Tag Archives: Sustainable city

P.G. To Report It’s Greenhouse Gases

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Twenty-one cities were announced yesterday, with at least nine others expected to take part in the pilot project. Each city will assemble comparable carbon emission data within their jurisdiction’s operations–for instance, fire department, ambulance and police services, municipal buildings, waste transport and other services the cities provide or activities over which they exercise budgetary control.

Like the businesses who have joined the CDP program, the cities involved will be able to learn from peers about dealing with the risks and opportunities climate change presents.

The other cities participating include: Albany, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Anchorage, AK; Arlington, VA; Burlington, VT; Dubuque, IA; Edina, MN; Fairfield, IA; Haverford, PA; Las Vegas, NV; New Orleans, LA; North Little Rock, AR; Pacific Grove, CA; Park City, UT; Rohnert Park, CA; Saint Paul, MN; Washougal, WA; and West Palm Beach, FL.

How much greenhouse gas is emitted by Sustainable P.G.’s The Brown Green Spot barbecue pits and tiki torches? Them’s hydrocarbons brah!

Green Spot Burn

P.G. To Report It’s Greenhouse Gases

Farmers Market Finally Lands Downtown

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farmers market organic

After business owners protested the market for more than a year, the open air market on Lighthouse Avenue will go on every Monday from 4p.m. to 8p.m.

Many shoppers welcomed the farmers market and said it was over due in Pacific Grove.

Meanwhile, opponents of the market say only time will tell what if any affect the market will have on other businesses.

 

  • Needs:
  • More prices posted – don’t like to haggle over carrots.
  • More variety – more than carrots
  • Lower prices – some were higher than Savemart
  • Trash cans – some were overflowing into the street
  • Some open stores – the merchants that oppose the market should open and offer Farmers Market night specials. Artsy postcards, appetizers, whatever.
  • Don’t need:
  • Preachers (green or other) – don’t preach to me about green, sustainables, Obama, Jesus, whatever.
  • Different location – perfect location.

Final vote – two thumbs up. Take care of it and it can be a great thing.

Farmers Market Finally Lands Downtown

Sustainable P.G. – Noble Cause Or Ego Trip?

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The discrepancy between SPG’s big presence and small volunteer pool has caught the attention of P.G. sisters Pat and Sally Herrgott. “I’m confused about what kind of an organization they are,” Pat Herrgott says. “They’re just a loose group of people with similar objectives. To me, they seem more like a political action committee than a nonprofit.”

At only 2 years old, Sustainable Pacific Grove has taken up a big public presence: hosting eco-booths at Good Old Days; running green cleaning and worm composting workshops; developing criteria for the new P.G. Farmers Market; lobbying for a regional ban on polystyrene take-out containers; and outfitting the eco-hub known as The Green Spot with an edible garden, fog collector and cisterns.

Edible Garden? The Brown Green Spot is a collective of weeds, garbage and fire hazards.

Three foot high weeds and discarded coffee cup (not a styrofoam cup!)green spot trash

Broken glass to play with.green spot glass

Using old news as moisture barrier? Looks more like litter.
green spot news

The collective of rubbish and unsafe lead acid storage batteries.
green spot dump

Sustainable P.G. – Noble Cause Or Ego Trip?

Green, Carbon Neutral, Sustainable, Ghetto

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Nothing like making your image of being green and offsetting some CO2 with flower pots outside the business. Live flowers to brighten the day.

But remember that most people don’t give a hoot and use your flower pots for cigarette butts and other trash:
Butts In Flower Pot

After the flowers die from neglect it gets worse:
A Bird In Every Pot

Not sure who takes care of these things – it’s in the 500 bock in front of Monte Cafe.

Green, Carbon Neutral, Sustainable, Ghetto

Why Do They Call It The Green Spot?

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Looks real brown to me.

Green Spot Dump 2

Substainable P.G. cannot get enough gray water to sustain a few weeds. It’s been there a month, and there never seems to be anyone there. There really is not much interest in this sustainable stuff beyond the small cult of Agenda 21 followers.

For the past several months, three groups have been working to render the neglected little spot green. The one-room building’s 650 square feet are rather drab at first glance, but it’s a work in progress. Applied Solar employees have hung photos of local photovoltaic installations along one wall. Sustainable PG’s Joy Colangelo painted waves, stars and a jellyfish over the bullet holes in the window.

Ultimately, the G-Spot’s enthusiasts envision the space as a magnet for eco-oriented meetings, potlucks and live music – a place for the community to experiment in shades of green.

Why Do They Call It The Green Spot?

Mayor Cort Wants To Transform Lighthouse Avenue Into A No Car Zone

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If the gas prices keeping tourists away don’t kill downtown this will. If I need to leave the car down or up the hill to go to the bank or hardware store, forget it. I’ll just keep driving all the way to Sand City.

Cort floated an idea that came out of the city’s Economic Advisory Committee. Pacific Grove could close several blocks of Lighthouse Avenue to cars, he said, creating the first “pedestrianized” downtown on the Peninsula.

Murmurs grew until the room was buzzing like a poked beehive. The noise drowned out the mayor’s subsequent comments on water storage and solar roofs.
But City Councilman Alan Cohen, who also sits on the committee and owns Lighthouse Business Center, is skeptical. He worries that commercial rents on Lighthouse – which are already at a premium – could be affected. And he doesn’t like the notion of customers walking several blocks to go shopping, then schlepping their packages back to their cars. “It would close off traffic on a street that brings a lot of people to town,” he says.

Rough estimate of the planned no car zones:

Ban Cars Downtown

Mayor Cort Wants To Transform Lighthouse Avenue Into A No Car Zone

Does Substainable Mean Bailing Out Failed Businesses, Too?

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Wooden Nickle OOB

A “sustainable” Pacific Grove isn’t just about the environment; it’s economics too, City Councilwoman Vicki Stilwell told her colleagues at Wednesday’s council meeting.

In her case, the economics of the city didn’t sustain her and her husband’s business, the Woodenickel gift shop at 529 Central Ave., which is holding its final closeout sale today.

“We’ve had a wonderful five years,” Stilwell said, “but I don’t know if it’s the recession, the price of gas, the mortgage crisis.”

Business just hasn’t been good enough.

Sorry to sound mean, but first you need to have something to sell that people want. Fewer tourists and fewer people decorating their weekender homes equals less need for phony country charm.

If you are going to pimp the town to tourists, you’ll have to cave and give them something that they will be drawn to P.G for. One suggestion is to get Trader Joe’s to move to the main floor of the Holman building. But that would decimate the all-blessed Grove Market, none of our best bribed politicos would approve it.

Think . . something unique yet familiar to all . .
Holmans Hooters

Does Sustainable Mean Bailing Out Failed Businesses, Too?

The Most Sustainable P.G. Thing Is Going Out Of Business Signs

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What a great example of recycling. These businesses would be awarded something for their ‘green’ efforts, if they were not shut down.

First saw the signs at Hallmark.
Hallmark Oob

Then First Noel
First Noel

Now they area in use at Wooden Nickel in a closing gala.
Wooden Nickle OOB

I don’t know anyone that ever spent money at Wooden Nickel. It looked like another store full of phony country charm. Speaking of phony charm, the charm’s the same, but the name is new over at Country Attic, now to be known as Nancy’s Attic.
Nancys Attic

The Most Sustainable P.G. Thing Is Going Out Of Business Signs