Archive for the 'Green Living' Category

The NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection has begun a new program in which old refrigerators or freezers that are not energy-efficient can be traded in for a $50 rebate. NJ residents must meet the criteria (listed here), which includes being a customer of a commercial, not municipal, electric utility company (Most Essex County residents use PSE&G). A new, more energy-efficient fridge or freezer can save you more than $100 a year on your electric bill, and is better for the environment. This handy little calculator tells you how much your current fridge or freezer costs to operate now, and how much you could save with one that qualified for Energy Star. Trading in your fridge or freezer is better for you and better for your town, and now comes with a $50 bonus! Why not?

What Is Your Community Walkability Score?

walking in Montclair neighborhood

I’m a big fan of the rating website, www.walkscore.com, but its algorithm relies mostly on the proximity of a house to stores and community resources.  But to find walkability rating, it’s not just about distance — it’s also about the quality and ease of the walk.  Factors like wide sidewalks, shade trees, good lighting and flat topography matter a great deal in determining a walkability rating.  I downloaded this walkability checklist from www.walkinginfo.org and walked through my own Watchung Plaza neighborhood in Montclair.

Here’s what I found, both good and bad.

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I’m a fan of mixed use.  Mixed use is the practice of allowing different types of buildings to coexist in a single neighborhood – for example, residential space next to/on top of restaurants and businesses.   By adding vitality and activity to a neighborhood, mixed use benefits a community because residents are able to walk to things that they need, like stores, work, church and transit. But there are certain land uses that are best kept away from the rest of the neighborhood – gas stations among them.  In Montclair, two former gas station sites continue to undergo remediation for chemical contamination twenty years after they were first tested.   Both of the locations, in Upper Montclair on Valley Road and on Orange Road in the South End are near houses, condominiums and small businesses. Who needs to walk to a gas station anyway?

When I walk to Watchung Plaza from my Montclair home, I take a short route  through an interconnected grid of streets and through a small park.  I wave to my neighbor on the way.  I stop for a brief minute in the park to chat with a friend who’s on her way home from work (she’s just gotten off the 5:31 train from Manhattan).  It’s social.  It’s interactive.  It’s exercise.  It’s green.

On the other hand, it’s very difficult to walk to the train station, or the corner store to get milk in a town that is laid out in a branching street pattern with a series of dead-ends -aka cul-de-sacs- feeding in to a main artery. In these configurations, you can be a stone’s throw from your destination, but have to travel a mile to get there.  This may be a satisfactory layout for the car but not for the pedestrian or bike rider.

Watch this very clever video from the Congress for New Urbanism and you’ll see what I mean…

1. The train station (any one of the six)

2. Watchung Plaza for a dozen bagels on Sunday morning

3. The farmer’s market on a Saturday in June for local rhubarb and asparagus

4. Tierney’s Tavern on the way home from work for a retro burger and beer (no phone, no credit cards!)

5. The Wellmont Theater on a Saturday night to see David Byrne, Kathy Griffith or Rosie O’Donnell

6. Tinga Tacqueria on Monday and Tuesday nights when kids eat for $2

7. The “all children” playground in Edgemont Park on a weekday afternoon in spring

8. Anderson Park on the way to work for early morning Tai Chi

9. American Royal Hardware (aka Mr. Charlie’s) for that whatchamadoohickey that you’ll never find at Home Depot

10. Van Vleck House and Garden for a leafy respite