The Udall Legacy Bus Tour Comes Home

On Aug. 3rd, our bus rolled into Tucson. Home. Not home to any of the riders -- but home to Mo and the Udall Foundation.

Andrew Lee (Scholar '06) leads the welcoming cheer (Photo by Tom Spitz)

And it was definitely a homecoming. We arrived to the loving welcome of the Udall Foundation staff. Not only were we received with open arms -- but also a full on cheer. The cheer on Friday was surpassed only by the cheer the following day from all the 2007 scholars led by Andrew Lee (Scholar 2006) in front of the Foundation's HQ in downtown Tucson.

The end of the tour coincided with the 2007 Udall Scholar Orientation -- the annual gathering of all the recipients of the Morris K. Udall Scholarship. It was an appropriate place to end the tour considering that it was two years ago at this same event that the idea of a big 'ol bus tour was first kicked around.

The energy at Orientation was infectious. It always is. Udallers, as we saw on the tour, and were reminded of again in Tucson -- are incredibly passionate, caring, and engaged. The "small talk" during Orientation is often about organizing a campus, researching a problem, or tackling policy issues head on. I always find it's such a recharge -- which was a great way to end our Tour.

The official finale of the tour included remarks from Carol West (Tucson City Councilor), Ramona Grijalva (who read a message from her husband, Rep. Raul Grijalva), Terry Bracy (Chair of the Foundation), and Anne Udall (Mo's daughter and vice-chair of the Foundation). After Bret, Jen, and I spoke about some of the most memorable moments of the trip we moved into the building where, amidst the mingling, there were photo and video slideshows showing images of the past two months.

Anne Udall speaking at the finale event in Tucson (Photo by Tom Spitz)

The photos and video -- as good as they are -- can't capture the tour fully. This blog can't do it either. Nor do they do a good enough job thanking everyone who made this tour possible: the Udall Foundation Education Team, the many alumni who helped plan stops, and the many friends who opened their doors to a traveling group of public servants. But we hope that all of it - stories, photos, and video -- have been able to convey at least a little bit of those thanks and communicate what the Udall Legacy Bus Tour was.

Thanks for riding with us!

By: Eli Zigas

P.S.
(Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more video posts ...)

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San Francisco and the Bay -- All Linked Together

(Editor’s Note: Charlotte Ely is a 2005 Udall Scholar. She was born and bred in San Francisco, and arranged the Udall Legacy tour stop there. She’s now on the bus.)

The Udallers rolled into San Francisco on a foggy Friday evening, about forty-five minutes later than planned. I was already waiting for them at the Hotel Britton when I got the call: The bus was caught in traffic. Big shocker, right? Driving into downtown San Francisco is risky, especially on a Friday night, especially on the last Friday of the month. For the uninitiated, the last Friday of the month in cities all over the world is Critical Mass, the infamous, amoebic congregation of bicyclists who take over City streets, riding by the dozens—and sometimes even thousands—through thoroughfares and boulevards dominated by vehicles every other day of the month. On Friday July 29th 2007, the Udall bus was held up by at least several hundred bicyclists. It was a fitting greeting for a group of scholars traveling around the country promoting sustainable transportation alternatives. If I could have arranged for 13 bicycles to be donated, all of us Udallers would have been part of that mass: it is, after all, a great way to see the City, and I wanted to give the scholars the greatest introduction to San Francisco I could muster.

Instead, we drank beer, ate pizza, and ‘talked trash’ at Anchor Steam, a San Francisco brewery that diverts about 99.5% of its waste from the landfill. As scholars learned the following day at the San Francisco Department of the Environment, San Francisco has successfully implemented what’s called the Fantastic Three, a three bin waste management system that allows City residents to place all organics (anything that came from something that was once alive: meat, dairy, fruits, veggies, soiled paper, etc.) into a GREEN bin, recyclables into a BLUE bin, and all remaining landfill bound discards into a BLACK bin. This program has enabled the City by the Bay to divert about 69% of our waste as of 2006. We’re working to reach 75% diversion by 2010, and Zero Waste by 2020. Anchor Steam has reached an impressive 99.5% diversion by creative means: spent hops are sold to a local cattle rancher, who mixes the rich protein source into feed.

I’m not sure what percent of my waste I divert from the landfill each year. Normally, I empty my compost pale about once a week, my recycling bin about every other two weeks, and my garbage bin once every four months. Most of what I ‘throw away’ is compostable and—with all our restaurants and day-time dwellers— this is true for the City too: 35% of San Francisco’s waste stream is organic. This fact has the City focusing much of its waste diversion efforts on the GREEN bin. The problem is that the compost facility we send our organics to is overwhelmed. There’s simply not enough space, and expanding an existing composting facility or, worse yet, building an additional facility requires a lofty and arduous permit. This has San Francisco and other cities with similar waste management programs looking at alternatives.

Enter, Stage Right, East Bay Municipal Utilities District, or EBMUD.

EBMUD is a seemingly ordinary wastewater treatment facility: it treats, it flares, it stinks. What makes it unique is that EBMUD has been digesting ‘biosolids’ (a professional term for poop) with organics, yielding much more methane than digesting just biosolids would. Currently, EBMUD is producing about 4.5 MW with this technique, which is enough to power about 4,500 homes. In other words, this wastewater treatment facility is not just managing waste, but generating energy too! Jack Macy, the organics coordinator for the San Francisco Department of the Environment, believes that this could be the future of organics management. Those scholars that weren’t gagging from the stench were impressed. Bret Strogen, in particular, looked as happy as a pig in ____ at EBMUD, where he sported a t-shirt explaining the typical layout of a wastewater treatment facility.

The day ended with a bio-diesel ferry tour of the bay. While I am typically repulsed by the idea of having to go to Fisherman’s Warf (which is a bit like Disney land in the summer, but more crowded and reeking of unsustainably caught seafood), the Red and White Fleet ferry was great. Not only did they kindly donate a ferry ride for our crew, but they also run their ferries on a biodiesel blend just like our bus (usually they use B20, but right now they're temporarily using B5 while testing out new engines.) The ferry went under the Golden Gate Bridge, which, even as an endemic San Franciscan, I had never done before. And, you know, it’s even more breathtaking from the water. Something about floating right where the Pacific greets the Bay…looking around, the other Udallers appeared similarly awed. Martina was especially struck as we passed Alcatraz, where from the boat, we could make out “All Indian’s Welcome” spray-painted in red on the first building hordes of tourists pass as they start walking up to that infamous prison. I was once told that one of the motivations behind securing Alcatraz was ensuring that, when people entered the notoriously beautiful Golden Gate, the first thing they would see was not a prison, but Indian Country, right smack dab in the middle of a glittering blue bay. And the bay was glittering; it was a perfect day for a ferry ride. After rounding Alcatraz, we turned back toward the City. In the distance, we could see Crissy Field, the poster-child of rehabilitated wetlands that lies at the foot of the Presidio National Park, where, the following morning, scholars tore out invasive weeds and put up protective fencing around a sensitive dune community.

If Saturday’s schedule was tight, Sunday’s was wearing a corset taut enough to damage internal organs. After restoring habitat with the National Park Service, we attended a slideshow presentation by Gregg Garr, a San Franciscan to the extreme who has got an amazing collection of old photographs and an unparalled passion for restoring native habitat. His message rang loud and clear: Cars suck and planting natives everywhere is crucial. Perhaps the most shocking part of Greg’s presentation is the point at which he shows one location at two different times: What was once John Mclarren’s nursery, the very one where San Francisco’s premier gardener tended Golden Gate Park’s first plants, is now a parking lot. His slides and his accompanying comments are, however, as inspiring as they are despairing. He concludes with some of the many examples of San Francisco’s habitat rehabilitation successes, including Heron’s Head park, a former dumping ground turned near bird sanctuary in BayView/Hunters Point (BVHP), the neighborhood where the Environmental Justice roundtable was held.

When the slideshow ended, we jumped on the bus and hightailed it for BVHP, where we met with representatives from Green Action, Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, Literacy for Environmental Justice, San Francisco Department of the Environment, CalEPA, and EPA Region 9. What was supposed to be small group discussions about Sustainability and Environmental Justice transformed into an open forum about the history of Environmental Injustice in BVHP, current outrages (including a detailed discussion about the allegedly inept precautions Lennar—a development firm involved with many of the redevelopment projects throughout the City—has taken to protect the surrounding community from the asbestos released into the air when serpentine rock is drilled into) and the role of the above mentioned groups in working toward Environmental Justice in the neighborhood. The conversation got heated a number of times. I know it was frustrating for me to sit there and listen to all these brilliant, good people all working, ultimately, toward the same goal, and yet…so many children in BVHP have asthma, and breast cancer rates are abnormally high; and each victory—like the final shutdown of the antiquated PG&E powerplant—seems to be shadowed by defeat—like the disenfranchisement of the community throughout the Hunters Point Shipyard clean-up and redevelopment process. It’s heart breaking. If any of the scholars left their heart in San Francisco, it would have been in the basement of the Bay View YMCA. The most memorable moment for me was when Marie Harrison, a long time community advocate and the Green Action representative, stood up and thanked us all for coming and then sincerely expressed something to this effect: ‘knowing about the problems the people in my community face makes you morally accountable; this knowledge gives you responsibility.’ I hope all of us live up to her expectation, and that I do especially.

Marie Harrison of Green Action speaking at the EJ Roundtable Discussion in Bay View Hunters Point

After the roundtable, we went to the dinner catered by Back to Earth at the gorgeous Women’s Building in the mission district. The Big Green Bus showed up, as did some local Udall scholars, and other folks involved with environmental and sustainability work from several different organizations throughout the City. We munched and mingled, savoring the great company and food that my stomach is now growling about as I write this, driving through some lightless stretch of highway near the California-Arizona border.

By: Charlotte Ely

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The Natural Step (1,2,3,4; Cast Back (Way Back); Repeat)

If Portland, OR steps to different beat, Sweden steps to a different drum. For example, McDonald’s in Sweden serves organic milk and beef, recycles 97 percent of all restaurant waste, and powers over half of its 160 stores, as well as the national headquarters, with renewable energy. This puts the largest burger giant’s green wrecking ball squarely through the window of most American burger chains, even Portland, Oregon’s local environmental burger chain, Burgerville.

Given the fertile grounds for environmental change, it’s no wonder that Sweden gave rise to what I see as the latest and greatest environmental advancement: recognizing that the environment does not exist in a void (“oh yes, there are societies and economies!”) and using that knowledge to create metrics regarding true sustainability. Not sustainability as you find it described in a car commercial; rather, sustainability you can capture, put in a vial, and show to your freshman science class.

The bus tour crew was back in Science 101 on Tuesday, July 24th, when we received a 2-hour presentation from Duke Castle, one of the founders of the Oregon Natural Step Network, the largest chapter of the Natural Step in the United States. After showing us how all of the environmental, social, and economic problems humans face are interrelated, he hopped into the Natural Step, which I will attempt to re-describe below.

Developed in 1989 by Swedish oncologist Karl-Henrik Robert, the Natural Step is a framework that can help guide our actions. Robert, through a peer-reviewed process, determined four guiding principles, officially known as “system conditions,” that define sustainability in scientific terms:

In a sustainable global society, the ecosphere is not subject to systematically increasing…

1. Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust
Examples: Fossil fuels, metals, and minerals
2. Concentrations of substances produced by society (synthetics)
Examples: Persistent substances (DDT, PCB’s…), plastics, Freon
3. Degradation by physical means
Examples: Over-harvesting (forests, oceans...), eliminating biodiversity
and in that society,
4. People are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their basic needs
Examples: Overpopulation, unlivable wages, environmental and social inequity

We can define a system as sustainable if it does not violate any of the above conditions. Notice that the Natural Step defines sustainability in a negative way – by only describing what should not be done, rather than prescribing a specific solution, the Natural Step allows for innovative solutions. Innovative solutions for, let’s say, pressing environmental and Native American issues (Udall? Anyone?). As long as you do not violate the system conditions, anything is fair game. The Natural Step helps do for sustainability what the green movement has not: create a standard definition for environmental, social, and economic responsibility.

Of course, the Natural Step is not enough on its own. How can an organization, community, or individual using the Natural Step actually start to take action? Mr. Castle then explained the process of backcasting, a common technique, as applied to the Natural Step. This is also a four part process we can call ABCD.

A (Awareness): What do you know about sustainability and why it matters?
B (Baseline Mapping): What does your organization look like today?
C (Clear and Compelling Vision): What does your organization look like in a sustainable society?
D (Down to Action): How will you manage and prioritize steps to sustainability?

By following the backcasting process, an organization will be able to understand sustainability, assess their current level of economic, environmental, and social responsibility, define organizational sustainability, and determine the best course to reach sustainability. It’s important to note that organization’s sustainable does not need to be immediately feasible; it needs to be truly sustainable. As author Jeff Goodell said:

“During the slavery debate there was all this stuff: ‘Oh, you can't abolish slavery, the farms will collapse. What are you going to replace this labor with? We don't have people -- who's going to pick our cotton? Everything's going to fall apart.’ The great thing Lincoln said is, that's not the issue. The issue is, is it right or is it wrong? You make that decision first and then you decide how to do it.”
Just as the American economy survived and thrived after abolition, once sustainability is defined for an organization, that organization can innovate to reach its goals. Most businesses that are implementing the Natural Step are doing so at either negative, zero, or close to zero net cost. Sustainability saves money and in the long run, will save a business or community entirely.

As President Lincoln and Mr. Goodell did, the Natural Step Network believes in the creativity and ingenuity of humanity. There are many ways to build a sustainable society. Having a concrete way of defining what is not a sustainable society is the first step toward achieving sustainability. I am currently working for a sustainability consulting organization in Portland, OR called the Zero Waste Alliance, which uses the Natural Step as part of its framework. If you would like to learn more about the Natural Step and the organizations using it, visit www.ortns.org

By Bob Filbin

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24 Hours to Smell the Roses

If you had 24 hours in the greenest city in America, what would you do? Sleep? I don’t think so. Instead, the inquisitive Udall crew decided to take to the streets of Portland and find out if the purported redolence of the City of Roses smelled true. Here’s an hour by hour itinerary of our time in Portland. Enjoy!

1700: Arrive at Portland State University dorms in downtown Portland. Pass out maps of city.
1705: Maps lost in depths of bags, under beds, in laundromats, or possibly down storm water drains. Udall scholars helpless in big city.
1730: Bob leaves with Savanna and Eli for the Hawthorne District, Portland’s hipster mecca, replete with tight jeans and square reading glasses. As Kayanna is out of town, all people with experience in the city have departed. The rest of the group groans in despair.

1845: Remainder of Udall crew departs for Roots Brewing Company using Bob’s directions, which manage to get them soundly confused. Group spins in circles hoping for guidance.
1930: Group miraculously arrives at Roots Brewery (shortly after Bob finds them wandering on the highway over Hawthorne Bridge),* Portland’s first all organic brewery. We rendezvous with Meg Matthews, Udall Scholar ’03. Group proceeds to drink organic beer infused with lavender, goes on a tour of the brewery, and drinks free organic beer. Yes! It’s local too.
2100: Some continue to drink. Others wander the streets, which happen to be very safe.
2200: Some people are in bed, others probably should be.
0000: Bret Muter and Eli work diligently by quill pen and candlelight, while the rest of the group sleeps, or doesn’t.
0700: Group awakes, then hits the collective alarm, falls back asleep.
0742: Udall scholars emerge from Portland State University dorms like butterflies from a cocoon - very tired, irritable, butterflies. Caffeine is their nectar.
0800: Nectar sighted at People’s Cooperative Grocery in SE Portland. Scholars meet with Fran Warren, mother of rider Kayanna Warren, who provides them with sweet nectar (so good when it hits your lips), local berries, bagels, and bottles of wine (most save this for later).
0845: Emily from People’s gives a brief overview of the community aspects behind running Portland’s only cooperatively-owned and collectively-managed grocery store.

0855: Bob demonstrates the skills he’s learned by volunteering as a bulk stocker at People’s for the past 6 months, such as the art of positioning his mouth beneath the organic chocolate chip funnel.
0900: Duke Castle from the Oregon Natural Step Network presents THE NATURAL STEP (ta da!). People’s socks are blown off. Duke recommends a local, organic sock company for replacements.
1100: Udall crew leaves for downtown Portland and the Pearl District, home of Portland’s fine art and chic shopping, not to mention Powell’s Books, the largest independent book store this side of the Mississippi (Darn you, Delaware!). Udallers, as any environmentally-sensitive intellectual superstars, blow all of their cash on used books.
1130: Bob and Jenny roll toward the Blossoming Lotus, an all-vegan, mostly local and organic restaurant with a specialty selection of raw foods. Oh yes, there’s a yoga studio attached. Ah, Portland.
1300: Some Udallers meet with Savanna’s friend, Amanda Peden, who is currently working in the Ecotrust Building, a LEED Gold building which is home to only environmentally and/or socially responsible organizations. Tenants include HOTLIPS Pizza (local, organic pizza), Patagonia (environmentally-minded outdoor apparel), Ecotrust (non-profit working to rebuilding the economy of the Pacific NW in a sustainable fashion), an environmental investment company, the first environmental bank in the U.S., the Portland Office of Sustainable Development, and Bob’s camping tent (he never leaves).
1400: On the road to Regence Boys and Girls Club, which opened on June 18th. Udallers meet with Dean Simpson, local farmer from Wildcat Mountain Farms.

1530: Udallers and Dean teach 50 youth from Regence and Meyer Memorial Boys and Girls Clubs about local and organic food, how to make sustainable pizza (Yum! Is that pizza that renews itself? Sign me up.), and hand out and discuss how to grow food plant starts (tomatoes, greens) provided by Dean. Specialty pizzas include apple, walnut, and blue cheese as well as corn, salsa, black bean, and tortilla chips.
1630: Kids consume pizza, give us thumbs up, teach me what “phat” means, says it describes the pizza.
1700: Udallers make stellar pizzas of their own, garnished with love (as well as fresh basil, thank goodness – love only gets you so far in the culinary world).
1800: Udallers hit the dusty trail hard - so hard that the dust cloud blocks out all light and sight. Udall bus stops, waits, hits the trail less hard, rides for Grand Ronde.

Author’s Note: The pizza project was amazing. It was our first service project where we were directly teaching people about environmental issues. The fifty participants came away with more than great pizza; when questioned by the Regence Boys and Girls Club Program Director, several responded with clear and concise definitions of sustainability, local, and organic food, as well as why all of those aspects matter. I couldn’t have asked for a tastier treat.

* Bob uses the Hawthorne Bridge in his other life (as a mild-mannered sustainability consultant, rather than a caped crusader of public service) to commute by bike to his workplace in downtown Portland.

By Bob Filbin

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What’s Up Sea-town What’s Up? (artist from Seattle)

Friday, July 20, 2007 (“Seattle or Bust”)

After a meeting on the bus that lasted from Sprague to North Bend, we got out and stopped at the Cedar River Watershed to stretch the legs, smell some fresh just-rained forest air, and learn about the protected source of Seattle’s drinking water. The best parts of the education center, aside from the displays and the LEED building, were definitely the water drum garden and the ripe thimbleberries.

When we arrived in Seattle, we were on our own for dinner. I made sure to grab some pho while I was in town, as well as some bread from Flying Apron, a vegan, wheat-free bakery. Others went to go to the release parties for The Book That Shall Not Be Named (I’m on page 382, by the way – no comments that spoil the ending, please!!).

Saturday, July 21, 2007 (“Bob, Bret S, and Eli’s trio debut”)

We were welcomed officially to the University of Washington early Saturday morning on campus…with style!!

University Housing and Food Services provided us with a breakfast of local and organic fruits, yogurts, juices, pastries, and fair-trade, shade-grown coffee from Tully’s. And you thought Seattle was only Starbucks! Think again. The nectarines and Rainier cherries were in season, they were juicy, and they were delicious. I hear that the leftover fruit not eaten on Monday was given to us as a care package, to boot. (PS…Housing and Food Services also provided breakfast for the riders on Sun and Mon morning, as well as refreshments for our panels on Monday)

UW Provost Phyllis Wise greeted us warmly and enthusiastically, as did other important administration and staff, including:

- Mona Pitre-Collins, UW Scholarship Office
- Anita Bowers, Housing and Food Services
- Barbara Smith, Housing and Food Services
- Clara Simon, UW Capital Projects
- Stevan Harrell, Department of Anthropology
- David Fluharty, School of Marine Affairs
- John Sahr, representative of Asst Dean Taylor's office

Following this warm welcome, we proceeded to a volunteer event with Earthcorps, a Seattle organization that combines local restoration with global leadership. We worked on maintaining a site which had been restored to native vegetation – good for urban wildlife, slope stabilization, the future of trees in Seattle - at Me-Kwa-Mooks Park in West Seattle. We worked alongside Earthcorps members from all over the US (and all over the world), and also over 20 community members, who came to pitch in for 4 hours of ivy-thrashing, bucket-slinging fun. We had a great view of the Puget Sound.

In the afternoon, I brought Bret M. and Savanna to the Burke Museum, where I worked for 5 months. Professor Stevan Harrell, my old advisor for my studies in China who was also a curator of the museum, met us there and gave us an introduction to the In the Spirit of the Ancestors exhibit, which features Northwest Coast Contemporary Native Art. We also found their special exhibit Yellowstone to Yukon, with wildlife photos from the Rockies, captivating as well.

In the evening, we all went down to Agua Verde, a UW-area staple, for an alumni meetup, but not before we had some afternoon entertainment!
**….maybe that should remain on our private blog. Sapna got a good bachelorette send off, so apologies to the future side job aspirations of Bob, Bret S, and Eli, but I think what happens in McMahon Hall stays in McMahon Hall.**

At Agua Verde, we heard about the sustainability pursuits of the restaurant from Owner Bill, got to sit on the deck, and met up with Jocelyn Lin (’01 Scholar), and Courtney Carothers, (Udall Fellow ’07).

For some awesome news coverage of our events in Seattle, orchestrated largely by my friend Meghan Peters, see below:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/325057_udallbus26.html
and
http://thedaily.washington.edu/article/2007/7/25/udallBusTourPromotesGreenLiving

By: Kayanna Warren

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Art from Hooves, Wheels, and Rails

(Click on any piece to see a larger photo)

Le Tour - Noel Nemcik


Bike Chime, Geoffrey Berlin



80126 - Geoffrey Berlin


Lake Tahoe Before the Fire - Fern Spangler


Spirit of the City - John Barbour


Urban Rhythm - Crystal Olin


(Untitled) - Amy Snell


Walking Stick - Alvah Whitledge



Velo - Alex Juhalo


Moon Prints - Austin Metzger


Bicycle - Adam Hecht


Sprouting Denver - Mason Thrall


Untitled - Meagan Svendsen

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Hooves, Wheels and Rails - Sustainable Transit Art Show a Mile High

Returning to my home was humbling and inspirational. I seem to forget how beautiful Colorado and its people are until I fly away and back again. But let me tell you, being a mile high is hard to top.

After a Thursday spent with old friends and my dear family, I joined the Legacy Crew for a loaded Friday.

Boulder Deputy Mayor Suzy Ageton speaks to the crew at CU

We began early in the morning, taking in spray from the Dalton Trumbo Fountain north of the University of Colorado's (CU) Memorial Center. While water misted our necks, the elegant Suzy Ageton, Deputy Mayor of Boulder, approached. She met us with a smile and immediately began speaking of all that Boulder is doing to be green. The efforts are amazing, really. I can't say enough. For example, Boulder adopted the goals of the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2012, has initiated a Green Points Building program, and has begun planning for a new Transit Village Area that will connect RTD's FasTracks Plan to the city of Boulder. Of course, there are always compromises that must be made (i.e. the University of Colorado recently began using coal as its primary energy source) and battles that must be won (i.e. Boulder's ongoing housing crisis). Greening Boulder, as with all things, takes time. You can check out many of Boulder's initiatives here.

A few minutes later, we were in the offices of CU's Environmental Center, the largest student run environmental center in the United States. Marianne Martin, the Center's Associate Director, spoke with us about what they have done, are doing, and plan to do: very much. She then took us on a campus tour, pointing out new LEED certified buildings (such as CU's ATLAS Building and Wolf Law Building), a prevalence of on-campus recycling bins, CU's Bicycle Program, and CU's Recycling Center. The Environmental Center is large and in charge, helping CU to be one of the most environmentally conscious and active universities in the country. You can read more about CU's Environmental Center here.

CU Bike Station

After Boulder and a subsequent informative visit to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, we made our way to Union Station, located on Wynkoop Street in the heart of lower downtown Denver. Within two hours, we had transformed the station into an art gallery. At 3:00 p.m., it was time for "Hooves, Wheels, & Rails: Sustainable Transit in Colorado." An Artistic Exhibition! Originally, I had envisioned the exhibition as a way to bring communities together, celebrate and promote sustainability and livability in Colorado, and provoke thought about the importance of transportation options. More specifically, I wanted to call attention to RTD's incredible FasTracks Plan, the revitalization of Union Station, and the galliant efforts of local organizations such as Transit Alliance and ColoRail. We accomplished just that. Numerous local artists displayed their artwork in the main hall of Union Station. We saw a diverse palette, anywhere from a photo print or painting to a hand-made bicycle. To one side was projected a Google Earth animation of Denver's new development and RTD's FasTracks Plan. Toward the end of the event, Kathleen Osher, Executive Director of Transit Alliance, and Jon Esty, President of ColoRail, spoke briefly about their organizations. Together, the pieces and community gathering embodied Colorado's young enthusiasm for sustainable transit.

During the exhibition, we also held a silent auction, inviting the public to browse and bid at will. Proceeds benefitted the Transit Alliance, a local non-profit organization who "gathers a diverse group of businesses, governments, civic and environmental organizations to preserve the economic vitality, quality of life and environment of the Denver Metropolitan region by promoting public transit as part of a balanced, multi-modal transportation network". At the end of the day, we raised $485 for Transit Alliance, money that will be used specifically for their Citizens' Academy, an educational session about Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the Denver Metro area to be held this fall 2007.

Last but not least, we were astounded to see an unexpected, but much-hoped-for guest. Our very own Melissa Millage, Program Manager for the Udall Foundation, flew into Denver that morning, surprising us in Union Station as we were setting up for the exhibition. Her presence topped off the day, and we looked forward to the upcoming weekend with our new stow-away.

What a day! Our Rocky Mountain high lasted into the evening as we gathered with local alums Genevieve Maricle (Scholar '01) and Darren Legge (Scholar '06) and artists from the exhibition across the street at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, Denver's first brewpub. Cheers to Colorado!

By: Crystal Olin

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Visit to the 17th St. pump station construction site

(Editor's Note: Please jump back a bit in time with us to New Orleans...)

On the way down to New Orleans, I had told the other bus riders about the cleanup work I had done with my company (Weston Solutions) after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and showed them the pictures I had taken of the city and Plaquemines Parish. Because Weston is now the General Contractor for installing two enormous pump stations to protect New Orleans from flooding (where the levies broke), I was excited to schedule a visit for the riders to see the site and meet a few of my coworkers.

On the morning of July 4th, six riders and our faculty representative from the University of New Orleans, Juana Ibanez, visited Weston’s work trailer at the 17th St. canal’s pump station. After being given a thorough safety orientation to the site and getting suited up in the proper safety apparel, Lee Duncan explained the background behind the levy breach and flood control measures while we were waiting out the rainstorm in the trailer.

Once the rain subsided, we walked over to see where the levy gave out (where the helicopters were dropping sandbags for immediate protection after the hurricane), and then took a look at the largest pumping station most of us will probably ever see – 7300 cubic feet of water per second, shooting into the Lake through pipes that are nine feet in diameter! What was hardest to believe is the cost and difficulty of putting in these structures on top of pretty weak soil; they had to erect a multi-million dollar temporary crane pad just to support a crane to be used for moving the equipment into place, and the pilings to support the station needed to go a little over one hundred feet down into the soil, since bedrock can not be reached.

After the tour, several of the riders drove through the areas of New Orleans that were hit hard by the storm. This pump station that we saw is just one of the many incredible costs associated with rebuilding New Orleans and protecting it from future storms. However, even with all these new measures, no one can pretend that the city is immune to hurricanes. For that reason, everyone (engineers, hippies, etc.) seems to have an opinion about whether New Orleans “should” be rebuilt, though I don’t think anyone has the right to make this judgment call. Every country, city, neighborhood, and home is built with varying degrees of risk, and almost everything constructed by man has costs associated with risk management and emergency planning. Obviously New Orleans was lacking adequate storm protection and emergency preparation, and is built in a high risk location, but I believe that anyone who wants to live there should be allowed to live there . . . it’s just important for individuals and organizations (ex. government and insurance companies) to recognize and take responsibility for the costs associated with their decisions, instead of expecting to pass costs on to others that had no interest in encouraging risk-taking in the first place.

By: Bret Strogen

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Life Still Ain't Easy in "The Big Easy"

Over the last month the Udall Legacy Crew has had the opportunity to meet with a lot of really amazing people. While conversing with these individuals at special events, project sites and during meals, we often find ourselves being asked which stop we’ve enjoyed the most. Obviously, this answer will be different for each of the riders; but I personally have a really, really hard time answering.

Each stop has truly been incredible. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned about environmental and Native American issues in the last month. Even more importantly, it’s been really great meeting with individuals, organizations and communities who are finding ways to address and solve these important issues. There really is a lot of good happening out there!

However, what I can tell you is that our recent visit to New Orleans was one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.

It seems hard to believe that it has been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina wrecked havoc on the Gulf Coast. I was a senior at Ferris at the time and can easily recall seeing the devastation on the news. Yes, it was disturbing and I immediately wanted to help – I had volunteered with several Hurricane Relief efforts at my university and even chaired one fundraiser with a couple friends - but I never actually got down to NOLA to pitch in, and that was something I regretted.

When we arrived at our hotel in the downtown-area the first evening, a few of us took a walk around the French Quarter and down Bourbon Street, where I foolishly asked myself, “Where’s all of the damage from the Hurricane I had seen on the news?” It seemed to me the city had fully recovered.

The next day, however, when I had a chance to leave the tourist-heavy areas of New Orleans, I realized how ignorant I had been.

A few days before, Juana Ibanez, our faculty representative from the University of New Orleans, had contacted me and said she’d like to give some of the riders a tour of the city. I gladly took her up on the offer, as I thought this would be a good opportunity to see other areas of the city that we were unable to walk to from our hotel.

On July 4, Juana picked Jessica, Sapna, Jen Baldwin and I up at our hotel and drove us all around the city, showing us the city’s public housing projects, Lake Pontchartrain, some of the areas where the levies had breached, the Ninth Ward and even her own neighborhood near Gentilly Ridge.

Juana’s home had been destroyed by the flood waters, and she had just finished clearing it out with her husband. We walked through their empty home, and then through her neighbor’s home, which hadn’t been touched since the flood waters receded almost two years ago. We walked through, stepping over ruined carpet and clothing, warped floorboards, soda cans, and broken and scattered toys and household items. A doll house, clothes and other items were stuck up in the home’s support beams, carried up to the ceiling by the ten feet of water that once flooded their home.

No one had begun to clean it up. It had been abandoned.

I spent most of the tour in silence with my mouth hanging wide-open. Feelings of guilt ran through me, as I kept thinking of ways I could have done more, and how I should have spent the spring break of my senior year in New Orleans trying to help instead of having an unproductive week in Myrtle Beach. I kept asking myself how I could have been so selfish…


But, what was even more moving was listening to Juana talk about how the Hurricane impacted her, her family and her community, and how they plan to rebuild.

She told us about how uplifting it was to see so many people from across the country reaching out to the residents of New Orleans and the surrounding communities – in a variety of ways – from donating money and goods to actually volunteering to gut homes and help rebuild. All of this assistance helped, a lot.

Now, it also seems that those residents who decided to come back to New Orleans are also playing a big role in the rebuilding. Neighbors are helping each other out. The city has also seen a flock of new residents since the Hurricanes, many who have decided to make a permanent move to help in the city’s rebuilding efforts.

It’s clear that change is happening within the city, especially on the grassroots level.

During our short visit, we had the opportunity to work with several great organizations like the Alliance for Affordable Energy (which we worked with on July 3 to celebrate energy independence by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in homes and educating the public about how to make their homes more energy efficient) who are playing a big part in rebuilding and revitalizing the community.

On Thursday, we volunteered with another great grassroots effort - Replant New Orleans - a local nonprofit dedicated to restoring NOLA's urban vegetation.

Their mission is simple - "to provide trees and shrubs, healthy soil, and education outreach services to the residents of New Orleans at no cost" - but without a doubt, is successfully helping to remediate one of the largest and most complex environmental effects of Katrina.

Theo Eliezer of Replant New Orleans with a compost pile

We met with the organization's ultimate duo, Hillary Strobel and Theo Eliezer, who serve as co-executive directors of the group. They talked to us about how the city’s soil had been contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins by the floods. In fact, in most cases, the soil can not be used by residents who want to have gardens and grow their own produce, because it is unsafe. However, Replant New Orleans is also using the process of bioremediation (applying compost and compost teas), to restore the health of the soil.

So, the Legacy Crew spent the morning and early afternoon helping them begin the construction of a composting cooperative in the Marigny Neighborhood. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by a thunderstorm early that afternoon, so we had to cut our time with them a little short; however, we helped give them a great start to this new cooperative.

Hillary and Theo, with the help of a lot of great Replant New Orleans volunteers (many of whom are residents of the city), will continue their efforts to remediate the local environment and help rebuild their communities - another great example of how even a small grassroots effort, can have a big impact.

Yes, the City of New Orleans has a long way to go before it is completely rebuilt. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, or even over the next couple years. And yes, NOLA could still use your help – and I encourage anyone who can, to do so. But I’m confident that these strong communities will continue to build relationships and work with each other to rebuild their city, and that New Orleans will come out stronger than ever.

By: Bret Muter

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Reflection on New Orleans

I've been on the road for nearly four weeks and we've already covered so much ground. Traveling the country at this whirlwind pace is both incredible and disorienting, simultaneously fast and slow. I'm now in Oklahoma, a week ago I was in Tennessee and the week before that in Pennsylvania (you can check out our route here). I'm happy to report that I have been amazed by the diversity of our country and reinvigorated by what I have seen.

The purpose of this post, however, is to share my experience from New Orleans. I will preface this by saying that what I write is based on my three days in the city, talking to people and trying to see as much as possible. I certainly don't have the hard facts or the complete picture of everything going on there (who does?), but I feel compelled to share what I did learn.

Compared to our other stops on the trip so far, New Orleans was so real and raw. Almost two years after Katrina, the situation is still quite grim in many ways, but there is also an atmosphere of optimism amongst the people I met that they are reclaiming their city. I was really moved by the importance of the work that still needs to be done there.

I had the 4th of July free, so my friend Carolyn and her boyfriend Bryant took us on a tour of the city. Most visitors to New Orleans hang out in the French Quarter, which is the area of the city that took in the least amount of damage from the storm. That part of town has been mostly restored and it is again a vibrant place. Drive away from the French Quarter, however, and the picture is quite different.


Our first stop was in the ninth ward, which is right next to where one of the levies breached. I have chills as I write this, because the communities that were there are still almost entirely gone. There are huge chunks of land where all you can see is remnants of foundations, sidewalks, and driveways. There are stairways that lead to no where. Grassy undergrowth is quickly overtaking former homes. The roadways are still a disaster, and nearly impossible to drive on.

We met a woman on Tuesday who was the third person on her block to move back to her lower ninth ward neighborhood. Her family and friends, her neighbors, for decades (and populations whose history in the city goes back over centuries) have not returned. The social geography of these neighborhoods has been ripped apart. There is a shortage of jobs and money. Some have no deeds to their land and thus can't prove their ownership. Others are still paying a mortgage on a house that is destroyed. And still others rented and can't find housing or afford the new rates, which have doubled and tripled since the storm. Residents want to return, but they can't.

There was over 15 feet of standing water in parts of the city, not to mention the damage from the winds and force of water rushing from breaking levies. It is rather misleading, you can drive on the main roads of town and things look okay, but turn down a side road and you'll see the real aftermath and struggle to recover. Most neighborhoods weren't entirely obliterated like the ninth ward, but many are a patchwork of recovered homes and those that have been abandoned. You can see a beautifully restored home standing right next to one that has yet to be gutted. Most buildings still bear a large red spray painted X that tells the date from almost two years ago when a search team checked the house for survivors, and how many they found. The X's are hard to remove unless you have funding to repaint your entire house so many people have left them. The most creative solution I saw was to paint a giant heart over it.

Toxins run rampant in the city, largely from the flooding. Heavy industry, but also paint cans, cars, and other household items have contaminated the soil and water. It is probably not safe to eat anything that has grown in soil in New Orleans that has not been remediated, and most locals that I met do not recommend drinking the water. Right outside of New Orleans, the Murphy Oil Spill released over one million gallons of crude oil in to St. Bernard Parish, just one example of environmental disasters that came with the storm.

Crime is also a problem. The murder rate is still the same in the city as it was before the hurricane, though the population has been cut in half (from roughly half a million to a quarter million). There are no solid boundary lines for "good" and "bad" parts of town. With people not living in some parts of New Orleans, the sense of safety you can get from neighbors and other people being on the street is not there.

I realize that I have just painted a very negative picture of what is happening in New Orleans. There are so many issues to face. And yet, I also was more inspired and moved by this city than any other I have been to. Whether or not to rebuild New Orleans is not a question one would ask if they are from the city. New Orleans is so rich culturally and historically, and most importantly, it is home to so many people. It is where they have lived their whole lives, where their parents have lived, and their parents, and so on. There are people who have never left the city, it is all they need and the only place they want to be. In geography we often talk about the "power of place," and that concept truly applies here.

I have little knowledge of rebuilding policies or different schools of thought on how to protect the city from the next hurricane. People I met acknowledge that a storm will come again and the city still has much to do in order to be prepared. If you point out to someone that it seems crazy to live in a hurricane zone, they quip back that it is just as crazy for LA and San Francisco to be built on earthquake fault lines. No place is entirely safe from natural disasters, and the people who make their home in New Orleans certainly weren't the ones who decided where to build the city.

So what is there to do for New Orleans? Short of moving to the city to help with the relief efforts (which many people have done), I was told to share with as many people as I could what I saw. To let people know that New Orleans is still on the map, that it has not yet recovered, and that it needs help. There are so many issues that take up our consciousness as a country each day, each one equally pressing and valid, but let us not forget New Orleans.

By: Julie Curti

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Celebrating Energy Independence in New Orleans

In the spirit of our patriotic summer holiday, the Alliance for Affordable Energy welcomed the Udall Legacy Bus Tour to New Orleans with a day full of public workshops and outreach to celebrate “Energy Independence Day” in America. The Alliance made good use of all 13 Udall volunteers: a few promoted the afternoon’s events in front of Whole Foods, others joined Andi Hoffman’s Greenlight New Orleans volunteering with his light bulb exchange program (to reduce the energy usage of many residents), some helped distribute recycled paint to residents moving back into their homes (quasi-energy related, right?), and everyone helped set up tables, chairs, signs and displays for the evening workshops.

Forest Bradley-Wright (Sustainable Rebuild Coordinator for the Alliance), kicked off the evening at 4:30pm with an update on new energy policies that apply to residents prior to leading a workshop on improving home energy efficiency. At the same time, many folks attended a biodiesel workshop headed by Topher Mira and Eileen Beall of the New Orleans Biodiesel Initiative. Towards the end of the evening, the Udall bus riders introduced themselves, and then Austin Travis of Whole Foods outlined the company’s greening initiatives as people snacked on the food they generously donated. The evening came to a close with a workshop overviewing solar technologies as a few of the Udallers helped cleanup. Overall, everyone felt like we accomplished a lot throughout the day, and that we helped out the community, learned a lot about technologies, policies, and successful (last-minute) event planning.

After working hard all day, we said goodbye to Forest and enjoyed a piece of delicious chocolate birthday cake (that the crew surprised me with), prior to going out to celebrate energy independence in true New Orleans style!

By: Bret Strogen

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Tasting biodiesel, burning country music, and listening to wine in Nashville

Sunday morning – Wake up! We’re going to learn about biodiesel! 8am on a Sunday morning, and the Udall crew was off to meet with about a dozen Nashville residents and Vanderbilt students to see the site for the soon-to-be biodiesel pilot plant on campus. Derek Riley, a PhD candidate in Computer Science Modeling at Vanderbilt explained to the audience how the WilSkills club began this initiative to produce biodiesel to use for their outings (with the help of '06 Udall Scholar Jenny Magill). What started as a small student hobby will soon be a small operating facility adjacent to the university’s coal-fired power plant. The main lessons we took away from this visit were that potassium hydroxide is preferred over sodium hydroxide (lye), though more expensive, because it clumps up less often, methanol is preferred over ethanol because the process is more forgiving, and cool things happen when students don’t wait for others to support their projects, but rather go ahead and try it first. The discussion was followed by a tour of Vanderbilt’s new LEED certified Commons building, which is almost completely constructed and will be a multi-purpose building for students.

For most of us, the afternoon was spent moseying around Nashville with Derek listening to live country music at Roberts Western World and the Bluegrass Inn (where there is no cover, and beer is cheaper than soda). Lunch was enjoyed on cigarette-burned lawn furniture on a fake grass turf porch at Paradise Park.

At 4pm, we meandered over to the office of Hastings Architecture, which is the only LEED-certified building in Nashville. Here we were greeted by David Bailey and Erik Lund of Hastings and my good family friends, the Saucy Sisters (Barbara and Beverly). After sampling one or two glasses of Foris wine (grown organically in Oregon), donated by Vicki Turner at VPT Ventures, we all mingled and went on a tour of Hasting’s impressive green building, which was constructed inside the skeleton of an old warehouse. Hastings has been a part of the green building movement since the early days, and continues to inspire visitors to their building.

As a perfect end to our day in Nashville, we headed over to Barbara’s house, for the most delicious home-cooked meal of the trip . . . and more wine, of course. If anyone could show this group how to have fun together, it was these two sisters. Great food, good friends, good wine, and a beautiful evening to eat out on the patio really helped the Udallers unwind and enjoy each others company . . . so much so, that we held our first spontaneous dance party on the bus as we got ready to leave the neighborhood. Thank you Saucy Sisters!!

By: Bret Strogen

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Hastings Architecture – Nashville, TN

For a brief time in my life – ages twelve through fourteen – I entertained the notion of becoming an architect. When, however, I realized in a ninth grade art class that architecture was more than pretty drawings and meticulous models – that architects actually spent a lot of time doing technical calculations, spent a lot of time working on computers – I abandoned the notion entirely. But, a brief tour of the Hastings Architecture Associates’ building in downtown Nashville re-ignited my interest in the field. My passion for math has not increased in the last nine years, neither has my tolerance for computers. It was simply the thought of being able to work in such a space that got me thinking of my long retired dream of becoming an architect.

David Bailey and Erik Lund, both partners at Hastings, took us on a tour of their building, the first LEED certified in the state (it is still the only LEED building in Nashville). We have toured many LEED buildings thus far on the trip, but none were so appealing to me as 127 Third Avenue South, because none of the others was a renovation of a beautiful original structure. The architecture firm, in selecting the more than 100-year-old former furniture store, chose to save as much of the original building as possible both because the structure was beautiful, and because by saving it the firm significantly cut the amount of new material needed for construction. As a result of this environmental and historical conservation decision, the building retained polished wood floors, bare brick walls, and raw wood columns and ceiling beams.

The most important addition made during the renovation was a series of large windows set into the south face of the building that allow for passive solar and, unlike most modern offices’ windows, open to bring fresh air into the work space. The work space itself was beautifully designed. Rather than following the traditional layout pattern of partners’ offices set beside the windows with cubicles on the interior – blocked from sunlight and air – the partners’ offices at Hastings were po