On My Radar 3.1.14

Recent News. Happenings. Discoveries…Here are some of the items on my radar.

METEOROLOGICAL NEWS:

The West has finally gotten some rain, but too much, too fast, with some devastating results. All that rain did little to mitigate the multi-year drought. One official opined that it would have to rain every other day until May just to reach average precipitation levels.

Storm Titan is now making its way across the country.  The Northeast, once again in the grip of the Polar Vortex, is waiting to see how much snow Titan will deposit during its visit here. 

The smog that blanketed much of northern China, including the city of Beijing, last week has dissipated somewhat, but a report in Mashable predicts such problems will continue until dramatic steps are taken to reduce pollutants. In early December, Shanghai, on the coast of central China, was shrouded in smog. You can see the dramatic images here. Time claims that China’s smog is being called a “Nuclear Winter.”  

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

In advance of Thursday’s public hearing on United Illuminating’s Vegetation Management Plan, Urban Resources Initiative (URI) has issued its position. You can read it in its entirety here. In summary, URI calls for:  

• A balanced approach to securing electrical power reliability by removing hazardous trees and branches while retaining healthy trees
• A comprehensive review of all trees
• Development of a detailed plan for removal or pruning
• Replacement planting
• Undergrounding of distribution wires as a long-term solution

The public is invited to sign up to make brief comments at this meeting. URI urges all lovers of trees to turn out; a large audience will send a strong message. Details on the time and place are below.

The Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, a fundraiser for environmental causes in New Haven, is less than two months away. The snow should be gone by then, and organizers are urging all past and future riders to commit — now! Join a team and start collecting pledges!

Justin Elicker, former Ward 10 Alder and Mayoral Candidate, was recently named Executive Director of the New Haven Land Trust. The Land Trust cares for and manages 80 acres of property and oversees 50 community vegetable gardens across the City. “I am thrilled to take on this challenge as executive director,” Elicker said. “As the state’s first urban land trust and one of New Haven’s pioneers of urban agriculture, the Land Trust has a history of being visionary while delivering a direct and positive impact on the daily lives of our city’s residents. I look forward to building upon the Land Trust’s strong relationships with communities throughout the city to increase access to healthy food, foster environmental stewardship and facilitate strengthening connections within and across all of New Haven’s neighborhoods.”

Rachel Ziesk, Community Garden Manager at the Land Trust, is thinking ahead to Spring. In her blog Organic Gardening she has been posting tips for garden planning. Her latest post discusses what to consider as you flip through those beautiful seed catalogs.

FOOD NEWS:

The nutrition label on food packages may get its first makeover in 20 years. If the recommendations are approved, a consumer will no longer need to do mental math to calculate calories and nutrition information. The two most dramatic changes proposed are updates to serving sizes and a larger, bolder type face for the calories in the product.

Chipotle is rolling out Braised Tofu Sofritos, the first item to become a permanent addition to the menu since salads were added in 2005. The organic tofu experiment began in 2013 with seven locations in the Bay Area. This item is not available in Connecticut yet, but Chipotle advises “stay tuned.” According to Bloomberg Business Week, Tofu Sofritos should be an option in all 1,572 U.S. stores by the end of 2014.

RELATIVE NEWS:

My niece Sophie, college sophomore and blogger at Philo-Sophie is planning a summer service trip to Haiti. You can read more about it here. 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, March 6th

6:30 pm

Hamden Middle School, 2623 Dixwell Avenue

Technical Meeting and Public Info Session

hosted by PURA with a presentation by United Illuminating (UI)

In response to public objections to the UI plan adopting Enhanced Tree Trimming or Tree Removal (ETT/ETR) 

March 19th

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Chipotle, 910 Chapel Street, New Haven

New Haven Green Drinks 

Chris Schweitzer (New Haven/León Sister City Project) and 

Joel Tolman (Common Ground High School) will speak on 

the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride

Chipotle will donate half of all sales, including Margaritas and beer purchases, between 5 pm and 9 pm to support Rock to Rock.

Saturday Short Subjects: How New Haven Voted Last Tuesday

The candidate we supported in the 2013 mayoral race in New Haven was not elected last week. Justin Elicker fought a good fight, was gracious in defeat, and thanked all of his supporters for their efforts on his behalf. 

The winner, Toni Harp, had the backing of the Democratic Party, including public endorsements from the governor and CT’s US Congressional delegation. Yet the race was far closer than many had imagined it would be. Toni Harp received 11,363 votes to Justin Elicker’s 9,425 votes — a difference of less than 1000 votes [Thanks to Helen Bennett of the New Haven Register for sharing the official results.]

The weather was perfect on Election Day —  blue skies, seasonal temperatures. Yet, the next mayor was chosen by just over 29% of New Haven’s voters. That’s correct. According to Bennett’s figures, a mere 21,120 of the 72,278 eligible to participate in the election chose to vote in this year’s mayor’s race. 

What a shame.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Saturday Short Subjects: Get Out and Vote

For many of us this coming Tuesday, November 5, is a very important day — Election Day. In my city of New Haven, Connecticut, we are voting to elect a new mayor for the first time in 20 years!

How the citizens of New Haven vote will have a dramatic impact on the city’s future. Will they vote the party as usual, or will they vote for change? It may well turn out to be a scenario in which every single vote counts. I know I will be at the polls first thing in the morning, and I will be devoting Tuesday to helping my candidate. 

Most of us have had the right to vote since we hit the age of 18. For that we owe the hard work of those brave individuals who fought long and hard to win this right for all Americans. 

Only white, male property owners were eligible to vote in the first presidential election in 1789 (6% of the population). 

The 15th Amendment passed in 1870 declared that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." In reality, it took the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to preventing southern states from any longer finding ways to disenfranchise black voters.

The Women’s Suffrage Movement began in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, but it took until August, 1920 to pass the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. For photos of the gutsy women whose protests and arrests made the amendment’s passage possible, visit the archives of the Library of Congress. Just think, this happened less than 100 years ago!

Naturalized citizens have to study and pass a test in order to earn the right to vote. Here are the 100 questions on which the citizenship test draws. Did you know all these answers? 

Have a nice weekend. And, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

The Ayes Have It: New Haven Alders Say “No” to Bottled Water

In a roll call vote on March 7, 2011, the New Haven Board of Alderman granted their overwhelming approval to an order prohibiting the use of any public funds to purchase bottled water for the City of New Haven, including bottled water for the New Haven Public Schools, except in cases when no municipal water or other alternative source of healthful drinking water is accessible or when necessary to address health requirements or emergencies. This order was originally introduced by Alderman Justin Elicker at a public hearing before the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee on February 15.

Last night’s vote was preceded by brief testimony by Alderman Elicker who cited reports that #7 plastic (of which large water drums are made) are endocrine disruptors. He also referenced a story on NPR this past weekend which reported that all plastics (including those of which small serving bottles are made) leach chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen. He also emphasized his points about the safety and purity of our municipal water supply and how we should be reinforcing this message in our schools instead of giving students cause to think that our water is somehow not good enough for them to drink.

The only publicly dissenting voice was that of Alderman Darnell Goldson who supported the order “with concerns.” He approved the ban on the purchase of bottled water but wished the order had been presented as part of a larger package during the budget process. He particularly expressed concerns over the high cost of the City’s cell phones and voice mail system and asked why we do “the easy stuff first.” Alderman Elicker countered, “This was not easy to do.”

When the vote was called, 26 of 30 alders were present. There were 23 ayes, 2 abstentions, and one pass. 

One question remains: Will the Board of Ed follow the order? The Board of Aldermen can not dictate how the Board of Education can spend the money allocated to them. The Board of Ed made that point clear at the previous public hearing (via messenger). 

Some may see the projected $32,000 savings from this measure as a mere “Drop in the bucket.” It may not do much to close the $57 million budget shortfall the City currently faces, but it is a cut that needed to be made by a city who wants to be known as “Green.” We owe a thanks to Alderman Elicker and to all the effort he put into this order. [Justin Elicker was recently named to CT Magazine's 40 under 40 List.]

Missing last night were the legions of supporters who had come out for the public hearing in February. Yale students are on spring break, and the hard core activists must have heard how the vote was going to go. No one told me, but I was happy to attend the meeting, my first full board meeting ever. I was impressed by the civility of everyone in the room, how seriously each alder took his/her responsibilities, and how much they seemed to care for one another. I stayed until the end when the personal items not on the agenda were introduced. I observed a moment of silence,  applauded an honor, joined in on the singing of “Happy Birthday” and walked out the door with my alderwoman when the meeting was over. Now that’s participatory democracy.  

  

New Haven Starts to Think Outside the Bottle

The Aldermanic Chambers of New Haven’s City Hall came alive last night as dozens of supporters turned out for a hearing before the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee on a proposal to end the purchase of bottled water by the City of New Haven.

The bill, introduced by Alderman Justin Elicker, would prohibit the use of public funds to purchase bottled water — both the drums of water used in municipal buildings and the bottles of water currently being purchased for resale to New Haven schoolchildren. According to Elicker, the water currently purchased for use in public buildings is “purified water” from the municipal water supply of Worcester, Massachusetts, which is then bottled and trucked some 100 miles to New Haven.

Alderman Elicker made a thoughtful and detailed presentation replete with props (a sample water cooler jug, a bag of squashed empty water bottles, and refreshments for the alders in attendance — jars of water he had collected from fountains at city schools), expert witnesses from the Regional Water Authority (with handouts), facts, and even a little humor. Elicker had traveled around New Haven sampling water, and vouched for the cleanliness of the school water fountains and the coolness of the water (except in one instance where the cooling mechanism was faulty and he duly reported the problem). His passionate plea left few with any doubts that this idea was a good one. A point that Justin made, that the RWA representatives also stated, and that would be repeated by supporters throughout the evening, was that tap water is much more highly regulated than bottled water. Tap water must be deemed safe from source to tap, while bottled water has no source protection. 

Many spoke in support of the proposal. They included a regional director from the Think Outside the Bottle campaign; Justin Haaheim, environmental organizer for Act New Haven; Yale undergraduates working on a campus campaign to Think Outside the Bottle, some of whom had conducted a “Tap Water Challenge” taste test before the meeting; Yale Recycling Coordinator C.J. May who had a couple of magic tricks up his sleeve; and Yale faculty who offered both scientific and spiritual/ethical reasons to support such a ban. A group of Glastonbury high school students in matching tie-dyed t-shirts were perhaps the biggest crowd pleasers. Members of a group called PeaceJam, which works to create positive change through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates, they spoke of the “fill station” they had succeeded in getting installed at their school, congratulated the board for “considering” this action, and urged everyone to “Be the change.”

One of the last to testify was community activist Aaron Goode, who promised to supply a reusable water bottle “with your name on it” for any City official who had a problem with the cooler ban. 

No one from the Board of Education, which has concerns over implementation of the plan, was able to attend last night’s meeting. Instead, board members sent a request to delay the vote, conveyed through Rob Smuts, the City’s Chief Administrative Officer and a supporter of the proposal, along with a message that the Board of Aldermen could not tell the Board of Education how to spend its money. This request did nothing to sway the opinion of Aldermen Elicker who had been unhappy with the Board of Ed’s general lack of support. The motion as presented by Elicker passed unanimously, without amendments, and will go before the full Board of Aldermen for a vote at its March 7th meeting.

If voted in to law, the ban on bottled water would yield some savings in the range of $31,000-$32,000 in savings, equivalent to the cost of 3,000 textbooks, according to Elicker. It may not do much to close the $57 million budget shortfall the City currently faces, but it is a cut that should have been made a long time ago. New Haven wants to be known as a Green city. What easier way to continue to Walk the Walk than by taking this simple step? 

[You can read more on the February 16th meeting at the sites of the New Haven Independent, the New Haven Register (where there are also videos), and the Yale Daily News.]