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Wow. Working with this eclectic group of eco-urbanists on National Park(ing) Day has been crazy fun.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it takes to bring “fresh air” to the city (both literally and figuratively) and doing this has been that “fresh air” for the dedicated group of volunteers working on this. We hope our efforts produce the same effect on passersby and visitors.

In case you are just tuning in. Here’s what we’re doing.

Wednesday, Nancy and Lindsey, the event coordinators hosted our final meeting at their house. We got Zelda’s pizza (thanks to Eric with Walkable Neighborhoods) and set up a “mock” park in the space in front of their house in order to play around with the layout.

After it was laid out, we all kind of shocked by how much you can actually fit in a 22’ x 7’ metered parking space. Hopefully, this will be the same reaction from people who come visit our park tomorrow!

There’s been some amazing progress in the last couple of days… we’re getting sod (and we have a local downtown resident we’re donating it to afterwards). We got benches and umbrellas and tables and chairs and a chess table. We’ve got a live musician coming to play. The Tree Foundation donated 12 trees (including one’s with blossoms on them!). And, of course, our “Sit Here and Dream Big Signs” which we hope will inspire people to think creatively about this city.

To make things a little more interactive, we’ll have post-its and a bulletin board and we’ll ask people to write a quick thought answering the question “What do YOU think will make THIS city a better place to live?” After everything is over, we’ll be typing these out and sending them to key city influencer’s… who knows… maybe one of your ideas will get in the right hands and actually spark a change for the better!

We’ve got fliers which will be distributed tonight in Midtown/Downtown.

And the news is spreading…

We also finally got in touch with the right people in the city, and they quickly helped get all of the key people together in one room to rally around this event so there shouldn’t be any complications. I have to give props to Bill Thomas with the Developer Services Division and Howard Chan, Parking Services Manager, both of who stepped up and made the process of working with the city easy and fast! Its been great to see people working for the city banding around the event!

Of course, what will really make this event a success will be to see lots of people enjoying the park throughout the day.

Come out… sit a spell… and dream big.

Jason

If you go out to Point Reyes on the coast, you just might spot the herds of Elk that apparently migrated down from up North and then got trapped there by rapid development (at least that’s the story I always heard). I’ve always wondered if Elk Grove was named for elk that used to herd there when the land was less tamed.

More Elk Grove land is currently at risk of being tamed and primed for Sprawlification. We got an e-mail from ECOS calling for action against lobbying efforts to extend the Urban Boundary around Elk Grove.

Decisions will happen today at City Hall (2:15 at 700 H. Street). We got wind of it a little late, so we won’t be there but Steve sent the letter below, expressing our concerns.

In March, ECOS launched a similar campaign which resulted in a victory. Its clear that vigilance is required to send a strong, ongoing message that Sacramento doesn’t have to grow out in order to grow.

For those of you who are speaking out, we thank you!

June 12, 2007

Dear Supervisors,

We are writing to urge you not to remove any land from the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan at the meeting this afternoon.

We understand that Elk Grove has requested that portions of the study area be removed so that they can annex and develop these areas in the future. We oppose Elk Grove’s consumptive land use and attempts to grow outside of the established Urban Service Boundary. Elk Grove has had plenty of reserve land to grow into and they have consumed it at an astonishing rate with low density development. Even now the roads are choked with traffic and some of the best habitat in the county has been lost due to their poor development patterns.

We hope that you will not give in to Elk Grove’s request. Further we ask that you oppose any expansion of Elk Grove city boundaries if and when they come with that request to LAFCO.

Allowing Elk Grove to grow outside its current boundaries will cause increased competition with new areas that should be developed in Sacramento unincorporated areas, which include large infill locations and the revitalization of commercial corridors such as Florin Road and the Florin Mall.
It is in your best interests to contain the growth of Elk Grove.

As a development company focused on urban growth, we plan to invest approximately $300 million over the next five years in projects near the core of downtown Sacramento. If you choose a compact growth model consistent with the Blueprint and good planning principles, we will be encouraged continue our investments in Sacramento County neighborhoods and corridors that can benefit from an urban and transit focused growth model. However, if you allow Elk Grove to open vast new tracts of land to development at the fringes it will erode the market for redevelopment of existing corridors and we will look elsewhere to invest our resources.

Again, we urge you to move forward with the existing HCP and focus your investment to improve existing communities in Sacramento County.

Jason

This came out a few weeks ago but its still buzzing around in my head.

What would it take to organize enough Sacramentan’s to shut off as much power as possible on a particular night. I think it could happen if we pick a date and time and convince enough building owners and city officials this would be fun. It would certainly be a powerful statement about our region’s growing commitment to sustainability. Shoot, we could do it once a month. Maybe we could even convince all those people to put timers on their buildings to shut them down every night at AM or something.

This is such a simple idea that would reduce Sacramento’s carbon footprint, reduce local people’s power consumption, and move us progressively further along the road to true sustainability.

Here’s a telling statistic from the Sydney people…

If businesses turned off lights, computers, photocopiers and unused appliances, Sydney could cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over the next 12 months - the equivalent of pulling about 75,000 medium-sized cars off the road - said WWF’s communications director in Australia, Andy Ridley.

What do you think?

Micah

Our vision for the best community and city has serious competition from the sprawling suburbs. We all know it. I’ve heard it called the “growth machine” and the “status quo.” As a private business, we have substantial investment in our vision and need to be a voice in the public debate. There are limited resources in our region and we want them focused on the existing urban area. We will advocate for infill development that deters us from growth at the edges. We will oppose opening up leapfrog developments on the outskirts of the region.

Many of you probably read in the Bee about the proposal to include land on the eastern edge of Sacramento County in the General Plan Update. We think this is a serious mistake. It is outside the urban growth boundary in an area of fragile natural resources that I believe is the most scenic area of our county. The Deer Creek Hills Preserve borders the property. We wrote the following letter to the Board of Supervisors as our first step in joining the debate. Please join us and take action of your own – the more they hear the better!

March 9, 2007

Dear Supervisor Nottoli,

We are writing to urge you not to include any land outside of the current urban growth boundary in the environmental impact report for the current general plan update.

You have a fundamental choice with regard to growth. Will our county focus investment in existing areas that could reap great benefits and minimize infrastructure and environmental costs? Or will we invest in new communities on the edge of the existing urban area and continue the sprawling pattern of growth?

As a development company focused on urban growth, we plan to invest approximately $300 million over the next five years in projects near the core of downtown Sacramento. If you choose a compact growth model consistent with the Blueprint and good planning principles, we will be encouraged continue our investments in Sacramento County neighborhoods and corridors that can benefit from an urban and transit focused growth model. However, if you open vast new tracts of land to development at the fringes it will erode the market for redevelopment of existing corridors and we will look elsewhere to invest our resources.

While the general plan allows for 25 years of growth, how much reserve will you keep for the 200 years after that? 25 years is a short amount of time in the growth of a city. We encourage you to look to future generations and ensure that there is open space accessible to them.

Again, we urge you to limit the amount of land included in the environmental impact report to the urban growth boundary and focus your investment to improve existing communities in Sacramento County.

Steve

Heard about this yet? I first heard about this Clock sometime in the last six months—maybe from Adbusters or one of the many aware-ness raising documentaries I’ve seen of late (The Corporation, Who Killed the Electric Car, Prescription for Disaster, The Future of Food… and…oh yeah, the Gore-fest one) and then promptly forgot about it. So, I was glad to hear this news that they’ve added global warming and the environmental crisis and then promptly ticked off two more minutes.

The clock—a symbolic and iconic representation of the earths’ collective proximity to utter worldwide disaster (ie. Doom)—is maintained by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and was started in ‘47 when it was set at seven minutes to Midnight. The minute-hand has moved 19 times since then. Up until now, the threat of global nuclear war was the primary consideration, so the hands of the clock moved backward and forward according to how close that particular threat was deemed to be.

Stephen Hawking’s assessment that global warming has eclipsed other threats to the planet like terrorism rings true for me. Because the implications of global warming are not as immediate as nuclear war its hard to give them the same attention. I know I had a few fear-filled years in grade school when we had to learn nuclear holocaust emergency protocols complete with emergency exercises and everything; experiences like that have such a greater impact than seeing the gradual accumulation of smog or melting of ice. I hope efforts like this help to change that tendency.

Jason