Playoff Baseball is Electric!

I guess you can't argue with the numbers. All that playoff baseball coverage on TV cost me an extra $30 in October. Hard to believe...

Bike Blog Migration

Since certain people only care about bike posts, I am giving them an isolated blog for just that. Click here to go there.

Compost Journey

Kate Zidar's class on Waste Management rekindled my hidden desire to compost things. The benefits of composting in a 4-story walkup apartment building in the city were surprisingly overwhelming. The diversion of smelly organics from a several day stay in our building's trash room at the bottom of the hallway was a major motivation, as was the constant food source for a hard working army of worms. It was these worms, however that helped me understand the true challenges of urban composing.

Prior to this year, my only experience with composting was in a back yard, with lots of space. Composting in plastic bins is a completely different animal, and there was a learning curve. I started with a plastic chinese food container with newspaper, random food scraps, coffee grinds and a small handful of worms Aurelia (from the union square LESEC compost stand) gave me. Our team upgraded to a few bigger bins as the compost mass increased steadily until currently occupying a 20 gallon bin. However, 2 colonies of worms suffered throughout the journey.

With the 10 gallon bin sitting in my kitchen with a vented lid, the smell was too noticible to keep as it was (even while excluding all meats and dairies). However, reducing the air vents provided an unexpected quick death to my worms, as their oxygen ran out. $11 got me another 1/2 lb. The solution to keep these ones alive was to move the bin out to the fire escape, as I could keep the lid off entirely. This seemed the perfect solution until the massive rains of the summer of '09 overflowed the bin on two occasions. The second occasion drowned my second colony of worms, as effectively draining my bin was more tedious than i thought, especially when the darn rain wouldn't stop! Covering the bin again was still a challenge as the water kept getting in. I needed a better setup.

I arrived at the following solution:

This worked perfectly, until of course the harsh December frosts posed a threat to the third colony of worms. I contemplated insulating my bin, maybe dropping the entire bin into a larger bin lined on the inside with a sandwiched blanket, but then another thought crossed my mind. Since I was bringing many of my outdoor plants inside to survive the cold, what if I also brought the bin back inside, keeping it both warm and accessible. I had blue polystyrene and 6" flex duct so I could keep it lidded with a passive exhaust out the window. It seemed crazy enough to try...

For the past month, the team has been doing great. The worms, right within view of the kitchen, wait patiently each day for their feeding. The only hurdle with this setup were the fruit flies, trapped inside the bin, but inevitably escaping when the bin was opened for feeding and stirrings. The solution, which has worked thus far, including spreading concentrated deltamethrin around the perimeter of the rim and brim of the bin, where the flies previously congregated. It worked immediately. It should be noted that deltamethrin should not come into contact with the compost matter nor human skin, as it is toxic and not for amateur use.

I currently have a steady enough flow and enough compost to occasionally re-pot certain plants and also provide some hearty richness to friends upon request. If you want any, let me know.

Brooklyn Biking Boondoggle

In an attempt to be as unbiased as humanly possible (it’s hard), the following is an analysis/summary of the recently hot issue of the removal of the Bedford Avenue bike lane in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The conflict involves mainly two significant distinct communities:

-The population of biking commuters who go to or from Manhattan, to or from the 90% of Brooklyn which is south of the Williamsburg Bridge

-The tightly knit group of Hasidim who almost exclusively occupy a large continuous area south of the bridge and approaching Fort Greene on the south and Bed-Sty to the east

The Hasidic community, like many other curtural zones in NYC, is one of extreme self-segregation. The vast majority of pedestrians are Hasidim, as are a large majority of motor vehiclists and 100% of the school busses. The area is patrolled by the Hasidic paramuniciple police force (Shomrim) and generally governs itself. However, there is no legal precedent for independent jurisdiction, as a Native American territory in the United States would have. NYPD does inhabit the area, as the city has a responsibility to protect all city streets, including the public streets passing through any cultural zone.

From a biking perspective, approaching the Williamsburg Bridge from anywhere south would involve a route through the Hasidic zone. This is unavoidable unless travelling at least half a mile out of one’s way (From Bedford, east on Park, north on Union, west on Broadway) on a route that is not only out of the way but completely void of bike lanes.

Going to the bridge, Bedford Ave offers a direct one-way route with a bike lane straight to the entrance at the base of the bridge. Coming from the bridge, the Bedford route is complimented by the parallel Lee Ave offering a one-way in the opposite direction of Bedford, but without a lane. The only other main biking thorofare in the zone is Kent Ave, along the water, part of the continually developing Brooklyn Greenway. While this two way road and has a two way bike lane, use is only helpful traveling to and through Greenpoint, as it under cuts the bridge making it 4 blocks downhill out of the way for bridge access.

Currently, a conflict exists due to the dangerous nature of all three mentioned routes. Typical motor vehicle infractions include double parking (even in bike lanes) and over-aggressive driving. In addition, pedestrians have a greater tendency (greater than typical NYC pedestrian behavior) for jay walking and crossing during reds. Close calls (biking collisions) are more frequent in this area due to both the unique nature of the local occupants and the greater volume of commuter bike traffic through the corridor. Furthermore, the conflicting sentiment is only exacerbated on both sides as the dangers increase.

Bedford Ave’s 14 blocks of bike lane (from Flushing Ave to Division Ave) were recently grinded away in late November, 2009. This now makes Bedford Avenue even more dangerous as the elimination of the lane increases the ability for motor vehicles to dominate the rode and it gives bikers less legal leverage should there be an accident. As stated earlier, bikers have no viable alternate route approaching the bridge that would avoid such dangers. Therefore, the bike volume on Bedford Avenue will not significantly decrease and the route will remain more dangerous than before the removal.

Recently, bike advocates tried to repaint the bike lane at night, only to be arrested.

However, the repainted lane stayed for several days before DOT finally repainted over it in black. The strong opposition to this decision has even followed Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Copenhagen. Locally, efforts are currently underway to find a solution to the obvious and unavoidable problem. Hopefully the effects of this will include, at a minimum, bringing back the bike lane…

Note: For more (and only) biking related posts, visit Brock's Bike Blog.

Greenbuild '09

Paid trip anywhere? Yes please! It seems like Greenbuild is the only time each year I can really take advantage of major expensed anything. It gets better when you get to the hotel (the Ritz), find out they overbooked, and then they send you in a car to their compensation, a luxury retreat in the mountains. Too bad I was there alone. But arriving back at the Ritz, I was upgraded to a luxury suite in exchange for the "inconvenience." Not gonna lie, I was kind of big deal, felt kinda baller that week.

Anyway, here's the conference booth area.

Evening plenary with USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi and keynote speaker Al "I invented the internet and am the former next president of the United States" Gore.

Thursday night was the World Green Building Council cocktail party hosted by Lend Lease. Attending were Lend Lease sustainability professionals and leaders of green building councils from around the world.

Rick Fedrizzi and Lend Lease global head of sustainability Maria Atkinson...

And this is Papago Park that I explored a bit with James after the conference was over.

Check out my flickr for higher res images.

Then I flew to Albuquerque to chill with Page and Joe, which was a great time as well. Then back to NYC and back to work.

NYC Marathon '09

After '08's roof-top marathon party's success, we didn't hesitate for '09. Mile-marker 17 is right in in front of 1352 1st Ave, so as long as you could get to the east side of the street before the race got heavy, our roof was the place to be. Beer + BBQ + Brotha Sean = Boo-ya!

The view is great, covering over a mile span of the race up 1st Ave.

The lead women's pack had striking similarities to the year before.

But I was really looking forward to seeing Zoe, who was running despite having a broken foot several months earlier (this is the same girl who hosted a marathon after-party at her apartment the year before, and was as bouncy and cheerful as usual, despite having just ran 26 miles). I had my camera ready, perched 50 feet up, but after the race got heavy it seemed nearly impossible to catch her. Fortunely, McGee had the eye and spotted her in time to let me get a shot of her right as she looked up at us. Score!

Here is some jammin down on the street by Andy et al.

Looking up 1st Ave during the peak. They've all been running for 17 miles at this point.

Here are some more shots on my flickr. Y'all should come next year.

Washington DC '09

A failed trip to the Berkshires turned into a last minute trip down to DC to chill with Oliver and Sarah. We basically ate ate wandered a whole bunch.

For more and higher res photos, check out my flickr.

a smooth slide

Math question of the week: What is the probability that every team is spaced apart by 1 game like this? How about with this exact combination with the exact records??? Winner gets a free cheesesteak.

Chicago in the Summer

Last time I was in Chicago before this was for Greenbuild '07, and it was really cold. Before that was 2002 and it was even colder (like negative degrees). This time was actually the warmest time of their whole summer, so that made for a more enjoyable time. I went with Oliver and we stayed with Sarah. We did a whole bunch of stuff, eating, wandering, Lollapalooza, etc.

I also saw some other friends and checked out some BLL jobsites, both of which allowed me some amazing views.

One of the highlights was watching the Phillies beat the Cubs at Wrigley. I went with Sarah and we met up with Jessie B from Philly.

Afterwards we got some beers, when home, slept, and the next morning I was on my way back to NYC.

For more and higher res photos check out my flickr.

Midtown Night Views

I was helping my buddy Ian Cheney get access to a 600ft high vantage point for his new film, The City Dark, and took some photos myself. This is on top of the Orion at 42nd St and 9th Ave. We had to time this carefully in between all the rain we had this summer, to get as clear a sky as possible.

For more and higher res photos check out my flickr.