The Wait is Over. The Doors Have Opened.

November 2, 2011 was a day to celebrate in downtown New Haven, CT. Many of the owner/members of the long-awaited Elm City Market  took the opportunity to be the first ones in the checkout lines during the course of a full day of pre-opening shopping. At 4:30 pm, the entire community poured into the store for the ribbon cutting and opening night festivities — tastings from local vendors to the tunes of local performers. 

The Elm City Market is a hybrid co-op situated on the ground floor of New Haven (and the region’s) greenest apartment building — 360 State Street, a LEED Platinum certified building powered by electricity generated by a fuel cell, developed by Fairfield CT firm Becker + Becker. As of opening day, the market had 750 owner/members. Elm City Market is a food oasis in a densely populated section of the city which had lacked a grocery store for decades. The market’s opening has created over 100 new jobs for local residents!

Getting a market in this location was no easy task. Being selected as developer for the site was a highly competitive process. One requirement for development of the site was inclusion of a high-end, full-service grocery store; failure to provide such a store within the first three years of the building’s opening would result in a hefty $250,000 fine.  When the likely candidates said the footprint was too small, developer Becker + Becker turned to the successful City Market in Burlington, VT for a model. And now, less than 3 years since the December 19, 2008 groundbreaking, here I stand inside a beautiful new grocery store. 

There were many people to thank at the ribbon-cutting, from Webster Bank which had committed $4 million in funding, to retiring 7th Ward alderwoman Bitsie Clark who has been involved with 360 State Street since the selection of the site developer. Even the USDA’s Rural Business Services had a hand in the project, since the market is stimulating business for local farmers.  

Now, back to the market. As a hybrid, the market features local, natural, organic, along with conventional produce, meat, and groceries. Conventional groceries make up about 15% of the market’s SKUs, but are promised by store manager Mark Regni to be “the cleanest…the best of conventional.” The market carries a number of local items, clearly marked LO, many of which were suggested by co-op members, and the managers promise to stock even more. It is particularly strong on local bread and baked goods. There is a 30 foot hot bar, a salad bar, and a seating area for dining in. The prices seem pretty much in line for high-end products, and the sale prices, particularly in the produce area, very fair. On my tour through the aisles I learned that the frozen green beans come from the USA! 

The market also carries an excellent selection of vitamins and supplements, a wide range of natural toiletries and beauty products, and a good assortment of greeting cards and green living items, perfect for last-minute gifts. Many area residents had been making frequent trips to Orange and Milford to shop for such wares in the two stores which had turned down the developer’s offer to open in New Haven. 

Those days are over for me. I’m about to invest in a new set of wheels. I have my shopping cart picked out. I just have to make a trip in the car to pick it up…

Oh happy day! 

Check it out. You, too, could become an owner/member. No work requirement, just a one-time membership fee. Installment plan available. Details here. 

On My Radar 9.10.11

It’s been a busy month in New England with an earthquake (for which I was absent) and Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. I’ve been remiss in reporting a number of important pieces of news. Here are some of the items on my radar.

The WRATH of IRENE:

• No one in the northeast is likely to describe this storm as “over-rated.” While it is true that downtown New Haven survived the storm with minor loss of tree limbs and without any power outages, this was the exception rather than the rule. The city as a whole lost 1,250 trees, storm damage was estimated at $13 million, and some sections were without power for nearly a week. Still, there were no homes or lives lost due to the storm. Such was not the case in the adjoining town of East Haven, where a number of houses washed into the sea. Coastal damage was severe — with extensive beach erosion and property damage statewide, due in part to the astronomical high tide which coincided with the storm’s arrival. So busy were we CT residents focusing on our own woes that it was not until the next day that we learned of the devastation in the Catskills and the state of Vermont. 

GOING GREEN is GOOD for the BOTTOM LINE

• The wind turbine at Phoenix Press kept on turning through most of the storm. The turbine, which automatically shuts down for safety if the wind is more than 60 mph, only did so once over the weekend. Phoenix Press was able to put power back onto the grid during the storm, generating 2,500 kilowatts of power during Irene’s 48-hour visit — more than four times the amount generated normally.

• The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, sponsor of many local cycling events, was recently named one of the top 100 bike stores in the country by Bicycling Magazine.

• Ecovative Design, LLC, a small company on which I reported on May 30 of last year, recently received the Dupont Diamond Award for its biodegradable mushroom packaging. Ecovative produces home-compostable and cost-competitive replacements for conventional packaging foams using mycelium, or "mushroom roots," as a self-assembling glue. In a June 13 press release the company announced an equity investment by 3M, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the DOEN Foundation. Ecovative's technology has broad applications beyond packaging including insulation, building products, automotive, and consumer goods. The company's Mushroom® packaging, EcoCradle™, is currently used by a number of Fortune 500 clients. Ecovative operates a pilot production facility in upstate New York, and plans to expand to new regional manufacturing facilities in the United States. Ecovative now has an online store featuring a variety of “fun stuff” made from mushroom mycelium, all very green, and some purported to make great wedding gifts. 

NEWS from ALL OVER:

• Gus Speth, former Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Justin Haaheim, lead organizer of Act New Haven, were among the over 1,252 arrested in Washington, DC in a two-week protest over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a 1700 hundred mile pipeline carrying the fossil fuel diluted bitumen that would run from Alberta, Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. 

• The state of Connecticut passed a bill which will go into effect on October 1 requiring all businesses that generate over 104 tons of “source-separated organic material” (food scraps, food processing residue and more) annually to compost them.

• In Sacramento, a measure that would have banned expanded polystyrene takeout packaging in California has been shelved without a vote in the state Assembly. Senate Bill 568, which passed the Senate in May and would have gone into effect statewide Jan. 1, 2016, would have applied to PS cups, bowls, trays, containers and clamshells. It would have been the first statewide ban on PS packaging in the U.S. The bill was placed in the inactive file Sept. 8, meaning it could surface again in 2012.

• In response to recent crop failures, women farmers in Nepal have been discarding imported hybrid seeds and husbanding hardier local varieties in cooperative seed banks. 

• The Google Green Grocer program offers Googlers in Mountain View the opportunity to  order the same high-quality, sustainably sourced seafood, meat and eggs they already enjoy in Google cafes, while supporting local community fisheries and farms.

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

• The Elm City Market has now pushed back its opening to October. At the end of August 625 people had signed on as members.

• Officials including Gov. Malloy and DEEP Commissioner Dan Esty met with developer Bruce Becker at 360 State Street late in August in the hopes that the way can be smoothed for a fuel cell metering request so that the building can meter and charge its tenants for the fuel cell power they consume. 360 State’s fuel cell is currently operating at only 55 to 60 percent of capacity, powering only the building’s common areas—corridors and lobbies. 

• New Haven’s Apple Store is rising on Broadway.

• I was deeply saddened to learn that Chris Sanseverino, former chef at Caseus and West Hills alum, died on September 2. Donations can be made to Slow Food CT in Chris’s name. See his obituary for details. 

SPECIAL EVENTS:

September 11

Anniversary and Commemoration of 9|11

New Haven’s bells, including the Yale Carillon and the one at United Church on the Green, will toll city-wide at 1 pm for precisely 1 minute.

September 17

Slow Food’s $5 Challenge 

Take back the 'value meal' by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person.

September 21

5% Day at Whole Foods in Milford 

Whole Foods in Milford will donate 5% of all sales to benefit New Haven’s Common Ground High School. 

September 24

Moving Planet 

Moving Planet is a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis. At the 350CT event people will come to the New Haven Green via bikes, on foot, carpools, mass transit, anything and everything BUT carbon-intensive travel, for a central celebration with tables, music speakers, art, and a bike-powered outdoor screening of the movie Wall-E! Awesome!

BLOG NEWS

I STILL need a reader in Mississippi. Someone must know someone there.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and please come back soon.

Weekend Updates 9.10

The theme Times are Strange (7/16) continues—with weather events vs. fauna this time around. As I write, the drought in Connecticut is ending, as we are being soaked (off and on) by the remnants of tropical storm Nicole combined with a secondary low tracking up the Eastern Seaboard. Nicole is the 14th named storm of the hurricane season which begins on June 1 and ends on November 30. It is considered to be an “active” year when there are 16-17 named storms. 

To the South, heavy rains had been plaguing Mexico and Central America for weeks before Hurricane Matthew arrived. On September 27, as many as 30 people were buried in a landslide in northwest Colombia. The next day, a large mudslide engulfed a sleeping village in Oaxaca, Mexico: 11 people are missing. At least 16 perished in a second mudslide in Chiapas, Mexico. 

Weeks of rain in the northern Midwest caused the Wisconsin River to rise to an all-time high of 20.6 feet: it crested on the 27th. Some 300 people became trapped in Blackhawk Park, Wisconsin after the access roads were washed out.

Also on the 27th, LA reached its hottest recorded temperature — 113°F! Not the hottest temperature for that date, but the hottest temperature ever recorded since records began in 1877. Temperatures have only been 110 degrees or higher three other times in LA. 

Igor, the hurricane that avoided a direct hit with New England, pummeled Newfoundland on September 21, technically as a “post-tropical” storm, but with the same power as a hurricane. The last storm to strike Newfoundland with such force occurred in 1935, before storms were named. 

  

Two tornadoes roared through Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island on September 16. One person died when a tree fell onto the roof of the car she was driving. An estimated 10,000 trees were wiped out. 

Yesterday the spider was still catching insects in our backyard in its stunning web (albeit in a slightly different location). Alas, the web has not survived the storm. But perhaps he/she’ll be back at it when the sun comes out tomorrow or the next day.

Food News:

Jack DeCoster, owner of Wright County Egg, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations on September 22. “We were horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick,” DeCoster said in the statement he read to the subcommittee. “We apologize to every one who may have been sickened by eating our eggs. I pray several times each day for all of them and for their improved health.” Jack DeCoster has a history of violations at egg operations in Maine, Iowa, and elsewhere going back many years. 

Other News:

An article titled “Cleaner for the Environment, Not for Dishes” became the most emailed story of the day when it appeared in the New York Times. In brief, it documented user dissatisfaction with their favorite dishwashing detergents once the phosphate concentrations were reduced (by laws that went into effect in 17 states in July). Numerous blogs picked the story up. Over 370 readers posted comments on the NYT site. Several friends confided that they had thought their dishwashers were broken until they read the article. 

In a post dated May 17, I referenced New Haven’s goal to plant 10,000 trees over the next ten years. From a Metro North window I read a poster announcing New York City’s goal to plant one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. Clearly they have experienced a huge setback with 10,000 trees lost in the recent tornadoes.

Political campaigns are heating up across the country. On Sunday former President Bill Clinton stumped for Dick Blumenthal just up the street at my son’s alma mater, Wilbur Cross High School. You can read all about it in the New Haven Independent. It’s too close to call in many states: you just might hold the deciding vote. You can see which way your state is trending by going to this google blog where there is an interactive map. 

The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop has completed its move and is now open for business on the ground floor of New Haven’s newest and greenest apartment building, 360 State Street. On October 6, from 6:00 pm–8:00 pm at the Hall of Records, 200 Orange Street, there will be a public meeting to discuss the food co-op that will occupy the remainder of the space. Elm City Market is scheduled to open in February, 2011.

On a sad and ironic note, Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway Corporation, met his death on September 27 when he inadvertently rode a Segway off a cliff and into a river on the grounds of his North Yorkshire estate. HIs death has raised some safety concerns with the environmentally-friendly vehicle, popular with many police departments and urban tour companies.

Not Quite the Last Weekend in August Updates

Even the most intrepid blogger needs a break now and then. I took one and have returned rested, refreshed, and full of new ideas. You will probably hear of an adventure or two in the coming days. But, for now, here are the updates for AUGUST!

Our solar fan is turning away, helping us to stay cool during the unseasonably warm late summer days whenever they come around (Cooling with the Sun: 9/1).

Shark sightings continued to plague Cape Cod swimmers (Times Are Strange: 7/16). One was tagged off the coast of Truro on August 23, and sighting of what turned out to be a harmless basking shark forced swimmers out of the waters of Nauset Beach on August 27. But hurricanes and riptides have become the more serious threat.

A manatee was spotted at the Clinton Marina. And, for the first time ever, we had to stop our car on Farnam Drive in East Rock Park to let a doe and fawn stroll across the road. Deer sightings have traditionally been much more common on the west side of town.

Shooting of woodchucks (Woodchuck Wednesday: 6/16) has returned in Beaver Hills; apparently the traps were not a complete success. But a pair of pantyhose, stuffed with rags which had been liberally doused with fox urine, and then tossed into the hole under a porch in the Berkshires, has driven at least one woodchuck to seek a new residence.

Recycling left, trash on the right

The new trash/recycling program in which a newly-delivered small (48 gallon) brown toter becomes the trash container and the old trash toter (larger and blue) becomes the recycling container, began in New Haven’s Westville and Beaver Hills neighborhoods on August 23 (Weekend Updates 8/1). So far, at least on one street, it seems to be working. You can read more about it in the Independent.

Other News:

A second oil platform caught on fire off the Louisiana coast on September 2. The fire was quickly extinguished, all the workers were safely rescued, and the initial reports of an oil leak proved unfounded. The FDA would like us to believe that Gulf seafood is safe to eat, but not everyone agrees. The safety of the dispersants used to break up the spill remains the big question for many. A commercial fisherman was quoted asking in Time: "If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?"

The massive egg recall is the new poster child for the risks to humans posed by factory farming. You can read more about the risks to chickens here.

New Haven’s newest and greenest apartment building, 360 State Street, opened on August 1. It has many Green features, including a 400 kilowatt fuel cell which combines hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, heat and pure water. The largest residential installation of this type in the world, 360 State's fuel cell will generate
most of the building's energy needs.

August Birthdays:

Blogger, the Google product that allows me to publish ontheroadtogreenness turned 11 on August 31, and my blog turned a year old on August 14. This is my 72nd post. Thank you all for reading, commenting, making suggestions, and sharing with your friends over the past year. Having a blog has changed my life.

A Squash is a Berry; Shaw’s is No More

The phrase should perhaps be eat your fruits and fruits.

I had long known that tomatoes are a fruit, but somehow had never made the jump to winter squash. And not only is a squash a fruit; it is a berry. And it is not just a berry, but a pepo, a berry with a thick rind. Cucumbers, summer and winter squashes and melons are all pepos. Peppers, eggplants and bananas are just berries. 

Nor was I used to thinking of legumes (peanuts and beans) as fruits, but fruits they are. And most things we call “nuts” are actually fruits in the nut subcategory, but not almonds, which are drupes like cherries.

Do you have all this straight? It was a relief to learn that some “vegetables” are not fruits. But perhaps we should be calling them roots, shoots and leaves.

On the same day I was absorbing all this arcane knowledge, I also heard that my local supermarket, which I consider a great place to buy pepos and other fruits and vegetables, and where I discovered the parsnip, will be Shaw’s no more. Supervalu is divesting itself of all its Shaw’s stores in Connecticut. Most are being acquired by Stop & Shop, but no buyer has been found for the downtown New Haven store.

This is a blow to New Haven, particularly to the Dwight neighborhood, adjacent to Yale University. With its store on Whalley Avenue, Shaw’s is the only major chain with a presence anywhere near the downtown area. Many who live and work in the neighborhood do not have cars. It is about five miles away in any direction from Shaw’s to another store of similar size and quality.

It was quite an accomplishment when the Dwight Community Development Corporation succeeded in attracting Shaw’s to the neighborhood in 1998. Downtown New Haven had been without a major supermarket for years. Shaw’s became a place to shop, as well as a source of good neighborhood jobs.

I have chosen to shop at Shaw’s over its competitors. Its prices are fair. The store is clean and well-stocked. It is convenient. They have the best bananas around. Ask anyone. I am very sorry Supervalu has chosen to leave the state.

The developer of 360 State Street has promised to include a supermarket on the ground floor of the 500 unit apartment complex which is under construction in my ward. (There is a hefty penalty if he does not.) The footprint is not as large as Shaw’s, but the market will be close enough for me to walk there with a shopping cart. If an agreement can be reached, and the store is to my liking, I will have my grocery store.

But 360 State is a long walk from the site of Shaw’s, and a store at this location will not solve the problem for the people who live in the Dwight neighborhood, for the many residents who have jobs at Shaw’s, or for Yale students. Lower Whalley Avenue has already experienced the closing of Rite-Aid and Staples in the last few months, leaving empty retail space and parking lots and very few places to shop. For students without cars, The Yale Bookstore (Barnes & Noble) and Gourmet Heaven are the only convenient (albeit pricey) options.

Surely Shaw’s would not have remained in New Haven all these years without a reasonably good profit margin. I hope that one of the other chains can look beyond its usual suburban model to open a store in a city center. I am sure the City of New Haven and the Yale Office of New Haven and State Affairs are doing their best to find a buyer.

I hope they succeed. And, if they do, I promise I will give their pepos (and parsnips) a try.