Biking Buddies and Pedaling Pals

Is it just me, or has the world gone mad for bicycles? Cruising around the web, there are almost too many bike communities to keep track of. Take 1 World 2 Wheels, for instance. They’ve got a Go by Bike Challenge going one with a nifty calculator to help you estimate how many of the small trips around town you could take by bike. Once you’ve pledged miles it’s added to the community total (almost 33,000 last time I checked) and you can see cumulative benefits too—like the amount of carbon dioxide reduction or the number of calories burned.

Bikes Belong Coalition is a little harder to figure out. Put together by a conglomeration of bicycle companies about 10 years ago, the group is aligned with the League of American Bicyclists and offers grants for communities to plan and build bike friendly projects. It has links to other groups like the Alliance for Biking and Walking and an assortment of bike-related photos.

The League of American Bicyclists like the big kahuna, at least at first glance, with safe biking tips, a gadget for finding local bike groups and bike shops, a smart cycling online course and a roster of instructors. They run National Bicycle Month (which happens to be May) and feature a colorful tile ad for a tantalizing site called Bicycle City. Too much chewy goodness to encapsulate, so I’ll have to do a whole blog sometime next month.

New Vistas for Bicycles in Long Beach

Well, the dust has hardly settled on the Long Beach Bike Festival and Bike Long Beach has already begun its campaign to make our auto-centric city a little more bike friendly. Last night was the first meeting about establishing a Bicycle Boulevard on Vista Avenue from Nieto to Temple. This street was selected because children from nearby schools like Mann Elementary and Rogers Middle School could benefit from a safe thoroughfare to get to class each day. Not to mention all the pollution from Mom and/or Dad taxi services that would be reduced.

Tonight, Wednesday, April 29, another meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Lowell Elementary School to discuss the various design options and provide a forum for public discussion. Here’s an idea! Why don’t you pedal down and give Vista a try for a before and after experience.

Water is Green Too

Tomorrow is watering day. I've just learned that its best to water in early morning (before 8 am) to reduce evaporation, so I'm setting the clock a little earlier. My sprinkler needs some adjusting and leak-proofing, and I'm in the process of mulching around the shrubs. Once I'm done, I can expect to save hundreds of gallons a water per year. That's a big improvement for a couple of hours work. And that's just a few suggestions from the Long Beach Water Department.

Green to the Corps

Talk about a win, win situation. The Conservation Corps of Long Beach is keeping Long Beach a little greener and training promising young people in new skills that will give them a headstart in the job market for years to come. And it's been doing this for almost 25 years. Since its inception, over 200 at-risk youth have been employed here on landscape restoration and recycling projects for the city and other nonprofit agencies and thousands of school children have participated in after-school programs.

The Conservation Corps of Long Beach offers free recycling bins at its headquarters at 340 Nieto Avenue for California Redemption Value Materials--aluminum, cans, glass bottles and jars, plastics bottles and containers. They will pick up these materials from businesses and apartment houses for free and can also remove other refuse such as flattened cardboard, office paper and old newpapers for a small fee.

Show Those Trash Collectors Some Love!

Who beter to honor on Earth Day than those who keep my personal world looking clean and smelling sweet week after week--the hard-working crew at the Long Beach Enviornmental Services Bureau. Due the their efforts and those divine purple receptiacles they dish out for free to Long Beach homeowners, the city diverts 69% of its solid waste from landfills--a heaping helping more than the state-mandadated 50%. To maximize your recycling efforts, check out their list of recyclable items, including top secret info about where to get rid of your used batteries. There's also a list of drop-off centers for used motor oil there too, or you can call 800-RECYCL2 and the city will provide containers and pick up the oil for free.

When it comes to clean, Environmental Services is hard to beat. It's provided supplies for over 350 campus clean-ups at schools throughout the city, and it maintains Litterfree Long Beach to encourage neighborhoods to start their own clean-up campaigns. And as if that's not enough, 100% of Long Beach's street sweepers and the majority of its refuse trucks are powered by natural gas. AND THIS JUST IN! Long Beach is now set to use reclaimed water in its street sweepers, estimating this clever move will save about thirteen million gallons of water per year.

So here's to the unsung heroes at Environmental Services, mean, clean, and green, and never afraid to get their hands dirty.