Published on May 20th, 2009
The City of St. Louis has pulled the dozens of 300-gallon recycling dumpsters it had placed in alleyways last March out of commission. Jill Hamilton, the city’s recycling program manager, said the program was never intended to be permanent.
Rather, it was considered a pilot program, serving about 3,200 of the city’s 147,000 households, to see if the economics could make a full, permanent effort viable. The answer is: apparently not. Or, at least, not right now.
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Published on April 24th, 2009
The Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and Bazaar in St. Louis is not only a community center piece, but a regional one. And the group is candidly joining a nation-wide line of community-minded organizations who are in economic straits and need support.
Understanding that there are many worthy groups asking for assistance these days, the one that organizes the Tower Grove market is asking, in particular, for those who already value what it creates in the St. Louis region — shoppers and friends who stop by, even just twice a season — to consider stepping forward. The support can be monetary or otherwise. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 14th, 2009
There’s been plenty of recent talk in the media about “recession gardens.” I’ve kind of thought that urban gardening was just a good, wholesome way of healthy living.
Here in St. Louis, Backdoor Harvest seems to agree. And that’s fantastic news for me — and novice gardeners like me — because I’ve got almost no idea what I’m doing when I start digging into my yard.
Lucky me, my wife, who knows a little more than I do about plunging seeds and such into our tiny backyard plot, enjoys doing the research to figure these things out. Even luckier for us, Backdoor Harvest is hanging its open-for-business shingle in the coming days, just to help urban growers, even ones as inexperienced as in the Williams household. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on April 9th, 2009
As a thoughtful follow-up, Debbie Johnson in the Public Information department for MSD left a comment for that initial posting, updating readers on the program’s status. Here is that information:
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Published on April 2nd, 2009
The Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) in St. Louis, Mo., is selling rain barrels through 5 p.m. on April 3.
As of the end-of-business on Thursday more than 1,000 barrels had been ordered, according to the office personnel handling the orders. A news story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid out the general information this way:
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District is offering its customers the opportunity to help take the burden off those creeks — and its storm water system — by purchasing 55-gallon rain barrels to collect and store rainwater that would otherwise flow into a storm drain. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 3rd, 2009
Dallas-based Centex Corporation has rolled-out a green line of home development in St. Louis, building new homes with its Centex Energy Advantage designs.
The homes the company has begun building in the St. Louis metro area are considered as much as 40 percent more efficient than the typical 10-year-old home.
In a region of the United States looked upon as flyover land, usually implying it’s behind the times, Centex is claiming to be the first national homebuilder to install energy monitors in every home it builds, going forward.
The other standard features of the Energy Advantage package, as listed by Centex, are:
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Published on February 7th, 2009
The Map Room in the historic Benton Park neighborhood in St. Louis, Mo., is about to open. There are 7 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes, 24 — no, wait: 23…13…8… Well, the seconds keep ticking us closer to the grand opening, as the countdown clock on The Map Room’s Web site proudly — and funly — indicates.
The grand day begins at 7 a.m. on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. The address is: 1901 Withnell (at Lemp).
The countdown clock tells me there’s an I-can’t-wait atmosphere over there. That tells me to expect a smile when I walk in the door. And everything I’ve read so far on the Map Room’s site — and via email exchange with one of the inspirations energizing the place, Michele Floyd — tells me I can probably believe a number of the thoughts already put out on the coffee & wine house’s site: Read the rest of this entry »
Published on December 24th, 2008
St. Louis, Mo., rates as one of the dirtiest cities — in the bottom 10 percent — in the United States “in terms of air releases of recognized carcinogens,” according to scorecard.org.
It pains me to have to put more horrifying news about St. Louis out to the world. If anyone not from St. Louis, my home city, thinks anything of this historic, blues-music thrumming, Gateway Arch-boasting, Stan Musial-loving, Mississippi River-guarding city, it’s likely about the city’s position in the annual “most dangerous city” rankings. Read the rest of this entry »
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Published on September 24th, 2008
For a number of years, St. Louis’ Earthways Center has held a celebration of energy efficiency and renewable energy on the last weekend of September. Vendors showed their wares, non-profit groups passed out information, and the local electric company sold CFLs for a really low price. This year, that event has morphed into the Green Homes Renewable Energy Festival, which is co-sponsored by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. In addition to the usual displays and tours of the Center itself (a Victorian-era home in St. Louis’ Midtown which has been rehabbed into a green showpiece), visitors to this free event can enjoy:
Workshops and Presentations: Throughout the day on Saturday, Sept. 27, the festival will offer a range of workshops and presentations next door at Cardinal Ritter High School. According to the Festival’s website, “Workshops will cover a range of topics like solar and wind energy, home and vehicle efficiency, urban farming, composting, recycling, and more. Participants can attend multiple workshops for only $5.”
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Published on September 22nd, 2008
With cycling perhaps getting an uptick in popularity of late due to increasing gas prices and fuel economy concerns (and overall greater consciousness of the environment?), it seems worth noting the laws of the road — for safety and for clarification between motorists and cyclists.
Do cyclists belong on the road or the sidewalk? Should cyclists defer at all times to motorists? Who has right of way in any given situation? How can bikes and cars peacefully coexist?
Various municipal and state laws address these questions, among others. To identify what statutes apply to your home area, view the Mass Bike list, which links to various state’s laws online. Read the rest of this entry »
