Public Meeting for a Sustainable Tennessee Valley Region

Neighbors! Friends! Community Members!

Come out to the public meeting for the 2009 Sustainable Design Assessment Team.

Wednesday, May 6, 6:30 p.m.

UTC's University Center Auditorium

East 5th Street, Chattanooga, TN

Please join the nationally renowned team as they share their initial findings and observations about creating a sustainable Tennessee Valley region.

This presentation is made possible by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Lyndhurst Foundation.

In conjunction with AIA Chattanooga, the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Catoosa County, EPB, greenspaces, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Main Street Farmer's Market - every Wednesday!

As the rain continutes to fall on Chattanooga, Tenn., all I can seem to do is find distractions from the piles of applications and resumes I should be sending to various companies. Maybe that has to do with Jolie Holland singing in the background, or the damned TweetDeck I uploaded this week.

I really have mixed feelings about Twitter and its connectivity. No, MY connectivity. Wireless internet at the folks' house keeps me far too "updated" on all web happenings. I try to see it as one day finding work, discovering new events happening in town, and promoting events and issues I care about. Not to mention finding a JOB, a REAL JOB editing, writing or promoting something on the web. Sadly, print is dying. Web is the preferred medium, in my opinion, or if not preferred than the dominant medium.

I started to recognize a few things I miss about Oregon this morning, particularly about the weather and produce, but my friend Chris quickly commented on Fbook about the local produce available at Wednesday's Main Street Farmer's Market!

Wednesdays from 4:00 - 6:00 pm
On Main St. Between Market and Broad
On the Corner of Main & Williams...Across from Hiroshi's Sushi
Downtown Chattanooga, Southside

What's Ripe this week

Alexzanna Farms: Strawberries, nettles, cut flowers

Clover Wreath Farms: Lettuce, Green Onions, Herbs, Tomato Plants

Dancing Fern Nursery: An assortment of perennial natives plants from
this wonderful native plant nursery located at
Sequatchie Cove Farm. Come and talk with
Miriam about what native plants will grow
well in your yard.

Irie Hilltop Farm: Vegetable plants for your home garden

River Ridge Farms: Grass Fed Beef, Pastured Pork, Spinach, Radishes

Sale Creek Honey
Honey from the hills and valleys around us. Eddie McKenzie is a master beekeeper; we and the bees are lucky to have him in our region.
Local Honey
Local Beeswax candles

Sequatchie Cove Farm:Strawberries, Eggs, Grass-fed Beef, Pastured Pork, Lettuce, Baby Spinach, SunSugar Tomato Plants, Chive Plants, Fresh Cilantro Bunches

Williams Island Farm: Eggs from hens that roam the island freely, Lettuce, Arugula, Kale, Baby Bok Choy

I'll be in attendance, won't you? I wish I knew how to hide that list so you had to click on it... who knows how to do this? Errrr. Web skillz fall short of this.

My writing is really vague. I'm sorry. Maybe I'll work on this.

Some other day. Heh.

Take a STAND!

(Ed. Note: This blog was inspired by ChattanoogaStand.com. I formally invite YOU to let us know what Chattanooga's future should look like. Let's here it!)

What do I want in Chattanooga?

I want to protect the natural beauty of Chattanooga, and clean it up while we're there.

I want to teach others how to care for the land on which we play, regardless of political agenda, upbringing, etc. Demonstrating the direct effects of taking good care of the earth and how that benefits EVERYONE...it can be done. It's more than a marketing message.

I want to see more school communities like the one I attended as more affordable and accessible options to more families.

I want a health food store other than Greenlife. I want grocers to be community leaders AND business folks.

I want to see more commuting bikers and organized neighborhood bike rides. This is a beautiful place, and two-wheeled tours engage riders and connect them with neighbors, neighborhoods and new places.

I want a movie theater that serves beer and shows movies for cheap.

I want speed bumps on West Mississippi Ave. I want passenger trains to go through at least one Central or East Tennessee town.

(Print is dead, Laura Jane. Shut your trap about weeklies! You remember how angry the ones in Portland made you? Sheesh. Stick with this web business. It's sticky, and fun.)

I want a First Friday art walk (or maybe I just don't know about it).

I want to ban smoking from all restaurants and bars!

(And for this to happen...) I want to be on a first-name basis with my elected representatives.

All of these things are centered around me and my needs. Not once did I write about organizations that feed and shelter the homeless...gentrification...minorities. There is a lot of social and ethical concern, but it's not on my front burner. I think I underestimate a lot of what goes on in the up and coming area where we boogied down last night. I think I underestimate a lot of Chattanoogans.

I want to learn humility, patience and how to love wholly and freely.

I want to help erase cynicism from the forefront of my generation's mind and attitude.

I want to embrace that which makes me uncomfortable and uneasy.

My first list of wants would indirectly benefit or effect others, I guess. My motivations aren't awful.

Biking through otherwise overlooked neighborhoods puts individuals in touch with the neighbors. Riders aren't behind glass windows, afraid of stereotypical "bad neighborhood" behavior, but are waving to folks, ringing their bike bells and smiling. The connection between bike riders and front porch folks could SOME DAY change a driver's perspective behind the wheel.

Art on Wheels? First Friday comes to the lovely Chattanooga? Monthly neighborhood/event bike rides?

Biggest and Brightest

It's funny where and when inspiration will hit you. Not doodling around town all day, talking about moms and friends and family and kindergarten. Not even walking through the cemetery by St. Elmo with Megan, or riding up Lookout and soaking up the mountain and its history, the gorgeous houses and trees that surrounded the road.

But rather, it comes after the day sinks in and I can't possibly twitter my way through the rainy Friday evening. The hulu movies I attempted to watch were dumbed down to free softcore (and bad) "romantic" stories. It wasn't too hard to figure out how they got such high ratings. Convinced my eyes were "too weary" to pick up Kafka that's been collecting dust beside my bed, I pressed on via the web. Must. Be. Something. to discover this evening. When really, the affirmation came this afternoon.

Living at home can be a rocky place. The mental and emotional anguish of feeling like a "failure," of succumbing to silly and fantastic ideas that left me financially strapped, weighs heavy on my psyche. A judger, I fear what others will think of me, specifically my kin. This can be taxing for all involved, especially my giant ego.

This afternoon, though, Megan picked me up in her gold car and we wheeled around town. I drank enough caffeine for both of us as the conversation opened up. We bubbled on about what we've been doing, what turns out lives have taken since our last encounter awhile back. Gossip about family, relationships, folks we knew growing up. There was a casual give and take, not caring what the fellow coffee shop patrons thought of our stories of personal revolutions. It just flowed. She's a feeler, fully involved, and a lover and a healer. We talked about sex, our parents, death, divorce, sexuality in the South, generations, art.

So with one successful freelance gig in the works, my bummer attitude about living at home faded a little bit. It's manageable, and I certainly am fortunate to be well fed, well loved and looked after. To reconnect with a childhood friend, someone with whom I attended 12 years of school, only to discover we have more in common than ever before? That is a true gift. It's what Chattanooga represents though: history intertwined with new, creative life.

Now I need to channel that and challenge myself to make this work. It's as if I discovered my dream job. To live and work in a community that is bursting with new energy and is a hotbed of artistic startups with established support. And to use my skills, which have been limited to editing thus far, to use my writing to aid in the communication of this work? That is what I want to do for work. It involves computers, yes, but it also involves (we should hope) some nonprofit work and more freelance opportunities. Hopefully to include an article on Keith's church...

Church. Saturday. Bikes! Must sleep and rise early to catch thousands of riders in the 3 state 3 mountain ride. Poor folks gonna have chafing in places they didn't know could chafe.

so good to be home

Thanks, Chattanooga, for cheerin me up exactly when I needed it.

Last night Kelly, Keith and I rolled over to CreateHere for Pecha Kucha Night No. 3. The global network of events offers an evening of brief, less than seven minute presentations, with each presenter allowed 20, 20-second slides. It's quick, interesting and from my first experience, quite entertaining. I learned about the brains behind cabeen originals, about the TreMontsters from an architect, and from the Norhtshore Yoga inspirations Jessica Jollie and Sara Mingus.

I left thinking, "What would I want to present?" The wheels are turning. Copy editing for dummies? Critical mass and all its glory? Group bike rides in general? Bicycle enthusiasm? Proposing downtown rides?

I want to thank Knoxville for the training wheels so literally provided for me. Only after moving across the country did I fully see, love and appreciate the good energy, events and GREAT folks there. The biking organization, the art scene, First Fridays, new neighborhoods, attention to pedestrian culture, Jack Neely... bangin' businesses like my brother's bike shop, the Fountain City Pedaler.

I could go on! And I should. I need to utilize my networking skills for the best. I'm good at this web stuff, and I can make this web stuff work for me. It's time! Pecha Kucha here I come.

And Chattanooga, thanks for havin' me back.

I was all doom and gloom today, looking for jobs. I feel bruised. Not by the job hunt buy by emotional issues.

Biking tends to resolve many of those feelings though. I rolled down the hill from the North Chattanooga perch where I currently reside, and with a few Yahoos! and Yipeeees! there was a smile on my face, a funny wheezy sound in my lungs and heavy shit rollin' straight off my back. Going downhill is just so FUN. Friendly fellow bicyclists and onlookers only add to the joy. Happy hour is also in my future, which brings more smiles.