Add headscarf and mix

Same woman, same smile, with and without headscarf. How does the headscarf change people's perceptions? Go to the Monkey Cage and find out.

Do you know your trash?

Springfield, Massachusetts, the fourth largest city in New England, has a good system for handling its residents' trash. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. But the city handles the trash for 60,000 households. Before I describe some of how it works, see if you know the answers to these few, only partly facetious questions.

1. What is a waste to energy facility?
a) a trash-burning plant b) a cold fusion plant c) a recycling center

2. Which set of items can be recycled?
a) Ribbons, egg cartons, plastic flower pots
b) Egg cartons, plastic hangers, newspaper
c) Styrofoam cups, pill bottles, paper towels
d) All of the above
e) None of the above

3. How should you dispose of car oil, pesticides and wax polish?
a) Store them in your cellar
b) Pore them down the drain a bit at a time
c) Bring them to Bondi's Island on special Hazardous Waste days

4. Organic material makes up what percentage of our household's trash?
a) 10 b) 20 c) 30
5. How many of Springfield's households have purchased compost bins?
a) 800 b) 1800 c) 8000

6. How much finished compost comes from Bondi's island to the city's park. For residents' use?
a) 6 tons b) 60 tons c) 600 tons

7. How much compost can one bin make in a year?
a) 200 lbs b) 500 pounds c) ¼ ton

8. Our recyclables are processed in
a) Springfield b) Fall River c) somewhere in the Midwest.

The things we throw away fall roughly into three categories: recyclables, non-recyclables and organic. The majority of our non-recyclables go into the city-provided trash barrel, which are picked up once a week; blue bins for paper, glass and plastic are picked up every other week. Organic materials such as leaves and grass clippings must be put into rugged paper bags (not provided for free) and are picked up on "recycle week." For this service we pay a controversial fee of $90 a year, although the city will start considering a "pay-as-you-throw" system later this year. Detailed information is at the City's Department of Public Works website.

Most non-recyclable trash (and there's a surprising amount of it) will wind up being burned in a "waste to energy" facility on Bondi's Island, the city's waste facility. The organic material will be composted and distributed for free or sold. Hazardous materials can be brought to Bondi's Island on certain days. Recyclables head over to the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility, which processes recyclable material for 78 Western Mass communities.

If the City of Springfield starts charging us for what we throw away, some of our perspectives-- and habits-- may change. We might start leaning away from the overpackaged product to something more streamlined or even refillable. We might remember to say, quickly, "I don't need a bag, that's OK." We might write on both sides of the paper. We might re-use instead of throwing it away.

The Department of Public Works sells black, discrete recycle bins for $25. Although the city does a good job recycling organic material, if we compost at home we can include food scraps that otherwise would wind up with the non-recyclables. And making soil is magic.

Springfield is in toug.ch times, but I don't think the homeowners in this city would be half so angry about the new $90 trash fee if we had been brought into the process of deciding how we were going to meet our needs and pay for it. I also know that we who live here have certainly not done enough thinking about our water, our soil and our waste. But times are changing.

Answers: 1.a), 2 e), 3. c), 4 c), 5 b), 6 c). 7 c), 8 a)
Photo from Virginia Speigel, Barbage Day Project

Open Pantry's crisis local; global food crisis grows

This morning I turn on the TV and see Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich warning about a depression. I go to the NY Times and read the world is in a food crisis. I open the local paper to see that Open Pantry Community Services may have to cut back on its services in April unless the public can pitch in to help.

Last year more than 27,000 people-- in a city of less than 150,000!-- came to the Open Pantry Food Pantry for help. People ate a meal at the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen more than 100,000 times. More than 1,000 homeless people received assistance from Open Pantry's Open Door case managers. And three shelters put a roof over the heads of teen mothers, women in recovery and homeless families.

Having an impact on the global economy is not impossible, but billions of people are affected and billions will have to be part of the solution. But if you donate money or food to the Open Pantry, you can pretty easily picture that money converted to a meal for a hungry family.

Please-- if you are not hungry right now, others are. You can send a contribution to Open Pantry Community Services, 287 State St., P.O. Box 5127, Springfield, MA 01101.

What a surprise! Income gap widens

• Hey, middle class! Your income has been virtually stagnant for the last eight years-- just 1.3% growth.
• Hey, the bottom fifth! Since the late 1990's, your income has gone down 2.5%.
• Hey, you top 5%! Your incomes are now 12 times the average income of the bottom fifth.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Economic Policy Institute released a report today that puts numbers to what we already know: the rich are getting richer and everybody else is struggling. You can read more about it at Reuters.

Treehouse resident finds new home

A Seattle, WA man who has been living for two years in a treehouse he built was due to be evicted in ten days by the City of Seattle-- but friendly neighbors found an RV for him and his pets. Now he just needs a place to park it.

Check out the story and amazing photos at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Homelessness increases under Bloomberg's plan to end homelessness in NYC

Four years into Mayor Bloomberg's five year plan to end homelessness in New York City, more people than ever spent time in a shelter last year, according to the ninth annual "State of the Homeless" report issued by the Coalition for the Homeless last month..

102,187 people spent time in a New York City shelter last year, a 5.8% increase over 2006.

"For the second year in a row, more families sought shelter (up by 10.7%) while fewer families were moved into permanent housing (down 6.9%), " the report said. The Bloomberg administration's refusal to issue Section 8 vouchers and access to public housing for homeless families is contributing to the increase in homelessness.

In addition, stringent standards for shelter eligibility implemented last year denied shelter to dozens of families, two-thirds of whom were actually eligible for shelter even under those standards.

Single homelessness has seen a decline for the second year in a row, but the Coalition marks the decrease as a result of single people being placed in illegal boarding house, some of which are later shut down by the city, putting people back in the shelter again.

Picture the Homeless, a NYC organization founded by and run by for homeless people, is asking its allies to hold open the date June 24, 2008, the official fourth anniversary of the five year plan.

"Picture the Homeless is not going to sit back as the anniversary approaches and do nothing to commemorate its failure," according to the Rental Subsidies Committee. Stay tuned.

The Monty Hall Problem

The New York Times has an article today about how a logical fallacy may have distorted results in what social scientists call cognitive dissonance. I won't get into what cognitive dissonance is, but the logical fallacy is based on something mathematicians call the Monty Hall Problem.

You are a contestant on the game show Let's Make a Deal. There are three doors. Behind one of them is a new car and behind the other two, goats. You pick a door but before it opens, Monty opens one of the other two doors to reveal a goat. Monty then gives you the chance to switch doors. If you want the car rather than the goat, what should you do? Stay or switch?

Switch! You might think choosing between two doors gives you 50-50 odds, but you'd be wrong. Before the first door opened, you had a 1 in 3 chance of winning. Once the door is opened, you'll win every time your original guess was wrong, which it would have been 2 out of 3 times.

If you don't believe me, you can go to the Monty Hall Problem at the NYTimes, play the game, and prove it to yourself. The site will keep track of statistics for you.

Is there any moving thing that CAN'T produce electricity?

Not too long ago I read about energy being harvested from people walking across the floor of an airport which then opens and closes the airport's automatic doors. Now Eco-Geek reports on a similar plan for a playground's old-fashioned see-saw!

Skybus: how much local job loss?

Skybus, which flew out of Westover in Chicopee, will cease operations on Sunday. The company had 450 employees total. Does anyone know how many people locally will be affected?

Death comes more often for homeless people

If you are homeless in the U.S. and Canada, depending on what city "live" in, you are 2 to 8 times more likely to die than your housed neighbors. Untreated illness, drugs and violence stalk you. Sometimes you fall asleep and just don't wake up

That's what happened to Ken Blackburn, 59, Springfield, Missouri, who was found dead Saturday in a small homeless encampment. The medical examiner ruled he died of "natural causes." Mary Ann Morgan, 61, was found dead in an alley in Palo Alto, California after a long struggle with alcoholism. The cause of her death was undetermined.

In Richmond, California, Jimmy Carter and his buddies were standing outside a church on March 30 waiting for breakfast and Bible study when they were caught in cross-fire between two shooters and Jimmy was killed. A week earlier, a homeless man was shot and killed while riding a bicycle but police don't believe there's a connection between the deaths. In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, two as yet unidentified men presumed to be homeless, one white and one black, were found shot to death in an alley near the Grace Rescue Mission. In Calgary, Alberta, an unnamed homeless man was beaten to death following a fight over $20 of rock cocaine.

An inquiry into the death of Frank Paul in 1998 is finally taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Paul was arrested for being drunk but then not allowed into the jail. A police officer -- helped him walk, the officer said; dragged him, the evidence implies-- to an alley where he was found dead several hours later.

Rarely any photos; rarely any flowers.

Photo: friends grieving, Holly Pickett, The Spokesman-Review

Springfield: does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?

Last week two events of some significance were held in Springfield, MA, a "Developers' Conference" and a seminar on green space development and preservation.

The developers' conference took 110 developers on a tour of Springfield to look at potential sites such as the old York St. Jail site on Columbus Ave and the Smith and Wesson Industrial Park. Given the economic times, Mayor Sarno's plan to proactively recruit developers is a good effort.

The Green Space conference (which cost $35) was a follow-up on Springfield's ranking among the best green cities in the U.S. last year by Country Home magazine. This ranking, by the way, does not mean the city has a top-ranked environmental policy-- only that we are blessed with much green space and waterways and we have managed to preserve them to a high degree-- no small potatoes in this day and age.

That said, no developer was told that their project would receive priority if it included elements of green design.

What makes a building green? California's Integrated Waste Management Board defines it this way:

• A green building, also known as a sustainable building, is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health; improving employee productivity; using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently; and reducing the overall impact to the environment.

What are a few of the elements of green design?

• Takes advantage of mass transit, protects the existing landscaping and natural features, uses recycled materials.
• Uses natural lighting strategies, uses an energy-efficient heating and cooling system, uses light-colored roofing.
• Uses designs that promote recycling, uses low-flush toilets and designs state-of-the-art irrigation controls.

There's much more, of course, that can be done. But as long as Springfield lacks an integrated approach to development, as long as the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, we will continue to miss important opportunities to become more energy-independent and to make a significant contribution to the quality of our environment.

Photo by Bill Weye

Five years of war: in case you've forgotten

Won't get fooled again? Some highlights from ThinkProgress' five year timeline of the Iraq war. Check out the whole list.

• MARCH 30, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld: We know where the WMD are
• APRIL 11, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld: Stuff happens
• APRIL 23, 2003: USAID Administrator Andrew Nastios Claims Rebuilding of Iraq Could Be Accomplished With $1.7 Billion
• APRIL 28, 2004: Images of torture at Abu Ghraib are revealed
• JANUARY 30, 2005: U.Sloses track of nearly $9 billion in Iraqi funds
• APRIL 23, 2006: A former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller, reveals evidence that Bush was told before the war by a high-level Iraqi informant that Iraq did not possess WMD.
• JULY 27, 2007: Baghdad residents receiving just one hour of electricity per day
• FEBRUARY 11, 2008: Tony Snow reveals “80 Percent” of Bush advisors opposed the “surge.”

Live in Massachusetts? Thinking about changing doctors? Think twice

I wrote a bit last week about why Massachusetts' universal health care program was a budget-buster for this state, currently facing with a $1.3 billion budget deficit. Don't get me wrong-- I'm all in favor of universal health care, but not on a state by state level and not the one we have in Massachusetts.

Now the New York Times reports that the Massachusetts system is struggling with the increased patient load It's not so much that there are fewer doctors (although that's true with primary care) but that more people are now seeking long-delayed care and treatment-- an additional 340,000 just in the last year. The average wait for a new patient to see an internist has gone from 33 days in 2006 to 52 days in 2007. Specialties fare no better. For the first time in my life, I have private health care; my primary care doctor scheduled a visit with an endocrinologist for me-- and it's six months away!

Other problems with Massachusetts' system are emerging, some outlined in the NYTimes article. Woe to the Massachusetts non-profits, especially Health Care for All, that abandoned a truly universal coverage plan to support then-Governor Romney's mandatory, private-pay system. What good is health care if you can't get in to see a doctor in a timely manner?

Photo by The Opportunity Agenda

A bit more about rain barrels

A couple of people have asked me how you go about making your own rain barrel. As you might expect, the web is full of information. I dug around for a few sites to recommend.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has one of the best brochures-- step-by-step including a supply list and cost estimates, though the listed prices seem high compared to some other sites.

Over at YouTube, two videos put pictures to the words, a white-collar version by HGTV and a blue-collar version by rstidyman.

Local job loss: six Midas franchises close

Jim Kinney of the Springfield Republican reported yesterday that six Midas Muffler shops closed unexpectedly on Monday when corporate headquarters canceled the franchises held by local franchise owner Carden Enterprises Inc. of Ludlow. How many Western mass residents have actually lost their jobs is not clear, but thirty is certainly not too high a number.

Very bad job news on a national level: 80,000 jobs lost last month, most of the losses in the higher-paying fields of manufacturing and construction. Jobs in the health care and service industries-- some of the lowest-paying jobs in the economy-- increased by 46,000, but the total loss put unemployment at 5.1%.

In case anyone hadn't noticed, we're in trouble.

My new campaign

My sister was admitted to Baystate Medical last night through the emergency room (always a zoo).
I left her at 2 am. when I knew she would be admitted and started calling at 7 am. this morning to try to find out how she is. The hospital nearly gave me a heart attack twice when they transfered me to Cardiac ICU and they couldn't find her; we went around several times before I finally got to the right place. She's OK for now; tests to come.

Meanwhile, while I am on hold for many minutes, I am subjected to a string quartet of extremely staccato nature played very quickly. I should recognize the piece but can't. It might be good housework music, but certainly nothing that should be played to anxious relatives.

Once I had to have an MRI and the technician asked what kind of music I wanted in my headphones. I told her classical-- and suddenly Bach's Concerto in D Minor (I think) thundered through my ears. It's the kind of piece you use as music in productions like Phantom of the Opera. DUM da da da DUM DUM. "Stop!" I shouted.

So somebody who knows that they're doing at Bay State needs to change their music.

I think what I am experiencing is displacement of anxiety.