Urban Gardening: New York

Hhere's a look at some urban gardening that's going on around the US.


NYT featured a nice article about rooftop gardens with fun photos. --->
Image via Andrew Wilson, NYT





New York Sun Works has an impressive cadre of worker bees bringing fresh food to the rooftops, office buildings, and yes rivers of New York. In 2007 they launched a carbon-neutral river barge/greenhouse that grows veggies and hosts visitors to learn about hydroponic horticulture and alternative fuels. Sun Works also has interests in a myriad of projects related to vertical greenhouses & sustainable engineering. Their technology focuses on hydroponics, a growing method I'm not crazy about when it comes to "big picture" food production. On the other hand, the diversification of methods, and the experimentation is hugely important -- and it looks like they're working in a thorough and thoughtful manner. They have a cool lookin' brochure here.

Although, if we're counting looks, I'd say that this Uros community did a better job on Lake Titicaca, and they didn't even need solar panels...

Nominate Someone! Boston Youth Leadership Award

Boston seeks to nominate youth leaders for multi-cultural award. Read below for quoted text:

“We Are Boston”
Youth Leadership Awards:

"Do you know a New Bostonian resident or an individual, under 21 years old, whose parents are immigrants, who deserves a special recognition? The Office of New Bostonians is looking for a young person who has the perseverance, courage and idealism of a New Bostonian. The nominee must have made significant contributions to empower his/her community, demonstrated cultural pride or promoted cross-cultural understanding/collaboration and be an inspiration to his or her peers."

Nomination Form Here
Nomination Deadline: June 30 (extended)

Why is this important? This is an incentive from the City of Boston to encourage youth from diverse family backgrounds to take an active role in re-imagining and creating the community of their hopes and dreams. It asserts that Boston's success is tied to the active participation of all residents, and that youth from different cultural backgrounds have something special to bring to the table when it comes to community engagement. It creates a positive reward for the recipient, but more importantly, it sends a message to the recipient's peers about what their larger community/city expects and rewards. This is a direct request from the City that respects and recognizes the individual's unique identity and background as a desired component of community development.

Send your nominations!

Election in Iran

This is a video of an election protest in Iran from June 17, after the June 13 election. Most of the US media images of the election have shown rioting and shouting, but this one is silent. It's amazing to see such an enormous group of humanity standing silently for something bigger than themselves. You can see the progression of protests in a collection of first-person videos. I am humbled by the passion and perseverance.

Bogota: Paths for Sustainability

PBS did a series in 2007 called E2 Design (I don't have TV, so my mom just sent me the link almost two years later...) about design solutions for sustainability. One of their shows was about Bogota and the things that a developing, cash-strapped, recently violent city is doing to be a model for sustainability. This story also reminds us of the power of education: The city's mayor took the sustainability discussion he learned from the U.S. and combined it with values from his community.

You can watch the video online.