Denver’s silly shocking snowstorm of 2012

Posted by dtpennington in Blog, Fresh, Garden 2012 | 0 comments

Apr 04, 12

Silly pansy

There’s that really old saying: if you don’t like the weather in Colorado, wait 5 minutes.  Or, as the case has been, wait an entire month.

The second March began Colorado was baked in 60+ degree weather and not an ounce of moisture to be seen anywhere (March is typically our snowiest month). on April 1st we reached a high of 82 degrees (a record) I was completely sunburned and working on gardens the whole day. The next day it was overcast, 40, and windy. The day after that – an inch of snow all over everything.

Fortunately, we still had room inside the house for our army of tender seedlings. Most of yesterday was spent making sure everyone had an equal share of time under the modest grow-lamp.

Peas

And today? Sunny, gorgeous, and a bit muddy.

Rows of green

Fortunately, none of our cold-hearty plants suffered. Frankly, I think they liked it.

How has the weather been in your area? Any crazy Spring weather stories to share?

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On buying nothing | opting out of the Black Friday scourge

Posted by dtpennington in Blog, Fresh, Life | 3 comments

We’ve forgotten Thanksgiving, it seems. No longer does it stand to be a day of giving thanks or being with loved ones, but instead a day spent preparing for the coming shopping season.If not for the weather, I don’t think I would realize what holiday it was. Maybe I’d look it up if the mail guy didn’t stop by that day.  We don’t have cable, the TV doesn’t pick up any stations. The only mass media I am exposed to is what is piped into my truck when the radio decides to work. Last night the radio worked just long enough for a shrill-voiced woman talking over a holiday jingle to tell me about the door-busting sales happening all week long.

Edit: I was sent a link to this fantastic piece of advertising this morning. I kinda hope Kohls goes out of business for it. 

Cars Vs. Bikes

Posted by dtpennington in Bikes, Blog, Fresh, Uncategorized | 3 comments

Larimer street, mid-paint

Earlier this week Denver repainted Larimer street from Broadway to Downing turning it into a two-way street from the one-way it has been for as long as I can remember. I was on my bicycle, so I was quick to note how one of the first orders of business for the city was to lay down some paint for a bicycle lane.

I posted the above image onto my G+ and Facebook accounts and was immediately met with “oh, geeze, that will jam up traffic for sure!” (the two-way conversion, not the bike lane). Never mind the fact that turning Larimer into a two-way is just the first step at boosting the local economy of the neighborhood, what about those of us who speed down it?! Furthermore, there has been a HUGE need for a northbound bike lane.

Cyclists like it, therefore drivers must hate it. And vice-versa.  It’s a debate for the ages. As long as one exists, they will despise the presence of the others.

However, there are places in this world where cars aren’t allowed. The Mother Nature Network just compiled a list of 10 places where bikes and boats were the only way to travel because autos are not allowed. At the same time cities like Black Hawk, Colorado, are all but outlawing bicycles.

Stop pedaling?

GM launched a campaign this week titled “Stop pedaling, start driving”, noting how “embarrasing” it must be for college students to be riding bicycles everywhere. GM wound up receiving more flack than anything else and pulled the ad quickly. It long before bicycle manufacturer Giant released an ad mocking the generally foolish nature of driving big trucks.

Giant retaliation

On either side of the battle is propaganda. For the cars: flashy propaganda, commercials about “being ‘merikan” and the fact that there are few of us that go a day without seeing a car. On the other side cycling evangelists have taken to a more grassroots campaign in persuading drivers to abandon the wheel for the sustainable ride. Street art, stickers, wit  - rarely do their campaigns use a lot of money, which is so often the case when promoting an idea rather than pushing a product.

There's a third option, but it's too offensive to show here. . .

Cars are great tools when you have great distances to travel or perhaps when you really need to be somewhere in the middle of a rainstorm. What about the weekly (daily?) trip to the grocery store? Or to class? Or to school? No matter what campaign is put behind a car’s “green” capabilities – the mere presence of that car promises some kind of emission and waste. Bicycles, while still capable of producing the waste of worn out parts, pale in comparison to the ecological impact.

From Green Label Organic Shirts, they make awesome stuff. Get it.

Thinking about your day to day activity, how could you replace your car? What other methods could you use to get around? How bike-friendly is your town?

Small donation gets you stickers!

Want to show your support for having a bike-friendly community in your town? Check out the I Share The Road. They have stickers. Stickers are Awesome.

Denver Seeds – an idea we should all get behind.

Posted by dtpennington in Blog, Build, Grow, Life | 0 comments

With Denver Seeds, Ugly tomatoes for all!

When Michael Hancock was running for mayor, one of his key campaign points for his first 100 days in office was Denver Seeds – an initiative to create a network of urban farms which would provide local food for Denver residents.

Frankly, this is nothing but a good thing.

This past week a roundtable discussion was had with a variety of city officials, horticulturalists, and urban farmers to discuss what would become of Denver Seeds. While nothing specific has been laid in stone, a lot of good vibes seemed to have come off this meeting.

Beign a backyard farmer, I was really excited to read this story about the City of Denver actually meeting to come up with ideas for the Denver Seeds program.

Of course, being something of a backyard farmer (or gardener, if you want to get specific about the acreage I have to use) I am really excited about this idea. While there are numerous nay-sayers (there always are in the public forum) who claim that the program would not be an economic generator, it wouldn’t work, or that it’s not the direction the city needs to go in; I think the exact opposite would occur.

While I wasn’t at the roundtable meeting, fellow blogger Sundari of Eat Where U Live was asked to participate. Judging by her response, I think some really great things could come of Denver Seeds.

Hypothetically, and fantastically, here are some:

It will create jobs. Good ones. After all, someone has to keep up with all of the planting, watering, weeding, paking, distributing, selling, and composting of the product. Someone has to make sure the soil is always good, the water supply is steady, and that all of the tools and machinery are in good working order. Furthermore, I anticpate these are not duties which would be parsed out to migrant farmers, but to local citizens who live not too far from the home.

It would create better food. The “urban” element to these proposed farms would definitely influence how things are grown. In my own garden, I keep everything organic as possible. Not because I want to be elitist, but because I have dogs I don’t want getting sick with rouge pesticides. The same would go for these fields. When people live near the food they eat, they have a vested interest in how that food is grown. Any pesticide which is laid down would eventually wind up in just about everything: the parks, the water, the air.

It would change how we think about food. I love talking about ugly tomatoes. They may look odd, but damn are they delicious. Having truely organic and sustainable farms would generate food that we probably wouldn’t find in the Safeway. If more people saw the growing process, they’d have more respect for the food. Prices may go up, but we’d be more willing to pay them because we’d have a better understanding of what it took to get that produce.

Our dirt would be awesome, and I think that’s good for property values. With the documentary “Dirt!” fresh on my mind, I can attest that the more responsible growing which is done in the dirt around our city, the richer that soil will be. Dirt is awesome. It filters our groundwater, grows our trees, sustains everything about the life we know. Why not treat it right?

Communities will be stronger.  The garden in my backyard is reason enough to have visitors at the house. Most just marvel at what is growing. Others yank a weed or two. Some go home with fresh produce picked not 10 minutes before. With a farm-oriented society, the culture grows and is richer. Having locally produced food means we need a place to sell it. Farmer’s markets are great when you can face the person who actually grew the product (opposed to whoever shipped it in from California). The farmer’s markets we have already are ripe with community and socialization. Imagine the energy they would have if the produce was extremely close to home.

We’d be fed. Me, you, the shelters of the homeless and the platters of the fine-diners. In the end, we all deserve to eat stuff that’s great. Food that doesn’t have hundreds of miles of highway on it. Food that came from the block. Food that tastes of your neighborhood.

Denver Seeds is an idea that needs to come to fruition. I am prepared to do just about anything to see it so.

What do you think? Would you be willing to put extra hours in to your week in order to help cultivate food for your community?

An open letter to the Denver cycling community

Posted by dtpennington in Blog, Life | 54 comments

An open letter to the Denver cycling community,

Well, mostly those who participate in the weekly Denver Cruiser ride.

I realize the publication of this letter might just make me sound like an ol’ fogey, only interested in sucking the fun out of everything and bringing the party down. And if so, let it be. However, my ultimate goal here is to not stop the party. Instead, my goal is to keep anyone from dying at the party. I don’t think that’s too unreasonable of a question to ask. As is the question: are the rules of the road so oppressive they are not worth following?

Lately, it seems I usually end up having to ride my bicycle somewhere on Wednesday nights. Meetings and social engagements and, in the case of this week, the gym. As a result my return from these events usually coincides with some sort of exodus or emigration of the Denver Cruiser Ride. This week it was riding up Walnut among a company of four Cowboys (as this week’s theme was Cowboys and Indians) on rented B-Cycles. From behind, I witnessed the four of them riding side by side, effectively taking up one and a half of the two available traffic lanes along Walnut between Broadway and 35th. As it stands, Walnut isn’t a particularly bike-friendly street. No bicycle lanes are designated and a rider has to hedge their bets against any of the trucks moving in an out of a warehouse. Combine this with the occasional Rockies traffic and the threat of anyone who has ever chosen to drive Walnut at any time of day and you have a potentially lethal situation.

Unless, of course, you are paying attention and courteous to those around you. Then Walnut is about as safe as any other street.

Sadly, these Cowboys were not paying attention. I feel it should also be noted that not a single one of them was wearing a helmet. I suppose it would have gotten in the way of their novelty cowboy hats.

My intention was to pass them. Get ahead of the problem and hope Darwin would take his course. However, as I approached them their paths became more erratic.  They sped up, slowed down, cut in front of and around me. The longer I stayed with their pack the bigger danger we were all in. Eventually, I had to stop and pull over. It wasn’t until then I had noticed that a considerable amount of traffic had backed up behind the pack of cowboys. At least thirty cars were slowed to a crawl because the Cowboys had made Walnut impassible.

If this was the first time I witnessed something like this, I wouldn’t bother writing such a lengthy argument. But on more than one occasion I have had to move over and let a gaggle of Cruisers – every one of them insisting they ride side by side, few of them with lights and/or helmets – have the entire road.

Riding in such a manner is, in a word, irresponsible.

There will always be the debate of drivers despising cyclists, and cyclists despising drivers. Where you stand on this debate usually depends entirely on what your mode of transit is at that particular moment. I can say, for sure, that the two parties will continue considering the other a bother until both of them have respect for the rules: both the laws of common sense and what Denver City Code has outlined. As it stands, the municipal code for cyclists in Denver is pretty lax and fines and punishments hardly register as a slap on the wrist. We should be thankful.

I am all for cycling. My bike probably accounts for about 80 percent of my transportation around town. I think the more cyclists we have, the better. It makes for better communities and healthier citizens, as well as reduced traffic and emissions from cars and trucks.

I also like the idea of the Cruiser Ride as a vehicle (pun slightly intended) to support the local business who participate in the event. And who wouldn’t want to unwind mid-week with a few brews among good company? I get it. From the moment we all learned to ride bikes we have enjoyed a particular brand of freedom which was only surpassed by the acquisition of a driver’s license. Once we became old enough to drink and the weather was nice enough to ride most of us would prefer to bike to and from bars because we all believe cops weren’t looking for drunk cyclists.

I get it.

However, when you potentially have hundreds of cyclists riding in the same style as the Cowboys mentioned above – how is this a good thing? I’m willing to bet a majority of the Cruisers only ride their bike once a week for the event. Are the rules of the road discussed beyond the Cruiser website? The website which asks the riders to first have fun, and then follow the rules? The website which essentially states “But the basic reality is we don’t want to, nor are we going to be, your mommy” and essentially renders themselves free of responsibility?

When cars started becoming popular the rules were still pretty lax and not well enforced. Then drivers started hitting things and people and getting into altercations. The roads weren’t safe. Now, there are a bazillion rules to regulate the habits of drivers with the intention of making roads and the act of driving a car safer.

Since a license isn’t required to ride a bicycle, does that mean rules – which were developed out of safety for the most people possible – should be forgotten? If the Denver Cruisers was a Vespa or Motorcycle ride or any other form of transit, would Cowboy-esque riding still be tolerated?

Denver is working diligently to become one of  the most  bike- friendly cities in the country. New lanes and sharrows are going in all over the place. Buffered lanes are happening. Do you know what this means? Denver is actually concerned for the safety of the cyclist, they want more people to cycle. So why are so many of us riding as if we could care less?

How many Cowboys need to ride like idiots before Denver driver’s are pissed off enough to do something like this?:

I’m not saying the Denver Cruiser event organizers need to take responsibility for every one of their riders. I know I sure wouldn’t want to look after the Cowboys, so why should they? Responsibility begins at home; be the change you wish to see in the world. I ask every Cruiser and Cyclist – pro, amateur, casual, commuter or otherwise – to always set the best examples for what it is to cycle in Denver. We are no longer 10, there is no need to show off your sweet bike moves for the girls anymore. Now is the time to see cycling as a real and practical transportation solution; a lifestyle solution.

Fun? Sure, keep it fun. Wear the costumes and decorate your ride. Have a few drinks and embrace your community. However, I ask that we all be respectful of how we ride, no matter where we are going or how often we move. For some of us, cycling is not just means to go from bar to bar, but a way of living that we are constantly looking for civic leaders to support. When there are too many complaints from taxpayers who don’t cycle about those who do, these leaders are less interested in providing funding and support for increasing bike programs. Please, respect what we have built so it can continue to grow.

Best,

DTP