The Parva Project

February 10th and warm with a sky the color of wood ash, Tawnya and I loaded the dogs into the van and headed out to Symbiosis for a romp.  First time out there, with a lot to like, such as the pond with an upside-down row boat on the shore, plank bridges back and forth across the rolling switchback creek, and three sided poetry boxes mounted on 4×4 posts.  It is hard to keep myself indoors when it gets up to 50 degrees, even if it is threatening rain.  A few drops asperged the windshield on the way back, but nothing to worry about.

Yes, it is hard to stay inside when a stack of research books arrives at your front door at the end of the week with titles like “Your Brain on Nature” by Selhub and Logan, “The Nature Principle” and ohmygosh “Last Child in the Woods” by Louv.  Richard Louv is a modern day Aldo Leopold.  My dilemma was that I could sit in the house reading my research and listening to the tock-tock-tocking of the “Made in China” wall clock and sipping coffee, or I could do what the books were saying and hit the trail.

So I took turned the page and kept reading.  Tock.  Tock.  Not.

I’ll take a walk in the woods any time of year.  I used to camp in the woods in all four seasons, so muddy boots in February and the like aren’t bothersome to me at all.  Fact is, I prefer a carpet of northern hardwood leaves to just about anything you can lay down in a house.

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Linda Sanders is the vice president of the Shelby County Council in Indiana.  The county commissioners appointed her to the board of directors of Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority. Ads on TV and radio from Indy Connect have been airing locally and getting some much needed conversation going on an important topic.  There is a need for mass transit in central Indiana, but more than that.  Public transportation is only one piece of the puzzle to fix a broken transportation infrastructure.  These are positive changes for Indiana, but Indy and the metropolitan area aren’t the only places facing these challenges.

We are struggling against infrastructure that was built around the assumption that everyone would be driving a car or truck.  That assumption is becoming less and less true.  More and more young people are saying they don’t even want a car and the expenses that go with it.  They’d rather spend their money elsewhere.  Nationwide ridership is decreasing.  It may not look like it, but there are less vehicles on the road this year than last.  But you wouldn’t know it from transportation proposals.  We’re putting down new roads when the ones we already have are in disrepair, and less drivers will be on both.

If Indianapolis was to get a shot in the arm affirmation on a referendum for mass transit and bus routes were added, more buses were added, and people liked it so much they decided to put in a train or subway system, it still wouldn’t address the truth that the bus won’t come right to your door.  There is a walk, or a bike ride, or yes a car involved.  If you’re walking or biking in some areas to get to the bus stop or your destination, the infrastructure can put the fear of God in you.

Linda points out the exponential returns on funds put into transportation alternatives produces in economic activity but this return assumes adequate pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure to go along with it.  So if we aren’t also thinking about bike routes and lanes, and safe off street non-motorized multi-use trails that connect people with places, we aren’t anywhere close to achieving success.

Success would be if I could walk to a bus stop less than a mile from my house and ride to downtown Indianapolis, get off and rent a bike-share bicycle and take a ride on the Monon Trail.

Well, it would be a start.

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Two big news flashes today:

1. My sources over at Transportation for America (T4A) tell me that Congress is set to take up the next Transportation bill.  They’ve hung a survey asking ”Who are you? How do you get around? What issues do you care most about? What can we do differently?”  I urge you to help them out; the survey only took me five minutes to complete.

2. Ray LaHood just stepped down as head of the Transportation Department.  The question is, “who will replace him?”  Will he be for Complete Streets and active transportation?

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When you don’t carry a pen and paper with you on your commute home, sometimes you forget what you were going to say the next time the call to blog hits you.  I had my smart phone with me, yes, and yes I took a few pictures on the way back, but I’m still getting used to opening a note, pressing the microphone button and telling Google what I want to remember.   That, and it was sprinkling out and I didn’t want to get my phone wet.

That can be a big deal, if you truly want to remember something, but you are fighting your ADD for real estate in your brain.  (Yes, I blame it on my ADD, baby.  If you want to be a high functioning being, you have to write it down when it hits, and then remember where you wrote it down and why.)

But my commute home was by bicycle.  I lashed it to my PT Cruiser this morning and rode it the 26 miles home, and was absolutely exhilarated when I walked in the back door.  It was 51 and misting, which is okay because I own performance fabrics–a small collection but very effective.  Starting from the skin, you want a breathable moisture wicking layer, followed by another layer that both warms you and draws the moisture even further away such as waffle cut fleece, which is my preference but since I didn’t want to boil I skipped that layer and went with a cotton-rayon t-shirt, a water resistant wind shell, and a winter cycling jacket.  I figured that if I got hot, I could just unzip or remove the jacket.  Didn’t have to.

What I’ll remember about this ride (my third this January, and all three in temperatures in the high 40s to high 50′s) is the warm smell of horses on a cool, rainy breeze.  Around here, that isn’t a common January experience, but I’m writing it down and I won’t forget.  I won’t forget riding through puddles like a kid, the fog snaking across the wet pavement north of Marietta.  I won’t forget the shooshing of my tires in the side-of-the-road sand, compliments of the county highway crews after this winter’s two snow storms.  I won’t forget the sound of the rising Blue River waters as I dashed over them on the bridge.  I won’t forget the sound of my own breathing or the tiny raindrops on my Oakleys or the way a single crocus bud can define your whole day because you were traveling at a pace that allowed you to experience it.

Now my only problem is that my car is at work.  Well actually, no problem.

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Are bicycle liveries an idea whose time has come again?  I was browsing through Google books public domain offerings, which digital shelves are stuffed full of  everything from the mundane to the glorious.  For a time the bike livery supplanted the horse, as we can see in the picture.  Could they supplant something larger and heavier, say… the automobile?

How many neighborhoods have abandoned store fronts or gas stations that could be put to good use.  What sorts of services could be offered for a monthly fee besides a room full of bike racks, bathrooms with showers and changing areas, a well stocked work bench and air hoses, lockers and laundry drop off.

Are you seeing where I am going with this?

Such liveries could branch nationwide just like gyms (which they could also offer in the winter time for those who want to use their bike on a training stand) and offer multi-location memberships.  Would a buck a day be too much for such a service, if it included minor repairs for free, and discounts for more extensive work?

I’m just sayin’.

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On Wednesday evening, my wife TK and I, along with representatives from Hoosier Rails to Trails Council and the Indiana Trails Fund,  attended the Shelbyville Indiana city council meeting to present route information on U.S. Bicycle Route 35 coming through town.  The council unanimously approved the route.  Now on to approval by the Shelby county commissioners in a couple of weeks.  This is huge for my city, as we continue to plan other projects that will tie into USBR35, such as a park connector trail, a trail along the Blue River on the north end of town, buy in to Complete Streets, and one day, designation as a Bike Friendly Community by The League of American Bicyclists.

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I took a bike ride on January 19th.  That might not mean much to you, but to a Hoosier like myself, it is quite the feat to brag about.  Fine, R.V. was telling me about a friend of his who committed himself to riding his bike to work every day, come snow or tsunami, and has been faithful, and I’m all excited about a 17 miler on a sunny day when the mercury rose into the forties.  I’m still not going to wipe the smile off of my face.  Big changes are coming

Ever since I started this journey, in fits and starts, back in 2007, it seems that there were a lot of pieces missing from the puzzle.  I’ve made a concerted effort to find them and plug them in.  I’m in full gear finishing up my master’s degree, I’ve turned in my credentials to become a Certified Emergency Manager, and soon after that I’ll seek fellowship level in the American College of Contingency Planners.  It all has to do with sustainability, which has been the golden thread in the fabric of my career makeover, the subject that lights my fire.  The subset of sustainability that I would like to see restored, as you know if you’ve read this blog, concerns human scale and pace.

There are so many people today seeking to simplify, to un-complicate, to scale back from an unsustainable and soul wearying life.  So I’m tying up some loose ends for my sustainability consultant “cred” as they call it. In the end, could I do what I’m doing without it?  Sure, but I’ve done the work, so I might as well have the recognition of my peers.

I know I’ve been a long time away from the keyboard, but I’ve been working on Going Small.  For you.  It’ll be done and published by this summer.  Promise.

JG

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Where have you been?  What have you been doing?  Why haven’t you been posting?  What is going on over there at the Parva Project?

1. In July and August I was away at Fort Knox for pre-mobilization training.  My National Guard unit is deploying, but our mission was modified and I ended up being one of those staying behind.  I got a lot of good training, learned a good lesson on living with next to nothing, and came back with a very uneven tan.

2. In September I transitioned from the job I have been doing for the past two years, into “terminal leave” until the end of this month.  I’m also interviewing to come back as a civilian at my workplace, so things are sort of up in the air in that arena.

3. My community’s “bicycle infrastructure” working group is hosting a bike friendly seminar put on jointly by the state department of health and Bicycle Indiana.  This should propel us forward on several projects to make the city a better place to walk and bicycle.

4. I joined the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) and the League of American Bicyclists.  Hopefully I can contribute at the fellowship level soon with CNU (publication of my book) and become an instructor with LAW (they were League of American Wheelmen for a century and a half, and are still known by that acronym).

5. I’ve been coordinating with the pastor at St. Joe’s Catholic Church (across the street) to have a traditional Latin Mass.  We’ve gotten the first one scheduled for October 21st.  What does this have to do with sustainability?  More on that soon…

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There are many positive reasons that you could list for giving up television and my biggest one by far is the amount of time it gives you to pursue other activities. I do believe, however, that there are a lot of good reasons for shaking out onto the “hard-liner” end of the spectrum when it comes to watching T.V.

First of all, T.V. doesn’t respect you as a person, or recognize that you have a human nature. I’m speaking here of profit-driven programming for the most part. Second, T.V. has an agenda, and will use subtle means of implanting its messages into your brain, using peer pressure (remember that from high school?) to make you conform. The funny thing is, most people don’t believe what T.V. proposes, and if you swallow their lies, you’re no better than a high school freshman being cajoled into trying drugs.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it is true. Want to get rid of the messages? Get rid of the T.V.

I myself am being a hard-liner on this subject, and I know that I will face some tough choices. My wife and I broke a couple of rules on date night last Thursday. We went out to the store and bought a VCR to DVD converter so we could transfer all of our VCR tapes to digital. The tapes are of our children growing up, and the first one that we popped in to convert was the birth and first year of life of my oldest son.

We were up until the wee hours of the morning, watching. After recording them, I’d glimpsed bits and pieces here and there, but hadn’t seen most of it for more than twenty years. Faces of loved ones who have since died laughed and visited with us. The eyes of ours forty-something selves gazed into the eyes of our twenty-something selves. So don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny that there is a place for the technology enabling T.V., but not the people behind it. When I made my VCR tape 23 years ago, I had no agenda other than to preserve it, and no intention of interspersing it with commercials trying to sell myself a laundry list of crap I don’t need.

And I know that I will have a dilemma when football season comes around again, because I would love to watch the Colts break in Andrew Luck. But I don’t think I’ll be watching it on T.V. I think instead I might fire up the grill, turn on the radio (terrestrial or Internet, doesn’t matter to me), and listen. I might even break out the old pigskin and toss it around the yard with anyone who wants to catch. Maybe we’ll get up a game of our own.

Either that or I’ll hop on over to Indianapolis and see if I can’t score a couple of tickets or just tailgate and enjoy the atmosphere. It is only 30 miles away, or within biking range.

Next post, I’ll be discussing localism. Not as in “buy local” but as in “be local.” Here’s my take: Why travel the world when you haven’t even explored your own backyard? Until next post, be good.

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