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Showing posts from January, 2007

Bike | Walk

During my first fall in Berkeley, I was confronted by a police officer for two bicycle infractions: I was bicycling on the sidewalk and I was biking against traffic. I was still unfamiliar with Berkeley's street system. In particular, I had not yet memorized the streets that change direction, for example, Dana Street. South of Dwight, Dana is a two-way street, but north of Dwight, Dana is one-way running in a southerly direction. Shortly after that, the rains began and I put my bicycle in storage. I have not ridden my bike since that time. I identify as a walker: I am a member of the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association and I read the Walking Berkeley blog. But, I support bicycle access and Berkeley is a bicycle town. There are numerous bike shops, especially clustered in the downtown area . The city maintains seven bike boulevards , four north-south (Ninth, California/ King, Milvia, and Hillegaas/ Bowditch) and three east/west (Virginia, Channing, and Russell). Berkele

Urban trees and the Giraffa camelopardalis

I have worked as an urban forester, managing street-tree planting contracts; a community forester, co-directing a youth urban ecology program; and an arborist, all in Boston. I received my Massachusetts arborist certification in 2002, after successfully completing an exam which included included a tree identification section. One of the places where I developed my identification skills was the Arnold Arboretum in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. The Arboretum's collection is extensive - 7,082 individual plants on 265 acres. The trees of the Arboretum are well catalogued which made it a great place to study. I also developed my identification skills on the job - visiting nurseries to select street and park trees, working with youth and community groups on street tree inventories, and monitoring the health of street trees during the contractual maintenance period. Along the way I discovered some amazing tree places like majestic ginkgos ( Ginkgo biloba ) on Tonawanda

Power plant or sunshine

Despite two weeks of clear skies and sunshine, we bought a space heater this past weekend. Last week's temperatures were unseasonably cold. Lawns were often frost covered in the early morning. Daily temperatures were warmer this week but we saw ice patches where overnight sprinklers had watered sidewalks. We could have taken a cue from the Carter administration and bundled up in sweaters and thick socks (which we did for one night), but a space heater seemed like a reasonable purchase. If we were owners instead of renters, we could consider installing solar panels or other renewable energy technology. Fulton and Oregon Solar roof panels were recently installed on the southside of a house in the Le Conte neighborhood. Also, I have noticed that many apartment buildings have solar roof panels. I intend to map these buildings (please send the addresses of the ones you find - you can leave the information as a comment to this post). The City of Berkeley has an Energy and S

Trees that made the headlines

Although it is not a tree, the Presidio clarkia , is the latest plant species to become the center of controversy. Today's edition of the Oakland Tribune includes a story by Momo Chang about the endangered plant, located on a 1.28-acre sloping parcel in the Oakland Hills. A residential development project of four 3800 square-foot houses has been approved by the City Council. This decision met with resistance by community members. Apparently the parcel supports "10 percent of the world's known Presidio clarkia." Elsewhere in Oakland, municipal decisions have sparked community protest. Last year, proposed tree removals as part of the city's restoration plans for Lake Merritt met with criticism. I wrote about this in September 2006 . Earlier this week, the Berkeley Daily Planet published another article on the Save the Oaks protest in northeast Berkeley. The University of California has proposed the removal of a grove of trees including 38 live oaks to

Martin Luther King Jr.

Oakland, CA Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech The King Center - MLK's biography

Looking for nature

Fog above the Charles River, Boston, MA I write about the neighborhood. I have written about neighborhoods in Berkeley and in other cities. I started this blog with the intention of writing mostly about nature and neighboring, but I have cast a fairly wide net. I would like to return to neighborhood nature this year. Nature is one of the four organizing principles of the neighborhood. Marcia McNally uses three other dimensions to assess and to plan for the neighborhood landscape: structure (land use and zoning), network (transportation), and setting (places that could support community). In addition to physical aspects of the neighborhood, I consider actual neighboring (like a conversation on the sidewalk) as well as markers of neighboring (like maintaining in the public right of way ). The river-view photograph was taken on New Year's Day along Memorial Drive. Some theories of the city have placed it at odds with nature. Several elements in the photograph (top) challe

Resolutions

The New Year is a time for making resolutions. Nancy Pelosi's Congress has 100 days of resolutions . Life Hack has compiled the top 15 resolutions of the year . My resolution, in part, is to take stock of last year. In this spirit, I have created a digest of the December posts. Read, reflect, and comment. December 17 : Theoretical origin of "local ecology," part 2 : case example Read more December 13 : Livable (traffic-calmed) streets The concept of "livable streets" was developed by Donald Appleyard between the 1960s and his death in 1982. Read more December 10 : Another list : neighborhood history projects Here are a few neighborhood (and city) history projects I like. Read more December 9 : The theoretical origin of "local ecology" In the fall of 2004 I wrote a prospectus outlining the idea of "local ecology." Read more December 4 : The quilt, a neighborhood metaphor I am a member of the Wishing Quilt collective. We recentl