Make Earth Day Count

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Peggy and I get pitched on a lot of books for the show, and we’ve both been doing book interviews for a long, long time. So we generally know when a book is good. Reading it would be a good way to make Earth Day count.

This is a really good book. And Earth Day is a great day to talk about it.

Emily Murphy is the kind of writer who eases you into her way of thinking, whether you’re an experienced gardener or a beginner. She’s not trying to teach you everything about gardening, just enough to realize that it’s a lot easier than it seems and that by growing a few basic varieties, you can make your meals–and your life–a lot richer.

In her own words from her blog Pass the Pistil, she writes,

Grow What You Love is a book that leads readers through the process of how to start a garden and plant a plot, however big or small, that is jam packed with diversity, edible flowers, and the ingredients with the biggest impact on the way we cook and live.

The heart of the book is filled with The Plant Directory, because it’s the plants that drive us to wild infatuations, making hearts skip a beat and taste buds water. I ask readers to fine tune existing gardens or begin from scratch starting here, with The Plant Directory —  with the plants loved most or are reached for most often when rustling up a quick meal.

It’s also true that when we plant a little, dig a little, and harvest often the plants quickly teach us about themselves, making it easier to grow and cook with them from year to year. Soon, we discover that the plants aren’t so different from you and me. They each have their own set of likes and dislikes, quirky habits, and unique beauty.

I find it interesting that she starts her plant directory with herbs, specifically basil. Nobody starts their list of plants with basil! Well, except Murphy, and she explains why.

She also has some basic, no nonsense advice about the various aspects of gardening–soil cultivation, seed starting and propagation, tending and training your plants, diversity in the garden and more. It’s all very straight forward, very positive.

It’s great to have Emily Murphy on the show this morning.

Looking for a worthy local Earth Day cause? Here’s one.

Here’s another way to make earth day count. A battle is taking shape for the soul of Chicago’s near northwest side, and perhaps for the very future of the city. It started in earnest in May of 2017, when a plan called the North Branch Framework land-use strategy was adopted by the Chicago Plan Commission. A couple of months later, that framework was turned into official policy by the Chicago City Council. The goal is to chart the course of the 760-acre North Branch Industrial Corridor as it becomes a “vibrant, mixed-use business center” as part of the Emanuel Administration’s Industrial Corridor Modernization Initiative.

The problem with that plan is figuring out–certainly in this case–what the definition of “mixed-use” is.

Let’s cut to the chase. Recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he planned  “to double — to 11 miles — the ‘publicly-accessible riverfront space’ he has created to bolster Chicago’s unique standing as a ‘two-waterfront’ city.” That might be good enough for the mayor, the Chicago Sun-Times story reports, but

That’s not enough to appease Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) and Ald. Michele Smith (43rd) and their coalition of architectural, environmental and neighborhood groups.

To confront a shortage of park space and accommodate an avalanche of new residents and employees, they want to make a park out of the last big parcel of available land in the North Branch corridor before developers gobble it up.

These two aldermen call their own plan the North Branch Park & Nature Preserve and here’s how they describe their vision:

A new urban district of unprecedented scale is underway in Chicago along the North Branch of the Chicago River.  Approximately 18 million square feet of new, mixed use development is envisioned with population projections that exceed 50,000 people within a few years.

The economic benefit of this development for Chicago is significant.  However, if a large scale public park is not integrated to complement the current vision, access to the Chicago River will be constricted by dense urban walls of high-rise buildings for people that live and work in them.

The Chicago River belongs to all Chicagoans and access to it should be publicly guaranteed.

Therefore, a 24-acre publicly-owned riverfront park and nature preserve is proposed along the east bank of the Chicago River between North Avenue and Cortland Street.  This is the last large tract of land in the North Branch Corridor that could be assembled for this use.

Publicly-owned parkland is also important given the fact that more than 90,000 Chicagoans already live within a half mile of the North Branch Corridor today.

Their proposal has gained support from groups like Openlands, Friends of the Chicago River, Friends of the Parks, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Illinois Chapter, and more. The legendary Chicago urban planner Daniel Burnham is said to have declared,

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.

In an editorial headlined, What happened to ‘make no little plans,’ Mr. Mayor? the Chicago Tribune makes it clear where it stands on the issue, taking a swipe at Emanuel:

That redevelopment promises to be one of the largest the city’s ever seen. When done, it will feel like a city within a city — hotels, apartment towers, stores and tech office space sprouting on 760 riverfront acres.

It also presents a rare opportunity to endow Chicago with a transformative swath of green.

Instead, Emanuel continues to embrace the current North Branch framework plan, which calls for more than 60 acres of open space, but in scattered patches of green — ballfields, tot lots and bike paths sprinkled here and there on the 3.7-mile-long tract.

The Sun-Times piles on:

A major riverfront park would help meet the mayor’s goal to grow that park system. We already have the Riverwalk and Chinatown’s Ping Tom Park to the south. A major new North Branch park would continue this commitment to reinventing the banks of the river, adding a large-scale recreational space on the park-scarce North Side.

Without the city’s backing, those 24 acres of prime property more than likely will be filled up with densely packed high-rises, broken up by a patchwork of modest corner gardens, tot lots and other small-scale green space to meet the open space requirements of the North Branch “framework plan.”

Small pockets of green space might be enough to satisfy developers and well-heeled condominium buyers. But they’re hardly enough in a city that aspires to be world-class and boasts the motto “Urbs in horto”: “City in a garden.”

Unfortunately, Alderman Brian Hopkins, whose 2nd Ward would be the home of the proposed park, is not on the same page. It’s difficult, actually, to figure out exactly which page he’s on, judging from his comments in the Sun-Times.

“We’re going to be spending public money on transit improvements, road improvements and open space and parks,”  he said. “These big-ticket items — you can’t rule them out because they’re expensive. But the process of prioritizing them is something we’re just now initiating. That’s going to require public participation. I will be stewarding the process for the Lincoln Yards development in particular. It’s exclusively in the 2nd Ward. None of this is in the 43rd Ward or the 32nd Ward. I do appreciate the suggestions of my colleagues. But ultimately, this will be a process that is led by the 2nd Ward.”

As you can see, funding will be an issue, as will cooperation from the mayor and Alderman Hopkins, and there are a thousand other hurdles before any of this gets built.

So let the haggling begin. Peggy and I are very pleased to again welcome Alderman Scott Waguespack of the 32nd Ward to the show, along with his colleague Michele Smith from the 43rd Ward.

There’s a very bad bill in Springfield that you need to know about.

This is a way NOT to celebrate Earth Day. It’s called HB5293 and it threatens to undermine the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board. In the words of the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC),  “This is an incredibly serious threat”.

The bill is an over-the-top reaction to the possibility that The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will put the monarch butterfly on the Endangered Species List. That decision will be made by June 30, 2019.