[GreenNotes] Green Notes - 7/16/2007

Mon Jul 16 10:46:03 PDT 2007

Please circulate widely. Contact us to include your announcement in 
GreenNotes.

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PROGRESSIVE EVENT CALENDAR

* July 16 - Public hearing and vote on Eddy Street Commons.

* July 19 - Riverside Trail opening.

* July 28 - Rafting at the East Race.

* Aug 21 - Community Forum For Economic Development. Panel on tax 
abatements and community benefits agreements.

* St. Joe Valley Greens - Ordinarily held on the 2nd Thursday of each 
month, the July meeting has been rescheduled.

* MPJC peace vigil - Every Monday and Saturday

* GreenTV every Wednesday evening, 10 PM, Comcast channel 99.

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ST. JOE VALLEY GREENS MEETING RESCHEDULED

The July meeting was canceled due to illness and vacations. The Greens 
are comparing calendars and working out a new date, time and location 
for the July meeting.

Look for an announcement re the alternate date, time and location. We'll 
be back on schedule in August.

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PUBLIC HEARING ON EDDY STREET COMMONS

The Common Council will hold a public hearing on the Eddy Street Commons 
project on Monday, July 16, at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be held in the 
Council Chambers on the fourth floor of the County-City Building.

If you are concerned about the scope of the project, the destruction of 
the woodland, or mall developer Kite Realty, it is important to attend 
this meeting.

For more information, call Mary Beth, (574)288-9167, at the Sierra Club.

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RIVERSIDE TRAIL OPENING

On Thursday, July 19, at 1:00 p.m., the Mayor will officially open the

Riverside Trail to bicyclists and pedestrians. If you are free, please 
attend the meeting, at the overlook at Keller Park.

Congratulations to all involved including the St. Valley Greens. The 
on-going bike lanes and trails project is a 10 year (at least) 
grassroots effort to improve the quality of life in our city and county.

Look for a press release from the city and enjoy the following article 
from the South Bend Tribune.

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TRAIL BLAZING GRASS-ROOTS EFFORT IS ON TO BUILD CITY-COUNTY BIKE TRAIL

South Bend Tribune

June 11, 1997

SOUTH BEND--Lorry Zuegner Jr. doesn't think South Bend is a very 
friendly place to ride a bike.

In fact, on his way to a committee meeting Tuesday to encourage city 
officials to get behind an effort to build a bike trail through South 
Bend and St. Joseph County, a motorist stopped Zuegner on Cleveland Road.

"A man rolled down his window and told me I was taking my life into my 
own hands," Zuegner laughed.

But if the group of which he's a member has its way, an asphalt bike 
trial spanning the city and county will evolve.

Judith Robert, a psychologist who stopped practicing to raise her two 
daughters, organized the River Trail/Darden Road Parkway committee 
around the first of this year. Before that, she said she spent about a 
year on the phone talking with various staff members from governmental 
entities, including the South Bend Parks Department and MACOG.

She said when she learned of a federal grant for projects like a bike 
trail, the committee decided to advance to the next level. That meant 
going after Intermodal Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA, funding.

But in order to be seriously considered for the grant, there needs to be 
a local commitment to pay for 20 percent of the project's cost.

The committee invited South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke and several Common 
Council members to the east side of the Darden Bridge on Tuesday to ask 
that a feasibility study be done on the trail.

Robert said she wanted to know if the idea of a bicycle parkway was 
practical and how much it would cost. Committee members said they plan 
to ask St. Joseph County Commissioners also to authorize the same type 
of plan.

The parkway the River Trail group envisions would connect six parks: 
Leeper, Brownfield, Keller, Pinhook, Clay Township and St. Patrick's.

Some bike trials already exist or are proposed, but River Trail's 
project is unique in that it would connect the paths, plus feed into an 
existing bike trail in Michigan. She also added the parkway would be 
multipurpose. It could be used for cycling, jogging, walking and skating.

Robert said the group's next step will be to contact County 
Commissioners and try and schedule a date and time to meet with them.

In the meantime, she said, committee members would be "calling our city 
councilmen and saying, 'What do you think? Is it moving ahead?' "

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RAFTING AT THE EAST RACE

Go rafting with the Michiana Group of the Sierra Club on the East Race 
Waterway in South Bend on Saturday, July 28, noon to 5:00 p.m.

Expect to have fun and get wet!

Meet near the ticket/concession trailer at the head of the raceway. This 
outing is suitable for beginner to advanced participants.

For details on fees, directions and attire, call the South Bend Parks 
Department, 574-299-4765. With other questions and to RSVP, contact Rich 
Mah at rmah_1 at yahoo.com, or 574-282-1633.

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COMMUNITY FORUM FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Community Forum for Economic Development includes participants from 
throughout St. Joseph County and different points of view.  The 
organization is united by the common desire to increase living standards 
and opportunities for area residents -- in other words, to support 
economic development in our communities.

The Community Forum meets in LaSalle Square on the third Tuesday of each 
month. The August meeting (August 21) will feature a panel of community 
activists addressing the topic: Community Benefits and Tax Abatements.

For more information contact developmentforum at sjvp.org or leave a 
message at 574-287-3834.

The Community Forum on Economic Development also has a position on the 
Eddy Street Commons development.

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SJVGREENS WEB SITE

* Wet Weather Combined Sewer Overflow Watch

http://www.sjvgreens.org/

South Bend dumps raw sewage into the St. Joseph River every time there 
is precipitation. Our sewers and storm runoff systems are combined. The 
Greens keep track of CSO events so you have a record.

* Impeachment Momentum Grows

http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/impeachMomentum.shtml

A telephone survey of 1,100 Americans on July 3-5 by the American 
Research Group found that 54 percent favor beginning impeachment 
proceedings against Vice President Cheney, and 45 percent favor 
initiating impeachment proceedings against President Bush. The survey 
has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, 95 percent 
of the time.

* Impeach Cheney Co-Sponsors Reach 8

http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/impeachingCheneyCo-sponsors.shtml

Number of co-sponsors for Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) bill of 
impeachment (H.R. 333) against Vice President Cheney has increased to eight.

* G8 Warm-Up Tour: Whose World Is This?

http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/g8WarmUp.shtml

The riots in Rostock, Germany began around 3 pm last Saturday. In 
European riots outside of G8 meetings and such, generally all sides 
refrain from using lethal weapons. (If anybody breaks with this 
tradition - such as Genoa in 2000 or Gothenberg in 2001 - it is always 
the police.) The riots on Saturday were part of a long series of such 
confrontations around Germany, around Europe, around the world.

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GREEN TV

* July 4: Holiday, no show

* July 11: Bike 2 Work Day 2007 and BioJustice in Boston 2007.

2nd annual B2WD celebrates fun, fitness and the environment and 
encourages all of us to bicycle commute to work. The event is organized 
by Paint the Town with Bicycle Lanes, a grassroots committee formed to 
stripe bicycle lanes in South Bend/Mishawaka.

BioJustice 2007 is a unique conference with a distinctly green flavor, a 
blend of social justice, grassroots democracy, nonviolent protest and 
environmental wisdom. Featured speakers from the BioJustice conference 
address the crowd at Wake the Earth, an annual festival in Boston, MA.

* July 18: Community Forum on Economic Development 2007 - Part 1 of 3.

Economist Marty Wolfson summarizes old and new views on economic 
development and recounts community economic development victories 
achieved since the last Forum in 2006.

* July 25: Community Forum on Economic Development 2007 - Part 2 of 3.

Economist Marty Wolfson summarizes old and new views on economic 
development and recounts community economic development victories 
achieved since the last Forum in 2006.

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IN POST PRODUCTION

* BioJustice Conference 2007

The annual BioJustice Conference was held in Boston, MA, last month. 
Karl Hardy, one of our producers, participated in the conference and 
took a camcorder. We are editing footage now. Some of it is already on 
YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/biojustice2007

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KEY VALUES OF THE GREENS

1. Ecological wisdom

2. Social justice

3. Grassroots democracy

4. Nonviolence

5. Decentralization

6. Community-based economics

7. Feminism

8. Respect for diversity

9. Personal and global responsibility

10. Future focus

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN

http://www.sjvgreens.org/

mailto: tbrown at sjvgreens.org or khardy at sjvgreens.org

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