The Blue Notebook

Recently I decided to break with longstanding tradition and contact my elected representatives about something of particular interest: the Evergreen Cities bill currently before the legislature. I almost immediately received responses from Representatives Hunter and Eddy saying that they would be supporting the bill, which was very gratifying to hear.

Although I agree with those who say that we should be focusing most of our attention (and funding) on the places of ecological significance that can still be saved, I think there should be rewards for cities and developers who step back from the gratuitous bulldozing of lots in order to make way for new homes. This happened recently on the one-acre lot at the end of my street, and it was difficult to watch, especially considering that I often saw a pileated woodpecker there. This large woodpecker is normally a shy deep-forest bird, and was a very welcome sight in the midst of a 40-year-old working class neighborhood.

 Here are a couple of pictures that give a very general idea of how my neighborhood was transformed by the addition of four zero-lot $850,000 houses.

Whoa! Everything I wanted to know about using and abusing paper products. My inner engineer is so happy: http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-napkins-002511.php

 Unfortunately, after reading all this stuff I’m still not sure what to do. No really. La Bonita has already told me she “doesn’t want to be a martyr or an eco-peasant”  and so I’m tempted to stay up late at night worrying about paper towels and paper napkins and plastic freezer bags. On the other hand, maybe it is possible to go too far.

 More later….