7-9 pm First United Church on 3rd St.
Agenda
Sign toppers, 5th street construction, Neighborhood Cleanup, meeting dates, Bypass widening, Neighborhood Improvement Grant projects, blog and list serve access
Attending
Georgia Schaich, Ann Kreilkamp, Kevin Polk
Outcomes
Our next meeting will be a potluck at Ann's house at 6 pm Wednesday, July 2. Please RSVP by comment to this article with the dish you plan to bring. (We'll remind you closer to the date).
We invite neighbors to become blog authors and post their own announcements.
The Process
Was it the severe thunderstorms and tornado watches that kept attendance down this time? Or was it summer, or the new meeting date? Or the fact that we didn't announce the "speaker" (a DVD on the eco-theologian Thomas Berry) until two hours prior to the meeting? In any case, attendance and meetings were our first topics of the meeting.
Does it make sense to meet monthly? After all, South Griffy Neighborhood Association only meets twice a year. Georgia pointed out how valuable it was two years ago to have monthly speakers as a way to self-educate and build a vision. Somehow, though, our energy seemed to dissipate the following year as we labored with the city to craft a neighborhood plan that force-fit our permacultural village vision into official bureaucratese. Ann commented that now it seems time to regroup and take a fresh look at what we're doing and how we're doing it. We could meet for three months each spring and fall, when people are here and not yet so busy. Or we could meet quarterly, or bi-monthly. Kevin wanted fewer meetings but more events, with the host of each event empowered to call meetings specific to planning that event.
Does it make sense to meet in the church when the huge room dwarfs our tiny group each time? Everyone present(!) enjoyed the home potluck and meeting events that we held last November and December. Maybe we should host meetings at private homes until participation starts to overwhelm those venues. Ann offered to hold the next meeting as a potluck at her house at 6pm, Wednesday, July 2.
Kevin noted that the blog needs more authors. Ann and Georgia thought the blog would make a great internet kiosk where neighbors could post announcements (workshops, baby sitting, pet sitting, homes for sale, rentals, services, trades, free stuff etc.). Kevin agreed, and will invite all neighbors from the discussion list on as authors.
Kevin said he has received many requests to post kiosk-type announcements to the discussion list. He pointed out that the list is not moderated, so anyone who receives GANA email should address the list directly by sending email to gana@lists.gaiome.com. But the best place for neighborhood buy/sell/trade/giveaway announcements is our virtual kiosk, http://greenacresneighbors.blogspot.com/ and all GANA members will receive invitations to participate.
The GANA sign toppers will be manufactured by mid-month and handed over to Public Works to install sometime this Summer. GANA paid $346.35 for the toppers and the City of Bloomington chipped in $571.35 for the project.
Ann called the City about the work on 5th Street and was told it would be done in a month, weather depending.
The Neighborhood Cleanup went well. Workers from the City's HAND department praised the high volunteer turnout, and many participants and neighbors said they were pleased with the help and the end result: very much cleaner streets. Thanks to all who participated and especially to the volunteers who distributed fliers to the whole neighborhood and spent the morning directing traffic and picking up trash from neighborhood streets: Ann Kreilkamp, Katie Zukof, Eric Schedler, Jelene Campbell, Kimberly Wagner, Kevin Polk, Ignaci Lledó, Georgia Schaich, and George and Linda O'Donnell.
Ann and Kevin have been in contact with Brandon O'Leary, President of South Griffy Neighborhood Association (SGNA), regarding action on the Bypass widening project. CAC has drafted a letter to INDOT about the situation. If the State does not show signs of cooperation on pedestrian/bicycle safety and noise issues in the community the bypass no longer bypasses, GANA, SGNA and others may consider stronger action.
Letters of Intent for the Neighborhood Improvement Grant are due September 26. Will we be ready? The grant provides 50-90% matching funds for projects from $3K-$40K: parks, public art, physical improvements, playgrounds, amphitheaters, kiosks, plantings, etc. We have submitted two letters of intent in the past year, but not pursued it due to lack of support within the neighborhood. Georgia felt that an artistic entrance feature such as an arch would really set us apart as something unique. Other suggestions in the past have included a neighborhood compost/chipper area, a grape arbor over the walk between Roosevelt and Jefferson on 4th, and pocket parks. What's exciting enough to galvanize neighborhood involvement?
We adjourned at 8 p.m.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
GANA Meeting: 5th St., Bypass, HAND Grants
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The David Gohn Band to play at Max's Place
Jelene Campbell, who hosted the PlantShare, invites you to hear her band play live at Max's Place on Saturday, May 24th.
"We'll play under our former name, The Other Side, at 7pm," says Jelene. "We'll play all the tunes on our CD, Brand New Ride plus a few favorite covers. Then we'll play our other set at 8pm under our new name, The David Gohn Band. We play roots/americana which is a combination of blues, folk, country, and rock and roll so there should be a little something for everybody."
Neighbors can sample some of the band's original music at www.myspace.com/theothersidegroup and www.myspace.com/davidgohnband
Max's is an all-ages place for music, pizza, calzones and local brews. For discount pizza coupons, visit www.maxsplace.info.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Plant Share
2521 Eastgate Lane
8:00-9:00 a.m. bring any plants you wish to donate
9:00-10:30 a.m. PlantShare (donations not necessary!)
The annual tradition continues at Jelene Campbell's house:
Join in the fun and help make Green Acres Beautiful!
Neighborhood Cleanup
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
7th Street between Roosevelt and Jefferson
Every year, many of us in Green Acres emerge from our winter naps to find unwanted tires, debris, old furniture, oil, car batteries, etc. in and around our homes. How can we get rid of this stuff without paying exorbitant hauling and disposal fees?
This year, all you need to do is bring these items to the drop-off site (below) on Saturday, May 10, and the City of Bloomington will recycle, donate or dispose of them for free.
STREET CLOSURE - the drop-off site---7th street between Roosevelt and Jefferson--will be closed to traffic on Saturday, May 10, from 8am to 2 pm. Volunteers and Bloomington Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) department staff will direct cleanup traffic West-bound through this area.
AT THE DROP-OFF SITE - HAND will provide: a trash truck capable of eating trash or even couches. A vehicle for disposal of iron and metal. A truck for disposing of tires (must be off their rims). A chipper for wood (not vines, weeds, grass or roots - wood must must be 6" or less in diameter and not have any wire or metal in it. All chipped wood is available and free for the taking within the neighborhood). Containers for hazardous materials including latex paint (which must be dried prior to disposal), aerosols, flammable liquids, pesticides, fluorescent bulbs, batteries and old medications. HAND staff will handle all hazardous material.
SPECIAL RE-USE AREA - the drop-off site will have an area for items too good to throw out, but which you no longer want to store. All free for the taking!
DON'T BRING - Grass, weeds, vines, televisions, computers, monitors, appliances with Freon, liquid latex paint, large construction materials, explosives including ammunition, asbestos, or radioactive materials. HAND will not be able to accept or dispose of any of these items.
BLUE HAND-BAGS - will be available at the drop-off site for you to pick up litter from your front yard and nearby streets and sidewalks. Once full, you can leave them at the drop-off site or curb-side with your normal trash pick-up (no stickers needed). If you know of areas in need of cleanup or have some small items you can't carry yourself, please leave a comment below so that volunteer help can be scheduled.
A PLANT SHARE - on Eastgate Lane is tentatively scheduled for the morning of the clean-up. Bring your seedlings and cuttings to swap and share (watch this space for details).
VOLUNTEERS - Please be at the drop-off site at 8:30am on May 10 to sign waivers, attend the orientation and have some scones. To volunteer (if you haven't already done so), send email to kevpolk at google dot com.
WEATHER - HAND advises that in case of severe thunderstorms during the event, you should avoid natural lightning rods such as isolated tall trees and bicycles and get inside the nearest building or car immediately. If in a car, pull over well away from flooded roadways or any trees that could fall on the vehicle. If unable to take cover in time, kneel or crouch with hands on knees.
See you at the cleanup!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
GANA Meeting: Cleanup, PlantShare, Biointensive
7-9 pm First United Church on 3rd St
Agenda:
Our speaker for the evening will be Graham Montague, a “biointensive” gardener. According to Graham, “This is a combination of Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic gardening with French intensive market gardening principles. It honors both planetary forces and soil conditions for optimal yield and sustainability.” Graham, who recently moved into Green Acres, is a naturopathic physician who worked on a registered biointensive mini-farm for four years in Paoli. He will include photos in his presentation.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tree Planting with SPEA Students
South Roosevelt Street
Photo essay by Georgia Schaich.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
GANA meeting: Trees and Cold Frames
7-9 pm First United Church on 3rd St
Agenda
7 p.m. Meeting
- Reports on the four grants: Small and Simple (sign toppers), Clean-Up, Neighborhood Improvement (kiosks and benches), Capital Improvement (pocket parks?)
- Discussion on the 5th street "improvements."
- Discussion of the Bypass widening.
- Report on the Urban Forest student project in Green Acres.
8:00 p.m. Speakers: Green Acres residents Eric Schedler and Katie Zukof will discuss season-extension gardening using cold frames.
Attending
Katie Zukof, Eric Schedler, Graham Montague, Summer Vergiels, Jelene Campbell, Kevin Polk, Kathy Ruesink, Ann Kreilkamp, Jessica Gaus, John Gaus; SPEA Forestry students Kendra Vorenkamp, Kevin Glenn, Gavin Vandergriff.
Photo by Georgia SchaichThe Process
Because Kevin had three grant-related announcements, Katie volunteered to take notes.
First, the Small and Simple Grant for the sign toppers was approved. Once we decide on colors (see poll at right), the signs will be manufactured and installed—hopefully before Summer Solstice, when the neighborhood may have some type of get together. Ann explained that the idea behind the sign toppers was to do something to get started on physical change in the neighborhood. Kevin remarked that the neighborhood needs to become a place again, not a short-cut.
Second, our Neighborhood Cleanup Grant proposal was approved. However, the dumpster vendor was unavailable for our first choice of dates, May 10, because they were already booked for IU move-out weekend. Worse, the vendor won't support our second-choice date of May 17, either. That's two of the four dates provided in the grant instructions, so now we're waiting for HAND to find a new vendor who will work with one of these dates. For the cleanup itself, HAND will provide a collection point for refuse including spare tires, used car batteries, motor oil and large objects, and recycle or dispose of them for free. A chipper will be available (yes, you may keep the mulch). We may also use the collection point for a neighborhood freecycle exchange for used but usable items.
Third, Kevin has submitted a Letter of Intent for this year's extra Neighborhood Improvement Grant. The letter outlined our plans to put permanent signs/kiosks/benches in the public right-of-way to announce neighborhood events such as meetings, ice cream socials, plant shares, etc. The City was receptive to the idea, but not the part about cob benches (because they used unfamiliar building materials). Kevin would rather develop pocket parks, playgrounds, etc., but the signs were a pressing issue last year when the temporary event signs became too weathered to use. Part of the problem is that the temporary signs announcing GANA events may not be posted for more than 3 days (never mind that rental signs can stay up for months). Those present said they'd be happy to pass wooden sandwich signs from yard to yard every three days to get around that rule. There will be another opportunity to apply for Neighborhood Improvement Grants in the Fall. If we want pocket parks, we need to hammer out the details with the City this summer.
Next we discussed the Bypass widening. John asked if it would be possible to use trees as a sound barrier. Ann said it is not in the plan, but the plan is only 85% complete, so our input could still make a difference. She mentioned that Tim Mayer has been pushing for some sort of sound-proof fencing.
The current plan includes a pedestrian underpass below the Bypass on 7th. Perhaps a pocket park could be worked into the plan near there. City Planner Bob Woolford has pointed out that revolving neighborhood Capital Improvement Grant funds become available from time to time to do projects spelled out in Neighborhood Plans. However, to happen, this requires a clear vision and that the neighborhood take the initiative early and often to communicate that vision to City Hall.
Kevin pointed out how we missed such an opportunity with the 5th Street drainage/sidewalk project. In late 2006, city planners sought input from GANA on alternatives to just burying the existing creek on 5th that crosses Hillsdale and Overhill. Not only did the planners seem to consider our suggestions (re-digging the swales to expose the creek or putting in rain gardens upstream and in the center of a roundabout on 5th and Hillsdale), but a staff hydrologist had already done drawings and analysis for all of these ideas. We expected to be invited to the next meeting, but time passed with no further word. The next thing we knew, the contractor had been hired and the project was getting underway, with none of that green, sustainable stuff we had been talking about. The plan had been finalized without us. Worse, the project going in lacks any visible way of satisfying EPA Rule 13 (which requires some way to clean the runoff)—the City's original impetus to talk with us about sustainable alternatives.
The lesson: to avoid being left in the dark, we need to take initiative in these discussions and check in with the City on a regular basis.
The monthly MPO Citizens Advisory Committee meeting regarding the Bypass coincides with GANA's meetings. Those present felt it was important enough to attend the MPO meetings that we decided to move the date of the next few GANA meetings to the first Wednesday of the month. Thus the next GANA meeting will be held May 7.
Summer and Graham noted that traffic along Hillsdale, 7th and Clarke is much too fast for pedestrian safety, especially for children. Ann and Kevin briefly mentioned the City Repair projects that had been discussed for traffic calming in Green Acres. A proposed roundabout on 5th was opposed within the neighborhood and the City is hostile to neighbors painting intersections. Nevertheless, many GANA members would like to make Green Acres safe for walking, even at the expense of convenience to through-traffic. Speed bumps and other traffic-calming measures were briefly discussed.
The SPEA Urban Forestry students announced that they will be planting two mature trees in front of the fire station at 3rd and Jefferson on April 17 from 2:30 to 3:45 pm. If the neighborhood or class gets more volunteers we could plant up to 10 trees in the City rights-of-way in Green Acres (see graphic below for possible locations). John spoke about how in Germany, private property owners must apply to municipal authorities to plant or remove trees, because the trees outlast the owners and tenants.
Potential tree planting sites by tree size.The students want to do an online survey so that they can get more input. They need about 50-100 people to respond. Various methods were discussed; the students will start with an online survey and see if that nets enough response. They also offered to comb the recent tree inventory for any data of interest to the neighborhood, such as sick trees that may need to be replaced soon. Kathy asked how the 5th street project affects the planting locations. Apparently, there will not be an area for tree plantings between the sidewalk and the street.
The students also passed around a mock-up of their very ambitious brochure about the trees in Green Acres.
We adjourned for refreshments around 8:10 p.m. When we reconvened, Eric began his presentation.
A cold frame is a short box with a transparent top and no bottom. Eric and Katie, who moved into a house on Dekist last fall, used cold frames as mini-greenhouses to extend the growing season through the winter.
Their cold frames are 8 inches tall on the South or sun-facing side and 12 inches tall on the North side. Even when outdoor temperatures reach 25F, interior temperatures remain above freezing. During the day, temperatures can reach 60F and higher even in January. Because of its small air volume, the cold frame heats up quickly and must be opened on sunny days.
To build one, Eric suggests starting with three 8-foot untreated boards, two of them 12 inches wide and one 8 inches wide. Cut one of the 12 inch boards in half and angle-cut the resulting pair of 4-foot boards so that one end is 8 inches high and the other 12. For the lights, Eric used storm windows available at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. $100 was enough to build several cold frames from 1-inch stock. Next time he and Katie might use 2 inch stock for durability.
Cold frames provide extra warmth, but not extra sunlight, which limits the crops that will grow in them. Arugula and cilantro will grow visibly throughout the winter. Chard, lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots and spinach may be planted in late summer and harvested all winter.
Some plants such as cabbage, broccoli, sometimes even carrots, are too tall for cold frames. For those it's better to build a plastic-wrapped tunnel over metal half-hoops for season extension. However, cold frames provide easier access to the plants than tunnels.
Cold frames can also be used as big seedling flats for plants that are already accustomed to outdoor conditions: leeks, onions, lettuce and broccoli. You could start these in March and plant them out later. Eric and Katie have also sowed peas and fava beans in cold frames, and were able to fork the soil afterwards because it was not frozen or waterlogged. Then, when it was warmer, they could take the frames off.
For our next meeting (May 7), Graham plans to talk about biointensive gardening, though we may have to find a Plan B if Summer's having her baby! View full story>>
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sign toppers approved!
We did it! Our small and simple grant proposal for sign-toppers was funded. Now we need to select a final color scheme. To do that, please vote for your favorite in the poll on the right-hand column of this page. The picture above sketches our color options. Once we decide, our sign vendor will clean up the lines and fonts.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Utilities Projects in Green Acres
The City of Bloomington has informed us of two Utilities Projects in the neighborhood during the week of March 23rd through March 29th.
Manhole Installation March 24th (weather dependent) at the intersection of East 5th Street and Overhill Drive. This intersection will be closed to through traffic between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 during the installation.
Water Service will continue March 25-March 28th (weather dependent) on East 5th Street from the dead end to Overhill Drive. The street will be closed to through traffic between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. throughout the project.
Traffic control personnel will be in place for both projects. Questions can be directed to Project Manager John Neal at 349-3697, T&D Director Tom Staley at 349-3637 or Public Affairs Specialist Jon Callahan at 349-3940.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Meeting: Bypass, Grants, Forestry, Curitiba
7-9 pm First United Church on 3rd St.
Agenda
Meeting 7:00–7:45 pm
- Efforts to engage with the bypass project
- “Aging-In Place” community forming here
- Small and Simple Grant and sign toppers
- Neighborhood Improvement Grant topics
- SPEA graduate “urban forest” project for Green Acres
DVD presentation of “A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curatiba Brazil”
Attending
Ann Kreilkamp, Georgia Schaich, Al Ruesink, Kathy Ruesink, Jessica Gaus, John Gaus, Jelene Campbell, Kevin Polk; Special guests Vickie Provine and Jo Stong from Housing And Neighborhood Development (HAND) and IU Urban Forestry students Kendra Vorenkamp, Sarah Sutton and Gavin Vandergriff.
The Process
Ann began with a report on various efforts to engage with the bypass project. Ed Hartke has agreed to go to the MPO meeting on the bypass (held, by amazing coincidence, on the same night each month as the GANA meeting), and said he would contact Ann and give an update. (Look for it here!) Also Tim Mayer is working on it.
Ann also discussed a new “Aging-In Place” community that has been meeting for six months here in Bloomington. It is interested in helping people who want to grow older in their own homes find ways to do this, and to make Bloomington a “liveable community” for all ages. They meet once a month, and Ann will attend their meetings.
Next came a discussion of grants. Kevin announced that he had turned in the small and simple grant proposal for the sign-toppers, and Vickie announced that it was accepted!
Two more grant deadlines are pending: Letters of Intent for another round of Neighborhood Improvement Grants are due March 7, and the application for a Neighborhood Clean-Up Grant is due on March 17. Kevin agreed to prepare these proposals, too. In both cases, however we will need volunteer participation!
For the Neighborhood Improvement Grant, we would place a permanent sign at a prominent neighborhood entrance where meeting and event announcements can be posted. So we need volunteers to visit and talk with neighbors at potential sign locations, work on the design, solicit bids/donations, and help build it.
For the cleanup grant, Jo explained that if approved, the city would bring heavy equipment and dumpsters to the neighborhood for 4 hours on a Saturday (probably mid-May) to dispose of bulky items including tires, as well as some hazardous substances (NOT wet latex paint, however! To get rid of this, you need to pour it out on a flat sheet and let it dry, or treat it with a hardener often available at hardware stores). A shredder will be available for heavy yard waste (tree trimmings), and neighbors will be most welcome to keep the mulch if they wish.
Next, we heard from three students from Burney Fischer's Urban Forest Management Class, who spoke about what they might do in Green Acres for a Term Project. Kendra had read our Neighborhood Plan and thought a brochure on sustainable yards or on the advantages of planting trees would address one of our objectives. Sarah asked if there were any historically significant trees in the neighborhood, and Ann said the Plan actually mentions one on the grounds of the Raintree House. This might be a focal point in the brochure. Another option involved planting trees. Gavin passed around an SPEA survey of trees in Green Acres that showed 33 spots where trees could be planted on the public right-of-way. Georgia pointed out that Lee Huss with the City of Bloomington had recently committed to getting us mature trees if we provide the labor. Ann noticed that many of the plantable areas are near rental houses. "How do we contact the landlords?" Vickie said she can get a list from HAND, though it may take awhile to generate. In the end, it looked like the students may provide us with both a short, custom brochure and some tree plantings. Hooray!
We adjourned for refreshments at 8:00 pm and began watching A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curatiba Brazil. It told the story of how a land-locked city in Brazil took a pro-active design approach to traffic, trash/recycling, housing, poverty and parks as its population swelled to 2 million people. (A 15-minute online talk by Curatiba's three-time Mayor, Jaime Lerner, also touches on some of the points in the video).
For traffic, the Mayor declared major areas of the inner city car-free zones. Shop keepers threatened to sue, but when the changes took effect, increased pedestrian traffic improved business so much that neighboring areas petitioned to become car-free, too. To get people into and out of the city, planners used dedicated bus lanes and one-way streets to move people rapidly through the city. To keep the articulated buses moving, architects designed shelters where people bought fares before boarding. These were elevated, with wheelchair access, so the buses would not need to lower special ramps for handicapped passengers. The result: a transit system as efficient as a subway for less than 1/100 the price.
Trash/recycling improvements began when planners noticed that the poor were dumping their trash in their own neighborhoods. They could not afford city services. So the city began buying bags of trash from them in exchange for bus tokens (the buses were paid by the mile, not by the rider, so it cost the city no money and greatly improved the mobility of the poor). Very quickly, the poor neighborhoods spruced up. When planners pushed for city-wide recycling, they had no budget and everybody said that Brazilians would never recycle. So they came up with a "trash that isn't trash" publicity campaign for the schools and painted the slogan on the side of the collection trucks. Volunteer labor built the sorting facility on city land. The volunteers, many of them poor and illiterate, were "paid" in bus tokens and literacy and job training. Within a year (this was 1988), Curitiba had become the first major city where everybody recycled.
Rather than build uniformly depressing low-income housing at the outskirts of the city, Curitiba chose to develop compact, visually varied mixed-use villages along the major transportation and utility corridors. There people rent-to-own apartments directly above their own businesses (the application process and fees include entrepreneurship classes).
Curitiba faced the threat of flooding from thin rivers that ran through it. Rather than channelize these with concrete structures as so many other cities have done, the Brazilians took a far less expensive approach: they bought out and relocated the people living in the flood zones. Then they built parks that would act as flood basins, using such sustainable maintenance techniques as grazing sheep to keep the grass trimmed.
At this point (perhaps 5 minutes before the end), the DVD froze up, so we called it a night. But it was very inspiring to see how even a huge city chose not to roll over for the blind pressures of growth, traffic and economic swings. In each case, creative thinking and a refusal to give up led to greater abundance, humanity and security for everyone in Curitiba. View full story>>
