Where are all the plows?

As far as I can tell, my communities latest victim of the tight economy has been our local snow removal budgets. This afternoon graced us with a few new inches of the white stuff and this is what we have to show for it.
Ok, ok...so it's not a blizzard or anything, but it caused plenty of problems this afternoon. Before leaving work I got an email giving notice not to take the freeway either north OR south as there was a 16 car accident one way, and a 9 car mix up the other. Lucky for me, neither was required. A~ had called me before I left as well, to tell me that the roads were a mess and that there had been no plowing done in the 6 hours of snowing that we got, she was right. I crept home safely and was thankful for 4wd.

The thing is this, the snow wasn't really all that bad. Oh sure, it was like 6 inches all told, but for us that's really not all that much. The problem happens when people, who have become used to regularly cleared and salted roads are now thrust into the world of our fathers. I always wondered why my dad always packed chains when we would come to Utah in the winter to go skiing. I'm guessing that the roads weren't as consistently plowed as they have been in the recent past. If we just drive slowly there's no problem, but factor in too much speed, cellphones and texting and well, you get the drift.

I'm guessing that we may yet see more of this kind of cutting back in the future, particularly in the areas of public services. I mean when it comes to things like removing snow, funding schools or keeping the trash disposed of will probably take precedence as it should.

Just an observation of how the times are a changin'. Noticed anything like this in your neck of the woods?
All the best till tomorrow.
P~

The Times are Changin' Tuesday 7-29

This evening we found a great article on our local news station about how local commercial builders are beginning to embrace "Green" building practices. Now I have to first go into my personal point of view on the whole "Green" catchphrase; I don't like it. I agree with much of what it implies yes, but the word has lost much of it's punch due in no small part to the mainstreamification of it. Which brings up an odd dichotomy. On the one hand, it's actually quite a good thing that "Green" has become a commonly used word. It means that the general masses are beginning to wake up to the fact that we've lived unsustainably for far too long and that they may have to actually take action in order to get away from the repercussions of that lifestyle. On the other hand turning "Green" into a word that either has, at best, little or no bite or worse yet is dismissed as being one of those nutty "liberal" ideas, takes away from the ideas and actions that are associated with it. I generally choose to use the term Sustainable (or unsustainable as it applies) because I personally feel that it better sums up the problem.

Back to the article. Whether or not they use the term "Green" or not, I believe it does good to have these type of larger local businesses putting themselves out there as role models and highlighting the benefits that come along with building sustainably. The more that businesses begin to see that they can actually realize real $$'s from these type of policies, the more the LEED services will become mainstream and the more it will begin to move into other areas.

It's all about growth. Managed, sustainable, smart growth. Hopefully this is another change for the good.

P~

The Times are Changin' Tuesday 7-21

The first week of this series and then again last week I outlined problems that I’ve been seeing locally dealing with the rising cost of fuel and how the cost of living increases have caused people to begin stealing recyclables. As I thought about this weeks update, I was conscious that I didn’t want to give the false impression that I am hopeless or fatalistic about the changes that I see coming down the pike; this couldn’t be further from the truth. With this in mind I wanted to share an observation that I made this week that I found to be very encouraging. Through the week, for some reason that is escaping at the time of this writing, my wife and I had the discussion of whether our parents generation had been able to enjoy some of the things that ours is. A~ was commenting that she felt like ours was really the first generation that has never know a time when things like oranges and bananas were not common, but we weren't sure.

Saturday afternoon we headed into town to my Aunt and Grandmothers house to pick up my son. As we sat and visited, the conversation turned to the economy and rising costs. We talked about some of the things that I had posted here on previous Tuesdays, and about what type of changes we had seen around town. This conversation offered the perfect opportunity to open the dialogue about what things had been like when my father was growing up since four generations were represented. They did get oranges it seems, at Christmas time and they had to share. Bananas were something that was seen far less often. We discussed whether we thought that we enjoyed having access to these fruits all the time or if they were more enjoyable only getting them once and a while. To a person we all agreed that having something only in season definitely makes it taste better, but there was some debate on whether is allowed us to be healthier to have this type of access. I can't answer definitively on that, but I have my ideas.

What was special about this, was the fact that it was one of, if not the first time, that I remember having a conversation of this sort. My family is not anti-green by any means, but to have a conversation about things people are doing to lighten their footprint or to cope with the rising cost of living is not the norm. I find also that I am engaged more often in conversations about the same thing at work, and "over the fence" with neighbors. No Impact Man posted an interesting question today on his blog and it got me to thinking. The question was what thing would you tell a friend that was asking about a good first step they could take to help the environment. The big point here I think is that this is happening more and more today than it ever would have only 6 months ago. For that matter, take a look around the blog world for a second. Nearly a year and a half ago when I first began this blogging adventure of mine, there were only a handful of blogs relating to many of the lifestyle changes that we are making, or to the sustainability movement at all. Now, it seems there's a new blog popping up every hour.

So as the times are changin' so is the context of our dialogue with the people around us. People are asking questions, looking for direction or just probing around perhaps; trying to learn about this movement going on around them. I encourage you to take the opportunities, if they should arise, to share your experiences with others. Many of us are already doing this anonymously through our writing, but taking time to sit down and listen to others and discuss things is one of those things that can't be replaced.

As the times are changing around us, I hope you'll not get to preoccupied with all of the negative press out there. Mind you things may get worse, but within all those clouds there are some silver linings.
The best to you all...till next time.
P~

The Times are Changin' Tuesday

I alluded yesterday to a new series that I thought I'd work on for a while. Today I'd like to introduce "The Times are Changin' Tuesday". Catchy, right? Anyway, in my earlier writing about how we had seen the changes going on around us, I outlined a couple of the simple things that my wife and I had been noticing going on around us. It's been an ongoing conversation for us so together we thought it would be a good idea to document some of the things we see not only in our community, but in the world around us.

I don't want to get into too much analysis of the causes behind the things that I address, although some is inevitable. What I'd really like to get is some feedback from you on how you see them. Do you see these types of things in your neighborhood? What DO you see?

Well, enough intro, what did I notice this week? Something that in a slightly different version is prevalent here in my area.

It seems that, in the bay area at least, Thieves are getting to the recycle bins that are provided by the cities before the cities are. As costs rise, and the $$ return for recycling is increasing, recyclable goods are becoming more and more a hot commodity. Here in Utah, we've had a rash of robberies lately too. Not of recyclable aluminum or copper but of catalytic converters. It seems they contain a lot of VERY expensive metals and folks are stealing them and selling the metals.

Do you see more people recycling in your neighborhood? Have you ever seen anyone stealing recyclables? Do you think that recycling information programs have finally just really kicked in and everyone is concerned about the earth? Maybe, but I doubt it. The fact is, people are trying different kinds of knots to keep the ends tied. The world's changing folks. Keep up or get swept up.

More next Tuesday.

P~