Great American Cleanup in Pensacola

Clean and Green is coordinating many events in honor of the Great American Cleanup. They provide an opportunity for us to get together with friends, coworkers, and others to improve the looks of our community. It is also a great opportunity to get young people involved in making a difference in our community. Last year I had the chance to participate in the downtown clean up with my daughter, who was 7 at the time. Not only did she become much more cognizant of the impact of littering, I think it was the best anti-smoking program I could have ever come up with--she became disgusted by the numbers of cigarette butts we ended up picking up.

If you can't make it to one of these events, consider partnering with your neighbors to do a pick up in your local park. Or take a family walk with a garbage bag and see how fast you can fill it. If you do want to coordinate a special event, whether picking up litter, planting flowers, or sprucing up neighborhood entrances or public parks, contact Clean and Green and they can help provide support. Who knows--you might have so much fun you will want to adopt your neighborhood park.

Contact Clean and Green to sign up to participate in one of the currently scheduled events in the area:

March 12th, 8:30-11:30AM.
Downtown Cleanup: Coordinator Kim Kimbrough /Melissa Hulen
Area: Streets of downtown Pensacola
Meeting location: Plaza De Luna - end of S Palafox
Kickoff Time: 8:30 am

March 12th, 8:30-11:30AM.
Warrington Cleanup: Coordinator Kristie Sitler
Area: Warrington/Lexington Park
Meeting location: Lexington Park
Kickoff Time: 8:30 am

March 19th, 8:30-11:30AM.
Project Greenshores/Hawkshaw Memorial Cleanup
Meeting location: Hawkshaw Missing Children's Memorial - Bayfront Parkway (Across from the Veterans Park)
Kickoff Time: 8:30 am

March 26th, 8:30-11:30AM.
Thompson Bayou: Coordinator Karen Pritchard
Area: Thompson Bayou off UWF campus
Meeting location: Bldg 13 (Environmental Studies) at entrance to the Edward Ball Nature Trail (parking lot G)
Kickoff Time: 8:30 am

April 9th, 8:30-11:30AM.
Whitmire Cemetery: Coordinator Karen Pritchard
Area: Whitmire Cemetery, West of West Florida Hospital
Meeting location: Cemetery
Kickoff Time: 8:30 am

April 14th, 8:00 am-12:00pm.
This is a Thursday!
Mt Zion Cemetery: Coordinator Stephanie Planich
Area: Cross St and Guillemarde
Meeting location: Cemetery

April 16th, 9:00 -1:00 pm.
Union Hill Cemetery: Coordinator Mark Caro
Area:Fairfield & 69th Ave
Meeting location: Cemetery
Kickoff Time: 9:00 am

April 23rd, 8:00 -11:00 am.
Barrineau Park Cleanup: Coordinator Tina Tuttle
Area: Molino
Meeting location: Community Center
Kickoff Time: 8:00 am

April 30th, 8:00 am-12:00pm.
Landscaping: Latter Day Saints
Area: TBD
Meeting location: TBD
Kickoff Time: 8:00 am

Maritime Park public spaces workshop

The Maritime Park board is hosting a public workshop to review the plans for the public park spaces of the park. Information about landscaping, lighting, benches, and other amenities will be presented for discussion. The meeting will be held at City Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 5:30 p.m. Come and see what is planned to make this park a unique destination.

9th Av traffic study

Escambia County is holding a meeting to discuss improvements to the 9th Ave corridor from Underwood Av to Creighton Road. The meeting will be held Saturday, February 19, from 9 am to 1 pm at Cokesbury United Methodist Church. It will be a workshop, and there is no need to attend the whole session.

This workshop is part of a study to consider design changes and alternative routes to alleviate congestion and safety issues of 9th Av. A major focal point will be the 9th Av/Langley/Tippin intersection.

While much of the area under consideration is in the county, this is an important corridor for city residents as well, particularly those living in Scenic Heights. A presentation regarding some alternatives considered in this study was shared with the city council previously. Some ideas they are considering include closing the section of Langley beside the airport, routing traffic along McAllister Blvd. These changes will likely be significant, and I hope that city residents make their voices heard.

If you have any questions about the meeting, you could contact Dennis Moxley, the project manager in Escambia County.

No such thing as free parking

--except in Monopoly

The recent article in the PNJ about parking at UWF has spurred me to share some thoughts on parking.

We live in a culture that cherishes the freedom implied by automobiles. Since the advent of the automobile, we have built our cities around them, easing their use. One thing that we have come to expect is ample, free parking.

But is free parking really free?

Take a look at the recent CRA master plan. Much of downtown is covered with surface parking (shown in purple and red), occupying our prime commercial land. That is land that could house businesses or residences. Businesses that would draw more people downtown, whether to shop or to work. Residences that increase the numbers of people living downtown. Both would contribute to our local economy and support our city services.

If the land were occupied by buildings, walking downtown would be much more pleasant. Consider how appealing walking on Palafox St is, with the variety of window displays to interest you. Compare that to walking on Romana St, past large expanses of parking. Or, a more extreme case, compare it to walking along 9th Ave beside Cordova Mall.

Businesses throughout our community subsidize parking (and, therefore, driving). The business must buy more land than it needs for its actual work and then pays taxes on the land that is taken up by parking.

But we “need” all of that parking. Most people can’t walk or bike to work, and our bus system is inadequate. To reduce the amount of our land dedicated to parking without an uproar, we must reduce the demand for parking. People need an incentive to consider an alternative to just hopping in the car.

What kind of incentive could there be? Many businesses downtown currently pay for parking spaces for their employees. Instead of paying for those spots directly, what if they gave the money to their employees, letting them make the decision for themselves about how much they are willing to pay for the convenience? Alternatively, employers could start paying employees who forgo their parking spot, a little reward for using a different, and mostly likely less convenient, way of getting to work.

I do not expect that such a simple program alone will make much of a dent in our transportation challenges. Nor would it transform our landscape overnight. However, it will be a regular reminder that there are options and there are incentives to try something different. Employees could switch to carpooling, the bus, or other means. People might start asking for a better transit system, and the transit system would have the riders to justify an increase in the service. And better service might draw more folks, and perhaps the number of people driving to work will begin to decrease. With less demand, perhaps businesses won't need to continue to subsidize parking so much.

The oil spill last spring was a horrible reminder of what our collective actions can do to our environment. The devastating results of our dependence on oil should encourage us as a community to step up and take leadership in changing our behavior. Small steps such as this can start the shift.