Turning Point for Bloomfield Center

Despite rainy weather, Wednesday night's forum on Bloomfield's long delayed Downtown Redevelopment attracted a turnout that nearly filled Town Hall to capacity. Baristanet has just published a detailed account by Carl Lorentzen so we won't rehash the proceedings except to note that the council's GOP challengers who were seen at the back of the room during the first portion of the proceedings disappeared before the public participation period began. What remained was a room full of hopeful residents with love for their town.

Current Rates

We’re starting to see people coming back into the market because of the record number of listings available and owners becoming more flexible with qualified buyers. With the latest cuts in the discount rates, 30 year mortgage rates are stabilizing in the 6.4% range

Mortgage Rates

30 Year Fixed: 6.40%

15 Year Fixed: 6.08%

1 Year Adj: 5.76%

Who Is More Likely to Protect the Environment?

CBS NEWS/NEW YORK TIMES. "Regardless of how you usually vote, do you think the Republican party or the Democratic party is more likely to protect the environment?" Conducted 7/13-16/02; surveyed 1,000 adults; margin of error +/-3%

Demographics Can Be Fun

We've shared a variety of sites for the analysis of updated local census stats, but zipskinny.com may be the most user friendly and addictive. Along with colorful charts are endless possibilities for side by side comparisons with neighboring zip codes and state and national rankings in endless categories.

Encap: Knee Deep In the Big Muddy

Since 1999, when a North Carolina firm called EnCap was awarded development rights to 785 polluted acres in the Meadowlands, state officials have given the firm more than $350 million in public benefits and promised hundreds of millions more in tax breaks.

The State is reportedly looking for another developer to finish the project, but more than one mayor in the area is pressuring the Meadowlands Commission for a seat at the table. NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Titell has his own ideas. In a blistering OpEd in The Record, he raises a stink on the growing scandal:

The controversial EnCap proposal includes two golf courses, 2,000 units of housing and half a million square feet of commercial and office space. This is one of the largest projects being proposed in New Jersey, and it has major environmental implications. The original purpose of this project was to clean up and stabilize landfills in the Meadowlands that are leeching into the Hackensack River, but it has become instead a boondoggle, a pork barrel, and a symbol of everything that's wrong with pay to play in New Jersey.

What may have started out as a good idea has turned into an environmental and financial disaster.

Burning Green

Of the thousands of summer festivals that dot the planet, Burning Man may be the the most bizarre and dazzling. It's a post-apocalyptic Happening in the northern Nevada desert in early September. This year's theme was the Green Man.

Hawk Eyes

October is not only peak season for leaves. Pat Gilleran shares an eye full from Hawk Lookout:

The second oldest hawk watch in the nation, the Lookout is located on the First Watchung Mountain on the border of Montclair and Cedar Grove, and offers a spectacular view of hawks, along with other birds, as they migrate in the skies above New Jersey, and of the landscape below that encompasses the New York City skyline.

October may be the most interesting time to visit the Lookout, as it
offers the greatest diversity of hawk species. Chances are now better
to see Merlins or even a Peregrine Falcon or two. However, by mid-
month the Broad-winged Hawk flight will be over for the season, as
other species begin to peak. The Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawk
will be most numerous at the end of the month.

From 10/1 thru 10/10/07 there were 613 sightings of raptors logged.
2 Black Vulture
129 Osprey
9 Bald Eagle
33 Northern Harrier
235 Sharp-shinned Hawk
52 Cooper's Hawk (pictured)
2 Red-shouldered Hawk
32 Broad-winged Hawk
1 Red-tailed Hawk
70 American Kestrel
24 Merlin
23 Peregrine Falcon

The Edgecliff Rd. Lookout is staffed by members of the New Jersey Audubon Society and open daily, weather permitting, through November 30, from 9a.m. to 5p.m.

Higher ATM fees to gain customers?

Bankrate.com's Managing Editor Ellen Cannon blogs about credit and debit cards, prepaid cards, gift cards, credit scores -- anything related to the plastic in your wallet.

Bringing people into the bank may be the real story behind Bank of America's new $3 surcharge, said James Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial consulting firm in Pleasanton, Calif. The firm's research has shown ATM access is one of the top three criteria when choosing a new bank, and rates and fees rank as the most important reason among almost two-thirds of consumers.

So although Bank of America's fee hike rankled non-customers and even sparked online calls to boycott Bank of America's ATMs, the move could also persuade customers of banks with fewer ATMs to switch just to avoid fees.

"The consumer is going to say, 'Why don't I just switch to BofA?' " Van Dyke said. "This is a powerhouse move that only a powerhouse can pull off."

Timely Earth Time

The Earth Clock is a real time simulation based on the changing nature of a range of environmental factors. Using statistics from a number of sources it provides continually updated information on the worlds population, CO2 emissions, waste production and much more. The Earth Clock was designed by Poodwaddle.com and is based on figures from sources including the United Nations, EPA and the US Census Bureau. With a little patience, you can integrate this and other add-ons into your home page or blog, or website.

Tour Buses Unload in Bloomfield

We happened to be visiting Democratic campaign headquarters this morning when our Mayor passed along an unexpected tip:
"You'll never guess what's going on across the street right now.
The Soprano tour bus has just unloaded!"
A closer look revealed that On Location Tours was making it's first official Bloomfield stop incorporating Holsteins. This was the largest tour to hit Bloomfield so far -- four months after the end of the series at the now-internationally known mecca for ice cream and onion-rings.
He may be justified in jokingly taking credit for adding to the media exposure that is making Bloomfield a "Must See" tourist attraction. At $42 a ticket for the 4 hour tour, we can now expect three of their busloads a weekend to shower their souvenir cash on Brookdale.

September Home Sales in North Jersey

Additional updated charts can be found on the NNJ Real Estate Report site.

A Night Time Gage for Global Warming

Land surface temperature is a good indicator of the energy balance at the Earth's surface, and serves as an important indicator of the greenhouse effect. Land surface temperature can be used for evaluating water requirements of crops, for determining frost-damaged areas in orange groves, and for assessing the impact of climate change on the Arctic, an environment that will be particularly sensitive to rising global temperatures.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites take the temperature of every square kilometer of the Earth nearly every day, barring cloudy skies. MODIS senses the temperature of all natural and man-made land surfaces —everything from snow to deserts, from rooftops to treetops. The map above shows nighttime LST ending a six year cycle from March 2000 to July 2006. An animated seqhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifuence can be generated here. Values range from 250 to 320 Kelvin (about -23 to 47 degrees Celsius, or -10 to 116 degrees Fahrenheit) in shades from light to yellow.

Nighttime LST measurements have an interesting land-cover mapping application. Manmade surfaces such as concrete and asphalt that dominate cities typically absorb a lot more heat than the natural land cover that surrounds them. Having soaked up heat all day long, cities stay warmer at night than their surrounding natural areas, and so they stand out as warm spots. This phenomenon has come to be called "the urban heat island effect," and scientists can study urban sprawl by using nighttime LST data like that from MODIS.

Singing a Song of Jersey

Among this state's countless resources, New Jersey would seem to have all the elements for an unforgettable state song. Some states have two. In fact we're the ONLY state that has never agreed on one. Despite talents from Sinatra and Vali to Bon Jovi & Springsteen and many lesser known composers and lyricists.

New Jersey has consistently failed to adopt a song, despite bids to do so dating back to 1794, when then-Gov. Richard Howell wrote a song used by troops heading off to help quell the Whiskey Rebellion.

State Senator Raymond Lesniak has proposed New Jersey adopt the hit Bon Jovi song, "Who Says You Can't Go Home," as its official song.

For awhile it looked like "Born to Run" had the inside track -- with rewrites needed to lighten up lines like"
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young.

Foxtons Bites the Dust

Realtors have been predicting for some time that the first casualty of a Real Estate downturn would be that not so big "Green Monster."

Foxtons, a Long Branch-based real estate company that made a splash with its discounted commissions, said Wednesday night it is shutting down.

With a backlog of 4400 active listings, the 8 year old company said it is contemplating bankruptcy for an orderly shutdown, and it will continue only with a skeleton crew, laying off 350 of its 380 employees.

As The Asbury Park Press put it:
The decision marks the latest casualty in the softening real estate industry, and it brings a stunning end to a company that was a lightning rod among real estate agencies.

The unresolved question is the fate of the 4400 sellers who remain legally tied to Foxtons until their listing agreements expire. These long term agreements may be considered "assets" in a bankruptcy filing. Their homes can only be shown by appointments made by the few remaining employees. That's about 130 sellers per employee.

Summer's Last Stand

Paving Paradise--The Hidden Costs of Free Parking

"We've had a big interest in this area for a while now, but it's not been well studied," says an official with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who requested anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the press. "It's the amount of water, the speed and temperature of it pouring off these oceans of asphalt we have in this country, that concern us. And that's not even talking about the contamination washing off all that asphalt."
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Continue reading from The Christian Science Monitor

On the other hand, if you need to park in NYC, this new site may smooth the way.

Don't Count on Your Home for Retirement Cushion

from The Wall Street Journal Online:

If the current turmoil in the housing and credit markets tells us anything about retirement planning, it should be this: Think twice about how big a role your home will play in subsidizing your future.

If the value of your home falls -- which many Americans had come to assume would never happen -- there's less equity to help finance your retirement.

Bipartisan Group of NJ Congressmen Get Perfect Score On Environment

Trenton – A majority of New Jersey’s Congressmen voted for the environment 100% of the time in the 109th Congress in a bipartisan manner, according to the annual Congressional Scorecard on major environmental issues released today by Environment New Jersey.

Environment New Jersey is releasing its annual scorecard as part of its national campaign to pass legislation through both houses of Congress requiring at least 15% of our electricity to come from clean, renewable energy sources by 2020.

“A majority of New Jersey’s Congressmen time and again have stood up to the White House and done what’s right for the environment,” said Matt Elliott, Environment New Jersey’s global warming and clean energy advocate. “Being green in the Garden State is a bipartisan issue and we applaud our delegation’s environmental heroes.”

New Jersey Congressmen who scored 100% on the scorecard included Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2), Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3), Rep. Chris Smith (R-4), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6), Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8), Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-12).

Give It Up for Digivity

In what's seen as a sad commentary on modern life to some, a survey out today reports that we're becoming so dependent on our web lives that we're giving up face-to-face time friends and even sex to keep connected.

The survey of more than 1,000 American adults reports, among other findings that:
- Asked how long they would be OK without Web access: 15 percent of respondents said less than a day; 21 percent said a couple of days; 19 percent said a few days
- 48 percent said they "felt something important was missing" without Internet access
- 28 percent admit spending less time face-to-face with peers because of the amount of time they spend online
- 20 percent say they spend less time having sex because of time spent online.

JWT, the advertising agency that conducted the study, has created a new advertising demographic - 'digivity denizens' - describing people whose lives are profoundly connected to the web, those "whose online and offline lives are co-mingled and who would chose a Wi-Fi connection over TV any day," as JWT trend spotting director Ann Mack describes them.

Is that unhealthy? Perhaps, but it also can be more engaging, thought-provoking and interactive than TV has ever been.

5 Ways to Cash in on the Fed Rate Cut

From U.S. News & World Report:
Mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto loans, credit card rates, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts can all be influenced by changes in short-term interest rates set by the Federal Reserve. But don't count on getting a lower interest rate; first, read the fine print in whatever contract you're signing.
Here are 5 ways to make it work:

Land Use: Why Plan?

Here's an interesting article by Robert Sherwood in Open Space Magazine on how Land Use has evolved over the centuries. It focuses on Oregon's former Governor Tom McCall's influence on striking a balance between private and public interests in environmental planning. It was during his tenure in office (1967-1975) that Oregon gained its reputation as a national leader in innovative public policy.

He came up with the legendary warning:
"We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But, for heaven's sake, don't move here to live."

We've Moved!

As you may have noted from the mini-profile to the right, we're still associated with Century 21, but our Suffix/Office/Franchise holder has changed from Gemini to Van Der Wende. Our home remains in Bloomfield, but our home base has moved 3 miles up the road to Little Falls.
This is partly because more of our buyers currently are actively looking for homes in this area as well as the fact that Century 21 Van Der Wende is the number 1 Century 21 office in North Jersey.
Coincidentally, EcoRealty has just moved up to #14 in the "Influence Index" of NJ Blognet's list of "Political Blogs." We've tried to limit our politics to the Wikipedia subtext:
"The process by which groups of people make decisions....politics is observed in all human group interactions."

Lockup Your Cats -- and Kids

We've had documented reports of bears, foxes, hawks, and wild turkeys in these parts.
The latest to cause concern is the Wile E. coyote. South Orange's community forum has gone wild this week with multiple sightings of coyotes along with the nearby remains of at least one dead cat. There have even been close calls with small children.

Interest Rates Remain Low

According to our Century 21 Mortgage Center, fixed 30 year interest rates appear to be stabilizing after a month long slide.

9/11

Good Deeds

After five years of memorials, many are looking for ways to commemorate 9/11
without turning it into a numbing ritual. We like the idea behind My Good Deed.
You can register and share what you've done with others, or stay anonymous and be inspired by the good vibes. 9/11 related groups are here.
These are some of the Non-profit Groups that can always use help.

Where the Grass is Greener and Higher

If a solar roof isn't cutting edge enough, you could always add the ultimate in green roofs. All you'll need to know about the ups and downs of these cool slopes--including how to mow it-- can be found here.
Spectacular examples of all kinds of green roofs can be found as close by as Battery Park City.

Sales and Inventory Chart

The trendlines over nearly five years.
(Click to enlarge)

A Slogan to Remember?

The Star Ledger reports that the top vote-getter in the election to pick a slogan for Cedar Grove's centennial was "A Century of Memories."

The victor, with 193 of the 350 votes cast, had seesawed with "A Place to Call Home" in recent weeks but surged ahead in the final 10 days and will headline the suburban Essex County community's 100th anniversary in 2008.

"We have a winner," Cindie Newkirk, co-chair of the 33-member Cedar Grove Centennial Committee, said after paper ballots as well as e-mail votes were counted.
"A Century of Memories" ultimately beat "A Place to Call Home" by 82 votes, garnering 193 to the runner-up's 111.
The other four contenders trailed far behind, with "We've Only Just Begun" getting 20 votes; "Only Getting Better," 12; and "Thanks for the Century" and "A Celebration" holding up the rear with 10 votes each.

In the weeks leading up to the Sept. 1 deadline for submitting ballots, not everyone was wedded to the six choices fielded by the centennial overseers.

Once word of the slogan contest began, the Cedar Grove forum on nj.com lighted up with some tongue-in-cheek offerings reflective of small-town living: "Pull Over and Step Away from Your Car"; "Cedar Grove: Country Living with City Traffic"; and "Verona Wannabees."

Slow Homes

from Treehugger.com:
"Suburban sprawl is like fast food; cheap and easy but also unsatisfying and boring." says the intro Slow Home, which says "takes its name from the slow food movement which arose as a reaction to the processed food industry. In the same ways that slow food helps people learn how to become more familiar and involved with the food they eat, Slow Home provides design focused information to empower individuals to step beyond the too fast world of cookie cutter housing. "The ten steps to better housing are an excellent guide to sustainable living.

Maryland Overtakes NJ in Income

Essex Co. map based on 2000 Census (click to enlarge)
From Bloomberg:
New Jersey is no longer the wealthiest U.S. state, losing that distinction to Maryland in 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers.

New Jersey's median household income increased 1.1 percent to $64,470, while Maryland outpaced that, rising 2.2 percent to $65,144, according to the Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey.

The U.S. median household income was $48,451 in 2006, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, officials said. Mississippi was the poorest of the 50 states with a median household income of $34,473.

The city of Camden, New Jersey, shed its distinction as the poorest among communities with a population of 65,000 to 249,999. It had a median household income of $25,961, making it the eighth-lowest nationally in that category, the Census Bureau said. Brownsville and College Station Texas both have higher poverty rates. Youngstown Ohio and Muncie Indiana have lower incomes.

Put a Chicken in Your Tank

This may seem like a chicken$#it fuel alternative, but it's beginning to produce results. From Treehugger.com and other sources:

You can't stop progress: turning chicken droppings into electricity is one thing, but developing transportable pyrolysis units to convert poultry droppings into bio-oil on-the-go? A team of scientists from Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is working with a coalition of poultry growers to test a transportable unit that would convert poultry litter — a mixture of manure, feathers, bedding and spilled feed — into bio-oil (or pyrodiesel), producer gas and fertilizer.

It would do so by first heating the litter until it vaporized; the vapor would then be condensed to make the bio-oil. At the same time, a form of slow release fertilizer could be recovered from the pyrolysis unit.

If more immediate results, there's always this.

The Way to Waywayanda

Although it's less than an hour from Essex County, there are many scenic drives and loop trips to Waywayanda State Park.
Forested hills surround the large lake creating a peaceful backdrop for canoeists, boaters and fisherman, while a variety of trails from old farm roads (dotted with remnants of the old iron mines and Lenape Indian shelters) to steep mountains delight casual as well as serious hikers. A twenty-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail runs through the park, while the top of Wawayanda Mountain offers sensational views. More than forty miles of trails are marked. If you're desperate for a dip when the beaches close or after Labor Day, you can follow the trail around the south shore of the lake to a refreshing waterfall (at your own risk).

From Toxic Passaic to Llewellyn Estates

Montclair's preeminent historian, Frank G. Godlewski, contributed this historical insight on the influence of Passaic River pollution on Llewellyn Haskell, one of N. Essex County's leading aristocrats, leading to the development of the region:

From Baristanet:
Mr Llewellyn Haskell lived at his estate, "Belmont" in North Arlington, designed by A.J. Davis. The drinking water was piped up from the Passaic River and stored in water towers in this castellated villa. Due apparently to river pollution from nearby Patterson industries, Haskell's wife and children (except one son) died of diseases (in the 1840's). Mr. Haskell was one of the richest men of NY and his chemicals trade then became MERCK. Devastated by the deaths in his family, his architect took him to healthier land that promised itself to be a romantic and picturesque paradise...Bloomfield.
A. J. Davis's family homestead, once on the Morris Canal, is now the Bloomfield Steak House and the land now the town green. A.J.'s grandfather, Deacon Joseph Davis, (husband of Anna Crane of Cranetown (Montclair)), founded the First Presbyterian Church and the Bloomfield Cemetery. Davis encouraged Haskell to buy land to pursue a project of creating an ideal community of likeminded, illuminated individuals.
Haskell was a Swedenborghist and a staunch abolitionist. Davis adapted an existing farmhouse for him calling it Bloomfield Villa, still standing on Llewellyn Road. Haskell may be considered on of the first real estate developers of our area and Davis the first architects. Davis's house designs in the 1840's country house pattern books that he did for Downing, includes several local house designs. Llewellyn Park originally began on Llewellyn Road in Montclair to 280 and then extended up from Orange Road to Eagle Rock Reservation.... Llewellyn Haskell's son was a general of an all African American troop in the Civil War.

A Birdseye View of Foreclosures

The recent "boom" in the foreclosures has resulted in new tools for tracking the rapidly changing marketplace.

The latest score in North Essex is Bloomfield 42, Montclair 19, Glen Ridge 3.

Realtors and investors have always had access to updates on latest neighborhood to host a home in early to final stages of foreclosure. The newest wrinkle, introduced by Yahoo, adds aerial views of the neighborhood to the equation. It's really a bit of a tease since it requires at least a trial subscription to RealtyTrac to zero-in on the home and full info sheet. But a little detective work can narrow it down. Or not. One wonders how the neighbors feel. The 1.5M Montclair mansion on Llewellyn, is listed as up for auction on 8/28.
The new tool provides online users with this information by matching the addresses of the properties in RealtyTrac's foreclosure database to Microsoft Virtual Earth images. It offers users “photos of each property, zoomed in and cropped to show the property in clear detail−and from multiple angles.....buyers and investors who use our service now have a significant advantage over other buyers and investors in the market for foreclosures. These photos will give our users a good sense of a property's layout, condition and neighborhood−key factors in determining value and investment potential−all from the comfort and convenience of their computer.”
Although savvy investors can do well, there are many cautions.

A Hop, Skip, & a Jump in the Lake

Nine miles in length and covered by 2,500 acres of freshwater, Lake Hopatcong is the focal point of the park. Hopatcong State Park is at the southwest end of the lake and is a popular spot for fishing, boating, and swimming. It's just north of I-80, off exit 43, about 33 miles from Bloomfield. There's a Bloomfield connection, since The Lake was originally created as part of the Morris Canal, the 90-mile waterway that ran from Newark to Phillipsburg. As with many popular state parks, it can fill up early on weekends, so call ahead.
The water temps are comfortable in August, but if the air seems a bit too cool this Saturday, you can drive a few miles due south to the annual Chester Black River Music & Arts fest. It's free!

Snaking Down the Passaic

Why our Swimmin'Hole Survey will NOT include the Passaic River:
From the Herald News:

Ancient ritual met with modern consequence Monday, as state environmental authorities said they were searching for a religious group that released hundreds of live reptiles into the Passaic River on Sunday as part of a Buddhist rite.

Members from a New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists -- devout vegetarians who believe in the sanctity of all living creatures -- said Sunday they had purchased the creatures in New York's Chinatown for the purpose of setting them free.

Toying With Tools

Not having a garage or tool shed, our tools tend to get buried under tarps or left out to rust in the rain. We've yet to find a shed big enough for our collection. Ever lose track of where you left that weird tool you haven't used in years? How about a trip to the library?

From Treehugger.com:


There is nothing new about tool libraries. The famous Berkeley Tool Lending Library was established back in 1979 and now contains over 2,500 tools, but it is easy to get entranced by the siren song of new gizmos. Our consumer society is predicated around us owning all this 'stuff.' When really what we want is not so much to own it, but to use it. Libraries are perfect examples of this. We read books without having to buy them. Community toy libraries provide the same delightful function. Little Johnny tires of that train set, so you swap it for a box of Lego. A tool library is no different. For those rare times when you need a ladder, rubber plunger or circular saw you just borrow it from the library.

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr.

Our hometown hero made good.
Born 1925 In San Mateo, CA.

Mortgage Rates Decline

from National Realty News:
Freddie Mac reports that the current 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.59 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending August 9, 2007, down from last week when it averaged 6.68. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.55 percent.

Trips123 -- The Ultimate Hub For Transit Issues

A Day late and a dollar short, we REALLY could have used this site this morning.
Trips123 is a one-stop center for daily and long term transit & travel info for the Metro Region. It links to all transit lines(even DeCamp)with interactive Google based maps and live webcams with few noticeable ads. For Realtors, it can save a lot of time for buyers & sellers who need to know their commuting options with links to free commuter info & car pooling sites like CommuterLink.If you go into the city more than once a week, this should be on top of your favorites list.

Swimmin' Holes for the Dog Days of Summer

When it gets as steamy as it has been, we're forced to deal with our local lack of a swimming outlet here in Bloomfield by searching out the nearest cooling pond. We'll have many to share with you in the coming days. We're not bothering with The Shore since they're well known to most and many of their beaches are subject to closings. Let's start with Ringwood State Park's Shepherd Lake. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
The spring-fed waters of the 74-acre lake are brisk and invigorating [although water temps can reach the mid-80s by mid August] and offer swimming from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day from 10 am to 6 pm. Boating and fishing are permitted with boat rentals available. A network of trails surrounds the lake leading to rocky vistas.
It's an easy drive --about 35 miles from Watchung & Broad. A downside for some: roped off swimming area is barely 4 feet deep and crowded on weekends. Go midweek.

Montclair School Wins Safer Routes Grant

Montclair’s Rand School has been awarded $324,000 from the N.J. Department of Transportation (DOT) for a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. The elementary school is one of 29 in the state to be selected by the DOT to receive the SRTS grants.

The primary goal of the Safe Routes to School grant program is to enable and encourage walking and bicycling to school while enhancing the safety of these trips. The program helps the environment by easing traffic jams, curbing air pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and further improves children’s health by providing regular physical activity.

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a federal, state and local effort to enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school - and to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing.

Grounded for A Day and A Night Out

New American Dream's website is giving folks a great incentive to make a difference in carbon emissions.

Look at your calendar for this week and find one day when you can take public transportation, bike, walk, or just stay home. If you'd rather call it a Boycott against Big Oil, that's OK too. Have fun with it – plan activities to do with your family at home or within walking distance of it. Or have a get-together with your neighbors. [you could even combine this project with Tuesday's National Night Out!]

As a reward for getting other people involved in this campaign you could win...
* Grand Prize: A one-week Bike Tour of Oregon for you and a friend, provided by Sustainable Energy in Motion
* Second Prize: A Villager U-frame Breezer Bike
* Third Prize: A $200 carbon offset from Native Energy (and a snazzy t-shirt as well)

Move-in Day at Crisco

This lucky new resident lives at 3 Christopher Ct., although it's not yet listed as a closed deal on the MLS. You can keep checking this link for automatic updates. Looks like they're setting up a dish across the street at #6 -- the only formally closed sale. Meanwhile, "buyer's remorse" apparently hit the prospect for # 9 -- it's back on the market. The other contracts are hanging in albeit well past their announced closing dates. Might be some haggling going on.