
Robert Gordon is the author of When Bobby Kennedy Was a Moving Man and The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison. He's written for Esquire, the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Ploughshares, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and taught writing in Washington State prisons, juvenile institutions and inner-city high schools. He wrote Funhouse Mirror while undergoing chemotherapy, collaborating with six of his incarcerated students to let their voices be heard. The book won the 2000 Washington State Book Award. As one critic wrote of Bobby Kennedy, "Gordon's vision is at once radical and healing. It teaches us a little about Heaven and a lot about Hell."
Although I do not believe that I am close to dying at this moment, I am aware that my time is growing closer. For that reason I am drawn to stories about Living and Dying. They talk to me in a way that I understand fairly well now, and its become important for me, something I can relate to. For years I never bothered giving Death more than a passing thought. With Death comes the consideration of the hereafter, and spirituality, new concepts for me to seriously consider.
Angry Green Girls
Angry feminists usually get the eye roll. But what about angry green girls? Seems like they're getting plenty of attention - or at least this particular spokesperson for green issues. Basically, Angry Green Girl knows how to use her hotness for getting attention, but for a good green cause. From hybrid-only bikini car washes to nearly naked shower tips, check out how Angry Green Girl broadens the eco-issue umbrella through her sarcasm-laden eco-tips. Water issues have never looked quite like this.
Scathing sarcasm and sex. Think it works? The AngryGreenGirl website is a whole network of women like this - "hot, green and shameless," that is - working to spread the word about green issues...and they're getting thousands upon thousands of page views.
In fact, according to Gas2.0, "[I]n less than a week since [Sophia “the Angry Green Girl”] site’s launch, her marketing efforts have produced tens of thousands of search results, and landed her site on such heavily-hitting news sources as auto 'fashionista' site Jalopnik, AOL’s Autoblog, and more, including spots on NBC Los Angeles that got picked up on internet sites around the world."
While we're certain a lot of the viewers are there to see something other than which low-flow shower head to use, there's still got to be some amount of green awareness being picked up - especially if the visitors happen to get rejected based on their gas-guzzling choice of transportation:
Sarcasm, sexiness, and sensibility... sounds like a winning trifecta !
Scathing sarcasm and sex. Think it works? The AngryGreenGirl website is a whole network of women like this - "hot, green and shameless," that is - working to spread the word about green issues...and they're getting thousands upon thousands of page views.
In fact, according to Gas2.0, "[I]n less than a week since [Sophia “the Angry Green Girl”] site’s launch, her marketing efforts have produced tens of thousands of search results, and landed her site on such heavily-hitting news sources as auto 'fashionista' site Jalopnik, AOL’s Autoblog, and more, including spots on NBC Los Angeles that got picked up on internet sites around the world."
While we're certain a lot of the viewers are there to see something other than which low-flow shower head to use, there's still got to be some amount of green awareness being picked up - especially if the visitors happen to get rejected based on their gas-guzzling choice of transportation:
Sarcasm, sexiness, and sensibility... sounds like a winning trifecta !
Access to real-time traffic can cut emissions by 21%
Access to real-time traffic can cut emissions by 21%
By Megan Treacy
Posted Wed Sep 2, 2009 5:11pm PDT
Related topics: Electronics, Cars More from EcoGeek blog 0
A study done by NAVTEQ, a navigation system data provider, found that using GPS systems with real-time traffic information can save drivers four days a year of driving time and can cut emissions by 21 percent.
NAVTEQ collected data on driving times of three types of drivers in Dusseldorf and Munich, Germany: drivers without in-vehicle navigation, drivers with static navigation and drivers with real-time traffic navigation. In total, the study reflects data from 2,100 individual trips, 2,000 km and 500 hours of driving. The study showed the group with the real-time traffic alerts spent 18 percent less time getting to their destinations than the other two groups.
Over the course of a year, those savings add up to four days of travel time. The study also states that the reduction in distance traveled and increase in fuel efficiency caused by choosing less congested routes would amount to a decrease in emissions of .79 metric tons per driver, or 21 percent per year. They calculate that U.S. drivers would see the same savings as German ones.
Since this study was coordinated by a company that has a heavy interest in GPS sales, it's important to note that you don't need a GPS unit to get real-time traffic information. Many smart phones are equipped with mapping software that gives you the same information and you can always check out your route online before leaving the house.
via Autoblog Green
More studies are needed, of course, by independent companies and with larger, varied populations over longer periods of time.
By Megan Treacy
Posted Wed Sep 2, 2009 5:11pm PDT
Related topics: Electronics, Cars More from EcoGeek blog 0
A study done by NAVTEQ, a navigation system data provider, found that using GPS systems with real-time traffic information can save drivers four days a year of driving time and can cut emissions by 21 percent.
NAVTEQ collected data on driving times of three types of drivers in Dusseldorf and Munich, Germany: drivers without in-vehicle navigation, drivers with static navigation and drivers with real-time traffic navigation. In total, the study reflects data from 2,100 individual trips, 2,000 km and 500 hours of driving. The study showed the group with the real-time traffic alerts spent 18 percent less time getting to their destinations than the other two groups.
Over the course of a year, those savings add up to four days of travel time. The study also states that the reduction in distance traveled and increase in fuel efficiency caused by choosing less congested routes would amount to a decrease in emissions of .79 metric tons per driver, or 21 percent per year. They calculate that U.S. drivers would see the same savings as German ones.
Since this study was coordinated by a company that has a heavy interest in GPS sales, it's important to note that you don't need a GPS unit to get real-time traffic information. Many smart phones are equipped with mapping software that gives you the same information and you can always check out your route online before leaving the house.
via Autoblog Green
More studies are needed, of course, by independent companies and with larger, varied populations over longer periods of time.
Europe Bans Incandescent Bulbs
Europe has officially begun its ban on incandescent light bulbs, a ban that promises to save some $7 billion a year in energy costs. Stores are allowed to continue selling their current stock, but they can no longer buy any more bulbs to sell. And while the EcoGeeks rejoice, others have flung up their arms in despair and cannot imagine a world where we don't light our world with tiny little space heaters. So, with a ban looming in 2012 for the U.S., it's worth taking a look at how Europe is handing the switch.
Among the reasons that people are upset include:
It will be very expensive to change the lighting system on fair rides, so expensive that those beautiful spectacles may never again light up the night sky.
Lighting systems for galleries are very precisely tuned and artists and curators alike have very specific needs that (apparently) sometimes require incandescent lights.
People who suffer from "anxiety" believe that the bulbs harm them or their children.
None of these issues seem particularly difficult to deal with. If you're really worried about your bulbs, I'm sure there will be ways to get them in a somewhat legally-gray way. But for those people who just want to replace a light bulb and head to the nearest store (99% of people) the gains in efficiency will likely not be affected measurably by this.
I say, let the market provide incandescents for those who are angry enough to go to Russian websites and order the bulbs with a $10 shipping charge on top. And sure, folks will stockpile, but the change is being made and the energy will be saved. That's what matters, and I'm excited to see what the boom in the markets for LED and CFL bulbs will do for the technologies
Among the reasons that people are upset include:
It will be very expensive to change the lighting system on fair rides, so expensive that those beautiful spectacles may never again light up the night sky.
Lighting systems for galleries are very precisely tuned and artists and curators alike have very specific needs that (apparently) sometimes require incandescent lights.
People who suffer from "anxiety" believe that the bulbs harm them or their children.
None of these issues seem particularly difficult to deal with. If you're really worried about your bulbs, I'm sure there will be ways to get them in a somewhat legally-gray way. But for those people who just want to replace a light bulb and head to the nearest store (99% of people) the gains in efficiency will likely not be affected measurably by this.
I say, let the market provide incandescents for those who are angry enough to go to Russian websites and order the bulbs with a $10 shipping charge on top. And sure, folks will stockpile, but the change is being made and the energy will be saved. That's what matters, and I'm excited to see what the boom in the markets for LED and CFL bulbs will do for the technologies
Ten Things You Can Do to Start a Community Garden
Ten Things You Can Do to Start a Community Garden
This article appeared in the September 21, 2009 edition of The Nation.
September 2, 2009
What is this?
This monthly feature was conceived by writer and Nation editorial board member Walter Mosley as a kind of do-it-yourself opinion and action device. Most often "Ten Things" will offer a brief list of recommendations for accomplishing a desired political or social end, sometimes bringing to light something generally unknown. The purpose of the feature is to go to the heart of issues in a stripped-down, active and informed way. After getting our visiting expert--or everyday citizen--to construct the list, we will interview that person and post a brief online version of "Ten Things," with links to relevant websites, books or other information. Readers who wish to propose ideas for "Ten Things" should e-mail us at NationTenThings@gmail.com or use the e-form at the bottom of this page.
Spiraling food prices and concerns over where food comes from have consumers looking for alternatives to what's in their supermarket produce bins. Community gardens help people band together to gain control of their own food. Rebecca Hart, an avid Nation reader and Portland, Oregon-area resident, has spent twenty years acquiring the expertise in horticulture to become a certified master gardener. Here are her suggestions for starting a community garden in your neighborhood.
Related
Also By
Food Without Fear Food & Nutrition
John Nichols: Bad peanuts and killer spinach: that's the food story of 2009. But in the coming months we may see a huge turning point in the fight for safety.
The Female Gourmet Food & Nutrition
Katha Pollitt: A movie about women's struggle to express their gifts through work?
Band together to gain control of your own food.
How to Grow Democracy Food & Nutrition
Five leading figures of this country's food movement reflect on how food democracy can be achieved, here and now.
A Survival Guide for New Teachers of Color Youth, Education, & Children
Antonio RamÃrez A Milwaukee teacher reflects on those first difficult years.
1 Gather like-minded people and organize into a group. When the plot is located and you are ready to begin, apportion and delegate tasks. For tips on organizing a garden community, writing a compact for the group, formulating rules, allocating plots and so on, download the "Community Garden Start-Up Guide" from the University of California, Davis, website, which features advice and tips on creating flexible contracts. Go to Growfriend for more advice on starting up.
2 Locate suitable land with access to water and electricity. You'll need fencing to keep out four-legged marauders. Vacant lots, schoolyards, retirement homes and churchyards are potential sites. Get permission from property owners.
3 Plan and design your garden carefully. It should have full sun for a minimum of six to eight hours a day. Consider how much land will be needed to give each family ample space for its own plot. Go to the American Community Garden Association to learn more. When laying out plots be sure to leave enough space for paths for walking and trundling wheelbarrows or carts. Remember: many gardens can be grown in less than six months; typically a garden calendar runs from May, after last frost when soil has dried out from spring rains, through October, or first killing frost. Click here to find out your climate by state.
4 Explain clearly to your group that it takes hard work to grow plants successfully and make sure everyone commits to sharing the labor. Inventory the skills of members and ask neighborhood gardeners to share their experience. For good basic information on plants, see websites of groups like the National Gardening Association.
5 Decide whether your garden will be organic, natural or "anything goes." Incorporate into your contract the rules governing the type of garden you have chosen. If you have an on-site compost pile, plan to educate gardeners about the differences between carbon- and nitrogen-based compost, and also about what does not go into the compost. For one of the best discussions on the role of bacteria-enriched compost, see Gardening at the Dragon's Gate by Wendy Johnson.
6 Barter where you can to cut expenses. If you need a toolshed built, for example, trade produce for carpentry skills. Scour yard sales for cheap implements. If you have to raise money for fencing, building materials or other items, create a fundraising appeal tailored to the community. Check out websites like Craigslist for garden supplies and tools.
7 Assemble tools and supplies: hoses, couplings, sprinklers, watering devices, wheelbarrows. New soil is less expensive if purchased by the truckload. Decide which tools and supplies are for communal use.
8 Write down your garden's goals and record the progress in a garden journal. Set up a website. Tweet and blog your successes! Spread the word to local media outlets. Ask farmers at your local farmers' market for expert advice on problems you're having with your crop. Chances are pretty good that your problem is not unique and that you will find a solution. Click here if you live in an urban area.
9 Share your produce with neighbors who don't have the time or the means to grow a garden. Encourage them to join you next season. According to AmpleHarvest, more than 36 million Americans (12 percent of the population) are hungry and rely on food pantries to help sustain their families. For rules on donating grown or gleaned foods, go the the USDA website.
10 Get to work! Even if next spring is the soonest you can begin, now is the time to plan. In some cases, grants are available for getting a garden started or for taking gardens to another level. Go to Kids Gardening to apply for funds for 2010.
CONCEIVED by WALTER MOSLEY with research by Rae Gomes
My buddy, Roly, is a retired old farm boy, and has recently started a garden in his back yard with squash, tomatoes, and other vegetables, with mixed success. He has lost some of his crop to birds and squirrels. My Dad, back in the 50;s, had a garden in our backyard for 5 years or so. He also had a farm background, and we were pretty poor with four kids and a wife to feed. My cousin went to London and was very surprised to find community gardens in the heart of the city, in vacant lots. Locally, here in Miami, we are trying to get a Farmers Market going.
This article appeared in the September 21, 2009 edition of The Nation.
September 2, 2009
What is this?
This monthly feature was conceived by writer and Nation editorial board member Walter Mosley as a kind of do-it-yourself opinion and action device. Most often "Ten Things" will offer a brief list of recommendations for accomplishing a desired political or social end, sometimes bringing to light something generally unknown. The purpose of the feature is to go to the heart of issues in a stripped-down, active and informed way. After getting our visiting expert--or everyday citizen--to construct the list, we will interview that person and post a brief online version of "Ten Things," with links to relevant websites, books or other information. Readers who wish to propose ideas for "Ten Things" should e-mail us at NationTenThings@gmail.com or use the e-form at the bottom of this page.
Spiraling food prices and concerns over where food comes from have consumers looking for alternatives to what's in their supermarket produce bins. Community gardens help people band together to gain control of their own food. Rebecca Hart, an avid Nation reader and Portland, Oregon-area resident, has spent twenty years acquiring the expertise in horticulture to become a certified master gardener. Here are her suggestions for starting a community garden in your neighborhood.
Related
Also By
Food Without Fear Food & Nutrition
John Nichols: Bad peanuts and killer spinach: that's the food story of 2009. But in the coming months we may see a huge turning point in the fight for safety.
The Female Gourmet Food & Nutrition
Katha Pollitt: A movie about women's struggle to express their gifts through work?
Band together to gain control of your own food.
How to Grow Democracy Food & Nutrition
Five leading figures of this country's food movement reflect on how food democracy can be achieved, here and now.
A Survival Guide for New Teachers of Color Youth, Education, & Children
Antonio RamÃrez A Milwaukee teacher reflects on those first difficult years.
1 Gather like-minded people and organize into a group. When the plot is located and you are ready to begin, apportion and delegate tasks. For tips on organizing a garden community, writing a compact for the group, formulating rules, allocating plots and so on, download the "Community Garden Start-Up Guide" from the University of California, Davis, website, which features advice and tips on creating flexible contracts. Go to Growfriend for more advice on starting up.
2 Locate suitable land with access to water and electricity. You'll need fencing to keep out four-legged marauders. Vacant lots, schoolyards, retirement homes and churchyards are potential sites. Get permission from property owners.
3 Plan and design your garden carefully. It should have full sun for a minimum of six to eight hours a day. Consider how much land will be needed to give each family ample space for its own plot. Go to the American Community Garden Association to learn more. When laying out plots be sure to leave enough space for paths for walking and trundling wheelbarrows or carts. Remember: many gardens can be grown in less than six months; typically a garden calendar runs from May, after last frost when soil has dried out from spring rains, through October, or first killing frost. Click here to find out your climate by state.
4 Explain clearly to your group that it takes hard work to grow plants successfully and make sure everyone commits to sharing the labor. Inventory the skills of members and ask neighborhood gardeners to share their experience. For good basic information on plants, see websites of groups like the National Gardening Association.
5 Decide whether your garden will be organic, natural or "anything goes." Incorporate into your contract the rules governing the type of garden you have chosen. If you have an on-site compost pile, plan to educate gardeners about the differences between carbon- and nitrogen-based compost, and also about what does not go into the compost. For one of the best discussions on the role of bacteria-enriched compost, see Gardening at the Dragon's Gate by Wendy Johnson.
6 Barter where you can to cut expenses. If you need a toolshed built, for example, trade produce for carpentry skills. Scour yard sales for cheap implements. If you have to raise money for fencing, building materials or other items, create a fundraising appeal tailored to the community. Check out websites like Craigslist for garden supplies and tools.
7 Assemble tools and supplies: hoses, couplings, sprinklers, watering devices, wheelbarrows. New soil is less expensive if purchased by the truckload. Decide which tools and supplies are for communal use.
8 Write down your garden's goals and record the progress in a garden journal. Set up a website. Tweet and blog your successes! Spread the word to local media outlets. Ask farmers at your local farmers' market for expert advice on problems you're having with your crop. Chances are pretty good that your problem is not unique and that you will find a solution. Click here if you live in an urban area.
9 Share your produce with neighbors who don't have the time or the means to grow a garden. Encourage them to join you next season. According to AmpleHarvest, more than 36 million Americans (12 percent of the population) are hungry and rely on food pantries to help sustain their families. For rules on donating grown or gleaned foods, go the the USDA website.
10 Get to work! Even if next spring is the soonest you can begin, now is the time to plan. In some cases, grants are available for getting a garden started or for taking gardens to another level. Go to Kids Gardening to apply for funds for 2010.
CONCEIVED by WALTER MOSLEY with research by Rae Gomes
My buddy, Roly, is a retired old farm boy, and has recently started a garden in his back yard with squash, tomatoes, and other vegetables, with mixed success. He has lost some of his crop to birds and squirrels. My Dad, back in the 50;s, had a garden in our backyard for 5 years or so. He also had a farm background, and we were pretty poor with four kids and a wife to feed. My cousin went to London and was very surprised to find community gardens in the heart of the city, in vacant lots. Locally, here in Miami, we are trying to get a Farmers Market going.
Want to Teach Democracy? Improve School Lunches
Alice WatersChef, author and proprietor of Chez Panisse
Posted: September 3, 2009 11:39 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Want to Teach Democracy? Improve School Lunches
Read More: Alice Waters, Community Gardens, Food, Food Politics, Morgan Spurlock, School Lunches, The Nation, Urban Farming, Green News
Note: This post is part of the Nation's special issue, "Food for All," about food politics. In the issue, leading restauranteurs and social justice activists were asked to reflect on how we can democratize our food systems and improve access to healthy foods for all. This is Alice Waters contribution to the forum.
I was moved by the way Morgan Spurlock framed a narrow long-distance shot down the corridor of a Beckley, West Virginia, middle school in his outstanding 2004 film, Super Size Me. The film is about the toll that fast and processed food takes on all of us. Clearly visible in the background of this particular shot were dozens of students, many of whom were overweight.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Beckley's cafeteria offers only processed food, which is high in fat, sodium and sugar and of very little nutritional value.
Contrast this with the Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin. The school serves troubled youth, but teachers, parents and administrators found a way to turn things around; and when they did, discipline problems dropped sharply. Their secret? Instead of the usual processed meals, the school cafeteria offers fresh, locally grown, low-fat, low-sugar alternatives. The healthier meals are delicious. The students love them. They perform better in class and don't get sick as often.
We are learning that when schools serve healthier meals, they solve serious educational and health-related problems. But what's missing from the national conversation about school lunch reform is the opportunity to use food to teach values that are central to democracy. Better food isn't just about test scores, health and discipline. It is about preparing students for the responsibilities of citizenship.
That's why we need to talk about edible education, not just school lunch reform. Edible education is a radical yet common-sense approach to teaching that integrates classroom instruction, school lunch, cooking and gardening into the studies of math, science, history and reading.
Edible education involves not only teaching children about where food comes from and how it is produced but giving them responsibilities in the school garden and kitchen. Students literally enjoy the fruits of their labor when the food they grow is served in healthy, delicious lunches that they can help prepare.
I learned this firsthand through the Chez Panisse Foundation -- the organization I helped create to inspire a network of food activists around the world with edible education programs in their own communities. Here in Berkeley, I see children in our edible education program learn about responsibility, sharing and stewardship and become more connected to themselves and their peers. In the process, they come to embody the most important values of citizenship.
Listen to what one student named Charlotte has to say: "Next we went from the blue corn to the sweet corn and each picked an ear to grill. I must say it tasted really good, even without butter." Or Mati: "I think cleaning up is as important as eating. Cleaning up is sort of fun. And we can't just leave it for the teachers, because we made the mess." Or Jose: "I remember the first time I came to the kitchen. I was afraid to do anything. But then I realized, this is my kitchen. So then I started to enjoy it."
Charlotte, Mati and Jose are learning about so much more than lunch. They're learning that farmers depend on the land; we depend on farmers; and our nation depends on all of us. That cooperation with one another is necessary to nurture the community. And that, by setting the table for one another, we also take care of ourselves. School should be the place where we build democracy, not just by teaching about the Constitution but by becoming connected to our communities and the land in more meaningful ways.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson declared that "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."
I believe he was right. The school cafeteria, kitchen and garden, like the town square, can and should be the place where we plant and nourish the values that guide our democracy. We need to join a delicious revolution that can reconnect our children to the table and to what it means to be a steward. This is the picture of a caring society, and this is the promise of edible education.
Posted: September 3, 2009 11:39 AM BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Bloggers' Index
Want to Teach Democracy? Improve School Lunches
Read More: Alice Waters, Community Gardens, Food, Food Politics, Morgan Spurlock, School Lunches, The Nation, Urban Farming, Green News
Note: This post is part of the Nation's special issue, "Food for All," about food politics. In the issue, leading restauranteurs and social justice activists were asked to reflect on how we can democratize our food systems and improve access to healthy foods for all. This is Alice Waters contribution to the forum.
I was moved by the way Morgan Spurlock framed a narrow long-distance shot down the corridor of a Beckley, West Virginia, middle school in his outstanding 2004 film, Super Size Me. The film is about the toll that fast and processed food takes on all of us. Clearly visible in the background of this particular shot were dozens of students, many of whom were overweight.
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Beckley's cafeteria offers only processed food, which is high in fat, sodium and sugar and of very little nutritional value.
Contrast this with the Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin. The school serves troubled youth, but teachers, parents and administrators found a way to turn things around; and when they did, discipline problems dropped sharply. Their secret? Instead of the usual processed meals, the school cafeteria offers fresh, locally grown, low-fat, low-sugar alternatives. The healthier meals are delicious. The students love them. They perform better in class and don't get sick as often.
We are learning that when schools serve healthier meals, they solve serious educational and health-related problems. But what's missing from the national conversation about school lunch reform is the opportunity to use food to teach values that are central to democracy. Better food isn't just about test scores, health and discipline. It is about preparing students for the responsibilities of citizenship.
That's why we need to talk about edible education, not just school lunch reform. Edible education is a radical yet common-sense approach to teaching that integrates classroom instruction, school lunch, cooking and gardening into the studies of math, science, history and reading.
Edible education involves not only teaching children about where food comes from and how it is produced but giving them responsibilities in the school garden and kitchen. Students literally enjoy the fruits of their labor when the food they grow is served in healthy, delicious lunches that they can help prepare.
I learned this firsthand through the Chez Panisse Foundation -- the organization I helped create to inspire a network of food activists around the world with edible education programs in their own communities. Here in Berkeley, I see children in our edible education program learn about responsibility, sharing and stewardship and become more connected to themselves and their peers. In the process, they come to embody the most important values of citizenship.
Listen to what one student named Charlotte has to say: "Next we went from the blue corn to the sweet corn and each picked an ear to grill. I must say it tasted really good, even without butter." Or Mati: "I think cleaning up is as important as eating. Cleaning up is sort of fun. And we can't just leave it for the teachers, because we made the mess." Or Jose: "I remember the first time I came to the kitchen. I was afraid to do anything. But then I realized, this is my kitchen. So then I started to enjoy it."
Charlotte, Mati and Jose are learning about so much more than lunch. They're learning that farmers depend on the land; we depend on farmers; and our nation depends on all of us. That cooperation with one another is necessary to nurture the community. And that, by setting the table for one another, we also take care of ourselves. School should be the place where we build democracy, not just by teaching about the Constitution but by becoming connected to our communities and the land in more meaningful ways.
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson declared that "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."
I believe he was right. The school cafeteria, kitchen and garden, like the town square, can and should be the place where we plant and nourish the values that guide our democracy. We need to join a delicious revolution that can reconnect our children to the table and to what it means to be a steward. This is the picture of a caring society, and this is the promise of edible education.
New start, sad end: College kids’ parents grapple with letting go
New start, sad end: College kids’ parents grapple with letting go
Carissa Ray / msnbc.comAlexa Sieracki, 17, of Elkhart, Ind., traveled with her family to begin classes at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Sieracki is skipping her senior year at Elkhart Memorial High School after being one of 30 students internationally to be accepted to USC's Resident Honors Program and being awarded a grant to help her family afford the lofty tuition. Above, Alexa registers at her dorm on move-in day.
JoNel Aleccia Health writer
updated 10:30 a.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES— It’s 2,111 miles from Elkhart, Ind., to Los Angeles, but Alexa Sieracki isn’t counting.
The new freshman at the University of Southern California would rather not know exactly how far she is from home, the better to enjoy the first days and weeks of a college dream that managed to transcend hard times in her northern Indiana city.
“I feel like I’m on the brink of so much change,” said Sieracki, 17. who started classes Aug. 24.
But Alexa’s mother, Kris Sieracki, like other parents of some 1.8 million first-time college students at four-year schools across the country, is aware of every inch of the distance. After leaving her youngest daughter in a USC dorm two weeks ago, she is trying to heed the advice of experts who say it’s possible, if painful, to smooth the transition from full house to empty nest.
“It’s just going to take me a while,” said Sieracki, 56, an herbalist and entrepreneur who largely arranged her work around the schedules of Alexa and her other daughter, Natasha, 21. “Motherhood has been like the most wonderful job in the world.”
Although it’s exciting and fulfilling, sending a child to college has rarely been easy, family psychology experts say. The move marks the end of the active stage of child-rearing and a shift to more passive kind of parenting, said Dr. Karen Soren, director of adolescent health services at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.
“Ideally you’re onto the next stage, which is the ‘you’ stage,” Soren said.
But for a generation of so-called “helicopter” parents — mothers and fathers who were urged to be extensively involved in their children’s academic and social lives —the shift can be particularly hard, said Marjorie Savage, director of a University of Minnesota parent program and author of a book on the college transition.
“Families today are not the same. They’re closer,” said Savage, author of the 2003 book, “You’re On Your Own (But I’m Here if You Need Me.) “It’s an experience for the family, not just an experience for the child.”
'The end of a phase'
That’s certainly the case for Alexa Sieracki, one of five Elkhart, Ind., students msnbc.com is following as part of long-term coverage of the effects of the economic crisis in one of the nation’s hardest-hit cities.
She was a star student and athlete at Elkhart Memorial High School whose college plans were jeopardized by blows to her family’s income, including medical bills for her mother’s bout with breast cancer and cuts at the U.S. Postal Service, where her 53-year-old father, Tim, is a letter carrier.
Carissa Ray / msnbc.comKris Sieracki, mother of incoming freshman Alexa Sieracki, says her emotions "are all over the map."
But Alexa Sieracki’s dreams of studying geochemistry were fulfilled when she was chosen for an elite spot in USC’s Resident Honors Program and offered a generous scholarship to pay tuition and living expenses, which top $51,000 a year.
“Oh, gosh, how can you not be so thrilled for her?” said Kris Sieracki.
Still, the thrill is mixed with sadness when the family lands in Los Angeles and lugs seven suitcases into a waiting rental car.
“I’m all over the map,” said Kris Sieracki. “It’s the end of a phase for everyone.”
Modern-day parents typically struggle to wean themselves from intense, daily engagement with their college-age children, even as the children struggle to establish themselves as independent young adults, Savage said.
“We tell parents to think about the difference between letting them go and letting them grow,” she said.
That may be easier said than done, especially this year, when new college students are starting school in the midst of a historic recession, which has added financial worry to the emotional toll of the transition.
“I think it has had a more sobering effect,” said Savage, who has surveyed dozens of families. “Parents feel there’s a lot more at stake.”
More than 53 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges said they and their families had some concern about paying for school, and another 11 percent said they had major concerns, according to a December poll by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the Sierackis’ case, the family scrimped all summer to pay the $2,500 in travel fees to get Alexa to Los Angeles, plus necessary extras that tallied $300 at a local Target store and $800 at the USC bookstore. On top of that, there was a $150 bill for a chiropractor when Alexa woke up on moving day in severe pain with a pinched nerve in her neck.
“It’s a paycheck-to-paycheck game right now,” said Kris Sieracki, who estimates it’ll take until October to resolve the bills.
A tearful goodbyeStill, for the Sierackis and others, finances take a back seat to emotions when it comes time for the actual separation — and then the weeks and months that follow.
In a tiny alcove outside Alexa’s dormitory, the family gathered to say goodbye.
Kris Sieracki clasped Alexa’s hands, then enveloped her in a tearful embrace. “It’s going to be amazing,” she said.
Natasha Sieracki, who’s been through this before, offered her sister a big hug and a broad smile.
Tim Sieracki swallowed hard and reminded Alexa to always remember to take her keys with her.
He hugged her quickly. “Until we meet again,” he said in a tight voice.
Then Tim, Kris and Natasha walked down long, concrete paths, away from a throng of new students waiting for pizza, Alexa among them. When she got far enough away that Alexa couldn’t see, Kris looked back, just once. Tim reached around and patted his wife’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe we’re going to leave her here,” Kris Sieracki said. “Life goes on back in Indiana.”
Such scenes are common every year, and even experts who help organize events to ease college transition say they understand the struggle to separate.
“It can be very hard,” said Joyce Holl, executive director of the National Orientation Directors Association, an agency that provides education and resources for college officials. “It’s like that first day of kindergarten, but my child’s not coming home after school,” she said.
Last month, Holl left her youngest daughter, Maggie, 18, at Minnesota State University. Her older sister, Kalyn, 20, attends the University of Minnesota nearby, but she lives in an apartment.
“I’m still dealing with it, to be honest,” Holl said. “At home, it’s been very quiet.”
Fortunately for parents and students, there’s a science to the freshman year departure process. From convocation ceremonies to parent barbecues, every activity is designed to ease parents away from the school — even as students are eased in.
“At orientation, our people are really having to remind parents to focus on letting go,” Holl said. “If they’re not pleasantly asked to leave, they’re going to stick around with their child.”
Such rites are as much for the benefit of the student as the parent. When parents linger too long, it can delay the young person’s adjustment to the situation, said Jacquelyn Crinnion, 20, the USC resident adviser who will supervise Alexa Sieracki’s dorm.
“Normally, once the parents leave, they do well on their own,” said Crinnion, who has been a so-called RA for most of her college career. “We really find they do a lot better without mommy and daddy.”
In touch by text
Today’s families probably have it easier than those in the past, Soren said. Technology allows them to stay connected in a casual, daily way. Instead of a weekly Sunday night phone call, students are more likely to stay in touch by text or e-mail.
That works well, Soren said, as long as neither parents nor students overdo the communication. She’s heard of parents who text or e-mail their children several times a day, asking about every class meeting or test result. And she’s heard of students who turn to parents with every minor problem instead of figuring it out on their own.
“A lot of families don’t let go and a lot of kids are happy not to let go,” she said. “In some ways, it eases the separation and in some ways, it prolongs the separation.”
The best approach is a balance, Soren said. But that has to start long before the family car is loaded with bed sheets and school supplies. A year or more before a student leaves for college, parents should start allowing far more autonomy and freedom – and focusing on their own post-kid interests.
“I feel strongly this should not be an abrupt transition,” she said.
It’s also good to remember that not all families struggle with the transition to college. Another Elkhart-area girl, Kelsie Draper, 18, moved last weekend into a dormitory at Hope College in Holland, Mich.
For weeks, the family’s mood has been more celebratory than sad, noted her mother, Gail Draper, 52, a guidance counselor at Elkhart Central High School who is sending the youngest of her three kids to college.
“I am just excited about the opportunity for her to go,” she said. “I think Kelsie’s much more capable than she thinks she is.”
But, unlike Alexa Sieracki, Draper’s daughter will be only three hours away, securely on the same side of the country. That proximity makes the transition easier for everyone, Draper said.
“If I was taking Kelsie to California, you’d see tears.”
My brothers oldest daughter just left for college at Alabama a little over a week ago and the transition has been difficult for everybody. His daughter has to make all of her decisions now and doesnt have her parents there to protect and advise her. Her parents have to realize that she is becoming a young lady and allow her to grow into an independent person. They are glad for her that shes entering college, but sad for themselves because they will miss having her around.
Carissa Ray / msnbc.comAlexa Sieracki, 17, of Elkhart, Ind., traveled with her family to begin classes at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Sieracki is skipping her senior year at Elkhart Memorial High School after being one of 30 students internationally to be accepted to USC's Resident Honors Program and being awarded a grant to help her family afford the lofty tuition. Above, Alexa registers at her dorm on move-in day.
JoNel Aleccia Health writer
updated 10:30 a.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES— It’s 2,111 miles from Elkhart, Ind., to Los Angeles, but Alexa Sieracki isn’t counting.
The new freshman at the University of Southern California would rather not know exactly how far she is from home, the better to enjoy the first days and weeks of a college dream that managed to transcend hard times in her northern Indiana city.
“I feel like I’m on the brink of so much change,” said Sieracki, 17. who started classes Aug. 24.
But Alexa’s mother, Kris Sieracki, like other parents of some 1.8 million first-time college students at four-year schools across the country, is aware of every inch of the distance. After leaving her youngest daughter in a USC dorm two weeks ago, she is trying to heed the advice of experts who say it’s possible, if painful, to smooth the transition from full house to empty nest.
“It’s just going to take me a while,” said Sieracki, 56, an herbalist and entrepreneur who largely arranged her work around the schedules of Alexa and her other daughter, Natasha, 21. “Motherhood has been like the most wonderful job in the world.”
Although it’s exciting and fulfilling, sending a child to college has rarely been easy, family psychology experts say. The move marks the end of the active stage of child-rearing and a shift to more passive kind of parenting, said Dr. Karen Soren, director of adolescent health services at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.
“Ideally you’re onto the next stage, which is the ‘you’ stage,” Soren said.
But for a generation of so-called “helicopter” parents — mothers and fathers who were urged to be extensively involved in their children’s academic and social lives —the shift can be particularly hard, said Marjorie Savage, director of a University of Minnesota parent program and author of a book on the college transition.
“Families today are not the same. They’re closer,” said Savage, author of the 2003 book, “You’re On Your Own (But I’m Here if You Need Me.) “It’s an experience for the family, not just an experience for the child.”
'The end of a phase'
That’s certainly the case for Alexa Sieracki, one of five Elkhart, Ind., students msnbc.com is following as part of long-term coverage of the effects of the economic crisis in one of the nation’s hardest-hit cities.
She was a star student and athlete at Elkhart Memorial High School whose college plans were jeopardized by blows to her family’s income, including medical bills for her mother’s bout with breast cancer and cuts at the U.S. Postal Service, where her 53-year-old father, Tim, is a letter carrier.
Carissa Ray / msnbc.comKris Sieracki, mother of incoming freshman Alexa Sieracki, says her emotions "are all over the map."
But Alexa Sieracki’s dreams of studying geochemistry were fulfilled when she was chosen for an elite spot in USC’s Resident Honors Program and offered a generous scholarship to pay tuition and living expenses, which top $51,000 a year.
“Oh, gosh, how can you not be so thrilled for her?” said Kris Sieracki.
Still, the thrill is mixed with sadness when the family lands in Los Angeles and lugs seven suitcases into a waiting rental car.
“I’m all over the map,” said Kris Sieracki. “It’s the end of a phase for everyone.”
Modern-day parents typically struggle to wean themselves from intense, daily engagement with their college-age children, even as the children struggle to establish themselves as independent young adults, Savage said.
“We tell parents to think about the difference between letting them go and letting them grow,” she said.
That may be easier said than done, especially this year, when new college students are starting school in the midst of a historic recession, which has added financial worry to the emotional toll of the transition.
“I think it has had a more sobering effect,” said Savage, who has surveyed dozens of families. “Parents feel there’s a lot more at stake.”
More than 53 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges said they and their families had some concern about paying for school, and another 11 percent said they had major concerns, according to a December poll by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the Sierackis’ case, the family scrimped all summer to pay the $2,500 in travel fees to get Alexa to Los Angeles, plus necessary extras that tallied $300 at a local Target store and $800 at the USC bookstore. On top of that, there was a $150 bill for a chiropractor when Alexa woke up on moving day in severe pain with a pinched nerve in her neck.
“It’s a paycheck-to-paycheck game right now,” said Kris Sieracki, who estimates it’ll take until October to resolve the bills.
A tearful goodbyeStill, for the Sierackis and others, finances take a back seat to emotions when it comes time for the actual separation — and then the weeks and months that follow.
In a tiny alcove outside Alexa’s dormitory, the family gathered to say goodbye.
Kris Sieracki clasped Alexa’s hands, then enveloped her in a tearful embrace. “It’s going to be amazing,” she said.
Natasha Sieracki, who’s been through this before, offered her sister a big hug and a broad smile.
Tim Sieracki swallowed hard and reminded Alexa to always remember to take her keys with her.
He hugged her quickly. “Until we meet again,” he said in a tight voice.
Then Tim, Kris and Natasha walked down long, concrete paths, away from a throng of new students waiting for pizza, Alexa among them. When she got far enough away that Alexa couldn’t see, Kris looked back, just once. Tim reached around and patted his wife’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe we’re going to leave her here,” Kris Sieracki said. “Life goes on back in Indiana.”
Such scenes are common every year, and even experts who help organize events to ease college transition say they understand the struggle to separate.
“It can be very hard,” said Joyce Holl, executive director of the National Orientation Directors Association, an agency that provides education and resources for college officials. “It’s like that first day of kindergarten, but my child’s not coming home after school,” she said.
Last month, Holl left her youngest daughter, Maggie, 18, at Minnesota State University. Her older sister, Kalyn, 20, attends the University of Minnesota nearby, but she lives in an apartment.
“I’m still dealing with it, to be honest,” Holl said. “At home, it’s been very quiet.”
Fortunately for parents and students, there’s a science to the freshman year departure process. From convocation ceremonies to parent barbecues, every activity is designed to ease parents away from the school — even as students are eased in.
“At orientation, our people are really having to remind parents to focus on letting go,” Holl said. “If they’re not pleasantly asked to leave, they’re going to stick around with their child.”
Such rites are as much for the benefit of the student as the parent. When parents linger too long, it can delay the young person’s adjustment to the situation, said Jacquelyn Crinnion, 20, the USC resident adviser who will supervise Alexa Sieracki’s dorm.
“Normally, once the parents leave, they do well on their own,” said Crinnion, who has been a so-called RA for most of her college career. “We really find they do a lot better without mommy and daddy.”
In touch by text
Today’s families probably have it easier than those in the past, Soren said. Technology allows them to stay connected in a casual, daily way. Instead of a weekly Sunday night phone call, students are more likely to stay in touch by text or e-mail.
That works well, Soren said, as long as neither parents nor students overdo the communication. She’s heard of parents who text or e-mail their children several times a day, asking about every class meeting or test result. And she’s heard of students who turn to parents with every minor problem instead of figuring it out on their own.
“A lot of families don’t let go and a lot of kids are happy not to let go,” she said. “In some ways, it eases the separation and in some ways, it prolongs the separation.”
The best approach is a balance, Soren said. But that has to start long before the family car is loaded with bed sheets and school supplies. A year or more before a student leaves for college, parents should start allowing far more autonomy and freedom – and focusing on their own post-kid interests.
“I feel strongly this should not be an abrupt transition,” she said.
It’s also good to remember that not all families struggle with the transition to college. Another Elkhart-area girl, Kelsie Draper, 18, moved last weekend into a dormitory at Hope College in Holland, Mich.
For weeks, the family’s mood has been more celebratory than sad, noted her mother, Gail Draper, 52, a guidance counselor at Elkhart Central High School who is sending the youngest of her three kids to college.
“I am just excited about the opportunity for her to go,” she said. “I think Kelsie’s much more capable than she thinks she is.”
But, unlike Alexa Sieracki, Draper’s daughter will be only three hours away, securely on the same side of the country. That proximity makes the transition easier for everyone, Draper said.
“If I was taking Kelsie to California, you’d see tears.”
My brothers oldest daughter just left for college at Alabama a little over a week ago and the transition has been difficult for everybody. His daughter has to make all of her decisions now and doesnt have her parents there to protect and advise her. Her parents have to realize that she is becoming a young lady and allow her to grow into an independent person. They are glad for her that shes entering college, but sad for themselves because they will miss having her around.
Mazda giving green twist to rotary engine
Mazda giving green twist to rotary engine
Hydrogen power could revive old technology from Japanese maker
At a recent preview of Mazda’s 2010 product line, the maker unveiled two rotary-powered prototypes running on hydrogen, rather than gasoline. Many experts believe hydrogen could become the fuel of the future.
By Paul A. Eisenstein
msnbc.com contributor
updated 10:39 a.m. ET, Thurs., Sept . 3, 2009
The squeeze is on. Automakers around the world are coming under increasing pressure to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, even though consumers seem unwilling to sacrifice performance or pay a higher price for the technology needed to go green.
In this highly competitive horse race, there is no “silver bullet,” no single environmentally friendly solution, so manufacturers are turning to an array of alternatives that could eventually supplement, perhaps even replace, the time-tested internal combustion engine.
Mazda, the small Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co., is betting it has a unique weapon in its own powertrain arsenal, the Wankel, or rotary engine. Small, simple and lightweight, it was once seen as a promising substitute for the piston engine, but never lived up to its initial expectations.
But now Mazda believes the Wankel could move from a niche to mainstream source of power, and one that could be brought to market sooner and at a significantly lower cost than the fuel cell vehicles and battery cars on which other manufacturers are showering their attention —and billions in research dollars.
At a recent preview of Mazda’s 2010 product line, the maker unveiled two rotary-powered prototypes running on hydrogen, rather than gasoline. Many experts believe hydrogen could become the fuel of the future.
Most manufacturers have focused their attention on hydrogen-powered fuel cells, which feed the lightweight gas into a device called a stack, where it combines with oxygen to produce a steady flow of electric current. The resulting current is then used to power an electric motor. It’s a sophisticated and elegant technology that’s still better suited to the space program —where it was first used on the Apollo moon mission — and likely years away from commercial viability.
Mazda’s approach is to feed hydrogen, rather than gasoline, into its rotary engine, explains Akihiro Kashiwagi, head of the Hydrogen RE (short for Rotary Engine) project. It’s not quite as efficient as a fuel cell, but the technology is readily available and reasonably affordable. As with the fuel cell, the only byproduct is a misty stream of water vapor spewing from the tailpipe of a modified RX-8 the automaker allowed me to drive around the grounds of the Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, Calif.
The RX-8, a four-seat sports car, fires up with the touch of a button, the engine developing a curious buzz that one bystander suggests sounds a bit like “a vacuum cleaner that’s just swallowed something big.” But as it slips into gear, the car lurches forward and picks up speed.
Not a lot, however, for Mazda has had to detune the engine a bit to let it operate in dual-fuel mode. A critical advantage of using the rotary engine is that once this RX-8 has run out of hyrdrogen, it can switch to a second tank using readily available gasoline and just keep on going. The various hyrdogen-powered fuel cell vehicles being tested in Southern California as part of an elaborate experiment by other automakers and government authorities can never go more than 50 to 100 miles away from their refueling stations — unless the driver wants to be towed home.
Mazda recently introduced a second, more complex version of the Hydrogen RE system, using the Japanese version of its MX5 microvan.
This vehicle has been set up as a "series" hybrid. Unlike a Toyota Prius, whose wheels can be powered by its gasoline engine, electric motor or both, the Hydrogen RE Primacy van is powered solely by electricity. The hydrogen rotary functions only as a generator, charging up the vehicle’s battery or sending power directly to the electric motor turning its wheels.
The system is more efficient than that found in the Hydrogen RE RX-8, meaning better fuel economy and a range of about 200 miles.
At low speeds, the battery alone is used. And, says Kashiwagi, “In the future, this system could easily be converted to a plug-in hybrid,” like the planned Chevy Volt, by increasing the size of the lithium-ion battery. That would allow the vehicle to travel for 20, 30, 40 miles or more solely on electric power.
As with the Hydrogen RE RX-8, there’s a fair amount of buzzing from the Premacy. There’s also the drawback of giving up the third row of seats to make room for a big tank of hydrogen. But there’s still enough space for five passengers.
Like other hydrogen vehicles, the Mazda Hydrogen RE technology still has a bit of work to be done, but the company insists it could be ready for the retail world far sooner than fuel cells – and overcome some of the limitations of battery power, notably the lack of range.
The challenge is probably not one of using hydrogen, says Kashiwagi, but simply getting the fuel. There’s no nationwide production or distribution method and setting up one would likely be a slow and costly challenge. Nonetheless, hydrogen does have its advantages and plenty of proponents. And if Mazda is right, its technology could provide a clean alternative powertrain sooner than many other alternatives still struggling to make it to market.
Hydrogen power could revive old technology from Japanese maker
At a recent preview of Mazda’s 2010 product line, the maker unveiled two rotary-powered prototypes running on hydrogen, rather than gasoline. Many experts believe hydrogen could become the fuel of the future.
By Paul A. Eisenstein
msnbc.com contributor
updated 10:39 a.m. ET, Thurs., Sept . 3, 2009
The squeeze is on. Automakers around the world are coming under increasing pressure to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions, even though consumers seem unwilling to sacrifice performance or pay a higher price for the technology needed to go green.
In this highly competitive horse race, there is no “silver bullet,” no single environmentally friendly solution, so manufacturers are turning to an array of alternatives that could eventually supplement, perhaps even replace, the time-tested internal combustion engine.
Mazda, the small Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co., is betting it has a unique weapon in its own powertrain arsenal, the Wankel, or rotary engine. Small, simple and lightweight, it was once seen as a promising substitute for the piston engine, but never lived up to its initial expectations.
But now Mazda believes the Wankel could move from a niche to mainstream source of power, and one that could be brought to market sooner and at a significantly lower cost than the fuel cell vehicles and battery cars on which other manufacturers are showering their attention —and billions in research dollars.
At a recent preview of Mazda’s 2010 product line, the maker unveiled two rotary-powered prototypes running on hydrogen, rather than gasoline. Many experts believe hydrogen could become the fuel of the future.
Most manufacturers have focused their attention on hydrogen-powered fuel cells, which feed the lightweight gas into a device called a stack, where it combines with oxygen to produce a steady flow of electric current. The resulting current is then used to power an electric motor. It’s a sophisticated and elegant technology that’s still better suited to the space program —where it was first used on the Apollo moon mission — and likely years away from commercial viability.
Mazda’s approach is to feed hydrogen, rather than gasoline, into its rotary engine, explains Akihiro Kashiwagi, head of the Hydrogen RE (short for Rotary Engine) project. It’s not quite as efficient as a fuel cell, but the technology is readily available and reasonably affordable. As with the fuel cell, the only byproduct is a misty stream of water vapor spewing from the tailpipe of a modified RX-8 the automaker allowed me to drive around the grounds of the Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, Calif.
The RX-8, a four-seat sports car, fires up with the touch of a button, the engine developing a curious buzz that one bystander suggests sounds a bit like “a vacuum cleaner that’s just swallowed something big.” But as it slips into gear, the car lurches forward and picks up speed.
Not a lot, however, for Mazda has had to detune the engine a bit to let it operate in dual-fuel mode. A critical advantage of using the rotary engine is that once this RX-8 has run out of hyrdrogen, it can switch to a second tank using readily available gasoline and just keep on going. The various hyrdogen-powered fuel cell vehicles being tested in Southern California as part of an elaborate experiment by other automakers and government authorities can never go more than 50 to 100 miles away from their refueling stations — unless the driver wants to be towed home.
Mazda recently introduced a second, more complex version of the Hydrogen RE system, using the Japanese version of its MX5 microvan.
This vehicle has been set up as a "series" hybrid. Unlike a Toyota Prius, whose wheels can be powered by its gasoline engine, electric motor or both, the Hydrogen RE Primacy van is powered solely by electricity. The hydrogen rotary functions only as a generator, charging up the vehicle’s battery or sending power directly to the electric motor turning its wheels.
The system is more efficient than that found in the Hydrogen RE RX-8, meaning better fuel economy and a range of about 200 miles.
At low speeds, the battery alone is used. And, says Kashiwagi, “In the future, this system could easily be converted to a plug-in hybrid,” like the planned Chevy Volt, by increasing the size of the lithium-ion battery. That would allow the vehicle to travel for 20, 30, 40 miles or more solely on electric power.
As with the Hydrogen RE RX-8, there’s a fair amount of buzzing from the Premacy. There’s also the drawback of giving up the third row of seats to make room for a big tank of hydrogen. But there’s still enough space for five passengers.
Like other hydrogen vehicles, the Mazda Hydrogen RE technology still has a bit of work to be done, but the company insists it could be ready for the retail world far sooner than fuel cells – and overcome some of the limitations of battery power, notably the lack of range.
The challenge is probably not one of using hydrogen, says Kashiwagi, but simply getting the fuel. There’s no nationwide production or distribution method and setting up one would likely be a slow and costly challenge. Nonetheless, hydrogen does have its advantages and plenty of proponents. And if Mazda is right, its technology could provide a clean alternative powertrain sooner than many other alternatives still struggling to make it to market.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
MSN Money - Tesla Aims For Mass Market
Tesla to Go Mainstream
Tesla VP on details of the company's planned expansion
Posted by Joshua Condon on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:49 AM
Last Monday, AutoWeek reported that Tesla will take advantage of millions of dollars’ worth of low-interest government loans to expand its stable beyond $100,000 sports cars. The announced goals, aimed at appealing to mainstream car buyers, starts with a $50K family sedan in 2011, followed by a mass-market car that retails for less than $30K by 2016.
Exhaust Notes contacted Tesla’s vice president of business development, Diarmuid O'Connell, to learn more about the company's expansion and store roll-outs, and whether the U.S. is ready for the electric car.
Exhaust Notes: How has the new government money (Editor’s note: $465 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy) affected your expansion plans? Are things moving more quickly?
Diarmuid O’Connell: The short answer is that there’s no correlation between these new loans and our plans. We’ve had a very aggressive strategy outlined since 2006, which started with the Roadster but always had an eye towards moving onto a midpriced sedan, and then a mass-market car for under 30 grand. [Our original loan process] started back in December of 2006, so while these new loans make things easier, this plan has been in place and viable since before that money was available.
EN: The Model S family sedan is slated for 2011, which is right around the corner. Is the average American ready for an electric car?
DO: Absolutely. We’ve developed long-range EV options – batteries that go 240 miles on a charge and can be recharged overnight in a 110 or 220 volt socket, like a cell phone. The average driver in this country travels less than 40 miles per day in their car, and I think we’re evolving towards a situation where people are discerning car’s best uses – every vehicle in a garage doesn’t have to serve every purpose, so your Tesla can be your everyday commuting car, and you have another vehicle for towing, or long road trips. People are already doing that.
That being said, any market research in this field is, essentially, conceptual market research; there aren’t enough EVs on the road yet, so people are really forced to imagine a new situation, which can be difficult. We’re obviously focusing on the deep-penetration hybrid market – places like Los Angeles and Boston – but our goal is to make our vehicles attractive to everyone. At the end of the day, it’s incumbent on automakers to build attractive, fun, well-designed and high-performance vehicles. And that’s exactly what we’re doing and will continue to do.
EN: What about concerns that you don’t have an infrastructure in place to deliver and service these vehicles? The typical driver has probably never seen a Tesla store.
DO: Our store strategy is robust, and we’re rolling out stores in Munich and Chicago in September, which adds to our current stores in West L.A., Silicon Valley, New York, London and Seattle. By the end of the year, we’ll have rolled out new stores in Miami, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Monaco. But even where we don’t have stores, we employ remote techs who will make house calls for service and repairs and, if need be, personally deliver the cars to the nearest Tesla store.
Our view on all of this is absolutely long-term: We don’t need to sell an EV to every single person, tomorrow, to be successful. Over time, we will create a mass market for our cars that will be sustainable and grow based on vehicle quality, design, performance and customer satisfaction. These new vehicles are the next step in that evolution.
< Back to Exhaust Notes
Sort by:Newest firstOldest first1-10 of 127Previous
El Keter#1
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:03:55 PM
Where does a company named after Nicola Tesla get off selling overpriced sports cars and "bargain" sedans and mass-market cars that retail for $50k and $30k?
If Nicola Tesla was alive today and running a car company his cars would all run on happy thoughts (or electricity) and wouldn't retail for more than a few thousand bucks.
Kokorami#2
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 6:38:37 PM
"whether the U.S. is ready for the electric car." Actually, while I don't know much about the history of cars, I know enough history to know the writer didn't really do his homework here...in the early days, the electrics had a good share of the market (Baker, Detroit Electric and others) and I vaguely remember those funky little electric wedge cars growing up in the 70's. Should be "whether the U.S. is ready for electric cars again."
There really isn't anything new under the sun. Also, it's a perfectly good idea for people who can afford and get good use out of it. If you have good public transport/actually need or use a truck/aren't off the grid/are self-employed and working out of your house/whatever, and don't have a use for it, that's fine, too. But no need to knock it for people it's a good option for. Me, I drive a diesel and run it/top off the tank on biodiesel as much as I can. (Ethanol ISN'T the only biofuel, and compared to bagasse, corn ethanol is total BS.) Esp. when I pass by the place where they make it from waste grease. Some people do a grease conversion; I talked with them and as a person who on average covers 15 miles a day at most it wasn't the best option. We probably should change our driving habits (I'm getting a bike to cut down on that 15 miles since I'm close to my supermarket and drugstore)--but screaming about how stupid you think a perfectly good idea is and screaming about who has the best one-size-fits-all approach when one size DOESN'T are both pointless.
As for nasty comments about Tesla, no surprise. Anyone who knows anything knows who he was and anyone who doesn't makes stupid homophobic comments about 80's hair bands.
ReplyReport Abuse
Rich73132#3
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 6:05:35 PM
There is always Hertz or Enterprise to help you make that 775 mile trip. Far better to have a local car for all those countless ours spent in traffic. Even better if it is electric.
Tesla VP on details of the company's planned expansion
Posted by Joshua Condon on Monday, August 31, 2009 11:49 AM
Last Monday, AutoWeek reported that Tesla will take advantage of millions of dollars’ worth of low-interest government loans to expand its stable beyond $100,000 sports cars. The announced goals, aimed at appealing to mainstream car buyers, starts with a $50K family sedan in 2011, followed by a mass-market car that retails for less than $30K by 2016.
Exhaust Notes contacted Tesla’s vice president of business development, Diarmuid O'Connell, to learn more about the company's expansion and store roll-outs, and whether the U.S. is ready for the electric car.
Exhaust Notes: How has the new government money (Editor’s note: $465 million in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy) affected your expansion plans? Are things moving more quickly?
Diarmuid O’Connell: The short answer is that there’s no correlation between these new loans and our plans. We’ve had a very aggressive strategy outlined since 2006, which started with the Roadster but always had an eye towards moving onto a midpriced sedan, and then a mass-market car for under 30 grand. [Our original loan process] started back in December of 2006, so while these new loans make things easier, this plan has been in place and viable since before that money was available.
EN: The Model S family sedan is slated for 2011, which is right around the corner. Is the average American ready for an electric car?
DO: Absolutely. We’ve developed long-range EV options – batteries that go 240 miles on a charge and can be recharged overnight in a 110 or 220 volt socket, like a cell phone. The average driver in this country travels less than 40 miles per day in their car, and I think we’re evolving towards a situation where people are discerning car’s best uses – every vehicle in a garage doesn’t have to serve every purpose, so your Tesla can be your everyday commuting car, and you have another vehicle for towing, or long road trips. People are already doing that.
That being said, any market research in this field is, essentially, conceptual market research; there aren’t enough EVs on the road yet, so people are really forced to imagine a new situation, which can be difficult. We’re obviously focusing on the deep-penetration hybrid market – places like Los Angeles and Boston – but our goal is to make our vehicles attractive to everyone. At the end of the day, it’s incumbent on automakers to build attractive, fun, well-designed and high-performance vehicles. And that’s exactly what we’re doing and will continue to do.
EN: What about concerns that you don’t have an infrastructure in place to deliver and service these vehicles? The typical driver has probably never seen a Tesla store.
DO: Our store strategy is robust, and we’re rolling out stores in Munich and Chicago in September, which adds to our current stores in West L.A., Silicon Valley, New York, London and Seattle. By the end of the year, we’ll have rolled out new stores in Miami, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Monaco. But even where we don’t have stores, we employ remote techs who will make house calls for service and repairs and, if need be, personally deliver the cars to the nearest Tesla store.
Our view on all of this is absolutely long-term: We don’t need to sell an EV to every single person, tomorrow, to be successful. Over time, we will create a mass market for our cars that will be sustainable and grow based on vehicle quality, design, performance and customer satisfaction. These new vehicles are the next step in that evolution.
< Back to Exhaust Notes
Sort by:Newest firstOldest first1-10 of 127Previous
El Keter#1
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:03:55 PM
Where does a company named after Nicola Tesla get off selling overpriced sports cars and "bargain" sedans and mass-market cars that retail for $50k and $30k?
If Nicola Tesla was alive today and running a car company his cars would all run on happy thoughts (or electricity) and wouldn't retail for more than a few thousand bucks.
Kokorami#2
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 6:38:37 PM
"whether the U.S. is ready for the electric car." Actually, while I don't know much about the history of cars, I know enough history to know the writer didn't really do his homework here...in the early days, the electrics had a good share of the market (Baker, Detroit Electric and others) and I vaguely remember those funky little electric wedge cars growing up in the 70's. Should be "whether the U.S. is ready for electric cars again."
There really isn't anything new under the sun. Also, it's a perfectly good idea for people who can afford and get good use out of it. If you have good public transport/actually need or use a truck/aren't off the grid/are self-employed and working out of your house/whatever, and don't have a use for it, that's fine, too. But no need to knock it for people it's a good option for. Me, I drive a diesel and run it/top off the tank on biodiesel as much as I can. (Ethanol ISN'T the only biofuel, and compared to bagasse, corn ethanol is total BS.) Esp. when I pass by the place where they make it from waste grease. Some people do a grease conversion; I talked with them and as a person who on average covers 15 miles a day at most it wasn't the best option. We probably should change our driving habits (I'm getting a bike to cut down on that 15 miles since I'm close to my supermarket and drugstore)--but screaming about how stupid you think a perfectly good idea is and screaming about who has the best one-size-fits-all approach when one size DOESN'T are both pointless.
As for nasty comments about Tesla, no surprise. Anyone who knows anything knows who he was and anyone who doesn't makes stupid homophobic comments about 80's hair bands.
ReplyReport Abuse
Rich73132#3
Wednesday, September 02, 2009 6:05:35 PM
There is always Hertz or Enterprise to help you make that 775 mile trip. Far better to have a local car for all those countless ours spent in traffic. Even better if it is electric.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
S Fla Environmental News
(305) 248-3311 ext. 245
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/natural_resources.shtml
Adopt-a-Tree September 19th in Doral
Check DERM’s website or call for list of trees that will be available. The location for this event will be in Doral which is central and convenient for all. Remember to plant your young trees with plenty of space for them to grow. Allow space for the mature tree canopy to grow in with out the need to prune and allow space for a healthy root system to both anchor and transfer water and nutrients.
(305) 372-6999
http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/aat_event_schedule_09.asp
Mango Café is now open at the Fruit & Spice Park
See the media release below for the opening of the Mango Café at the Fruit & Spice Park. Now is an excellent time to visit the farming and grove side of Miami Dade County, our local green food source! See what fruits are still in season and what vegetables are being planted now. For more information on upcoming events at the Fruit & Spice Park and all of our Miami Dade County Parks visit their website.
http://miamifruitandspicepark.com/
http://www.miamidade.gov/parks/
Veggie Time
If you are planning to grow a garden now is the time to plan and plant!
Visit our Miami Dade County Cooperative Extension website for publications on what grows well here and how to grow it.
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/master_gardener/Raised%20Bed%20Garden%20Book.pdf
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VH021
Barbara McAdam/Program Assistant
FYN/Florida Yards & Neighborhoods
Miami-Dade County Extension/Consumer Services Depart.
18710 S.W. 288th Street Homestead, Fl. 33030
(305) 248-3311 ext. 245
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu
floridayards.org
J Please consider the environment before printing this email.
"Delivering Excellence Every Day"
· Miami-Dade County is a public entity subject to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes concerning public records. E-mail messages are covered under such laws and thus subject to disclosure. All E-mail sent and received is captured by our servers and kept as a public record.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:MEDIA CONTACT:
Edith Torres
305-755-7862
THE MANGO CAFÉ OPENS AT REDLAND FRUIT & SPICE PARK
(MIAMI, August 28, 2009) – Miami-Dade Parks’ Fruit and Spice Park announces the opening of its new restaurant The Mango Café, on Monday, August 31, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A Grand Opening is scheduled for Saturday, October 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., details to be announced at a later date.
Open only for lunch and late afternoon dining, patrons can enjoy Florida Tropical cuisine in the historic Bauer-Mitchell-Neill House of the Redland Fruit and Spice Park, with indoor and outdoor seating available, surrounded by the park’s beauty and lush landscaping.
Some of the menu items are created using seasonal, locally grown herbs, fruits and vegetables found in the Redland agricultural community, and that can also be found at Fruit and Spice Park, such as the Fresh Tropical Fruit Mélange Salad which serves a bountiful array of succulent exotic fresh fruits with cottage cheese and banana bread, or the wide variety of Fruit and Spice Smoothies and Shakes. Patrons can also find Café specialties such as Florida Lobster Roll, Shrimp Tacos, an assortment of salads, sandwiches, entrees, and dessert items like Mango Passion Cheesecake and Fresh Homemade Key Lime Pie, all prepared by local chef Brian Cullen of the Fruit and Spice Park.
The Mango Café is open seven days a week, except Christmas Day, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is available for special events for up to 25 people inside the Café, or up to 200 people at a different location within the Fruit and Spice Park. Customized catering menus are also available for parties on or off the premises. Dining reservations are not required.
The Redland Fruit and Spice Park is located at 24801 SW 187th Avenue in Homestead, FL and can be reached by calling 305-247-5727.
WHAT: The Opening of The Mango Café at Redland Fruit and Spice Park
WHEN: Monday, August 31, 2009, 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Seven days a week, closed Christmas Day
WHERE: Redland Fruit & Spice Park
24801 S.W. 187th Avenue
Homestead, FL 33031
305-247-5727
Historical Background:
The Bauer-Mitchell-Neill House where the Mango Café is operated is the oldest house in the Redland, originally built in 1902 by John Bauer and donated to the Redland Fruit and Spice Park by the Neill family. The house was moved eight miles from its original site to the park and was registered as a historic site in the Redland, later to be destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. The current building is an exact replica of the home and was built in 2002.
Miami-Dade Parks, a three-time National Gold Medal Award (AAPRA and NRPA) winner, Florida Governor’s 2009 Sterling Award winner, and an accredited agency, is the third largest park system in the United States, consisting of 258 parks and more than 12,600 acres of land. It is one of the most unique park and recreation systems in the nation. Made up of more than just playgrounds and athletic fields, it also comprises after-school, sports-development and summer-camp programs; programs for seniors and people with disabilities; educational nature centers and nature preserves; environmental restoration efforts; Miami MetroZoo and Deering Estate; Crandon Tennis Center, home of the Sony Ericsson tennis tournament; golf courses; beaches; marinas; campgrounds; and more. The Miami-Dade Parks mission is to create outstanding recreational, natural and cultural experiences to enrich you and to enhance our community for this and future generations.
# # #
To request material in accessible format, information on access for persons with disabilities, or sign language interpreter services (7 days in advance), call 305-365-6706.
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/environment/natural_resources.shtml
Adopt-a-Tree September 19th in Doral
Check DERM’s website or call for list of trees that will be available. The location for this event will be in Doral which is central and convenient for all. Remember to plant your young trees with plenty of space for them to grow. Allow space for the mature tree canopy to grow in with out the need to prune and allow space for a healthy root system to both anchor and transfer water and nutrients.
(305) 372-6999
http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/aat_event_schedule_09.asp
Mango Café is now open at the Fruit & Spice Park
See the media release below for the opening of the Mango Café at the Fruit & Spice Park. Now is an excellent time to visit the farming and grove side of Miami Dade County, our local green food source! See what fruits are still in season and what vegetables are being planted now. For more information on upcoming events at the Fruit & Spice Park and all of our Miami Dade County Parks visit their website.
http://miamifruitandspicepark.com/
http://www.miamidade.gov/parks/
Veggie Time
If you are planning to grow a garden now is the time to plan and plant!
Visit our Miami Dade County Cooperative Extension website for publications on what grows well here and how to grow it.
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/master_gardener/Raised%20Bed%20Garden%20Book.pdf
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VH021
Barbara McAdam/Program Assistant
FYN/Florida Yards & Neighborhoods
Miami-Dade County Extension/Consumer Services Depart.
18710 S.W. 288th Street Homestead, Fl. 33030
(305) 248-3311 ext. 245
http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu
floridayards.org
J Please consider the environment before printing this email.
"Delivering Excellence Every Day"
· Miami-Dade County is a public entity subject to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes concerning public records. E-mail messages are covered under such laws and thus subject to disclosure. All E-mail sent and received is captured by our servers and kept as a public record.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:MEDIA CONTACT:
Edith Torres
305-755-7862
THE MANGO CAFÉ OPENS AT REDLAND FRUIT & SPICE PARK
(MIAMI, August 28, 2009) – Miami-Dade Parks’ Fruit and Spice Park announces the opening of its new restaurant The Mango Café, on Monday, August 31, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A Grand Opening is scheduled for Saturday, October 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., details to be announced at a later date.
Open only for lunch and late afternoon dining, patrons can enjoy Florida Tropical cuisine in the historic Bauer-Mitchell-Neill House of the Redland Fruit and Spice Park, with indoor and outdoor seating available, surrounded by the park’s beauty and lush landscaping.
Some of the menu items are created using seasonal, locally grown herbs, fruits and vegetables found in the Redland agricultural community, and that can also be found at Fruit and Spice Park, such as the Fresh Tropical Fruit Mélange Salad which serves a bountiful array of succulent exotic fresh fruits with cottage cheese and banana bread, or the wide variety of Fruit and Spice Smoothies and Shakes. Patrons can also find Café specialties such as Florida Lobster Roll, Shrimp Tacos, an assortment of salads, sandwiches, entrees, and dessert items like Mango Passion Cheesecake and Fresh Homemade Key Lime Pie, all prepared by local chef Brian Cullen of the Fruit and Spice Park.
The Mango Café is open seven days a week, except Christmas Day, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is available for special events for up to 25 people inside the Café, or up to 200 people at a different location within the Fruit and Spice Park. Customized catering menus are also available for parties on or off the premises. Dining reservations are not required.
The Redland Fruit and Spice Park is located at 24801 SW 187th Avenue in Homestead, FL and can be reached by calling 305-247-5727.
WHAT: The Opening of The Mango Café at Redland Fruit and Spice Park
WHEN: Monday, August 31, 2009, 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Seven days a week, closed Christmas Day
WHERE: Redland Fruit & Spice Park
24801 S.W. 187th Avenue
Homestead, FL 33031
305-247-5727
Historical Background:
The Bauer-Mitchell-Neill House where the Mango Café is operated is the oldest house in the Redland, originally built in 1902 by John Bauer and donated to the Redland Fruit and Spice Park by the Neill family. The house was moved eight miles from its original site to the park and was registered as a historic site in the Redland, later to be destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. The current building is an exact replica of the home and was built in 2002.
Miami-Dade Parks, a three-time National Gold Medal Award (AAPRA and NRPA) winner, Florida Governor’s 2009 Sterling Award winner, and an accredited agency, is the third largest park system in the United States, consisting of 258 parks and more than 12,600 acres of land. It is one of the most unique park and recreation systems in the nation. Made up of more than just playgrounds and athletic fields, it also comprises after-school, sports-development and summer-camp programs; programs for seniors and people with disabilities; educational nature centers and nature preserves; environmental restoration efforts; Miami MetroZoo and Deering Estate; Crandon Tennis Center, home of the Sony Ericsson tennis tournament; golf courses; beaches; marinas; campgrounds; and more. The Miami-Dade Parks mission is to create outstanding recreational, natural and cultural experiences to enrich you and to enhance our community for this and future generations.
# # #
To request material in accessible format, information on access for persons with disabilities, or sign language interpreter services (7 days in advance), call 305-365-6706.
Rain Barrel Workshops
Rain barrels
Florida receives an average of 52 inches of rainfall per year. Most of this water washes over lawns and pavement carrying fertilizers and other chemicals into local waterways. An inch of rainfall over a one thousand square-foot area yields in excess of 600 gallons of water. A rain barrel is an inexpensive means of capturing and storing some of this water for later use. By installing a rain barrel you'll not only help reduce pollution, but you'll also have a supply of free non-chlorinated soft water for irrigating your landscape!
Rain Barrel Workshops
The Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service is offering a series of Rain Barrel Workshops. These workshops give the residents of Miami-Dade County an opportunity to learn about important water conservation issues and teach them how to construct and install their very own rain barrel. All barrels are refurbished food-grade drums. They are used to ship food products only. Size and color varies based on availability. Generally, the volume is 55 gallons. Please note that we no control over what size, color, or style (open or closed top) drums will be available.
Registration for the rainbarrel workshop (with barrel) includes:
1 55-60 gal. food grade drum
1 hose bib
workshop materials
*It may be necessary to purchase additional materials in order to instal the rain barrel at your home.
To register call Lize at (305)248-3311 x 242
You can register for the next workshop by downloading and completing the registration form below and mailing it to the Extension Office in Homestead with your check or money order. Please be aware that these classes can fill quickly, and you must pre-register and prepay. Due to storage and transport considerations, I can only provide a limited number of barrels per workshop. Registration is based on a first come, first served basis. We are also willing to hold on-site rain barrel workshops for homeowners associations, garden clubs, etc. If your group is interested please contact Barbara McAdam at (305)248-3311 x 245
Registration Fees
Workshop and barrel: $45
Additional barrels: $40 each
Workshop without barrel: $10
Guests may attend for free, but must pay if they would like workshop materials
Payment must be made in the form of personal check or money order. We can not accept cash or credit cards.
Date Registration Location & Time
Saturday, January 24 Miami Beach Botanical Gardens
10:00 AM-Noon
Florida receives an average of 52 inches of rainfall per year. Most of this water washes over lawns and pavement carrying fertilizers and other chemicals into local waterways. An inch of rainfall over a one thousand square-foot area yields in excess of 600 gallons of water. A rain barrel is an inexpensive means of capturing and storing some of this water for later use. By installing a rain barrel you'll not only help reduce pollution, but you'll also have a supply of free non-chlorinated soft water for irrigating your landscape!
Rain Barrel Workshops
The Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service is offering a series of Rain Barrel Workshops. These workshops give the residents of Miami-Dade County an opportunity to learn about important water conservation issues and teach them how to construct and install their very own rain barrel. All barrels are refurbished food-grade drums. They are used to ship food products only. Size and color varies based on availability. Generally, the volume is 55 gallons. Please note that we no control over what size, color, or style (open or closed top) drums will be available.
Registration for the rainbarrel workshop (with barrel) includes:
1 55-60 gal. food grade drum
1 hose bib
workshop materials
*It may be necessary to purchase additional materials in order to instal the rain barrel at your home.
To register call Lize at (305)248-3311 x 242
You can register for the next workshop by downloading and completing the registration form below and mailing it to the Extension Office in Homestead with your check or money order. Please be aware that these classes can fill quickly, and you must pre-register and prepay. Due to storage and transport considerations, I can only provide a limited number of barrels per workshop. Registration is based on a first come, first served basis. We are also willing to hold on-site rain barrel workshops for homeowners associations, garden clubs, etc. If your group is interested please contact Barbara McAdam at (305)248-3311 x 245
Registration Fees
Workshop and barrel: $45
Additional barrels: $40 each
Workshop without barrel: $10
Guests may attend for free, but must pay if they would like workshop materials
Payment must be made in the form of personal check or money order. We can not accept cash or credit cards.
Date Registration Location & Time
Saturday, January 24 Miami Beach Botanical Gardens
10:00 AM-Noon
Retail Health Clinics Get Good Marks
Drive-Thru Medical: Retail Health Clinics Get Good Marks
Health Care at a Crossroads CNBC AFP/Getty Images/File – A doctor and a nurse chjeck an elderly patient at a US community hospital.
Wednesday … By JEFFREY KLUGER Jeffrey Kluger – Tue Sep 1, 11:40 am ET
Doctors are having a hard go of things. Squeezed by falling reimbursements, soaring malpractice insurance and punishing patient loads, they shouldn't have much to fear from the likes of Wal-Mart. But the fact is, the greeter in the red vest is increasingly going toe-to-toe with the doctor in the white coat - and winning - thanks to the growing phenomenon of retail health clinics.
Retail clinics - free-standing, walk-in medical providers located in drug stores, shopping malls and stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens - are rapidly becoming to the health-care industry what Fotomat was to the camera world. There are roughly 1,000 clinics now operating in the U.S., offering acute care for such routine problems as throat infections and earaches as well as providing diabetes and cholesterol screenings, routine checkups and vaccinations. The fees are low - and conspicuously posted; nearly all of the clinics treat both the insured and uninsured, and there is little or no waiting time. With 50 million Americans lacking health insurance and family budgets collapsing under the weight of medical costs, what's not to like about the clinics? (See pictures of the Cleveland clinic's approach to health care.)
Plenty, say physicians associations, whose members warn that clinics - which are typically staffed by nurse practitioners and are positioned in stores that also sell prescriptions - will be inclined to misdiagnose and overprescribe. Worse, they are not built to provide long-term care for chronic conditions such as hypertension, and they threaten the ideal of a lasting doctor-patient relationship, denying consumers a so-called "medical home."
Those, at least, are the arguments, though it was impossible to know how well-founded they were - until now. In twin studies published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Rand Corp. reports on an extensive survey of cost, quality and availability of retail health operations, and on nearly all measures, the clinics scored high.
The studies, which took months to compile, were based on the performance of the 982 retail clinics that existed in the U.S. as of August 2008 - a tenfold increase since 2006. While that proliferation is impressive, as with much else in the health-care system it doesn't necessarily mean equal access to care. Clinics exist in only 33 states, and in those that have them, an overwhelming 88.4% are in urban areas. Just 10.6% of the U.S. population lives within a five-minute drive of a clinic, and 28.7% lives 10 minutes away. The South is better served than the Midwest and West, and all three regions are better served than the East. Just five states (Florida, California, Texas, Minnesota and Illinois) are home to 44% of all American retail health clinics.
But perhaps the more relevant question is, How good is the care at these stop-and-shop operations? To answer that, the Rand investigators focused on just one state, Minnesota, because clinics are well-established there and because one large health plan has been providing clinic coverage for its members for five years, meaning that there was a rich vein of data to mine. The investigators focused on data on 2,100 patients who had gone to a clinic for one of three common complaints: sore throat, urinary tract infection and earache. These were compared to patients who had visited doctors' offices, urgent-care facilities and emergency rooms for the same ailments. The investigators judged quality of care by 14 different measures, including what kinds of tests were ordered, what drugs were prescribed and whether follow-up visits were scheduled. (Read "This Doctor Does Not Want To See You.")
If the results are any indication, the next time you have a routine medical need, you should probably make haste to a clinic. On a quality scale of 0% to 100%, the clinics finished first with a 63.6% while urgent-care centers and doctor's offices followed within a couple of points. Habitually overcrowded emergency rooms came in last at a distant 55.1%. When it came to fees, the results were even more dramatic. For the various kinds of services studied, the average visit to a retail clinic cost $110, versus $156 for urgent care and $166 for a family doc. As for ERs? A cool $570. While even $110 for a clinic visit seems pricey, that is only the average for the three procedures studied. Minute Clinic, the industry leader with 514 outlets, charges just $62 for a minor illness or injury exam and $20 to $66 for a wellness or prevention visit.
Average cost per lab test in the Rand study also differed significantly depending on the provider: $15 at retail clinics, $27 at urgent-care facilities, $33 at doctors' offices and a whopping $113 at the ER. The study did not bear out the fear that retail clinics would be inclined to overprescribe drugs, and when the clinics did write a prescription, the out-of-pocket cost was lower: $21 compared to a high of $26 for ERs.
"These findings provide more evidence that retail clinics are an innovative way of delivering health care," says Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and the lead author of the study. "Retail clinics are more convenient for patients, less costly and provide care that is of equal quality."
Neither the clinics nor the studies are perfect, as the Rand team concedes. Even an exhaustive survey of one state is still a study of just that state. And the very accessibility of those Minnesota clinics might have encouraged more visits by mildly ill people whose complaints would have vanished on their own. Give the clinics so many easy pitches to hit and you may artificially drive up their average. Still, with local and regional hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic increasingly working in partnership with such retail operations, more and more of these in-store outlets are likely to open. Which means more and more of us will be putting health care on the weekly shopping lists, along with the milk and bread.
Health Care at a Crossroads CNBC AFP/Getty Images/File – A doctor and a nurse chjeck an elderly patient at a US community hospital.
Wednesday … By JEFFREY KLUGER Jeffrey Kluger – Tue Sep 1, 11:40 am ET
Doctors are having a hard go of things. Squeezed by falling reimbursements, soaring malpractice insurance and punishing patient loads, they shouldn't have much to fear from the likes of Wal-Mart. But the fact is, the greeter in the red vest is increasingly going toe-to-toe with the doctor in the white coat - and winning - thanks to the growing phenomenon of retail health clinics.
Retail clinics - free-standing, walk-in medical providers located in drug stores, shopping malls and stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens - are rapidly becoming to the health-care industry what Fotomat was to the camera world. There are roughly 1,000 clinics now operating in the U.S., offering acute care for such routine problems as throat infections and earaches as well as providing diabetes and cholesterol screenings, routine checkups and vaccinations. The fees are low - and conspicuously posted; nearly all of the clinics treat both the insured and uninsured, and there is little or no waiting time. With 50 million Americans lacking health insurance and family budgets collapsing under the weight of medical costs, what's not to like about the clinics? (See pictures of the Cleveland clinic's approach to health care.)
Plenty, say physicians associations, whose members warn that clinics - which are typically staffed by nurse practitioners and are positioned in stores that also sell prescriptions - will be inclined to misdiagnose and overprescribe. Worse, they are not built to provide long-term care for chronic conditions such as hypertension, and they threaten the ideal of a lasting doctor-patient relationship, denying consumers a so-called "medical home."
Those, at least, are the arguments, though it was impossible to know how well-founded they were - until now. In twin studies published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Rand Corp. reports on an extensive survey of cost, quality and availability of retail health operations, and on nearly all measures, the clinics scored high.
The studies, which took months to compile, were based on the performance of the 982 retail clinics that existed in the U.S. as of August 2008 - a tenfold increase since 2006. While that proliferation is impressive, as with much else in the health-care system it doesn't necessarily mean equal access to care. Clinics exist in only 33 states, and in those that have them, an overwhelming 88.4% are in urban areas. Just 10.6% of the U.S. population lives within a five-minute drive of a clinic, and 28.7% lives 10 minutes away. The South is better served than the Midwest and West, and all three regions are better served than the East. Just five states (Florida, California, Texas, Minnesota and Illinois) are home to 44% of all American retail health clinics.
But perhaps the more relevant question is, How good is the care at these stop-and-shop operations? To answer that, the Rand investigators focused on just one state, Minnesota, because clinics are well-established there and because one large health plan has been providing clinic coverage for its members for five years, meaning that there was a rich vein of data to mine. The investigators focused on data on 2,100 patients who had gone to a clinic for one of three common complaints: sore throat, urinary tract infection and earache. These were compared to patients who had visited doctors' offices, urgent-care facilities and emergency rooms for the same ailments. The investigators judged quality of care by 14 different measures, including what kinds of tests were ordered, what drugs were prescribed and whether follow-up visits were scheduled. (Read "This Doctor Does Not Want To See You.")
If the results are any indication, the next time you have a routine medical need, you should probably make haste to a clinic. On a quality scale of 0% to 100%, the clinics finished first with a 63.6% while urgent-care centers and doctor's offices followed within a couple of points. Habitually overcrowded emergency rooms came in last at a distant 55.1%. When it came to fees, the results were even more dramatic. For the various kinds of services studied, the average visit to a retail clinic cost $110, versus $156 for urgent care and $166 for a family doc. As for ERs? A cool $570. While even $110 for a clinic visit seems pricey, that is only the average for the three procedures studied. Minute Clinic, the industry leader with 514 outlets, charges just $62 for a minor illness or injury exam and $20 to $66 for a wellness or prevention visit.
Average cost per lab test in the Rand study also differed significantly depending on the provider: $15 at retail clinics, $27 at urgent-care facilities, $33 at doctors' offices and a whopping $113 at the ER. The study did not bear out the fear that retail clinics would be inclined to overprescribe drugs, and when the clinics did write a prescription, the out-of-pocket cost was lower: $21 compared to a high of $26 for ERs.
"These findings provide more evidence that retail clinics are an innovative way of delivering health care," says Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and the lead author of the study. "Retail clinics are more convenient for patients, less costly and provide care that is of equal quality."
Neither the clinics nor the studies are perfect, as the Rand team concedes. Even an exhaustive survey of one state is still a study of just that state. And the very accessibility of those Minnesota clinics might have encouraged more visits by mildly ill people whose complaints would have vanished on their own. Give the clinics so many easy pitches to hit and you may artificially drive up their average. Still, with local and regional hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic increasingly working in partnership with such retail operations, more and more of these in-store outlets are likely to open. Which means more and more of us will be putting health care on the weekly shopping lists, along with the milk and bread.
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