Green Man Thriving

The Cancerous Growth Promoter Act

You can try to create a green life, home, and neigborhood as I have in Florida. But if your elected officials conspire to make life worse for most people, all your individual efforts can mean nothing.

The Florida legislature is in the final stages of passing Senate Bill 360, cynically called "The Community Renewal Act."     Its supporters claim that the act's radical changes to the state's growth management laws will promote jobs and reduce the growth of sprawl in rural areas, driving it to "urban areas."  In fact, it basically guts the ability of most local communities to put any meaningful limits on rapacious development, regardless of its awful impact.

In Pinellas County where I live, we still have extraordinary natural assets, including some of the best beaches in the world, great parks, and a few undeveloped tracks of woodland. Yet, almost all of Pinellas County will be deemed urban by this bill. ("Urban" is defined as 1000 people per square mile, or 1 person per acre.)

Today, Pinellas is the most densely populated county in Florida, sprawling, traffic-congested, and filled with strip-mall mono-culture.  I live a few minutes from the ultimate artery of urban sprawl, US  Highway 19. Dubbed "Death Valley" US 19 is one of the most congested and dangerous roads in the nation - a legacy of unchecked, irresponsible development. In recent years taxpayers have ponied up lots of money to retrofit "Death Valley" but at best this is patchwork, and it is reviled in the community. 

A better name for the bill is "The Cancerous Growth Promoter Act."

You would think after two years of negative population growth in Florida, a 40% plunge in property values since 2006 and 300,000 foreclosures because of the mortgage crisis engineered by Wall Street, state legislators would run in terror from yet another irresponsible call for deregulation.  No - not in a legislature sold off to lobbyists and developers.

We see a pattern here, don't we:

1. Legislators beholden to big, private money attack basic protections for our communities under the guise of a legitimate public good (stopping urban sprawl, jobs, home ownership for everyone.)

2. The legislature throws open our communities to entirely self-interested privateers, whose profits matter more than anything, whatever the consequences.

3. Like gangsters, the apologists and propogandists for big, private money threaten the community with terrible consequences if anyone starts to object to the obvious evidence of harm from the privateers' unrestrained agendas. (Loss of jobs, more sprawl, collapse of the financial system. They always convince some of the community.)

4. The privateers reap their deregulated profits, and leave the wreckage to the community (urban sprawl, a mortgage crisis, a failing world economy.)  My grandfather use to call such public-private symbiosis "rackets."

If you are a Floridian, I suggest you contact your state rep or senator, and do something about this "racket." If you are not a Floridian and you care about your community, look for this pattern - you'll see it in many places - and start doing something about it. My next post - what do we do instead?

Worm poop can save the sea grass in Tampa Bay

The ecosystem reveals new little ironies every day. Florida's drought has exposed the enviromental limits of runaway development and killed its share of lawns.  It does have at least one upside - more sea grass.

Because of no rainfall and severe lawn watering restrictions in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, far less runoff from lawns reaches Tampa Bay. That's less chemical fertilizer and pesticides that kill off sea grass. In fact, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times, the restoration of sea grass brings the bay back to levels found in the 1950s (though still below levels that Congress in the early 90s committed to achieving.)  Sea grass is important because it provides habitat for fish and other wildlife. Good for sports fisherman. Good for eco-tourists.

So what's the lesson?  One is that generally no important change happens unless there is a crisis. Two is that we can radically improve the quality of our regional environment if Tampa-St. Petersburg area property owners make a commitment to "go green" in their yard care.

It's the chemical fertilizers and pesticides put down by owners and the lawn care service they employ which cause this pollution, kill sea grass, and expose families to toxic chemicals.   There are non-polluting alternatives that will actually keep our lawns attractive, make them stronger over time, and actually stimulate wildlife and bio-diversity in urban areas. 

First, a land owner can plant Florida native plants that thrive with less water.  For good info on the use of native plants, visit the site of the Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.  Next, you should adopt organic or "natural" methods of lawn care or employ a service that follow such non-chemically based practices. 

A very effective organic fertizer is compost made from worm casting -- that is, "worm poop." There are companies on the internet and operating locally can provide natural materials and services for lawn care. For now I remain neutral on recommendations.

The draught in Florida gives us a glimpse of the impending crisis

Here I am sitting on the lanai at my Tampa area home, sipping my organic coffee, absorbing the early morning mild sun and a cool breeze from the gulf.  The garden that we started late in 2008 looks alive, with birds, butterflies, and all manner of bugs making their early morning rounds as grazer or predator. The plots of tomatos, collards, peppers, snap beans, cucumber and squash all stand at attention so early in the morning, before the mid-day Florida sun, even now in May, beats them down fiercely, when only vegetable pride keeps them from a full wilt.

The garden thrives, I think, for several reasons. We prepared the sandy soild with much organic material and we feed the garden with organic compost. We do not use pesticides and instead keep the natural balance of predator and pest insect species (OK squirrel have stolen peppers but a chicken-wire fence solves that problem.)  We mulch to keep weeds down.  Most important of all, we water the garden every day.  Florida is in an extended three year drought -- worst since the 1950s -- and our garden, like so many other products of horticulture here, would be dying otherwise.

I could go on about how this drought, like so many across the country and the world, is not a normal pattern and another sign of global climate change. I won't -- I'll leave that to the scientists for now -- but I argue that Florida must face one fact that it cannot escape. Excessive, irresponsible development for decades has now outstripped our water resources. Yes - even here in Florida, the land of the daily summer showers and once teaming wetlands, we are running out of enough fresh water. We've know this for some time and yet we allowed irresponsible development to continue. Because of our lust to deplete the supply of fresh water, the citizens of the "taxing hating" state have even been willing to pay out for expensive boondoggle like a de-salinization plant, instead of restraining our water lust.

For now severe state and county water restrictions should hopefully carry us through to the rainy season. Let's hope the rainy season is rainy enough.

Tragically a few weeks ago the lobbyist-dominated state legislature, under the guise of economic stimulus, undid many environmental protections and limitations on irresponsible development. They still do not get it. The key to a better future is to achieve economic growth without depleting our resources and permanently fouling our environment. Yes, some developers may not be able to pull out quick profits. So be it.  I say to them -- go green and get sustainable. Your profits will come and, more importantly, perhaps future generations will applaud you, not condemn you, as more and more of current generations are starting to do now.

Let's build our own sustainability movement, Tampa, everywhere!

At the recent Seattle Green Festival I spoke with Kathy Pelish, former communications director for Sustainable Ballard. She describes how area folks have become active in the local eating movement where people strive to eat food produced with 100 miles of their home.

She gives the Tampa localization movement some tasty tidbits of advice.

Sustainability: start in your home town

To strengthen our local economies and break away from choking dominance by corporate chains, we all need to find ways to promote local organisations and locally-owned companies (Sorry neo-liberal ecomomist and Friedmanites - your simplistic Pareto arguments are not cutting it.)  The fact is, only $43 of your $100 spent in a non-locally owned business stays in the local economy, whereas $73 of your $100 spent with locally owned business stays.  A good depiction of that is on the site of a local first organization in Western Michigan.

Tampa has its own "local first" movement, the Tampa Independent Business Alliance, founded in 2004. I think they've got the right idea, and the founders of this organization have worked hard to grow the movement but their battle has been uphill.  I honor their efforts.

I think we can turn to movements in other regions for inspiration. The "re-localization" movement in Seattle has over 70 communities participating in a regional effort called Sustainable Communities All Over Pudget Sound (www.SCALLOPSwa.org.) This group has lead a Local Eating initiative that has involved the towns around Seattle, over 100 small farms, and tens of thousands of participants who have committed to re-focusing their diet on food raised within 100 miles.  For many it's not 100% of the menu - Seattle's a coffee drinking town and there are no NorthWest coffee plantations - but they have committed to other levels - 75%, 50%.

I believe thes folks can inspire folks in central Florida and around the nation. In upcoming posts, I will be bringing you my talks with leaders in the SCALLOPS movement.