Santa Cruz: Rail Cleanup and Art Day - Sunday 27th

A message from Transition Santa Cruz and Rail to Trail:

A friendly reminder that this Sunday, the 27th, is the Rail Cleanup and Art Day. Transition Santa Cruz has organized a mural painting, fun for the whole family, to augment the cleanup activities that will be taking place. Note the new timing: Mural painting at 9:30, cleanup starting at 1 PM. To do art with your visions of a people's rail corridor, come with painting clothes and paint brushes if you have them. Meet near California and Bay at the entrance to Neary's Lagoon Park. Remember, this event has been organized both for fun and to encourage the purchase of the rail corridor, one of our best bets for sustainable transportation in Santa Cruz County. The 1:00 cleanup event will start at two locations: 1. On the east side of the San Lorenzo River Trestle 2. At the Bike Station in Aptos Village Wear closed toe shoes and gloves. Please bring garbage bags if you have them, and of course, art supplies! For more information on the cleanup, contact People Power at 425-0665. For more info on making Art at the event, contact Christi at 459-7950.

Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Website phone: 831-427-9916

Santa Cruz - Solar compactor; Land Use meeting

Solar Compactor

Do you use the Solar Compactor (also known as BigBelly TM ?)  There are a couple in downtown Santa Cruz and Capitola and one at UCSC.

What's a Solar Compactor?   It is a self-contained trash barrel that also uses solar power to compact the trash contents when the weight reaches a pre-set number.  (UCSC has it sent at 70 pounds.)    The idea is to reduce frequency and labor needed to cart away trash, especially useful in busy areas.

One unit is near the Del Mar Theater; it has no special label, except  "Pitch In."   The solar panel is on the back, under a tree with no problem, but on a Sunday morning I found the the front trash bin full of trash, with red light flashing (meaning time for compacting).

A nearby downtown merchant said the nearby unit worked very, very well, but added it has been a target of vandalism.

UCSC has one, near the Bay Tree Bookstore.   It compacts when the total weight is 70 pounds.  UCSC paid for its unit, about $3-4k, with grants, and has had few maintenance problems.  

Background:

• http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/gobbling-up-trash-with-suns-power/
• (Santa Cruz) http://wasteage.com/mag/waste_crunch_time_2/
  
• http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=636

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Land Use and Transportation

When it comes to sustainability, the two - Land Use and Transportation - are very closely tied together.

Rick Longinotti  has organized a working group through Transition Santa Cruz to study the issues related to land use, transportation, affordable housing and to study current legislation or initiate new legislation that will improve the sustainability of our neighborhoods.

Here are the details:

Sept 9 Agenda
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19473653/Agenda-Sept-9-Land-Use-Transportation-Transition-Santa-Cruz

Transition Santa Cruz
http://transitionsc.org/