Family outdoor fun, on a dime (almost)

Mindful Metropolis, July issue

Ten ways that you and your family can enjoy the outdoors in or near Chicago this summer, without breaking your bank in the process

The economy is bad — actually, it’s awful — and your stock portfolio, your personal piggy bank, and your cash allowance for events on the town are probably all screaming “uncle” by now. But don’t worry. You don’t have to cough up astronomical, Wrigley Field-ticket-price sums just to enjoy the great outdoors this summer.

Chicago is the third-largest city in America and boasts a vast skyline of steel and concrete on its lakeshore, with industry and grit further inland. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the outdoors all around you — and learn about local ecosystems. Parks, gardens, concert festivals, outdoor museums and street festivals beckon this summer. Or, just load up the picnic basket with fresh, tasty goodies, hop on your bike, and head toward the lake.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Located a hop, skip and a jump from Lake Shore Drive at Fullerton Avenue, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park is the perfect venue within the city limits to study nature. At $9 for adults, $7 for seniors over 60, $6 for children ages 3-12 and free for those under 3, the museum’s costs are doable.

This summer the museum is showcasing two exhibits that examine interactions between humans and nature here in the Midwest. Finding Walden: Photographs from the Chicago Park System, which will run until August 2, showcases Bill Guy’s images that capture the beauty and diversity of Chicago’s neighborhood parks. Finding Walden is the Nature Museum’s contribution to the Burnham Plan Centennial Celebration, a citywide program that pays homage to architect Daniel Burnham’s plans that shaped Chicago for the past century.

And Paradise Lost: Climate Change in the North Woods, which runs through August 15, is the culmination of a project by artists, scientists and educators who met recently in Wisconsin to consider ways that art could increase public understanding about climate change. Paradise Lost is an environmental art exhibition, featuring paintings, quilts, puzzles and music, exploring the roots of climate change and encouraging mass action to preserve the environment. Each piece of artwork reflects the effects of climate change in Wisconsin’s north woods.

Lincoln Park and Garfield Park Conservatories

These two conservatories, featuring tropical palms and ancient ferns in a lush, humid setting, are even more necessary for your mental and physical health during the dead of winter, when Chicago temperatures painfully plunge below zero. But no matter the month, a mock-visit to the rainforest can do you good. Step inside and take a deep breath of this wonderfully moist air. Both conservatories boast tropical flower displays selected for their colorful foliage until late September, including a lush backdrop of assorted tropical plants featuring begonias and hibiscus.

The Lincoln Park Conservatory is located near the Nature Museum, also at Fullerton Avenue, open from 9 am-5 pm every day of the year, and offers free admission. Garfield Park Conservatory is at 300 N. Central Park Ave., just off I-290 or the Green Line train on your way to Oak Park, open from 9-5 and 8 p.m. on Wednesdays. As Mary Eysenbach, Chicago Park District Director of Conservatories, says, “both conservatories offer visitors a chance to escape the concrete, urban environment and reconnect with nature.”

Biking in Chicago

Chicago may not be an Amsterdam or Copenhagen when it comes to biker-friendly metropolises. Vast swaths of the city offer no bike lanes, and ghost bikes — memorials to the fallen — are sober reminders of what can happen when bikes and cars meet. At the same time, we’re a far cry above New York or Los Angeles in terms of bike-ability. The lakeshore trail, and many streets on the near north and west sides have lanes for two-wheeled warriors. So put on your helmet, clip on your lights, wear clothing visible to cars and locate Milwaukee Avenue, or Cortland or Armitage, on your map, and enjoy the ride.

Seriously, what better way to enjoy the outdoors in Chicago this summer than pedaling through this grand city on the lake — and for free! Remember all the anger over the city privatizing parking meters, meter costs rising, and those metal beasts eating up your time? Well, if your car model is a Schwinn or Redline, then that issue doesn’t concern you. Just roll on by. Get to know that Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicago Bike Federation), www.activetrans.org, the best urban biking resource in town.

Museum of Science and Industry

Head down to Hyde Park and check out what might be Chicago’s greenest home, part of the Museum of Science and Industry’s “Smart Home: Green & Wired” exhibit. No, it’s not exactly nature, but it is ecological living within the city. Take a tour of this three-story modular and sustainable house in the museum’s backyard. You’ll learn about the latest innovations in reusable resources, smart energy consumption, healthy-living environments and easy ways to go green.

The home, designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and powered by ComEd, includes a “green” baby nursery, a space-maximizing hallway office, new cutting-edge technologies, wind power and earth-friendly landscaping ideas. Other new and unique home technologies are on display at the museum through the end of 2009, courtesy of WIRED magazine. Also explore the home’s updated landscape, which offers techniques for urban gardening, including vertical gardens and EarthBox planting. Tickets to the “Smart Home: Green & Wired” exhibit cost $22 for adults residing in Chicago and $14 for children ages 3-11.

Street festivals

It often seems like Chicago has a thousand different neighborhoods and a million different ethnic groups within its city limits. Almost every group and almost every ‘hood throws their own party at some point during the summer, and if you were to make an appearance at every single one, you’d traverse the globe, from the alleys of Istanbul to the barrios of Puerto Rico, while merely going a few stops on an El train. The best street festivals are free, they represent a distinct neighborhood or a distinct ethnic group (as opposed to the gluttonous, drunken Taste of Chicago) and they feature small business owners.

This month, check out the African-Caribbean International Festival of Life in Washington Park (Hyde Park), July 3-5, the Thai Festival Chicago, July 8-10, the Chinatown Summer Fair, July 19, and Celebrate Clark Street Festival, July 26, just to name a few. Space them out, mind you. The cuisine will differ greatly from one festival to the next. Or a swish a little water around in your mouth — as if you were wine tasting — between the Thai peanut sauce and the Swedish Lingonberry sauce. Otherwise they’ll clash.

Veggie picnic

Let’s say you’re really broke, and all you can afford — or all you care to eat — are veggies in a meal prepared at home. Going out to eat, in that case, means packing a picnic, jumping on the bike, and heading to the beach. Given that it’s July, you’re in luck. This month yields a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables that will look good, and taste good, in a salad, a sandwich, or in your breast pocket.

And if you wear your thrifty hat to the Green City Market or any other farmers market, these foods won’t set you back a paycheck: beets, peppers, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, onions, summer squash, tomatoes, apples, blueberries, peaches and raspberries are all abundant this month. How about making a cold pasta salad with snap beans, garbanzo beans and cherry tomatoes and packing it into your panniers with a side of beet salad and local berries for dessert?

Chicago Botanic Garden

Take the Metra train north to Glencoe, Ill., and the Chicago Botanic Garden trolley will pick you up and deliver you straight to the gardens for $2 per person (parking otherwise costs $20 per vehicle). Once there, you can stroll through 385 lush acres of display gardens, lakes and three natural habitats, which are situated on nine islands and border native Midwestern woodlands.

Admission is free, and the gardens offer a bounty of family activities during the summer, including “Dancin’ Sprouts” children’s early evening concerts on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, and “Hot Summer Nights” on Thursdays from 6-8 pm for adults who enjoy music and dancing from around the world. These live entertainment events take place on the Esplanade, where picnicking is allowed.

Volunteers give away plants every Wednesday and Saturday, so kids can plant their own gardens at home. In the fruit and vegetable garden, volunteers also teach the little ones about bees, tools, herbs and composting. And at the English Walled Garden, volunteers share seasonal highlights with visitors and help them identify the variety of plants growing in the garden. For a calendar of free activities at the Chicago Botanic Garden, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/events.

If you’re thinking of making a habit of visiting the Botanic Garden, buy a $100 membership, which includes year-round parking for two cars, a 10-percent discount at the Garden Shop, a discount coupon for the Garden Café and free admission to the Model Railroad Garden and Tram Tours on Wednesdays.

Ravinia

Not far from the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Ravinia outdoor concert series near Highland Park hosts many big names every summer, from Femi Kuti, to the Beach Boys, to Lyle Lovett, to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). But enjoying those sweet sounds doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. You’re encouraged to bring your own picnic, with food, drinks, tables and chairs and find a spot on the lawn. You’ll need to sit in the pavilion (and pay big bucks) to actually see the performers, but loudspeakers are set up throughout the picnic area, so open a bottle of wine, cuddle up with your sweetheart, close your eyes and instead just listen. Lawn seats cost $25 for adults and $5 only for kids.

Ravinia offers a bounty of special deals: pavilion seats to CSO concerts cost $25 on July 12, 15, 19 and 30; free lawn passes are available to college students for most Martin Theatre and CSO concerts; kids five and under get free lawn access to all CSO concerts. Ravinia also offers a special kids’ program book at its kiosks, which includes coloring pages, information on music and word finds. You can take the train from downtown Chicago to the festival grounds for only $5 roundtrip, leaving from the Ogilvie Transportation Center three times between 5:45 and 6:45 pm.

Morton Arboretum

The Lisle, Ill.-based Morton Arboretum, about 25 miles west of Chicago, boasts 11 imaginative new “Animal Houses,” which are designed to help visitors understand how trees provide habitat to animals, and to reinforce the importance of appreciating and protecting trees. Explore every nook and cranny of these enormous animal houses — all of which are built to human scale.

In the wetland near Bur Reed Marsh you’ll find the Pollywog Pond, Beaver Lodge, Skunk Den and Great Blue Heron Rookery. At the Schulenberg Prairie, youngsters can crawl into the Spider Web, Ant Colony and Coyote Den. And the 24-foot-high Raccoon Den, Fallen Log and Squirrel Drey all await you in the woodland near Big Rock Visitor Station. The Guest House near the Visitors Center offers an introduction to the exhibition along with some hidden neighbors that share our backyards.

Visitors to the Arboretum receive a map of the Animal Houses, and an Adventure Guide with word games and animals hidden in pictures, and a ballot to vote for their favorite Animal House. On certain weekends you can get up close to live bats, coyotes and other animals as visitors explore the ways in which animals rely on trees as their habitat. The 1,700-acre outdoor Arboretum even offers animal-related merchandise and animal-themed meals.

The Animal Houses are open from 7 am to 7 pm and are free with Arboretum admission, which costs $11 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for children ages 2-17 and free for anyone under two years old. Wednesday is a discount day. Visit www.mortonarb.org for more information.

Starved Rock

Driving 94 miles west on Interstate 80 may be a haul, but you’ll be glad you made the trip to Starved Rock National Park, which is located along the south side of the Illinois River. Starved Rock is best known for its rock formations, primarily St. Peter sandstone, laid down in a huge shallow inland sea more than 425 million years ago and later brought to the surface. The park boasts 18 canyons formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion, which slice through tree-covered, sandstone bluffs for four miles.

Starved Rock features sparkling waterfalls, vertical walls of moss-covered stone, hiking and nature trails, spectacular overlooks and recreational opportunities for picnicking, fishing, boating, camping and horseback riding. Nearby Starved Rock Lodge offers a $95 “Land of Lincoln Getaway” package, including overnight accommodations for two and a $15 breakfast voucher.

City Hall’s sustainability pioneer

Mindful Metropolis, July issue

GreenEconomyChicago.com, the new website sponsored by Alderman Manny Flores and Mike Bueltmann of Clear Content (a local Internet service provider) offers much more than green shadows of the city skyline rolling across the banner of the page. GreenEconomyChicago is an online forum for Chicagoans "to discuss and develop ideas about building a green economy … and creating sustainable jobs."

Here’s how it works: you log on and submit a fresh idea (it could be requiring an energy efficiency rating for home sales, or offering solar education to Illinois middle schools), other users comment on the idea, which lends the idea perspective and helps it gather momentum, and Manny Flores turns the popular projects into progressive legislation.

Flores, who represents Chicago’s first ward on the city’s near northwest side, has built a reputation for himself as a visionary and an advocate for government transparency and developing Chicago’s green economy. Elected in 2003, 37-year-old Flores is currently the youngest alderman on the city council. He recently spoke to Mindful Metropolis about the new website, GreenEconomyChicago.com, whether Chicago really is the ‘greenest city in America,’ how to make his ward more sustainable, how he’d like to see his gentrified Wicker Park neighborhood change over the next five years, how biking can be improved in Chicago, and why he hopes we’ll land the 2016 Olympics.


Tell me about GreenEconomyChicago.com

The website uses technology to bring a variety of stakeholders together to enable them to better collaborate in the area of sustainability … (it offers a) platform to incubate ideas and create a pathway for transforming those ideas into actual law, policy or a new way of doing things — as an individual person, or as an organization, or as an entire industry.

One of the inspirations for the website was the notion of open source, where you’re sharing ideas through this horizontal, collaborative model. The power is not just in the idea itself but what you do with the idea and how you bring others together around one idea that you can build upon. The Internet evolved from a number of cool technological ideas that people shared with a universe of other talented computer folks, and they just kept building on it. It’s that same principle that we’re adopting here now with the way we focus on sustainability — in particular economic development using sustainability.

The whole point is to get people together and recognize that we should share our ideas: you’re not going to transform society by just hording an idea. The value is how you build on an idea to help create other ideas, and then how those ideas are manifested and implemented in a way that you do see results.

What inspired GreenEconomyChicago?

What set this off was my interest in sustainability and Mike Bueltmann’s interest in looking at how we could use technology to get people more involved through community volunteerism and through other levels of participation. We were both inspired by what President Barack Obama did with the use of technology and new social media platforms to get folks to do what many of them had never done before. (His campaign team) bridged the new communities that were inspired and emerging through the Internet with off-line communities who really are on the ground, transforming their inspiration.

Why couldn’t we do the same for the ideas that everybody has? You don’t have to be a lobbyist. You don’t have to be a politician. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t need to have influence. We live in a society where anyone can make a difference. And yet people who have power and influence are able to hijack or distort the system. (We asked ourselves) how can we balance that playing field?

GreenEconomyChicago is one tool to help those who have very compelling ideas and to let them know that their ideas have merit. If you really care about that idea, there is a way to transform it. There’s a pathway to reach out to other like-minded people. Say we’ve been talking about this idea, now have a meet-up. Have a little party to talk about how we can further strategize. (The website can) connect you to existing resources, literature, or other groups in communities who are interested in the same idea. (It can) connect you to policymakers who truly understand the value of sustainability and who espouse those values of the triple bottom line that defines sustainability — as environmental protection and stewardship, as social justice, and as economic opportunity.

How will the site evolve?

How user-friendly the site appears is crucial. The website is currently in beta format, meaning that we anticipate changes, and that’s part of the process. We’re asking people who are interested to provide recommendations.

While I sponsor the website, I do not claim sole ownership. I believe this is a website that belongs to all. Everyone can post on it. I would encourage people to not only post their idea, but (use it as a resource for networking) in the way that Mindful Metropolis (has built a community).

GreenEconomyChicago is a product of rough consensus — the notion of starting a project though you may not have planned every specific detail but you start the project with the expectation that you’ll build upon it. It calls for collaboration. It calls for people to think critically about how we can make things better. One of our priorities now is to visit with academics, sustainability organizations like the Center for Neighborhood Technology and other entrepreneurs. We want to present the website, show how the website works, and then appeal to their individual members to take ownership of GreenEconomyChicago as a tool to implement what they’ve been talking about.

How did you arrive at the title GreenEconomyChicago, and how large is the community’s scope?

It is citywide. But I believe it’s a model that can be replicated for other jurisdictions. We struggled with the name: is it too parochial, too narrow? I felt that it was important to brand our city as a place where there is a commitment by its community, the people who make up the city of Chicago. They are engaged in a process to make this a hub for clean technology and economic development using clean technology.

I believe that the city of Chicago should be the world’s leading financial, commercial and industrial clean technology hub. We can do that: it’s a lofty goal, but one that I’d like to see achieved.

That being said, all of us are interconnected. (We all) want to live in healthy communities, (we all) want the best for our children, (we all) want the opportunity for good housing, good healthcare and a good job. Universal aspirations.

We must understand and appreciate the level of connectedness and how we’re closer together than we know. The title GreenEconomyChicago is really intended to inspire other communities too. (Despite) all the resources that we have in our city, all the remarkable organizations and leaders who do believe in expanding clean technology opportunities and addressing the triple-bottom-line principles, we still have a long way to go.

Mayor Daley claims that Chicago is the greenest city in America. Is he right?

What does that mean? It’s important to recognize the good things that many individuals have done, but we have to raise the bar and ask what else we can do. We need to tie it to results that impact people’s lives — whether it’s growing the number of students who are not only staying in school but graduating with degrees in math and science, or whether it’s being part of the next Apollo project associated with creating the most sustainable country in the world.

How do you deal with, for example, the coal burning plants on the South side that are hurting people, killing people. (We need to) come together and not have this conflict between environmental justice and the commercial or business community saying, ‘we’re doing everything within the law and we have the right to pursue this economic opportunity.’ There has to be a smarter and healthier way to pursue that economic model. Why haven’t we figured out a way not to use coal to power our economy?

Also, how do we make communities more sustainable (in terms of) access to healthier food? How do we empower local farmers so that they take advantage of the opportunities that exist by developing new relationships with restaurants, hotels and others in the hospitality industry that make Chicago a tourist destination?

How do we redefine the way that we develop public housing? Why not create a standard where public housing is the most sustainable housing? The housing that is the most innovative, to not only provide a better roof over a family, but also to provide models or an incubator for new innovations, technologies, building methods and processes. There’s a way that we can bring different stakeholders together, which historically had not been done before, because of a misplaced belief that these groups were at odds or philosophically opposed. It really does call for a new paradigm.

I’m inspired by the opportunity that we have here — to help create a healthy environment where people through collaboration are helping themselves and helping their neighbors. Let’s encourage all the positive things that you see in entrepreneurism, where the prosperity can help a greater group of people. Let’s enlarge the economic pie, not shrink it.

What can be done to make the 1st Ward more sustainable?

The skies are the limit. The most important part is creating a culture in the community where people are coming up with ideas of how we can become more sustainable. Plans are important. But in addition to planning, you need a path. The reality is that we live in a world where you just can’t freeze time.

Why not make it easy for folks to adopt or implement some low-hanging fruit? That can make things more sustainable. We know some of these issues. When you brush your teeth, why not turn the faucet off? If you’re gonna visit your friend who lives five blocks away, why not walk instead of taking the car? If you have the opportunity to shop locally or shop halfway across the town, shop locally.

Why not get involved with chambers of commerce and other organizations in developing plans? We have in the 1st Ward, for instance, developed a number of smaller neighborhood planning guides, almost like master plans. We talk about what the sustainable principles are that we want to incorporate into our planning.

The other thing is, when you have projects that come up, incorporate green technologies, smarter ways of building. The Green Exchange is probably the biggest example. The Green Exchange came about not because a group of us were environmentalists to begin with, but through a process that got us there, one that really was about sustainability. People were concerned with their environment. They didn’t want to see more demolition, destruction of a beautiful building. They wanted to see adaptive reuse, so we ended up building the landmark.

There was talk of jobs. What are we gonna do with jobs? We had the Cooper Lamp Company closing its doors because it couldn’t compete with China anymore. Did we just throw in the towel? Everyone was telling me as a policymaker that the only use would be residential development. I thought to myself, ‘well, you have that.’ You may add a quick boost to the economy; you may add more construction jobs to area. But what happens when the project is complete? Then this 270,000-square-foot facility that has been a manufacturing center for that area is gone forever. So we said ‘no.’ We need jobs. We need to figure this out somehow.

Barry Bursack, who really is an environmentalist, inspired the group to go in the direction of the Green Exchange. He made us realize that there was a huge opportunity here. The idea of having one facility for green businesses, not just about creating jobs but about helping this emerging sector of the economy grow in a way that hadn’t been done before in this city.

Lathrop Homes, is gonna be redeveloped. Now we have a decision to make. We can go along with business as usual and adopt the same principles that CHA (the Chicago Housing Authority) has been using, but my question is how we can look at this as an opportunity to do things even better — to become leaders in energy and environmental design? Why not make Lathrop Homes a 35-acre, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold or platinum community — the nation’s first ever LEED certified public housing project? That would be transformative.

The Addison Industrial Corridor, in general, has been languishing. Many businesses have left the area. When I became alderman, there were several requests made to consider changing the zoning and making that area into a luxurious residential community. Could we have created some new jobs? Yes. But then what happens to that area that was always an industrial corridor? It’s gone. There has to be a better answer.

I can’t tell you how many people said to me, ‘Manufacturing, it’s gone, Manny. Gone. We appreciate you wanting to fight the good fight, Manny.’ But we didn’t get to this point by simply saying, ‘Let’s go the path of least resistance.’ This is what conventional thinking tells us, because that’s how we got to some of these problems that we’re now confronting. We’re gonna have to be innovative. We’re gonna have to be visionary.

How can Chicago become more biker friendly?

I think we have to provide more resources for it. We have to do a better job of the way that we lay out streets so that they really do provide for greater multiuse on the public roads. (People shouldn’t have to) take their lives in their own hands by riding their bikes on the street. I think we also have to better engage some of the NGOs and nonprofits, such as the Active Transportation Alliance.

We’ve had some success already. Everyone talks about parking spaces. Why not require a percentage of bike spaces? Or places within a complex for people to actually store their bicycles, like parking garages. Use that as an alternative to the number of mandatory parking spaces that you have to dedicate per each unit under the zoning code. You have transit-oriented development, but encourage more bicycle use.

You’re not gonna take the car away. But I see a Smart Car in the future, a car that doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses. You’re still gonna need a place to park that smart car. So the demand for garages will remain. But why not encourage large bike racks, within these garages? And team up with the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) to have a dispenser in the front area of these garages for CTA cards that are linked to your smart car parking or your bicycle. I could see some of these garages near train stops and other mass transit hubs.

Wicker Park has changed a lot in last 10-15 years. What are your hopes for Wicker Park in the next five years?

Have you ever read Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class? Wicker Park, I think, could be the quintessential community that Florida talks about. But there are a lot of challenges. Some of the artists have moved away. We’ve lost some of the diversity, in terms of ethnicity and race. Income levels have risen, which is a good think, but that has also created pressure in terms of housing affordability. We’ve renovated the parks, schools have improved, the neighborhood is safer, and new businesses are moving in — by and large, independently owned businesses.

What I’m striving to do as the elected representative is to plan things in a way that provides access to all. We have to be mindful of looking for opportunities where you can develop low-income, affordable housing and looking at good economic development. That’s why I’m a big proponent of green technology to help create new jobs.

My aspirations for the community are for Wicker Park to be a place where people respect one another, where people feel like their opinions matter, where they are engaged, where there’s a pathway toward participation and involvement. Their help and direct participation will result in something good. A community known as a place to incubate innovation, in the way that people look at things and address challenges. A place where families are proud to call home and to raise their own families, and a place where I myself would like to be a longtime resident.

Recology Pursues Zero-Waste in Bay Area

Apollo News Service

San Francisco-based Recology is the national leader in helping American cities draw ever closer to becoming zero-waste communities. With the company’s guidance, San Francisco has achieved a recycling rate of 72 percent, the highest in the nation.

Recology, which until this spring was known as Norcal, has also been a boon to workers. When San Francisco donated the land now occupied by Recycle Central, Recology’s state-of-the art recycling center at Candlestick Point, the city required that any company bidding for the site recognize a union that signed up a majority of the workers. The winning company also needed to hire residents from three of the city’s most economically distressed neighborhoods, including those near Candlestick Point.

“When we built the recycling plant in a big shed on a city pier - in a separate location from our other facilities - we agreed that we would try to fill all of the positions with workers from two zip codes impacted by that location,” said Recology’s CEO, Mike Sangiacomo. Recology currently employs 2,100 workers, 80 percent of whom are unionized.

Recology also uses energy efficient vehicles to transport the materials it recycles and composts. Two years ago, Recology converted its entire fleet of 400 trucks to run on locally-produced B20 biodiesel fuel - which means 20 percent of the fuel comes from vegetable or corn oil. Sangiacomo said the next step for Recology is to work with next generation battery and truck manufacturers to enable its vehicles to run on electric motors.

The company’s trucks pick up recyclable and compostable material from approximately 2,100 restaurants and 75,000 homeowners in San Francisco, according to Waste News. Much of what they receive is already sorted, thanks to Recology’s grassroots efforts to promote recycling.

Color Coding Works

San Francisco residents get color-coded plastic bins affectionately known as the Fantastic Three. Recology provides a blue cart for paper, glass, plastics and metal; a green one for food and yard waste; and a black cart for landfill-bound waste. Recology was the first company in the nation to provide green bins citywide.

Food waste is transferred to long-haul vehicles that travel to one of the company’s two California composting facilities. Paper, plastic and hard materials are taken to Recycle Central.

The $38 million facility opened in 2003 and features conveyor belts capable of sorting and baling single-stream and co-mingled materials. Recology recycles 350 tons of yard and food waste and 750 tons of paper, plastic, and other household and industrial materials every day.

Worker-Friendly, Community-Friendly

Teamsters Local 350 organized the workers and negotiated one of the best labor contracts in the industry with Recology. The starting wage is $20 an hour, and maintenance worker John Andrews and others at his pay grade earn $29.50 an hour, with $42.81 per hour for overtime. Andrews, who lives in the nearby Hunters Point-Bayview neighborhood, began on the sorting line in 1999, handling garbage.

Employees start with one week of vacation per year and can build up to eight weeks of vacation after 30 years on the job. Recology provides quality health insurance for workers and their families- what Sangiacomo calls a “Cadillac plan.”

“This company has taken care of its people,” said Sangiacomo. “We’ve raised a tremendous amount of families and seen their kids grow into good people. A number have come back and now work for us.”

In terms of worker safety, the Recology facility is considered superior to most other recycling operations. Local business agent Larry Daugherty was quoted in Teamster Magazine as saying that Recycle Central is “definitely a state of the art facility- especially in comparison to many nonunion facilities I’ve seen. It is fully automated. The materials are presorted by machinery and it all goes up on belts, which makes it much safer because the workers can see everything that goes up instead of just reaching blindly into a pile.” And unlike many other recycling sites, Teamster workers at Recology get high-quality protective gear.

Another sign of Recology’s devotion to the local community is its artist-in-residence program, which the company has sponsored since 1990. During a four-month residency, local artists receive a stipend and access to a well-equipped studio. They create works out of trash and recycled material and display them at Recology’s headquarters. Sangiacomo estimates that more than 70 professional artists and several hundred student artists from the San Francisco Art Institute have benefitted from this innovative program.

Rise of Recycling

Mike Sangiacomo’s story parallels the rise of recycling in San Francisco. When he was young, Sangiacomo accompanied his Italian-born father on a garbage collection route through San Francisco’s famed Chinatown. The work was dirty, salaries were paltry, and people often didn’t pay their garbage bills.

Jobs collecting San Francisco’s garbage and recyclables have traditionally been filled by immigrants. Sangiacomo remembers the days when scavenger companies comprised mostly of immigrants would scour the city’s streets for anything they could sell or reuse.

“Not only did they collect paper and cardboard, newspaper and office paper, they collected bottles and actually washed them and resold them,” Sangiacomo recalls. “(Companies like Sunset Scavenger) had a rag-washing plant, before the days of synthetic fibers. They had a crew of Russian immigrant women who would cut off buttons, size pieces, wash them, bleach them, and then sell everything from wiping rags to Turkish towels.”

When people realized that garbage landfills were harmful to the environment, the recycling movement began to regain momentum - not just as a way of reducing costs, but to protect the environment. Twenty years ago, Norcal established a curbside recycling program in San Francisco. More and more communities recognized the benefits of recovering materials and putting them back into reuse.

In 1990, California initiated an ambitious law calling for 25-percent waste diversion by 1995 and 50 percent by 2000. But as the millennium approached, Norcal found itself stuck at around 35 percent, in an industrial urban environment that didn’t produce much clean waste.

“Between yard waste, paper, bottles and cans, most communities can get to 50 percent,” said Sangiacomo, who became CEO in 1991. “We couldn’t. So we started looking at what could help us get there.

“What could we do with food? The only thing we could think of was to compost it.”

Norcal learned how to establish an industrial-scale food-waste composting system almost from scratch. At the request of then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, Norcal visited restaurants, produce markets, and grocery stores and established a successful composting program in the East Bay that recovered nearly 100 percent of food waste.

Future Growth

Today, Recology is the largest employee-owned company in the solid waste industry, and a key player behind the city’s push toward zero-waste.

Recology provides waste management services to more than 570,000 residential and 55,000 commercial customers in California, mostly in the Bay Area. The company collects and processes garbage in more than 50 California communities and is currently the 13th largest waste management firm in the United States.

The company is still expanding, with the acquisition of two Oregon composting companies in Portland and Salem and a contract to provide collection services for much of San Mateo County in 2011. According to Sangiacomo, Recology’s annual revenues, which now total half a billion dollars, have increased by 7-8 percent annually over the last five years.

“Most of the work we do is with franchises or municipalities,” says Sangiacomo. “That growth can come in decent-sized chunks. We don’t go out and get a new customer at a time. We go out and get a new city at a time.”

Jacob Wheeler, a writer based in Chicago, is a regular contributor to the Apollo News Service.

Not your grandmother's theater

CenterStageChicago.net

Head to the theater on a Friday or Saturday night — only, this isn’t the type of performance your grandmother would fancy. Theatro, the new club/lounge in the West Loop was inspired somewhat by the mansion scene in the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman flick, “Eyes Wide Shut” (you know, the scene with all the … ahem … masks).

Of course, no actual swingers sex is allowed. Gothic meets sheik at Theatro, in the former home of Reserve. But don’t waste your time studying the decadent chandeliers or the gold-plated masks on the wall behind the DJ. And never mind the nearly dozen bouncers built like Mack trucks. The real entertainment is the actresses.

Sexy waitresses in short black dresses behind the long bar serve a host of fancy cocktails. Or take your bottle and your posse to the large black leather banquettes. Make sure you can see the glass-enclosed stage at the center of the club. Every 45 minutes or so the blinds will be pulled up, revealing the evening’s entertainment. A juggler? A fire-eater? A trans-gender diva? Every weekend’s a surprise. Think you could hold that pose as long as she can?

Theatro
858 W. Lake
Tel: (312) 455-8345
www.theatrochicago.com

Terzo Piano

Location is everything for Terzo Piano, on the third floor of the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, next to the sleek new bridge that crosses over Monroe Street from Millennium Park. The fancy Italian lunch restaurant offers views of Michigan Avenue, the park and the Bluhm Sculpture Garden from its outdoor piazza (with binoculars, you could even watch a performance on the amphitheater stage from here).

The food is all fresh, local and organic, and designed by Chef Tony Mantuano, who food-loving Chicagoans know from his four-star Italian restaurant, Spiaggia. The menu will change seasonally. If you dine here before summer vacation, try the spring salad of local peas, the Chesapeake Bay soft shell crab sandwich with avocado slaw or the sesame crusted Lake Superior whitefish with eggplant and organic cucumber salad. Stick around and enjoy a cheese plate from the cheese cave (cava di stagionatura), which holds a variety of American artisanal cheeses. Terzo Piano serves quality wines and beers, as well as a list of fresh spirits infused with such refreshments as lemon, sage, seasonal fruits, basil or tomato passato. The restaurant is open for dinner on Thursdays only.

Terzo Piano
156 E. Monroe
Tel: 312.443.8650
www.terzopianochicago.com


Tailgate

Gary Applebaum has brought his love of football and pre-game tailgating (and his food knowledge from years in the wine industry) to the Tailgate Restaurant, located inside the U.S. Beer Company building in Lincoln Park. (The U.S. Beer Company opened in 1939 and was the watering hole of choice for generations of factory workers since before the Second World War. The locale also sponsored nearly every softball team in the city.) The U.S. Beer Company’s successor, Tailgate, offers something extra. It’s still a great place to drink, watch the game, take in a concert or hold a private party in one of the private party rooms in the back. In fact, a DePaul student group routinely meets here and breaks into harmonious karaoke.

But since he opened in early March, Gary has already surprised patrons with the quality of his grub — especially the rotisserie chicken and barbecued ribs, served with soup or salad and a choice of potato or baked beans. Not to mention that almost everything on the menu costs less than $10. Tailgate offers choices for health-conscious runners and beefy linebackers, alike. The menu ranges from salads with fresh greens, to ballpark sausage fare, to carbohydrate-filled pasta dishes, to burgers packing half a pound of beef. Gary will cater private parties and deliver all over the near northwest side.


Tailgate
1811 N. Clybourn
Tel: (773) 857-6644
www.thetailgatecatering.com


Latin American Restaurant & Lounge

If you dig the fried Puerto Rican delicacies sold from the trailer at the ball fields in Humboldt Park, then visit the Latin American Restaurant & Lounge on the edge of Division Street’s Paseo Boricua for hearty, inexpensive south-of-the-border and Caribbean fair. And the portions are enormous. For a $4.95 breakfast special, a $5.95 lunch special and dinner specials under $10, you could hang around here all day, practicing your español. Latin American Restaurant just opened a second location as well, at 6001 W. Diversey.

Puerto Rican specialties line the pages of the menu, with offerings like banana dumplings, meat turnovers, jibaritos, plantains, cassava and stuffed potatoes. Keep scanning the extensive menu and you'll find something to write home about, like lobster rice ($12.95), summer sausage soup ($5.99) and blood sausage with boiled green banana ($5.95).

The restaurant itself is a dive, but features a few gems, like a pull-down movie projector screen hanging behind the bar, model ships and a push car grill that warms up fried foods for Humboldt Park. And don't miss the naughty, naughty video slot machines, on the way to the restrooms.

Latin American Restaurant & Lounge
2743 W. Division
Tel: (773) 235-7290


The Rockhouse

Cheap beer drinkers from DePaul, rockers and those who enjoy good alcohol all share this new Lincoln Park joint, which replaces Deja Vu. There’s no cover here, any time. Get familiar with the shot machines dispensing Jager, Patron and Bacardi behind the bar, enjoy the art tattooed on the wait staff’s bodies if you can see them through the fog machine, and rock out to the bands jamming on stage until the wee hours on Friday and Saturday nights (the juke box will have to suffice, Tuesday-Thursday). Dan Aykroyd wants you to try his Crystal Skull vodka, stocked behind the bar in (what else?) skulls. The Rockhouse will eventually offer cocktails named, and perhaps styled, after dead rockers like Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.

But the true highlight of your night (or morning) may come upstairs, where you’ll be able to hear your own voice, and where three elegantly decorated rooms with comfy couches and portraits of the rock bands of yesteryear — Elvis, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who — might make you feel like you’ve entered a time warp and are partying with your parent’s crowd (assuming your folks were hip). Check out the love suite in the corner, separated from the room by drapes and offering a bird’s eye view of Lincoln Avenue, but the wait staff asks you and your sweety not to get too cozy there. The Rockhouse may open up the basement — a former speakeasy — some day. Well drinks cost $5 or $6, and you’ll find specials on cheap beer throughout the week. Of course, who’d want $1 Busch on Wednesdays when you can have a $4 Maker’s Mark.

The Rockhouse
2624 N. Lincoln
Tel: (773) 871-0205
www.rockhousechicago.com


Baza Sports Club

Restaurants in Eastern European cities are typically located in the basement, so Nicolai Perepitchka’s new Baza Sports Club in Ukrainian Village is naturally underground (a patio outside also seats approximately 16). “Baza,” which means “home” in the mother tongue, boasts old-fashioned wood paneling and softly lit lanterns, suggestive of an eatery in Kiev. But the 19 televisions on the walls, airing everything from baseball to boxing, the posters of a young Michael Jordan and other Chicago sports icons, and the marble-topped bar all remind you that this is the Windy City. Nicolai, who’s lived in the States for 18 years, is a true sports fanatic.

Once Baza gets its liquor license, this will become the perfect tavern in Ukrainian Village to watch the game and drink a cold one (currently BYOB, the restaurant serves $4 fresh orange, grapefruit and pomegranate juice for mixed drinks). For now, the cuisine alone is worth the trip. Baza offers a global menu that includes Eastern European-specialties like borscht ($5), but also Asian items (pork potstickers, $8) and comida Mexicana (mushroom-goat cheese empanadas, $7). If you’re ravenously hungry, then splurge on the high-end entrees such as the 12-ounce New York strip steak ($18) or the pan-seared salmon with asparagus ($14).

The executive chef at Wolfgang Puck designed Baza’s menu, and it shows. You’d expect the beef borscht to be hearty, and that it is, but the popular dish also offers a cornucopia of different tastes — owing to the crème fraiche and dill. All in all, this fusion restaurant is worth a visit.

Baza Sports Club
2500 W. Chicago Ave.
Tel: (773) 252-4775/2292
www.bazasportsclub.com


Witt’s

After owning the popular Lakeview tavern, Witt’s, for three years, Christy and Donald Agee felt the place needed a facelift. The specials and beer prices are still listed on the horizontal chalkboard along the back wall, and you can still fraternize with old friends here while watching the game. But Witt’s updated its menu in May, as Christy puts it, to play up their chef Jeffrey’s talents, and to appeal to a broader audience. Chef Jeff visits the Green City Market once a week and prepares delicious meals with fresh, local produce. The menu now features homemade pastas ($12), a house salad and different seafood options including shrimp and halibut ($14), but the bar favorites like the burger ($9) and the popular pulled pork sandwich ($10) remain. Christy says the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich served on a croissant ($10) goes particularly well with whatever’s on tap.

Witt’s has always appealed to the neighborhood sports crowd, but those who want to go out on a date and have a nice meal can now enjoy it too. The classy menu presentation doesn’t hurt either. Witt’s outdoor patio seats 75, and you’re tucked away from the streets, so ladies, wear whatever you like after Cubs games … street pedestrians won’t gawk at you. And if you live in the neighborhood, stop by for trivia night on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., and get to know the summer specials: $9 burger and draft on Mondays; $6 Belgian brew and 2 for $25 menu including wine on Tuesdays; $1 off cocktails on Wednesdays; $4 Bell’s and $5 pulled pork sandwiches on Thursdays; $5 Captain Morgan cocktails on Fridays; $4 vodka cranberries on Saturdays; $5 bloody Marys on Sundays, and more.

Witt’s
2913 N Lincoln Ave
Tel: (773) 528-7032
www.wittschicago.com


Lan's Old Town

Jimmy, the owner of Lan’s, the new Szechwan, Mandarin restaurant in Old Town, knows a thing or two about Chinese restaurants. The original Lan’s — which is named after his wife and his mother, and means “orchid” in the old country — opened in 1980 at Armitage and Sedgewick. Another Lan’s was born in River North in 1988, and Jimmy opened Lan’s Old Town in May after tiring of the commute between Chicago and Cabo San Lucas, where he ran yet another Chinese joint and worked three weeks there for every week in the Windy City. In Cabo, of course, he could fish for a fresh catch every single day, whereas here he settles for fresh fish from the market on Thursdays and Fridays.

Lan’s Old Town, which is BYOB, sports a classy interior with white linens, a wooden bar countertop and an orchid painting behind the bar. Much of his business, though, is takeout orders. Jimmy’s neighborhood customers know him by his first name, and return again and again, for the perfect blend of spice and flavor in his MSG-free dishes. The fish pot stickers ($5.95) are favorites (you’ll never go back to pork after trying fish pot stickers, he insists), as are the Moo Shu pork, the Lan’s Manchurian beef and the Szechwan beef (all $9.95). Lan’s Old Town offers catering, and a bounty of affordable food.

Lan's Old Town
1507 N. Sedgwick
Tel: (312) 255-9888


Los Dos Laredos

One of the first Mexican restaurants to open its doors 42 years ago in the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, Los Dos Laredos offers a colorful and open atmosphere with seating for 99 and a dance floor and cocktail bar perfect for private parties, banquets and weddings. Serving liquor and open all night during the weekends, Jesus Lopez’s restaurant will resume live music in the fall.

Named after two towns named Laredo on both sides of the Rio Grande, where the river splits Mexico and Texas, Los Dos Laredos has adjusted its menu within the past year to adhere to customer demand. Tapas de carnita, tamales and salads are all new, as diners want healthier, and smaller, options. But the mixed grill platters made for two or four are still the signature order. Bring your spouse and kids, or three pals, and enjoy the pollo rostizado family pack ($12.99) or the popular taquiza ($21.99) or a bounty of meaty choices including skirt steak, beef ribs, pork chops, bacon and Mexican sausage.

Daytime meals are cheap. Breakfast specials go for $3.99 and include huevos rancheros, huevos a la Mexicana and huevos con chorizo. Lunch specials served between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. generally don’t exceed $5. Try the giant quesadilla, handmade in a corn tortilla and stuffed with mushrooms and cheese or chicken.

Los Dos Laredos
3120 W. 26th
Tel: (773) 376-3218


Mangia Fresca

Stuff yourself full of pasta, designed the way you like it, at Mangia Fresca, a new Italian café/lunch counter that opened in early 2009 in Bridgeport. Mangia Fresca is a block west of Halsted and just steps from the Orange Line and the expressway. It’s a great place to order takeout on your way to the Sox game, and owner Paul Impallaria has also installed a couple flat-screen televisions, and a dozen tables, where you can watch the first inning if you’re running late.

You can be the boss and create your own pasta meal for just $4.99. Choices include angel hair, linguine, spaghetti, mostaccioli, rigatoni, bowtie and fettucine, with marinara, vodka, arrabiata, aglio & olio, alfredo, meat sauce or pesto. Add sausage, chicken, meatballs, shrimp, salmon or fresh veggies for a few bucks more. Mangia Fresca serves a variety of paninis, sandwiches and burgers ranging in price from $3-$9. Paul says that his original breaded steak is the most popular, and brick oven pizza will be here soon. Mangia Fresca also offers complete catering for family parties, office events and business meetings.

Mangia Fresca
2556 S. Archer
Tel: (312) 225-7100

Inaugural M-22 Challenge to feature running, biking, paddling

Glen Arbor Sun

The famous Sleeping Bear Dune Climb has hosted many events since the great mother bear lay down here and slumbered. Thousands of children have tumbled down this dune, their hair filling with beach sand. Chamber orchestras have played at its base, their music rising up the hill and moving toward the great lake beyond. Now the Dune Climb will host the first leg of a triathlon, and watch as the second and third legs unfold nearby.

Participants in the inaugural M-22 Challenge will run, pedal and paddle on Saturday, June 20 at 9 a.m. Approximately 200 athletes will endure a two-mile run over the dunes, followed by a 17-mile bike ride — up M-109, through Glen Arbor, around the east side of Big Glen Lake, over Inspiration Point and back down M-22 toward Empire — and finally a mile of paddling the shallow end of Little Glen Lake. The leaders are expected to finish the race in two hours.

For Glen Arbor, the M-22 Challenge effectively replaces the Tour de Leelanau bike race, which was shelved after four years. Glen Arbor residents will once again witness a cycling sprint through downtown.

For that they should thank Matt and Keegan Myers, a couple aficionados of kiteboarding (surfing with a kite) who were raised on nearby Old Mission Peninsula and three years ago opened the M-22 retail store — which sells t-shirts, stickers, coffee mugs, beer and wine out of a storefront on Traverse City’s Front Street. “M-22 is not just a road,” their website states. “It is a way of life.” The Myers brothers are also renovating the old Fisher house in Glen Arbor, and hope to move their M-22 retail store here next summer.

“The unparalleled scenery of northern Michigan combined with this unique event offers the community an opportunity to compete in a challenging and breathtakingly beautiful race,” says 30-year-old Matt Myers. “I’m most looking forward to bring everyone together and see the community get involved in this active outdoor activity.”

“For me, the M-22 Challenge is taking place at the best location in the world, at the best time of the year,” concurs Keegan, 28. “There is no other event that utilizes the extreme uniqueness that this very location offers.”

The M-22 Challenge isn’t your grandfather’s triathlon, and that’s what will make it fun, says Matt, who designed the course — though his duties as organizer will probably prevent him from participating on June 20. “These three sports (running, biking and kayaking) are all integral to the area.”

The Myers brothers will limit the roster of athletes to 200 — a number they feel comfortable managing for the inaugural race. Most of the entries will be locals, though Matt and Keegan attest that a handful from around the Midwest have signed up and promised that they’ll win the M-22 Challenge.

The M-22 Challenge was designed to be just that — a challenge — but not a herculean feat. The running leg was limited to a couple miles because of the tough, 100-yard vertical trip up the dune, which Matt promises is doable without walking. At 17 miles, the bike leg is a good sprint for a trained biker, but still achievable for someone who doesn’t pedal every day (though the climb up Inspiration Point will make you downshift). The one-mile kayaking portion through shallow Little Glen Lake doesn’t pose a physical challenge as much as a navigational one.

The closing of the M-22 Narrows Bridge south of Glen Arbor had nothing to do with the Myers’ decision to start and end the M-22 Challenge near the Dune Climb on M-109, by the way. The location was chosen long before the Michigan Department of Transportation began rebuilding the bridge.

“Logistically, (M-109) makes the most sense,” explains Matt. “You have the park and the open space (on Little Glen Lake) where we’ll have the paddle event; the dune climb is right across street, and for the biking event we can have all right-hand turns for safety. Plus, the spectators can watch every event start and finish at that one spot.”

M-109 will close temporarily as the runners cross the road toward the Dune Climb, but all roads will remain open for the biking leg of the race. Matt Myers says that local police will monitor busy intersections along the route.

Runners … on your mark … get set … go!