Another Green Monday
Coming off Bike To Work Week, we’ll let Ezra Klein do the talking this morning.
The debate over auto ownership is unfortunately moralistic when, in my experience, the realities of auto ownership are almost entirely decided by infrastructure. Left for LeDroit, an excellent blog covering my neighborhood, makes the point well in a recent post: Cities and neighborhoods built before the advent of car culture tend to be pretty easy to navigate without a car, and as you can see in the graph above, a lot of the people who live in them tend to not own cars. Conversely, cities that were built after cars became the norm essentially require their residents to own cars and their residents comply.
In practice, this doesn't feel like a decision imposed by the cold realities of infrastructure. We get attached to our cars. We get attached to our bikes. We name our subway systems. We brag about our short walks to work. People attach stories to their lives. But at the end of the day, they orient their lives around pretty practical judgments about how best to live. If you need a car to get where you're going, you're likely to own one. If you rarely use your car, have to move it a couple of times a week to avoid street cleaning, can barely find parking and have trouble avoiding tickets, you're going to think hard about giving it up. It's not about good or bad or red or blue. It's about infrastructure.
Ah yes, there’s that word again: Infrastructure. And he basically argues that is more important than individual behavior. However, Bike To Work Week is very helpful and greatly needed. It makes bike commuting a normal way to go and in Spokane people know because of this event the activity is not so unconventional after all.
Stories after the jump...
More on this to come later, but.... SustainableWorks is moving North! On Tuesday, SustainableWorks launched its energy saving program in Northwest Spokane. SustainableWorks is a federally-funded local non-profit that works in communities to create jobs and retrofit homes to be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Previously, SustainableWorks was in the South Perry neighborhood where some residents are already saving 40% on their energy bills. As we said in the title, we'll have more on this later, but for now if you're interested check out their site HERE or call the SustainableWorks office at 509.532.1688.
The slow oil spill in the Puget Sound. There's certainly no gushing pipe to talk about but there are millions of gallons of petroleum and chemicals transported to the Puget Sound by stormwater. Said best by Kevin Ranker and David Dicks in a recent column in the Seattle-Times, "the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the equivalent of an environmental stroke. Our own personal oil spill is the equivalent of an environmental cancer slowly eating away at the health of our precious Puget Sound." Read more HERE.
Mandatory bike parking. In a move that city of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto said puts the city in the forefront of promoting alternative modes of transportation, the North Van council unanimously supported a zoning bylaw amendment that would require new developments include parking for bicycles and, in the case of non-residential buildings, showering and change room facilities. Read more HERE.
“Vaaaaroooooommm!!!” Doug Clark does not like this: 
