Blog
Joy Garden volunteer day results in temporary island of plants
January 23, 2010
If you go by the” Joy Garden”:/projects/joy-garden-at-northside-prep/, you’ll see some gorgeous plants hibernating for winter.
Through the efforts of the Urban Wildlife Coalition, CASE - Northside College Prep’s student group, and UHC, thousands of dollars of top-quality plants were donated for use in the Joy Garden from vendors at the MidAm Conference. This Saturday, volunteers help us unload, catalogue, and prepare them for winter by covering their rootballs.
We’ll be reviewing our design to see where they should go and when things warm up, we’ll need YOUR help to move and plant them.
Stay tuned!
The Wonderful World of Malcolm Wells
January 5, 2010
by Dave Hampton
Summary
What others have to say about Malcolm Wells
Prototype green building ratings systems
Learn more about Malcolm Wells
In memory of Mac
Summary
On January 5, 2010, Urban Habitat Chicago presented a tribute to Malcolm Wells with a lecture: The Wonderful World of Malcolm Wells.
The unique world which architect Malcolm Wells envisioned in evocative watercolors- well-designed, earth-sheltered, energy-efficient buildings integrated beautifully and seamlessly into the landscape - still captures the imagination.
His recent passing highlights his influence on “sustainable” design, holding it to a high standard.
Pedal-To-Table: Bridging the gap between Local Food/ Local Transportation
November 3, 2009
by Tzippora Rhodes and Nicole Grijnsztein
Delivered with a smile.
The various reasons people hold for choosing to eat local often tie into a general drive to live healthy and socially responsible lives. It’s these same motives that inspire me to promote urban bicycling.
Teaming up with West Town Bikes, a non-profit dedicated to fostering Chicago’s vibrant bicycling community, and several local growers, including Growing Home, Genesis Growers and City Farm, among others, we launched the Loaded Bikes project. Loaded Bikes presents individuals concerned with the impact of their food’s production with an alternative to that food’s transportation. Hooking up the local food initiative to pedal power is a natural extension of the sustainability ideal. I am convinced that within the city of Chicago, density and proximity make bikes (towing bike trailers) a completely viable option— and this growing season I set out to prove it.
Loaded Bikes got its start this summer providing CSA home-delivery by bike to three different CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture programs. Growing Home was the first to let us reach out to their shareholders. Like most CSAs, Growing Home has a handful of sites across the city where they leave tens of 5/9 bushel boxes brimming with fresh-picked produce for their CSA subscribed members to pick up. Loaded Bikes offers to deliver individual boxes from these various sites right to people’s homes by bike, with rates based on distance from drop-off site.
Members of Genesis Growers and the Simply Wisconsin CSAs also have the home-delivery by bike option. Between Tzippora Rhodes (myself), Jasmine Easter— an incredibly reliable Growing Home intern who saves my back (or legs rather) on a weekly basis, and Rosa Diaz— a lady who between a full-time job and night school still finds time for the project, Loaded Bikes has replaced 142 car-trips so far this summer. We plan to continue our service through the end of December. Next season, now that we’ve proven the feasibility of local produce by bike, we will reach out to more farmers and to more shareholders and spread the pedal-to-table trend.
