Author Archives: JennyGage

Community-building meeting scheduled for the local crowd

Those of you living on or around the Parade Grounds in Brooklyn have probably noticed a decline in police presence in our neighborhood this summer. That’s because after two years, the ‘impact zone’ defined by the 70th Precinct to address serious safety issues with a whole lotta beat cops, has moved on to shadier climes. Fair enough, but we still get a lot more visitors than most neighborhoods because of the athletic fields, on top of a thriving core of our very own home-grown

thugs.

Since the end of May, a group of area residents has been working closely with members of the 70th Precinct to try to reverse the spike in criminality that resulted when the impact zone moved on. We’ve been very pleased by the responsiveness of the police. Now we’d like to invite other concerned residents of the area immediately around the Parade Grounds to join us for a community meeting and briefing with the police on Tuesday, July 17th at 7:30 pm in the lobby of 25 Parade Place. The idea is to expand and organize the network of neighbors willing to use their eyes and ears and voices for the welfare of the community. Please help us to spread the word among those who care. Thank you!

Graywater Guerrillas

So it turns out that the average American household consumes 70 gallons of water per person per day, which seems problematic and unsustainable even for those of us living on big islands still soggy

from spring. (Calculate just how much water you waste with your thoughtless ablutions here. Now for the last time, would you please turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth?)

That’s the bad news. The good news is that populist logisticians are at work on the problem. There’s an article in the NYTimes today about “the Greywater Guerrillas, a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water–the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines–to flush toilets or irrigate gardens.”

Interested? Get your hows and whys here.

Wowser. How apropos.

What is that thing that addicts do when they feel their addiction being challenged? Oh yeah, they go berserk. Check out this press release from Union of Concerned Scientists about the auto industry’s latest hijinks–or, if you really want a little blood pressure rush, skip right down to one of the two sample ads at the bottom:

AUTOMAKERS SUMMER PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICAN DRIVERS:
HIGHER GAS PRICES, MORE POLLUTION

INDUSTRY KICKS OFF MILLION DOLLAR-PLUS MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO
SCUTTLE STRONGER FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS, INCREASE U.S. OIL ADDICTION

WASHINGTON (May 24, 2007) – To kick off the summer driving season this
Memorial Day weekend, the auto industry has a message for drivers facing
record-high gasoline prices: Pay up!

Continue reading →

How long, PHEV?

Mine is a multi-Prius clan. I drive one of that first batch of 2,000 that came in in 2001, courtesy of my Dad, who promptly traded up for the new body model. My brother has one of those, too.

So when I say that it seems like years since rumor first had it that PHEV (plug-in hybrid engine vehicle) upgrades were just around the corner, I mean really . I’ve read innumerable profiles of little Mom-and-Pop shops (invariably in CA) performing the conversions, and enough predictions that similar conversion services were coming soon to a garage near me that I put off the road trip. The Canadians are doing it

& the kids are doing it, but the rest of us are just waiting around getting bothered, apparently.

Our best hope might just be with the DIY crowd, which is hard at work developing an open-source conversion guide and launch a fleet of “100+MPG Hybrids”–with the ultimate goal of pressuring the auto industry to do it Bettah.