For two years now, I’ve been sharing a little kooky idea to create a fleet of trikes that have the capability to water the newly planted trees, flower beds and planters throughout our neighborhood–using rain water! (see kooky napkin sketch at left).
The necessity of this hit home yesterday as I was driving up Dodge and noticed too many of the new trees look dry and knowing I don’t have an easy way to fix the problem.
We haven’t had much luck getting the Hydro Buffalo idea funded. I thought maybe “if I could just get it started” with a prototype–at least ONE trike, then riding that suped-up trike around could prove to everyone that it’s not just a kooky idea–it’s a GREAT kooky idea! and eventually we’d be able to expand the fleet.

Before you ask–YES, Blue Bike and Riverkeeper are aware of this idea, and we hope our collective audience is excited to help–we’re all in the same boat though. We need one adult trike to get us started! If anyone out there can donate a solid adult trike we can then weld a cart and get this thing rolling.  If you think you can help–please get in touch with Caesandra at volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org or call 716-885-4131

Here’s the other part of the proposal if you are “People who know People”
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Please don’t get me wrong, we love the Garden Walk–I love anything that gets people out into the sidewalks and talking to one another about color and veggies and sunshine. And I realize that with 355 gardens on the Walk–it makes it difficult to map a larger area; however, there are many gardens east of Main Street that I think are worth visiting–namely those in our neighborhood:

• Our Rain Garden at the corner of Northampton & Michigan is very new! It was installed by National Grid employees as a corporate service project this past Earth Day 2010. The garden was designed by Matthew Dore of Buffalo Horticulture. Matt regraded the vacant double lot to guide rain water into the middle (like a shower drain) where a pergola was built surrounded by blueberry bushes. The lot also features a privacy fence using reclaimed flooring. The perennial flower beds have a backdrop of foundation stone.  Planters built from reclaimed hemlock floor joists double as seating along the sidewalk.
  Keep traveling down Northampton and
• You’ll discover a Bee Sanctuary which was once a vacant lot, but is now a warm blanket of yellow, amber, and bronze with summer wild flowers. (In the spring the lot was dotted with blues, pinks and purples). The wild flowers are native to the North East and are helping to fortify a sagging urban bee population.
• Our Children’s Vinery is truly unique!  It has an apple tree and six arbors supporting a variety of pole beans, melon, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and chard.  We have Mobile Victory Gardens donated by artist, Stella Maars which are growing herbs and pumpkins.  We’re just adding a teepee of morning glories.  We have experimental containers for growing potatoes and a strawberry patch which has delighted people of all ages!
• The Patchwork Garden is also a sight–50 different beds which neighbors, volunteers and groups have adopted!  Folks plant whatever they want in this community garden and they enjoy having a place to grow their own food and relax.  We host events like movie nights, cooking demos, art, performances and free gardening workshops in the garden.
• Just around the corner there is another style of community garden, The Cold Spring Community Garden on Southampton and Masten, managed by Dan Ash and Jessica Lang.  Their garden is a site where five houses once stood, but now there is an 8foot wall of tomatoes, several rows of vegetables and raspberry vines.  There are also fruit trees which will mature into a mixed bowl of cherries, plums, peaches, pears and apples!  Volunteers and neighbors work in the garden and are able to eat what they harvest.

Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into building these gardens and the whole reason is so people can come and enjoy them. We hope you’ll visit them soon.  Over the next 2years we hope that Northampton will showcase greenspace development and neighborhood stabilization.  It will be like a red carpet–only greener!  If you have questions or would like to get involved, please stop by our table at the Garden Walk/Talk this weekend!

We hope you’ll join Michael Gainer and others as we share really inspiring examples of community building and neighborhood improvement efforts from around the country–even some from other countries!

This is an opportunity to throw off the cynicism and see how regular people lead the way in creating thriving neighborhoods.  You are the best person to start making a difference because you know your neighborhood and the kind of neighborhood where you want to live.

Gracious Hostess, Prish Moran, is allowing us to meet with you at her cafe, Sweet_ness7 –from 6-8pm Tuesday, July 20th.  We really hope you can make some time to be inspired–bring a friend or a new face!

From our friend Megan McNally:

Hello!

As many of you know, I will be heading out of Buffalo mid July on a journey around the US. My first obligation is to be out in Taos, New Mexico in August to learn about building earthships, totally sustainable structures that are off the grid and built from used materials (tires, glass bottles, etc)! Eventually I will find myself in Vermont in October interning for Yestermorrow Design and Build School for 6 months, a school that teaches anything from drafting to timberframing to welding to straw bale building. Along the way I am stopping in targeted cities to interview awesome people, businesses and organizations, learning about cool ideas being implemented in this giant country (can you imagine my future gas bills??? Eek!).

In any event, I am writing to invite you to my blog that I am starting. It is titled “Stops Along the Way: Buffalo and Back Again.” Realistically, I don’t know how long it will take me to get back to Buffalo…maybe years, or maybe only 8 months, but I thought it fairly apt. I want to share with you the people I meet who GET IT and offer up some cool ideas that I think are worthwhile to mention. Don’t worry, for those of you not interested in this type of stuff, I’m sure there will be plenty of silly anecdotes about me getting lost or doing something totally crazy that will really make you laugh.

The address for the blog is followingthetide.blogspot.com…because that’s what I’m gonna try to do. I have generic plans because I want to have the ability to change plans at the last minute. To stay an extra day somewhere, to leave early, to get SO lost that I discover something insanely amazing.

Hope you’ll follow me on my journey! If you’d like a postcard at some point, please forward your address.

Love,

Megan

The website is called ToolGirl….more like Cool Girl (ba dum psh). I came across it while searching for ways to reuse wine corks, and was very impressed with the nifty projects Mag Ruffman features on her site.

One awesome idea is the counter made of books. It would be especially cool for a bookstore, though it would work anywhere. Let’s face it, everyone has a collection of hard cover books that they’re likely to never read again (especially with all this new e-book technology) so why not reuse them in a productive way?

Or, if you have kids who have outgrown their lego phase, how about this idea? Very unique and it would make a great conversation piece when you have guests over! It just takes a lot of patience…and about 20,000 lego pieces. But I would LOVE it if someone gave one of these ideas a try!!

Info here.

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“Social Dress Buffalo – The Past Reflecting the Future” June 18, 2010 – Sunday August 7, 2010
A Meet&Greet with Takashi including a presentation, workshop, and latex casting demonstration will take place on Friday, May 21, 2010 from 12-2 p.m. at Buffalo ReUse, located at 298 Northampton Street, Buffalo.

This will be a great opportunity for everyone to meet and learn more about the artist’s process.  We hope you can make it!  PLEASE NOTE:  Those with latex allergies are welcome to attend but are advised not to participate in the casting process, as pure liquid latex will be used.

Please see the following videos which explain Takashi’s project in Buffalo:
Takashi video Part 1 | Takashi video Part 2 | Takashi video Part 3

A major component of Takashi’s work is conversations with local activist groups such as Buffalo ReUse and PUSH Buffalo – organizations that have expressed interest in the project – that address the ideas behind the construction of this small-scale monument. Inspired by the simple solutions such as urban gardens and community-building activities, this project is intended to inspire a sense of togetherness and similarity of purpose within the community so as to foster empowerment among local citizens that may inspire creativity in local responses to this ongoing crisis.
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So far this week the weather has not been very conducive for biking to work, but we can hope that next week will be nicer – just in time for National Bike to Work Week (May 16th-22nd).

Some advantages of biking to work:
-It is energy efficient
-It’s a good source of healthy exercise (trust me, you don’t even think about it as “exercising” when you’re using it to get to work)
-You save travel money by biking (gas, parking, car maintenance)
-Great way to reduce stress
-Helps you to wake up and in turn, increases your productivity at work
-Makes for a predictable commute time
-Reduces air, water, and noise pollution

If you need more convincing, click here for 60 benefits of Bike Commuting.

Additionally, next Thursday May 20th from 8-10pm cyclists will “Merge into the Bike Lane” to celebrate Bike to Work Week at Merge Restaurant. Half off admission for those who ride their bicycle; a free bicycle valet will be available to park the bikes.

Food and Beer provided by Merge
Funky Grooves by DJ Cutler
50/50 and Bicycle Raffle

$20 admission but can be $10 if you ride a bike….

So get on your bike and ride!!!

It has been announced that President Barack Obama will be visiting Buffalo next Thursday as part of his “Main Street Tour.” Of course, we at Buffalo ReUse are more than eager to host the President for a short visit. We have sent out letters to everyone and anyone we can think of, but if you have some kind of insider connection or pull, or you’re actually Obama’s third cousin twice removed, please consider helping us make this dream a reality!!

Buffalo ReUse is eager to share vision and accomplishments for green job creation, social entrepreneurship, and community regeneration with the President.  Since our inception in 2007, we have worked tirelessly to create Buffalo ReUse because of our unyielding desire to improve the City of Buffalo, our passion and hope for livable communities, and our belief in the unique capacity of young adults in forging solutions to rebuild our communities for the future. We have leveraged the unique assets of our region to address the most pressing needs of our neighborhoods, and while our region is unique, we believe that our ideas can be implemented in many communities all throughout the country.

If you have friends in high places, please help us use this unprecedented opportunity to share our entrepreneurial ideas that can play a critical role in regenerating neighborhoods and creating more green and local jobs in the years to come.

Thanks to all our friends and supporters who diligently voted every day! We didn’t win first prize, but being a runner-up is nothing to sneeze at – a $5,000 grant for our community programs.