Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council

Mid-MEAC's
Smart Commute '08 Starts May 1st!

May 1 - 18: Bicycle Commuting Classes
at LCC, Foster Center, & MSU
May 15: Smart Commute Festival Food,
Music, Information & More!
May 19-30: Smart Commute Challenge
Company teams compete to win bicycles,
bagel parties & more!
NEW! Smart Commute Club Log your
Smart Commute miles online to win
monthly prize drawings and track financial,
health, and environmental impacts.

Click here to visit the Smart Commute home page
and learn more about the joys of green
transportation!

Lansing Walking & Bicycling Task
Force
C lick here to learn more and get involved!

Changing the Way We Think About Our
Streets
Communities across the nation changing the way
people think about their streets. Streets are part of
the “public realm” of our cities, and many people
think they should contribute to the common good
by offering safe, attractive places for social
interaction, economic activity, and physical
movement. These ideas are at the heart of an
excellent new online public information tool at
www.greatstreetsstlouis.net. Check out this site
to learn more about different “place types” and
how streets can be built to make the most of each
type.

ReBuild Mid Michigan Commercial
Energy Seminars - May 20
Urban Options, in cooperation with the Greater
Lansing Go Green! Initiative and the Lansing
Board of Water & Light, is pleased to announce
an upcoming series of ReBuild Mid Michigan
Commercial Energy Seminars on energy
efficiency practices and technology for
commercial buildings. These are for individuals,
commercial businesses, churches, schools,
universities, government agencies, and nonprofit
organizations. The ReBuild Mid Michigan
Commercial Energy Seminar series is funded by
a grant from the State of Michigan Energy Office
and will be presented by representatives from
Urban Options and the Lansing Board of Water &
Light. More info: Aileen Gow, 337-0422 ext. 4,
aileen@urbanoptions.org, www.urbanoptions.org.

Safe Pedestrians and a Walkable
America
Each year pedestrian fatalities comprise about 11
percent of all traffic fatalities and there are
approximately 4,600 pedestrian deaths. Another
70,000 pedestrians are injured in roadway
crashes annually. Safety is important for all
roadway users, and the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) has established a goal of
reducing pedestrian fatalities and injuries by 10
percent by the year 2008. Read about national
efforts at:
http://safety.fhwa.dot.
gov/ped_bike/ped/pedforum/index.htm

Major Street in Portland, MI to
Undergo Lane Change
On March 3 Portland’s City Council approved a
three-lane design for Grand River Avenue
between Kent Street and Charlotte Highway with
bike lanes on each side of the roadway. Council
members discussed a variety of options at each
previous meeting including a four-lane
configuration with two lanes of traffic in each a
direction, a three-lane option with one lane in
each direction with a center turning lane; and a
three-lane option that included one bicycle lane
on the north side that ended at Warren Street. Full
story in Lansing State Journal, March 9, 2008:
www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20080309/PORTLAND01/803090402/1229/p
ortland

Donate to Focus—Stop Your Junk Mail!
Sign up with 41 Pounds , and a portion of the
income is donated directly to us here at Focus the
Nation.

Mid-MEAC's Red Cedar Volunteer
Stream Monitoring Results
Dedicated Mid-MEAC volunteers have been
monitoring eight sites in the Red Cedar River
watershed since September 2006. Now we are
gaining a better understanding of the watershed,
and are looking for ways to help people who care
take action to improve water quality and habitat
conditions. Click here for the results of Red Cedar
macroinvertebrate collections and Stream Scores.

Click here to learn more about the program and
how you can get involved. The spring 2008 bug
identification is coming up during the week of May
12. Email yorko446@cs.com or call Jessica at
214-5684 if you would like to take part.

How Streams Impact River Pollution
Interesting story about the Red Cedar River at:
http://msutoday.msu.edu/research/index.php3?artic
le=13Mar2008-2

Lansing Area Green Infrastructure
Mapping Process
www.gree n midmichigan.org

Register Your Support for Bike Lanes!
Mid-MEAC and the Lansing Mayor's Task Force on
Walking & Bicycling urge you to register your
support for bike lanes today! Helping people
understand the importance of bike lanes, and
building a database of supporters, is a critical first
step in building public support for an integrated
network of bike lanes throughout the city and
region. Please register your support today or learn
more first, by clicking here

November 10, 2007
Benefit Concert with Seth Bernard & Daisy May

Results of 2006-2007 Stream
Monitoring Collection - Red Cedar
Watershed

2007 City of Lansing Non-Motorized
Transportation Handbook by MSU Urban
Planning Students.

Smart Commute '07 Results &
Challenge Winners
Congratulations to these first place winners in
each size category!!
- Old Town Auto Repair
- OPLA/ Energy Office
- Clean Water Action
- MDEQ Land & Water Management Divison

More than 2500 "smart trips" logged... kids walking
and bicycling to school... people learning how to
use their bicycle for transportation and how to ride
the bus to work... these are some of the results of
Smart Commute' 07. Read more, and learn how
you can get involved, by clicking here

2006 Mid-MEAC Annual Report
Click here to open or download the 2006
Mid-MEAC Annual Report.

2005 Tri-County Regional Planning
"Growth Project" Report

2004 Report of Lansing River Trail Use
and Users
Study by Mid-MEAC, Lansing Parks & Rec (click
here for full report).

Michigan Ave. Rain Gardens
A PPROVED! (click here for more info)

Mayor Benero's 2004 Transition Team
on the Environment - click here to read
recommendations and findings.

Mid-MEAC's First Friday Land Use
Lunch Series- May 2, 2008
Suzanne Schulz, Planning Director, City of Grand
Rapids: Form-Based Codes — Grand Rapids'
Plan for Positive Change

12:00 p.m.1:00 p.m. at Central United Methodist
Church (NW corner of Capitol and Ottawa,
downtown Lansing). All events include a light
buffet lunch and a short presentation from leading
experts on land use issues affecting our area.
Policy makers, advocates, and anyone interested
is encouraged to attend.

Click here for a PDF flyer with more info . Please
RSVP to yorko446@cs.com.

Spring for Mid-MEAC, Friday, May 16

Mid-MEAC Board President

MC Rothhorn and member

Karen White host Mid-

MEAC's first fundraiser

event of 2008 at Genesee

Garden Cohousing near

downtown Lansing.

Enjoy a grilled feast, mingle

with other fun people, and

learn more about Mid-

MEAC and about urban infill

cohousing

a creative land use that is bringing the "creative
class" back into the Genesee Neighborhood.

Suggested donation: $35-$60. All donations are
tax-deductible and help Mid-MEAC continue
growing our programs related to Land Use,
Green Transportation, River Protection, and
Promoting Sustainable Practices.
Location: community garden at the end of
Bancroft Court. Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm. RSVP to
mctiko@yahoo.com appreciated, or get more info
by contacting MC Rothhorn at 517-203-8937 or
Gene Townsend at 204-4252. Postcard artwork
by John Lindenmayer www.redbeardart.com

$5 Canvas Bags and Equal Exchange
at Edgewood Church
Paper or plastic? Earth-friendly answer: Neither.
Do your mother (earth) a favor, and get yourself
some tall, sturdy, made in the USA unbleached
cotton bags to use instead of “disposable” bags.
Only $5 per bag, available the first Sunday of each
month from 11AM-12PM (after the 10AM service).
The bags are offered at cost through the
Edgewood United Church Outreach Mission,
which also offers Equal Exchange Fair Trade
coffees, teas, and chocolate bars. Edgewood
Church is located at 429 Hagadorn Road in East
Lansing, between Burcham and Grand River. For
more information, contact Ada Kidd at kids@tir.
com or 351-7510. To read more about why
switching to re-usable bags is so important,
check out last week’s City Pulse article on the
issue, click here.

Recycling Collection - May 3
8am-12pm - Computers and electronics will be
collected at this recycling event, which will take
place at 530 E. South St. at the City of Lansing's
Recycling Transfer Station. More info, click here
or recycle@ci.lansing.mi.us or 517-483-4400.

Take the Go Green Go Lansing! Pledge
www.gogreengolansing.com The Greater
Lansing Go Green! Initiative is working to promote
environmental and economic health for all those
who live, work, and play in Greater Lansing. More
info: theins@ci.lansing.mi.us

New Website with Great Lakes Info
www.greatlakescountry.com “The goal is to
collect news from across the Great Lakes region
in one place, for those of us who may be
interested but don't want to jump from site to site.”
- Daniel Wendt

Running the Numbers – by Chris
Jordan
www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php
This series of works by artist Chris Jordan looks
at contemporary American culture through the
austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a
specific quantity of something: fifteen million
sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use);
106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can
consumption) and so on. Statistics can feel
abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to
connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million
SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million
Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used
every fifteen minutes. In an elegant fashion, this
project visually examines these vast and bizarre
measures of our society. The underlying desire is
to emphasize the role of the individual in a society
that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible,
and overwhelming.