Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Louisville chromium-6 level exceeds CA "safe limit"

Hexavalent chromium (or chromium-6) is the substance made famous in the movie “Erin Brockovich.” Louisville’s measurement of 0.14 parts per billion exceeds the California “safe limit” of .06 parts per billion for tap water.  Cincinnati was tested at .03 and nothing was detected in Indianapolis.  Other communities (like Nashville) were not included in the study.  The Study’s methodology can be found at: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2010/chrome6/html/methodology.html

The full study can be found:

http://static.ewg.org/reports/2010/chrome6/html/home.html

Posted via email from Verdant Design

Monday, December 20, 2010

Urban density increases in Louisville in 2010 Census

(Map courtesy of Sustainable Cities Collective)

Using the mapping tool on the New York Times website, one can see an increase of density in the urban core of Louisville.  (Dark yellow means double digit increases in density, dark blue means double digits decreases in density)  This is all fine and dandy until one realizes most of the community had a decrease in density.  So it would seem that we need to find ways to retrofit all parts of our community where we are already living with more housing, preferably affordable housing.  There is a book called Retrofitting Suburbia: urban design solutions for redesigning suburbs that could prove useful.  We need to think about making allowances for mother-in-law rooms, basement apartments, and garage apartments.   Our community has allowances for carriage house apartments in the urban core from the 19th century and it is probably time for us to consider how the suburbs better fit into our city.

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Monday, December 06, 2010

Edible Schoolyard

The Edible Schoolyard at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkley, CA involves children from tending the garden through to preparing nutritious meal.  The work in the garden is a part of their core curriculum: math, social studies, and science.

To see it in action, visit their website or see a video on the Edible Schoolyard on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/09/29/natpkg.alice.waters.edible.ed.cnn?iref=allsearch

#End

John Pacyga

VerdantKy.com

Posted via email from Verdant Design