Earth Day this year came and went with all the fanfare of a bent trombone.
No one really knows why the typical shine was so dull this year, but I have a theory. While we were enjoying the 80+ degree temperatures in March, many decided to live it up with their white legs and cut-offs as garden centers and the city streets became alive with energy typically a by-product of the month of May. Even the local trees and plants got in on the excitement of this early and extended warm snap.
But I have lived here long enough to know the heartbreak of Michigan, so I fought off the urge to start celebrating the season too early and to set tender annuals in the ground as I texted friends thoughts of early garden parties. Pure Michigan is always, for better or worse, best described as sunny with a chance of rain or snow.
So when Earth Day 2012 arrived complete with our near normal temps returning, we set out to engage in our time-tested honor-the-earth activities, but this time on auto pilot as we did just enough to take off depression’s edge as the grey skies dropped occasional (but never sticking) flurries.
As we settle into May, I am going to suggest we look around our city to once again find our spark as we look past the frostbitten leaves to embrace these exciting sun-infused projects.
For starters, after a long winter construction season, the
Fulton Street Farmers Market will not only open their 2012 season on Saturday, May 5, but will do so in their newly remodeled space featuring the awesome design work of local firm Lott3Metz. Our goodness is truly showing!
On Tuesday, May 8, the
Fourth Annual Mayor’s Bike Ride hits the streets of the city, this time departing from the Kroc Corps Community Center (2500 S. Division Ave.) at 6:30 p.m.
This year’s ride is with a nod to the mountain biking community as they will ride and visit the Plaster Creek trail, the site of the city's first dual pump track. Personally, I think the Mayor is returning to this track to try his hand at the pump track again. At the dedication a couple years ago and while on his inaugural ride after the ribbon cutting, he took a nasty tumble as he rounded the bend. (Rumor is that Michael Pfleghaar, who attended that dedication, is holding the footage until after the Mayor has a chance to complete his loop on the track May 8.)
Even the arts are getting into the game more and more with
SiTE:LAB returning to Blandford Nature Center for another temporary and nature-inspired 2-day exhibition.
Starting in late May, SiTE:LAB will be offering tours to artists interested in exhibiting at BNC. You can visit their site for details on the upcoming May 27 submission deadline as well as other details on the June 15-16 event.
But not all of the activities of this region are driven by a timed event. Grand Rapids offers plenty of options for those who just want to show up to create their own thing.
According to Friends of Grand Rapids Parks’ Executive Director Steve Faber, “While we are excited to see the return of big projects, from the Hands Across the City to the International Lion’s Club local chapter’s reforestation planting project in Riverside Park, to even our annual Green Gala held later this summer, we at Friends are most excited this summer about the small projects that make big impact on our parkland.”
Faber is referring to a measureable trend in park usage that reports that with increased usage comes greater park ownership, often converting patrons who simply use the park into what Faber called Park Fairies, or, people who fly about the park on their walk picking up trash or stepping in to create random acts of beauty for the benefit of the park and others’ enjoyment.
One project that is debuting this summer that has Faber and his team of supporters really fired up is the Urban Forestry Project that is not run by a government, but by the people of our city. (see
UrbanForestMap.org )
By participating in this new project early on, Grand Rapids will become the fifth city in the county joining join San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and Philadelphia in the use of this tree-mapping program seeking to track and monitor the urban canopy of our city.
And lest you think this is just another web-based app creating opportunities for yet again more techno babble about how much storm water we save from flowing into our precious rivers or the greenhouse benefits of adding more trees, Faber urges us to think beyond these obvious positive advances and look at the other benefits to our city.
“There are already groups in our area who fill buses up and hit the highways to see the trees of cities like Traverse City,” says Faber. “Imagine the draw Grand Rapids could begin to have in our country with the aid of this software in the hands of our neighbors as they begin place-making activities around our tress as they upload and share photos, drawings, stories or even poetry inspired by the natural beauty of our region’s urban forest.”
So if you have been feeling blue about this season (and I doubt you are anymore after reading all this), then let’s be starting something new with this bunch of exciting projects and events that are not only going to transform the region, but could also transform our world, too.
The Future Needs All of Us.
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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