Transit Leadership

Does your Mayor ride the bus?

Lots of Mayors howl about public transit, but few ride it faithfully... let alone sporadically.

Alleged presidential aspirant Mayor Bloomberg of NYC says he rides mass transit religiously (in this case, the subway). But does he? The New York Times published a telling expose today on the Mayor's transit habits. Yes, he does ride the train two days a week, but doing so involves two gas-guzzling, carbon-belching SUVs.

It appears that the Mayor of Gotham takes transit not because it's the right thing to do for the earth and all, but because it is part of his image.

I was at a mayoral forum in Grand Rapids last week. As a regular rider myself, it was easy for me to discern from their answers that none of our aspirants has recently held a bus pass for the Rapid.

Does your Mayor ride the bus?

Birch Grove Trail

Earlier I wrote a few times about the Birch Grove Trail, a new hiking loop the Western Michigan Chapter of the NCTA has been building up near the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary, north of White Cloud in the Manistee National Forest.

Well, the loop was officially opened on June 2 this year. The work is 99% done. We just have three signs to place, but they aren't essential if you have a map. Lucky for you, I've posted a link to a download-able, printable one here.

I'd highly recommend this loop for a summertime stroll. Besides, we need the feet to beat back the bracken ferns on this new trail. Sure, springtime is best for wildflowers and fall good for colors, but the shade of the woods can't be beat in summer.

If you're looking for other place in Michigan to take a summer stroll, check out Mike Ingels' blog. Mike's a history buff, a good writer, has an eye for the unique in the ordinary, and has summers off to do lots of blogging.

Unexpected Surprises

Friday morning at the breakfast table, I got my first surprise. I half jokingly said to Abbey, "Daddy doesn't have anything on his calendar for this weekend, want to go camping with just Daddy?" Unexpectedly, she looked up at me and said "Yes."

I clarified. "Without your Mommy?"

She said,"Yes."

Julie checked with her throughout the day to make sure she understood that this meant spending a night away from home without Mommy. When I got home from work, Abbey was ready to go.

So we drove north and finally found an open campsite when we got to Pines Point campground on the White River in the Manistee National Forest. Abbey slept on the way up, so she was wide awake and a big help with setting up camp. She even had enough of a second wind that we lit a campfire and sat up by it until 10:30pm.

We had a restful night's sleep and slept in late. Then we had a leisurely breakfast of grilled cheese sandwiches and fried eggs cooked over the fire.

In the late morning, we went for a short hike at Abbey's request, then decided to drive over to Freemont for some lunch on the way home.

When we got to Freemont, Main Street was blocked off and there was a huge carnival going on. While I had heard of the event, I didn't know that this was the weekend for the National Baby Food Festival. Being the home town of Gerber, the idea of a National Baby Food Festival is not quite as weird as it sounds.

We took advantage of the cool, clear day and the unknown surprise and mingled about the rides and booths, considering our next step. Abbey finally decided that, after lunch, she wanted to ride the merry-go-round and get some ice cream. So that's exactly what we did.

I'm looking forward to the next time I have a weekend with nothing to do.

Greenwash

I try to keep this blog focused on the positive and do my best to keep from ranting here. Going negative would be too cheap and easy, make for dull reading, and be like 97.6% of the rest of the blogosphere.

But every now and then I have to point out something inane. Actually, I won't do it. I'll let James Howard Kunstler do it. (After July 2007, you'll have to check his archives for the rant).

This parking ramp in LA should take the 2007 award for greenwashing hogwash.

Passing Time

The posts have gotten pretty infrequent this summer, something I have all the best intentions of rectifying soon.

As you can see, we've been far too busy with important stuff, like flying kites on the beach and growing lettuce.

But in all seriousness, it has been a busy summer with trips to Pictured Rocks and North Carolina. When around home, many weekends have been taken up with either trail work on the North Country Trail or getting caught up at Perkins Garden. June is not a good time for gardeners to go away, as the weeds and the bugs come on with a vengeance around the solstice.

But overall, things are going good out at Perkins. While the corn failed and the cucumber beetles are relentless, the peppers will be early, we've never eaten so much of our own lettuce and spinach, and we picked the first two golden bush zuchinnies tonight.

Basil and beans will be coming out of our ears soon, and the sunflowers are sturdy. I have even started planting some fall greens (collards and spinach), and they too are coming up nicely.

More on the garden soon, I promise...