Urban Renewal & Worm Composting
I thought I'd better update my blog as no one is commenting any more. Rural local politics IS pretty boring, I have to admit.
This is funny.
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Urban Renewal
The public meeting with the Urban Renewal Board, & the Leland Consulting Group went well. I did my part rallying the troops. Of course that is only one step toward getting things done. The interested public are mostly downtown merchants. Their motivation is the survival & growth of their own businesses. Since urban renewal is partly based on matching funds, the businesses have to kick in. Getting downtown merchants to sweep the sidewalks, water the flowers in the containers in front of their stores & clean the their own awnings is almost a battle in itself. The merchants will have a lot better chance of influencing the Urban Renewal Agency if they show they have confidence & pride in their own businesses & a willingness to do what needs to be done. The truth is no one has the money it takes to make the needed changes on their own. In my own downtown (where my apartment is located) building, the owner has taken advantage of urban renewal money. He is petitioning the Urban Renewal Agency this Monday evening to kick in the funds for another project on his building. I'm going to recommend other local businesses attend so they can see how the process works. The business owner & president of the Merchants Association who is the real passion that is keeping this movement going is on vacation this week, but he is going to be in another downtown that has benefited very well from their own urban renewal program, & he is going to take pictures & notes. My own motivation is simple. I just want to see how it all works for future reference.
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I'd like to have some grand project to show you but, surprisingly I'm at a bit of a lull in projects. In a few minutes, I am going to harvest my 5lbs. or so of compost from my worms that live under the kitchen sink...
My industrious pets. The view after I remove the top layer of shredded newspaper :
Sorting the vegetable material from the composted material:
The trick is do this under bright light so the worms scurry to the bottom. I'm using the heat lamp in the bathroom. The finished compost is scooped from the top, sans worms.The rewards of our labors. Mine is in the green bucket.
I fully meant to take a picture of my plot at the community garden & my plants enjoying the benefit of the above compost but forgot to take my camera. :(Next time.
posted by Rita @ 7:07 AM
14 Comments
14 Comments:
So it's back to the worms again I see.
We are composting as well - but for the garden.
I have a little plot a 5x10 feet raised bed at the local community garden. Enough space to raise some heirloom tomatoes, beans & a few squash. & make use of the compost. Do you have a garden in your backyard?
Urban Renewal huh? That sounds neat. Here are some interesting ideas, haha:
Crack Gardens
Urban Battery
Green Sky Scrapers
Gastronomic Garden
Wow...it's like you must really be into worm's,heh? I noticed in past posting's the "worm thing", I really dont know much about them.
Good to hear the urban renewal thing is working out fer ya'll. I am pro-business... not against it at all... it has been great business in Dallas for instance. What really got me on the edge back year's ago in our town... was this town has an abundance of open empty spaces/lot's right in the central city, but these builder's and planner's werent satisfied with the next block or down the street...they decided to use that and to tear down surrounding old and sometimes historic places just so they could showcase it all for their project's... in other word's...money talk's.In fact they got so bad during the last boom back in the 80's.. the city and state at least got a lil more restrictive on what you can and cannot tear down.Downtown and Uptown here are having a massive facelift... but they are expanding the Uptown and central business district so much... they decided to bulldoze now even neighborhood's with thousand's of people... just down the street from where I live... and I'm over 10 miles from downtown... they just leveled two entire city block's of residential and busineses, I mean entirely... and these block's here are twice the size of any in Portland/PDX to give you an idea of the land area. In your town it's probably working out fine for ya'll's situation. We have also massive rail expansion going on all over, and most of it... is elevated rail lines in this town (2 to 3 stories up).
Take Care Ms.Rita .........
"I thought I'd better update my blog as no one is commenting any more. Rural local politics IS pretty boring, I have to admit."
Never fear, I'm here to comment ... Comment.
Rural local politics boring?? NEVER!
What did you do for the 4th of July?
Nice job. Speaking of garden plots, and composting, I knew a guy who made it a point to find out where and when certain Industrial Catering trucks (a.k.a. lunch trucks, grease wagons, roach coaches) made coffee during the day. He collected the coffee grounds and grew prize-winning roses.
qf Urban renewal indeed! The Gastronomic garden is my favorite.
Ranch chimp I do have a worm thing. I am fascinated by them & their composting abilities.
Urban renewal can get out of control, just like anything that unscrupulous people with power & money get into their clutches.
Compared with where you live, our growth is on a much smaller scale. Actually, I don't think it is comparable at all. All we want are things like nice street lights downtown. Which is about a six block area. A lot depends on how much money is in the urban renewal coffers & we only have enough for small projects. Developing a parcel of river front land the city owns, which is an old Mill site about 22 acres in size, is in the forefront of the URA's mind.
regulus Hey stranger! I hope all is well w/you. Rural local politics is on a scale to my liking. Just like rural weekly Newspapers. Anyone can get involved at this level & it's never overwhelming. I'd never make it as a sophisticated urbanite.
I did nothing on the 4th, except get caught up on some things at work. The paper has let a lot of things slide for about 2 years. I've been working on straightening out the subscriber list since I started working there. Now I've been given the responsibility of billing for Ads. That department is also a mess of inconsistency.
It's a challenge & something new for me. It does keep me on my toes.
breakerslion I love the whole organic gardening concept. On whatever scale a person chooses to do it. It's a way to stay connected to that whole circle of life thing. It helps put it in perspective.
Rural politics : well, I wouldn't say BORING. I just don't understand because I do not know your system.
on the other hand, I might end up in your country next year (fall 2010). My bf's next year's posting has come up. We have eyes on New York ! Hopefully it works. (other cities we have eyes on are : Montreal, Mexico, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Istanbul).
I should post some photos from my garden, then we could compare.
prash I should rephrase that first blurb on my post. If I really thought it was boring I'd be involved in something else. But, most people I know think city council meetings for example, are boring. Sitting through 2 hrs. of resolution passing, discussions about this and that grant application & all the other mundane droning dry business... it's pretty slim picking if one is looking for entertainment.
City Government has it's own level of intrigue(?)though. You just have to know where to find it. Or have a really good imagination. :)
Phil I'm afraid my garden isn't that interesting. So far, I have a few heirloom Tomatoes, some beans, herbs & a Zucchini plant...I will post pictures though & would like to see yours.
Well, politics isn't supposed to be just about entertainment. If people want pure political entertainment they can spend their time keeping up on all the Republican sex scandals.
infidel You are right. Personally, I think a little less entertainment & a little more cooperation would be beneficial but the political arena is not known for having a spirit of altruism.
Nice you see you guys composting.
Infidel753, I find it entertaining whenever Palin says "I told you so", but maybe that's because I've got a sense of irony. Who'd ever thought that the dems would be getting told that by an Sarah oil fundie Palin and John nuclear proponent McCain?
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