Posts from — March 2008

Most Washingtonians already know that this week is peak bloom for our famous cherry trees. Even if you haven’t seen the flowering trees, you can tell by the hordes of tourists that have descended upon the city. If (like me) you don’t enjoy fighting the crowds down at the Tidal Basin, there are quite beautiful cherry blossom displays scattered throughout the city. The Washington Gardner Magazing blog has a list here that includes Dumbarton Oaks and the National Arboretum. There are also some pretty impressive displays in some of the city’s smaller parks like the view from my office window in Stanton Park (4th and Mass Ave NE) , and the park/walkway from Union Station to the Capitol Building. My favorite way to see peak bloom  is heading to the Tidal Basin after dark. The tourists have departed, and the lighting gives the cherry blossoms a beautiful pink glow.

Time is short. Peak bloom ends Thursday, although there are always a few late bloomers like the new cherry trees at Nationals Park that failed to bloom by opening day.

On my family tree and the one out the window…

Growing on the sunny side of the window closest to my current desk is a beautiful Witchhazel. While I don’t know the story of Arnold’s promise, the name of this particular cultivar, I do know a thing about witches. It turns out that my sister is a witch… or shall I say that both my sister and I are descendants of a witch. We happen to be relatives of Susannah Martin, one of 19 witches hanged in Salem in 1692.

While this relation bestows many powers upon me (spells, potion mixing, broomcraft travel, etc.) it unfortunately does not provide for a fuller understanding of Hamamelis x intermedia, common name Witchhazel. If one traces the etymology of this common name it shakes out that the witch in Witchhazel is derived from the Old English word ”wice” and the Middle English ”wyche”, both of which mean pliant. Susan Post at the INHS Center for Economic Entomology explains;

The tree has also been called water-witch. The word witch comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “to bend.” The forked springy branches of witch hazel were used by early settlers, and later dowsers, as divining rods to search and detect underground water and minerals.

As someone more attune with magical mixes I find the plants homepathic uses as an astringent and lotion more valuable. Scroll down Steven Foster’s overview of Witchhazel for a tested preparation of bark and leaves and some excellent background information on this fine plant.

Looking back to the family tree, the genealogical rhizomes of the Moody’s (including Susannah Martin) have been studied and documented by my Grandmother, Dorothy Moody, and it is a gift from her that I turn to as a conclusion. She recently gave me her copy of Trees, Stars and Birds, a book of Outdoor Science, published in 1919 by Edwin Lincoln Moseley. Upon receiving it I learned that it was one of her favorite books as a child and that she often studied it in her youth. Trees, stars and birds linked in words and drawings… The mixture is very inspiring to me and I can’t help but set a sylvan scene of Witchhazel potions, sun yellow flowers and flying witches when I peek beyond the panes from the drawing on my desk.

I have been hearing a lot about “green-collar” jobs lately and I wasn’t sure what to make of all the fuss. But last week at an historic conference on green jobs in Pittsburgh, I realized that unlike other of-the-moment green trends, the “green-collar” jobs movement has deep roots and the great potential to unite the environmental, labor, and social and economic justice movements. The conference was more than just the latest meeting of high-minded progressive intellectuals although there were plenty of those armed with power-point presentation. In a city which is being reborn thanks to urban and environmental renewal rank and file union members rubbed elbows with anti-poverty organizers and environmental activists. Even more astounding was that the issue that brought these unlikely allies together is global warming.

As a sometimes cynical Washington lobbyist it takes a lot to inspire me these days, but that is exactly how I felt driving away from Pittsburgh past the recovered brownfields and towards wind turbines that are sprouting up all over Pennsylvania. The overarching message of the conference was that global warming is not only the biggest environmental challenge humanity has ever faced, but it also could be one of the greatest economic opportunities our nation has ever seen. Imagine this: we need to rebuild our energy system in order to stop global warming. Building wind farms, installing solar panels, retro-fitting buildings to make them more energy independent and manufacturing all the parts, products, vehicles, and train cars that will make it possible will create hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of jobs. Now imagine that all of those jobs were union jobs that provided good benefits and a living wage to impoverished people. Suddenly global warming could provide “green pathways out of poverty” in the words environmental justice rock star Van Jones.

At the conference the Apollo Alliance - a coalition organization of labor, environmental, and social justice groups - released a report that highlights many of the green job success stories already happening across the country including right here in DC. Mayor Adrian Fenty has created a “Green Jobs Advisory Council” uniting several city departments. Their goal is to meet the District’s environmental policy goals on green buildings, energy efficiency and water quality by building a skilled “green-collar” workforce of DC residents. Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Millwaukee, Minneapolis and other cities across the country are pursuing similar policies.

So maybe the oil companies, Big Coal, and global warming deniers are right that saving our planet will be the end of our economy as we know it. But that doesn’t worry me if we replace it with a more just, sustainable, and equitable system that revitalizes our cities and brings economic opportunity to millions.

Octopi and radii, but unfortunately no Croci. There are over eighty species of Crocuses. Photographed species unknown, we march towards Spring nonetheless. The most impressive Crocus scene I have collected was at Dumbarton Oaks last year. I encourage any and all to seek it sooner than Summer. The combination I have spotted most often around Capitol Hill has been purple and yellow. Itten would call it complementary contrast and suggest 3 purples for every yellow, and me,

I suppose I would try to design a red one and fill half my yard.

One to one red to green just like the Bauhaus tells me. My perennial text is at the office otherwise I might threaten to name these devils. Any botanists out there? Crocus lovers, what say you; what flavor have we found? And so I go on wondering about the radio at night, if birds see in color and why they (the birds not the flowers) are so noisy at sunset. The Crocuses are smart and I wonder how consistent they are. How close are they to sprouting at the same time every year? Chasing seasons just like the birds… and me. Eleven days, each one longer than the last.

In the second act of the most recent NPR release of This American Life, the narrator gives a brief background and interviews residents about the influx of “young white professionals” into the Northeast DC neighborhoods. At the center of the discussion is the planned closing of 23 DC public schools, one of which seems to be doing quite well, and the speculation that these closings are fueled by rising land value, the potential for condo development and the influx of a new demographic.

Heres the brief from www.thislife.org…

Act Two. The Plan.

American cities have gone through a massive wave of gentrification in the last few decades. To some people, it’s not a natural ebb and flow of the real estate market, but a plot, by rich, mainly white people, to take over the neighborhoods of poor, mainly black people. This American Life producer Jon Jeter reports on how, in neighborhoods all over the country, the plot has a name, “The Plan,” and most people you talk to know about it. (11 minutes)

Listen here

As noted in the program, white couples walking their dogs seems to be the universal sign of gentrification. I don’t have a dog, but the day might not be far off (dogs are among many things I like on the hilarious list of other stuff white people like). As a new resident to Capitol Hill East I realize that I am part of an increasing minority of white people in a historically black neighborhood… and that I have no idea what it is like to watch a neighborhood I have lived in for twenty years change so quickly. I see a renovated school building turned into a gym or condos and think, wow, what an excellent adaptive re-use, how lovely that some caring developer could secure that building, decide to not tear it down and instead renovate it. How nice that an architect had the decency to respect the craft of the original building and save as much as possible…

like most things, the longer view is a bit more complex.

I moved to Capitol Hill because it is a beautiful neighborhood close to where I work. The neighbors I have met are great. But I understand my naivete. My comprehension of the culture of the neighborhood is extremely limited. Nonetheless, I can see when the puzzle piece doesn’t fit. I see the elemenary school closest to me falling into disrepair. I see open windows in middle of winter. I see new condo buildings loom over single family homes and I watch four story shadows smother first floor neighborhood porches.

I heard the story on NPR and couldn’t help but wonder; was that school really neglected on purpose so that it would run down and ultimately be able to be “saved” and converted to million dollar condos? I don’t have the answer, but I am starting to see the perspective.

This situation is happening across the country in many neighborhoods, has happened in the past and will continue to happen in cycles. What is making it interesting is the complication of a failing economy. All of those condo buildings that have been built are not selling. Those that are being built will not sell. This is the reality of the current market. Many have reverted to rental properties and others sit abandoned as miscalculations in the geography of risk. This geography of risk is resulting in holes in the fabric. While there are lots of white people with dogs, I don’t know if there are enough to fill all the holes… and of course I suspect most are better at talking to their dogs than they are about talking to their neighbors.

In the New York Times today there is a great Op-Ed from a fruit and vegetable farmer in Minnesota on just how out of touch our national agriculture policy is. According to the farmer, Jack Hadin, anyone who grows one of the big four commodity crops (soybeans, corn, wheat, and rice) has to forfeit federal farm subisidies for those crops if they grow so much as an acre of fruits or other vegetables on their land. What?! That is ridiculous. As a result regional fruit and vegetable growers like our favorite vendors at farmers markets here in the district are struggling to keep up with exploding demand for local produce and are often unable to even rent additional acreage from behemoth corn and wheat farms.

I have known for a long time that the agriculture policy in the U.S was screwed up. It is a system that favors big agri-business and large growers of a few crops over smaller, more diverse growers. That is why it is cheaper and easier to buy a tomato from California here in DC than one grown in nearby Prince Georges County, Maryland. Its politics pure and simple. For the past year the reauthorization of the Farm Bill (the behemoth piece of legislation that sets up federal subsidies, crop insurance and nutrition programs and other projects) has been tied up in battles over how to pay for the billions of dollars in subsidies, who should get them, and how much. Defeated early on were proposals to make the federal farm programs better for fruit and vegetable growers. The Farm Bill still hasn’t been reauthorized as the President is threatening to veto it. Perhaps if this latest effort fails, the next President can spearhead an effort to make the Farm Bill help farmers like Jack Hadin instead of Archer-Daniels Midland and Cargill. Just a thought…

[slideshow=1]

…

According to the Casey Trees Tree Map the Red Maple outside my window is worth about 4 and 1/2 grand. And boy is it lookin good with its tail-light red flower fireworks show. I forget how brilliant the Red Maple can be in both leaf and flower. I don’t see Acer rubrum used too much as a street tree anymore, but most of the maples on our street seem to be doing ok. I love the fact that Casey Trees has mapped the trees of the District and stamped a dollar amount on each one. I don’t really have the slightest idea how many leaves their will be on this particular specimen but something tells me it might be around 5,000. A buck a leaf… sounds fair to me. Whats your view worth?

(below is the rest of the information on this pollution eating, oxygen spewing beauty)

Height: 40 feet
Diameter at Breast Height: 16 inches
Crown Radius: 15 feet
Leaf Area: 392.01 m
Leaf Biomass: 26.40 kg
Leaf Area Index: 5.97