Unfortunately not everyone lives in a metro happy city like DC or can sell their car and buy a bike like me. So what are we to do as we near $4 a gallon? Tom Friedman’s excellent column in today’s NY Times gets it right – if we are going to help people survive in world of higher gas prices, we have got to start investing in alternatives.

“But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.”

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.

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.

What’s an amateur, fresh veggie loving cook to do? Recently, I have been hearing a lot about Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA.  According to Local Harvest many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, coffee, or any sort of different farm products.

In college in Philadelphia I got interested in the local food movement and volunteered at a community run garden. In the largely low-income neighborhood of West Philly, the garden was one of the few places where local families could get fresh foods.  Also in Philly is perhaps the finest food market in the country – Reading Terminal – where farmers and craftsman from all over southeast Pennslyvania sell everything from grass-fed beef to local apples and giant baked pretzels. Local food is not only tastier and fresher than the imported produce in the grocery store, it also better for the environment. Less shipping means less air and global warming pollution. Small, community supported farms often use less fertilizer, pesticides and other harmful chemicals that seep into our water supply.

Joining a CSA seems like a great way to reconnect with the local food movement, especially as Ryan and I experiment with a vegetable garden of our own. In case the local critters get a hold of our broccoli crop, we can always count on a weekly delivery of veggies from as nearby as Prince Georges County. Joining a CSA can be costly upfront. Most CSA farms ask for payment for the season which is usally late spring through early fall and cost around $600-800. You can cut the cost by sharing. A typical weekly delivery is ideal for a family of 4, so you can go in with your housemates or another couple in your neighborhood. Check out this directory for a CSA that delivers to your neighborhood.

I am already looking forward to thinking up new seasonal recipes and getting to know a local farm. 

“Some people think change is just going to come knock on the door. Change doesn’t work like that. Change is like a mushroom that starts underground and in the right conditions will spread out of control from one place to another.”

Obama, he said, was the mushroom, and that the conditions were right. While I haven’t decided which of the two remaining Democratic candidates to throw my support behind in next week’s primary, I can only hope that my sage cab driver was correct that change was in the ground. If I do choose to vote for Obama, he will have my cab driver to thank for it.

1. FDR Memorial. By far my favorite monument on the mall. The waterfalls and subtle power of the quotations and statues decorating the red granite “rooms” are simply beautiful. I have found the monument is best at night when the lights make the water even more peaceful and it is blissfully free of tourists. After dark is also the best time to enjoy the cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin without the crowds.

Photo Credit: G. Alexander

2. The cheese stand at Eastern Market. Hill residents probably don’t need any direction here, but for anyone who hasn’t spent the better part of 30 minutes camped out at Bowers Fancy Dairy Products sampling the “Cheese from All Parts of the World,” you should head to the market soon. My personal favorites are the Parmesan-gouda (formaly called Perano, I believe) and the drunken goat, which is a goat cheese infused with wine. yum. This image is from the South Hall location the shop has been located in since 1964. After the fire at Eastern Market this past summer, they relocated to the temporary East Hall. New location, but same great conversation, and of course same great cheese.

3. Meridian Hill Park (aka Malcolm X Park). This dramatic park with an Italian flair is set set above the hill on 16th street just north of U street and is one of my favorite places near my old neighborhood in Columbia Heights. Go here to relax in the sun, or better yet, catch one of the weekly drum circle gatherings late on a Sunday afternoon. The drum circle has been going on since the 1950s and attracts professional musicians. I also hear it is one of the best places in the district to watch the 4th of July fireworks.

4. “Awakening” statue at Hains Point. I have to admit that I have only been here once, but have always wanted to go back. This eery statue of a giant trying to claw it’s way out of the earth is way off the beaten path in East Potomac Park. Hains Point juts out into the Potomac river just across from National Airport. No picture here because you have to see it for yourself.

5. Rock Creek Park. This is my favorite spot to go running and I always leave desperately wanting a puppy like everyone else. I can’t tell you where exactly to go in the Park because I seem to get lost every time I visit. I encourage you to take an afternoon and do the same.