Left In Lowell

The African daisies I seeded last week in a tray are now sprouting! Soon to follow, I hope, are columbines and snapdragons and various veggies.

I know it’s just a tiny little triumph over winter, and not very exciting to anyone else. But I’m excited!

Go ahead and use this as an open thread to talk about spring, gardens, or whatever else while I throttle my computer for not working today.

This utterly depresses me.

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Sigh.

I heard back from Gunther on some of the questions posed in the yard waste/recycling post, so here are his answers:

Yard Waste always begins “the first full week of April”. This year, with the 1st falling on Tues, we decided to make it Mon 3/31… helps everybody out!

See the current Newsletter (in a mailbox near you this weekend).

Recycling 101… with OK list… and do not list:

It will be posted on the website soon.

Styrofoam is a killer… the volume to mass ratio makes it undesirable… you just can’t truck enough of it (over any distance) to make the tonnage useful. So… even though it is labeled #6 (PS) don’t put it in the recycling bins.

The “rigid plastic” #6 i.e.. clear (sometimes black ‘rigid’) take-out containers etc can be recycled!

No D&D cups, no foam egg cartons, no foam deli/fruit trays, no foam take-out containers please!

F.W. Russell just does not have the time to pick through curbside bins (they do some 5,500 addresses a day).

Any unwanted items (light bulbs, frying pans…you would be surprised by what’s in the bins) get discarded at the plant… increasing processing costs.

No plastic bags… they really mess with the mechanical sorting equipment! Take them back to the Market. Yes, they get paid for the plastic they collect. Yes, Trex is one of the companies collecting plastic bags locally.

Compost bins are on order. I’ll have both models very soon!

Rain Barrels on sale too! $55.50 (with $10 voucher from Mass DEP). Rain Barrel distribution day happens Sat Apr 19 at 220 Aiken St, the LNHP Maintenance Facility & Community Gardens Greenhouse.

So, there you have it. The polystyrene (numbered coffee cups with “PS” under the number” cannot be recycled. Think about bringing your own reusable coffee mugs to D’nD instead! And you shouldn’t need to recycle plastic bags at the grocery store, if you bring your own reusable bags (for all the great reasons I listed in the last post).

Rain barrels are awesome. I looked at the drip hoses today when I got my live mousie trap (we have a late winter refugee living in our house) and they are pretty cheap. You can install valves into the hoses to turn them on or off, and wherever you need to water plants, you install the little drip thingies. All in all, a very cool idea for turning useless water from your roof into gardening heaven!

Of course, poor Mr. Lynne hasn’t ever seen my green-thumb side even after years of marriage. What with one single pathetic house plant dragged around our apartment moves for years, nearly killed off a hundred times from lack of watering. He has no idea what sort of monster is going to be unleashed now that we own a small plot of land. Shhhh. Don’t tell him.

I’ve signed up for Earth Hour (yes, Mr. Lynne, that means you too). Have you? For one hour tomorrow (Saturday) night, take the time to unplug, light a candle, and shut off the lights.

Though only an hour out of our lives, Earth Hour (which began humbly enough, now whole cities have signed on) seeks to raise awareness of our electrical consumption. Only after you become aware of your use of power will you take steps to conserve energy, an important component of going green.

It’s not too late to commit to Earth Hour. And if you have human-powered lights or electricity I think it would be fine to use that during this hour.

Today we’ll be talking to School Committee member Jackie Doherty, particularly about our new school superintendent, how the process worked and didn’t work, and where we as a school district go from here. It should be a lively and interesting interview. Listen on WUML 91.5FM, or stream it live over the web.

From the Department of Public Works:

Yard Waste containers are popping up on sidewalks near you. Curbside collection of yard waste officially starts Monday, March 31st. Collection, by Allied Waste, will occur on your neighborhood ‘trash day’. Our contract provides this service every week through your ‘last trash day of November’.

Diverting organic material from the incinerator is the Law! And makes fiscal sense. In 2007 Lowell sent 2,985 tons of yard waste to composting operations, saving the City over $207,000 in disposal cost.

It is preferred that you use paper Lawn & Leaf bags. However, grass, leaves and small brush (<3 ft smaller than 3 in thick) can be placed in a labeled barrel. YARD WASTE stickers are available at City Hall (Rm 34), DPW (1365 Middlesex St) or at the Health Dept (341 Pine St). Kindly do not place bags or barrels out prior to your trash day; we would like to keep sidewalks open for pedestrians. Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact this office.

It should be noted, that it is 1) illegal to put yard waste into the regular trash and 2) that the city composts yard waste. This saves room in landfills, saves us taxpayers a lot of money, and recycles that waste to useful soil. But, you could save taxpayers even more money! Why not compost your own yard waste, and all your non-meat food waste, yourself? Compost bins are sold at reduced cost (the expensive one is sold out, but the basic one, which I have, is available) via the city. Here’s the form to fill out (pdf).

Some easy and simple tips, all of which I myself employ, to reduce your trash and carbon footprint on this earth:

• Recycle every container that the city lists.
• Recycle every scrap of paper that you can. I recycle my pasta and cereal type boxes, shredded mail, paper towel rolls, newspapers, anything on the list.
• Even better, get off of those junk mail lists! I did, and it’s fabulous. I saw a huge reduction in credit card offers and all that crap, saving paper from ever needing recycling!
• Compost all your yard and (non-animal) food waste (and use the resulting soil in your garden!)
• **** Use canvas or reusable bags to go shopping - for anything! I have a whole set of bags I’ve collected over the years for grocery shopping. They hold more groceries each, are more comfortable to carry than plastic bags (which cut into your hands!) and reduce the amount of bags in the world. Plastic which is made out of oil, by the way. If little ol’ Ireland can do it (get rid of most plastic bags) gosh darn it, so can Americans!
• When out at the corner store, refuse a bag. Look, if you can carry a couple of items in your hands, why put it in a plastic bag? I’m constantly refusing bags for single or small sets of items. You don’t need it! I’m hoping to develop good enough habits to pretty much eliminate my plastic bag usage by the end of the year.
• Use rain barrels to water your plants. This year I want to buy two more for a total of three, wherever there is a gutter, I want to gather water, and hook in drip lines to my future front, side, and back gardens. This prevents the water falling off your roof from going into the city’s sewer/storm drain system, costing the city, and your water bill, less money. If it doesn’t rain for a few weeks in summer, at least you have a short supply of water without turning on the hose to keep your plants happy. Using city water costs for treatment, too.

Most weeks, my husband and I produce less than one kitchen trash bag of waste. I think I’d like to get that down even further. The city helped a lot when it went to accepting all numbers of plastics. One of the things which really helped was paying more attention to paper recycling. So much packaging on everything! Putting all the chip cardboard (cereal boxes, etc) into your paper recycling seriously reduces your garbage waste.

So, what are your everyday tips for becoming sustainable?

(Update: Just found a cool link, will quote it and comment in the next section.) (more…)

Though I really don’t see this proposal as very different from the last, the Mayor and CM Lynch are working to bring back the proposal that will accomplish the Auburn Associates creative economy study’s #1 suggestion: the consolidation of the independent Cultural Organization of Lowell with the Office of Special City Events. With the Mayor on board, it should pass.

It took public pressure and the media (of all sorts) to turn the tide on this proposal; never underestimate the power of people caring enough to show up to meetings and voice their support or opposition. We all know that the arguments against this proposal were shallow, at best, and cynically protective of certain people and entities in this city; however, because there were witnesses, and outrage, and political consequences, it didn’t die, but lives on, because the pols thought better of it due to the reaction. How they couldn’t have seen this reaction coming (and I dunno, change their made-up minds during the meeting when all their questions were fully answered) I can’t guess. But the people who should be taking credit for this proposal having new life is all of you, not anyone else.

P.S.: I hope that certain city councilors learned a lesson from this. First, don’t claim other people are making up their minds about a proposal before a public hearing when it’s very clear you’ve already made up yours. Second, do look at a proposal on its merits next time, not through the lens of how much it pisses off your cronies. Maybe there’s a good reason to piss off your cronies sometimes. Or, maybe you should be careful mixing personal loyalties, and politics. Gee, there’s an idea.

According to a Matt Murphy article on the Sun’s web site, Jim Arciero, State Senator Steve Panagiotakos’ long time aide as announced that he will run for the State House of Representative, 2nd Middlesex; the towns of Westford, Littleton and parts of Chelmsford. The district’s current representative, Geoffrey Hall, announced his retirement after serving for 18 years.

The affable Arciero, a Westford resident, is well known in greater Lowell Democratic political circles for his accessibility and willingness to listen.

This evening’s scheduled Personnel Sub-Committee (CCs K. Broderick, Chair; B. Martin and M. Milinazzo) on a residency requirement for City employees has been continued to a later date. The meeting could not be televised, thus preventing those of us at home from watching. So the Sub-Committee did the right thing and decided not to continue.

Hillary doesn’t like the rules anymore. Wah, wah.

The Clinton campaign has realized that the rules don’t work in their favor, that if we follow the rules as agreed upon before the first caucus vote was cast in Iowa, that they have no chance of winning. Part of me is bitter about this, since I’ve been railing against our stupid primary system (and the caucuses) for years, but that never mattered to the Clinton camp at the time. It only mattered after she lost the election based on the rules.

It reminded me so strongly of another Democratic convention, two years ago, in this state, when one candidate did his homework and played by the rules so well, the Establishment just had to try to change things at the last minute.

The fact is, the party insiders screwed themselves with their own damn rules change last year which all of us complained bitterly about (both the method of its passing and the rule change itself), and now want to revoke or modify its stricter, limiting effect. At the last minute (literally)! Sorry, I don’t buy the “we want a bigger field and more participation” crap these people are going to use if they pull such a stunt. Simply put, they are hypocrites if they decide to go through with this. Deval Patrick played by the rules, worked hard, got his access [to the ballot] utilizing the process, and suddenly, now they don’t like the process?

The debate about whether or not the 15% rule needs changing, whether or not we need to go back to more ballots, how to give enough access to potential candidates while still weeding out unserious or crazy rich people, that debate is definitely needed. But it should be taken up at next year’s 2007 issues and platform convention. We should not be changing the rules midstream for one person, whoever that person is.

The establishment. They love the rules, until they lose by them, and then they declare them not fair. If I hear Clinton complain one more time about caucuses versus primaries, when she never cared about reforming the process before in her life, I swear to god, I’ll lose my lunch.