Every Day Adventurers

Living in apartments allows you to see other humans’ living habits a bit closer than you’d usually like to experience. I live in a quad-plex in Oakland, in a neighborhood that’s gentrifying and has seen worse days.

Oakland, and the Bay Area in general, have always been on the cusp of the next Green/sustainable revolution. In the past two, three years we’ve gotten a cool curbside composting program going (although I’d rather see the stuff get trucked to the Oakland Port where giant digestors could capture all those high energy vapors of composting instead of letting it waft into the air as they drive it tens of miles away to rot in open fields contributing green house gases to the atmosphere) and our recycling is thorough and impressive (Berkeley just upped their investment with new bins).

I also take pride in limiting my impact on our shared environment. I don’t own a car, I ride my bikes (Xtracycle Big Dummy included), I compost all our food and paper wastes, recycle, take short showers and grow some of our own food. So it pains me to see my neighbors tossing perfectly good recyclables into the trash, or food that could easily be composted in the trash or old clothes that just need a simple wash getting dumped instead of donated. That last one just happened, and in a big way.

We have large Murphy bed closests in our building. Suffice it to say, they hold a lot of junk (mine is full of bike parts and stuff). My neighbor’s daughter was cleaning out her closet, which seemed to have been collecting things since middle school (she’s 18 now). Bag after bag was filled with clothes, shoes, books, pencils, pens, etc. All about to be trashed! Had I not had the (un)pleasure of looking at the garbage from our kitchen window, all that stuff would’ve ended up in the landfill. We have thousands of people who can use the items she was tossing out. Our economy is still shedding jobs, unemployment is through the roof, and coming from parents who lived on food stamps during Reganomics, I’m sensitive to such non-chalance.

So, I dug through her stuff, salvaging what could be donated. I encountered her as she was taking out even more items(!) and explained that almost all the stuff she was tossing could be donated. I also took the opportunity to explain that recyclables belong in the recycling container. I still need to talk with her mother and her about the needs for all of us to take more responsibility for our waste and pull as much of it as we can out of the waste stream and return, reuse, recycle it.

Here’s my load, about 80 lbs of shoes, shirts, pants, jackets, books and other odd ends that I pedaled over to the East Bay Depot Center for Creative Reuse on Telegraph and a local thrift store.

Loads of Donation Items Being Reused Instead of Dumped

Every little bit counts. :)

Rod Bryan, former 2006 independent candidate for Governor of Arkansas, shared with us his past efforts trying to shift our car-centric lifestyles using his Xtracycle, and his current work as Housing Coordinator for Our House, a non-profit shelter for homeless individuals and families in Little Rock.

In his run for Governor, Rod’s first proposed initiative was aimed at “[improving] quality of life for Arkansans by making it easier to travel in communities and across the state by bicycle.” His concrete goals included increasing daily use of bicycles by citizens & state employees; improving cycling infrastructure and increasing bicycle use and maintenance education. It’s refreshing and empowering to see someone close their music record shop, take work at a bakery, and devote their time, money and energy to help improve the livelihoods of their fellow citizens.

Now, as housing coordinator for Our House, Rod sees the effects of our car-culture on the individuals and families he serves. Living by example, Rod rides his Xtracycle to work and encourages people “to try and find employment within a biking radius from their homes.”

“Daily, shelter residents look at my bicycle with oohs and ahhs. I have a vision to introduce them to riding Xtracyles while they are staying at the shelter and encourage them to save money to buy their own upon leaving. I also envision residents learning bike mechanics as part of our job training and as a way to sustain their own transportation and independence.

If it weren’t for the money in my campaign, I don’t know if I ever would have gotten an Xtracycle. I know that many of the people in our shelter see bicycles other than second-hand or from Wal-Mart as extravagances. I truly believe that if we introduce our residents to Xtracycles and the many things that Xtracycle makes possible it will truly open them to another world. “

Rod is accepting donations through Our House to help individuals ease the cost burden of owning a cargo bicycle for use as their daily transportation tool. If you can offer financial support, or want to donate your FreeRadical after upgrading to a Radish or Big Dummy, you can contact Rod at rod{at}ourhouseshelter{dot}com.