Personal Travel Audit: Week 3

Week 3 was a good one. Relatively good weather meant walking. Matt was out of town so limited trips to Bellevue and I picked up Kirsty's ring (we're engaged!!!!!) so no more driving to Lynnwood. Sunday was a long walking day, relative to the others. I walked to Fremont to see Neon Indian. He/they was/were good, albeit slightly uneven. It was fun and it was the first concert I've been to solo. Interesting experience. I felt slightly guarded and then slightly uninhibited. Fuck it, ya know?

Nothing more to say, really. I'm enjoying this little project.

Two Things

This is on the Sports Illustrated page today. Two important things worth nothing:

1. That's Beaver Stadium and Penn State prominently pictured as the main image for this feature.
2. Rudest fans = Ohio State.

That is all.

Sweet Fiesta Movement Video

Nicely done, michaelaranda.

Semen Soles!

What. The. Fuck?

Gravity Defyer shoes, apparently. I guess it's good advertising. I'm talking about.

Personal Travel Audit: Week 2

Week 2 has ended. Results below. I really don't think anyone cares about this but it's more of a personal record for myself, to see how I travel (duh). I forgot to mention that my walking distances are calculated using google maps. I don't have a pedometer so I'm missing out on total steps (in a store, from the house to the street, in the house, etc.).

While I walked almost the exact same distance my vehicle miles are up considerably. This is due to various factors and it will probably be relatively high in the remaining weeks (especially when we go to Wenatchee for Thanksgiving...over the mountains and through the woods...).

Hopefully my walking share will be at least 20% next week.

Kirsty and I were talking about what we could do to reduce our carbon footprint. She has always tossed around the idea of carpooling or taking the bus to work bus is hesitant due to the hard schedule it imposes (she works about 20 miles from where we live). I think the biggest thing to consider is that not driving your car to work is not an all-or-nothing game. You drive to work everyday. That's a lot of miles. If you bussed or walked or carpooled just once a week that's an automatic 20% decrease in miles traveled. If Kirsty did this for an entire year it's 2080 miles she's not putting on her car, about $160 saved in gasoline, less wear-and-tear, less greenhouse gas emissions...

That's just one day. You do this two, three times a week, the numbers obviously escalate accordingly. Huge savings in many areas!

I know I've been preachy recently but it's something I feel strongly about (that coupled with the class I'm taking, keeping track of my travel modes, talks I've attended, etc.). Right. I'm done for now.

Alex Steffen and A Slice of Seattle

I am a civic engager/engage-e.

I just returned from a talk by Alex Steffen, executive director of WorldChanging.com. He spent 75 minutes talking about Seattle's future and, of course, the world's future.

Touching on issues of sustainability and how we need to not fuck ourselves now if we want to live a healthy, just, productive life in the future, Steffen presented a glossy, wide-ranging talk, ableit one that prompted much applause and discussion.

Town Hall is a public (I guess public...admission was $5...I'm not too sure on its official designation) forum in where speakers talk about shit and people listen. It seems very Quaker, very New England in the setting. It was rather comforting sitting in slightly uncomfortable wooden benches talking about the the world around us.

The evening started off with an introduction by Seattle's newly minted mayor-elect Mike McGinn. To those outside of Seattle, McGinn was an outsider (by political standards) who really tapped into the psyche of Seattlelites (grassroots campaigning, anti-car, pro-environment, pro-nightlife, etc.) and took the election from two-time incumbent Nickels and T-Mobile exec Joe Mallahan. In his first appearance since Mallahan conceded, McGinn received a very warm welcome (standing O). A fucking standing ovation as the introducer? The dude's like Obama, signifying an era of change. So, then the crowd sits. Enter Steffen.

Steffen gave a powerpoint presentation that touched on, by my count, four major issues:

• dense development is needed,
• the car must be secondary,
• we must embrace our collective intelligence and engage with each other, and,
  
• we must embrace technology in becoming more sustainable.

Each point was given numerous examples of how we can achieve this and how other cities are already working to do so (the dreaded Portland, the domineering Vancouver, among other, mainly European, cities). Looked at holistically, it would be impossible to implement change at the scale he is seeking. But, each person has a talent, an interest. He, along with McGinn in his intro, hinted that the people behind the change are not in city hall. Not in Olympia. They are us. The people with the sore asses sitting before him. While this is not necessarily a novel idea, it was, however, novel in the way he went about it. So many possibilities, so many ideas. If every person contributed in small ways on a consistent basis change will come about. We can, as his goal states. become the first carbon-neutral city in the country.

As mentioned, the talk was rather breezy, offering little in way of numbers, statistics, or hard references. But, when we are talking about becoming more sustainable, fuck it. It's not like he is trying to convince to become pro-business and the potential negative side effects are masked in positive tones and images. No. We are trying to save the planet. If it engages people to change, to act and react, who needs scholarly references? Let the people change their habits. Change the world.

Afterwards: Kirsty and I, while drinking our complementary Fremont Brewing pale ale, we both pondered what we could do to make a difference. The basement was abuzz with people, drinks in hand, socializing and interacting in the public sphere, talking about the world around them.

The internet is great. It offers supposed democratization of media and information. I have never bought into this argument. While the internet offers so many useful tools it can never replace the power of being in a roomful of people who care about an issue. I'm no mover or shaker. But, this simply way of spending my evening has gotten me to think about things I already think about. It's reinforcing to know that I'm not alone. It give me hope.

KUOW will have a broadcast of his talk (so he says). I will post that once it's avaialbe. I know it sounds droll and dry but I really encourage you to listen to it, especially if you aren't from Seattle.

9 Minutes of Bliss?!?!