In walk with Councilmembers Sharon Zadra and Jessica Sferrazza, Lauren Scott shares great idea

Several people braved the impossible heat at noon today to join Sharon Zadra and Jessica Sferrazza on yet another Monday noon walk, a regular event started about a couple of months ago.  This event gives constituents an opportunity to bring their concerns and issues directly to their representatives on the city council.  Except now, future Monday walks may not happen at noon until our heat wave ends (which doesn’t seem to be anytime soon).  So, plans are to find either an early morning or early evening time to do this on the weekly Monday walks.  Still, people did show up at noon, gathering at the foot bridge at West Street Plaza.  And, thanks to that Facebook site, no one (except this one couple, unknown to me anyway) were strangers. 

Lauren Scott had already posted an idea on the Wall at Facebook and it’s a good one.  It addresses the wasteful and polluting practice of restaurants, etc. discarding their used cooking oil; she pointed out that all that could be used (after a fairly inexpensive processing of it) as biodiesel fuel (for our city buses, for example).  Jessica already knew Lauren was going to bring this up, so it was an easy matter for Lauren to brief Sharon and Jessica on this.   Examples were given of other cities that had programs to use the oil.  Both council members clearly want to follow up with an examination of this as a possible practice in Reno also.  (In addition to city buses, Don Clark also suggested that school buses could also be fueled with biodiesel.  He also had some news in regards to the possible use of fuel cells in city buses.  Clark and his wife Susan are the folks at Cathexes, btw.  See the recent article on the event that was recently held there.)

(Lauren’s Facebook wall post reposted at bottom of this article as an “addendum”.  Note the useful links provided.)

We ended up walking all the way to the spot under the Wells Street bridge where the walk labrynith is and then retracing our steps back to downtown:

In above photo: Sharon, Don, and Lauren

In above photo, couple whose names I don’t know, Donna at rear (she found us late in the walk!) and Jessica on the right.

On another note:  Since I lived and worked in Napa for a little over 20 years, I was curious about the road trip the Mayor and the City Council recently took to Napa (and San Francisco) to check out their open aired market plazas.  So I asked Jessica about that.  She reported that Reno and Napa have similiar flood control plans for the rivers running through our respective cities.  She also noted, that unlike Reno, their river trail (I think she’s probably referring to the downtown area of Napa) didn’t run immediately adjacent to the river.  (At one point, she pointed across the river and told me about that tall building across from the ballpark and how it should have had a set back so people could now have easy walk access also on the north side of the river along that stretch, just east of the downtown center.)

Another note: when I told Jessica about Paula McDonough’s effort to open up an affordable grocery store at the 2nd and N. Sierra St site, she was very enthusiastic….saying such a store was clearly needed.

Addendum:  Here is Lauren’s wall post at the Facebook event page set up for today’s walk.  Note the useful links.

I would like to discuss starting a municipal waste cooking oil collection program (from schools, hotels and restaurants) with the intention of recycling this useful product into biodiesel for private use and for use in the city and county buses and municipal fleets. This program would reduce the amount of oil in the waste stream and sewers, reduce the cities dependence on foreign oil and reduce the pollution from traditional #2 diesel. It might even save some money. For more information –

Used Cooking Oil—Harvesting an Urban Crop from Casinos
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/biodiesel/nevada.html#casinos

Producing Biodiesel for Municipal Vehicle Fleets from Recycled Cooking Oil
http://www.alabamacleanfuels.org/docs/AUMuncipalBiodieselGuideFINAL.pdf

Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus
http://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/biodiesel/resources/DOE_DOAG_lifecycle.pdf

Third Eye reports…..

First, an important (somewhat disconcerting) bit of news: I will be away from Reno for most of March and April, attending to house/land/animal/garden caretaking duties near Point Arena, California.  This will obviously necessitate me taking out my old DIA Coordinate Remote Viewing Manual (declassified in the late 90s and viewable for all online at http://www.crvmanual.com) so that I can extend my Third Eye vision on things here!

But….I’m still here, mostly using my two externally obvious eyes, and can report that a lot is happening in Reno (from where I’m sitting).  The inauguration is this coming Tuesday and I’m just learning that Java Jungle will have a large screen TV up and running for patrons to watch and celebrate the beginning of Barack Obama’s Presidency.  The barista announced that before Mark Sexton and one of his band members performed for the packed crowd here tonight.  (Now, we have a young woman reading poetry.  She’s discussing right now her hatred of WalMart.)

But, my main thing to report is some news from local artist Treejah (in his own words):

I have started a community art project in Reno called Macro Center for Arts and Music; I am looking for all ages to participate in music and art shows, as well as art workshops.  If interested, contact Treejah at look2ethiopia@yahoo.com and macroartsreno@gmail.com or 775 997 5173  See: http://www.myspace.com/look2ethiopia

On to other matters:  I have started a Facebook group that promotes the candidacy of Byllie Andrews for the Assembly District 27 seat.  Sheila Leslie cannot run again, due to term limits, so that seat becomes completely open for real competition in 2010.  At this time, it appears likely that at least a few other folks are contemplating competing in the Democratic primary in addition to Byllie. 

Facebook seems to be growing in popularity among many people I know in Reno, largely as a networking tool and a vehicle to give people a fast “heads up” on things going on.  Twitter is also growing in usage around here.    As an example, we have Brian Burghart, editor of the weekly Reno News and Review reporting in this weeks column about his “increasing addiction to the social networking site Facebook.com”.  He has just started up a RenoNewsandReview page there and has been receiving helpful information related to some things he is looking into as a result.

Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) introduces “Forum Theater” to Reno.

 

Using theatre to change the world.

PRESENTING:

 

Forum Theatre

A GLIMPSE INTO THE PROJECT

WHAT: Forum Theatre was originally created by Augusto Boal on the streets of Rio de Janeiro in a method called “Theatre of the Oppressed”.

THE “REHEARSALS”: Participants, or “actors” , will pair theatre exercises with conversations that seek to analyze and identify specific issues affecting them and their community at large. Participants will then create scenes around the most pressing community conflicts.

THE “PERFORMANCES”:

The scenes will be performed to the larger public in multiple

venues. Because the scenes will pose serious questions about societal problems, we will

expect answers! Audience members will be asked to participate by either commenting out or

joining the stage to help “act out” solutions to each problem.

 

 

WHY:

Our community is in desperate need of effective dialogue revolving around social

issues and the voice of the young people must be heard! The goal is not only to empower

the opinions of young people, but to create a space where everyone can work together to

try to find solutions to dire problems.

 

 

WHO:

This project is open to participants who are under the age of 25. If you do not

fit this criteria and have experience with this type of Theatre and would like to help out,

please contact PLAN.

 

 

WANT TO BE INVOLVED?         CONTACT NYAP!

CONTACT: Mailynn Stormon-Trinh

NYAP at the PLAN Office:

821 Riverside Dr.

Reno, NV 89508

(775) 348-7557

 

The above notice was reposted from http://planevada.org/content/view/60/244/

Discovering more of Reno’s “new media”…

First, when discussing Tracy Viselli and Ed Lenert’s upcoming Nevada New Media Summit yesterday, I was unaware of this article (it helps to actually scroll down when visiting a blog in order to see what’s previously been written):

http://www.mrjerz.org/blog/new-media-is-not-what-you-think-it-is

I found the above article by going here:

http://outside.in/Reno_NV

That’s a site that “tracks” news and conversations from thousands of communities.  Zeke of ZekeSaysSo always, and I mean ALWAYS, shows up at the top when he posts something new, even ahead of anything our local daily paper writes!!!!  I’ve never seen anything by the Turd Eye on Reno.

Often when people post comments at different blog articles, they can choose to have people check out their own blogs.  (Clicking on the name, if hypertexted, does the trick in taking you to the blog of the commentator.)

In that way, I discovered two great blogs:

First, is one by Laurel Busch from “Rabbitbrush Ranch” where she focuses on Northern Nevada and gardening.  It looks like a valuable resource to me (with great photos posted):

http://blog.laurelbusch.com

Then, there’s one by Bob Conrad (communications officer for the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources) where he addresses “crises, public relations and the news media” in his blog “The Good, The Bad, The Spin”:

http://thegoodthebadthespin.com

Also, I should add a note on the blog where I first really read about all this “new media” stuff.  It’s written by a young man named “Wolfy” who identifies his blog as the “HQ of the i am indisposed media conglomerate corp worldwide (iaimccw)”:

http://iamindisposed.com/blog/

update:

I just saw a forum discussion thread started up by Wolfy at http://renonv.ning.com which led me to this interesting ning group discussing “new media” here: http://newmediacrusaders.ning.com

Third Eye Rounds and discovering (a) “Nevada New Media” and (b) coworking setting in Reno.

Thanks to the feeding of blog articles into places like http://nevadamojo.blogspot.com and http://zekesaysso.blogspot.com ,  I come across many interesting new things just by simply scrolling down the margins of these sites (where the various fresh and new articles are linked from).  So, in that way I found a note (with a useful link) on something called “Nevada New Media” at Ryan Jerz’s blog: http://mrjerz.org  And, Mr. Jerz linked to a blog article elsewhere, where one of the founders of something called Nevada New Media (see http://www.nevadanewmedia.org) was engaged in an active conversation addressing the questions and criticsms of the blog writer: http://www.iamindisposed.com/blog/2009/01/02/nevada-new-media-right-where-right-when/

Tracy Viselli (Myrna the Minx from http://www.renodiscontent.com) along with others (including a fellow sponsor, UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism) are developing a new site here:  http://www.nevadanewmedia.org

On March 7, 2009, the Reynolds School of Journalism is sponsoring a Nevada New Media Summit (at UNR) to explore the impact of new media and technology in Nevada and also examine how to “develop an innovative new media culture that anticipates trends and issues…….”  (I think a ticket to this was posted as costing only $25.)

At this yet to be completed Nevada New Media website, I found some interesting sites in the blogroll.  And, started on the road to new discoveries, chief of which was this concept of “coworking” (manifesting here in Reno through a vehicle called the Reno Collective).   Two guys from Reno, Ed Adkins and Colin Loretz, are the founders and there site is here:  http://renocollective.com  Go to http://renocollective.com/about/ and learn about their intent to create a “coworking” setting here in Reno.

What is “coworking”?  Well, Adkins and Loretz had a link to a wikipedia article on this concept.  I am reposting the definition offered at that page:

Coworking is an emerging trend for a new pattern for working. Typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors or people who travel frequently end up working in relative isolation.^[1] Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values^[2] and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space.^[3][4]

Some coworking spaces were developed by nomadic internet entrepreneurs seeking an alternative to working in coffeeshops and cafes, or to isolation in independent or home offices.^[5][6][7]

Business accelerators, business incubators and executive suites do not seem to fit into the coworking model, because they often miss the social, collaborative, and informal^[8] aspects of the process, with management practices closer to that of a Cooperative, including a focus on community^[9] rather than profit.^[10] Many of the coworking participants are also participants in BarCamp^[11] and other related open source technology activities.^[12][13][14]

Third Eye wanderings in the land of Facebook, #1

It seemed that several months before the election, my email inbox exploded with a sudden flood of invites by all sorts of people to be their “friend”.  To be sure, most were actually friends already, largely from toiling in Reno’s political fields, but still…..In any event, I became reacquainted with Facebook after initially signing on in 2006 (where I mostly linked up with people promoting Evan Bayh for President).

Local, regional, state wide, and national politicians are all using Facebook as a networking tool.  And, so are activists and movement promotoers of all stripes.  Creating a group is one way people go in order to link up with those with a similiar outlook or “cause”.

All this activity has not died out after the election.  In fact, it only seems to be picking up steam. 

For now, I’ll just share three things going on right now.  I don’t get a chance to spend too much time delving into Facebook’s many groups, but will over time try to find all the interesting Reno related groups.

A couple of days ago I joined the group “Buy Local” after seeing that one of my friends (Byllie Andrews, candidate for the Assembly) had joined this group.  (All this info about friends’ activities is posted on your home page at Facebook.)  The group was created by John Murphy from Reno News and Review.

(Last night on the local Channel 2 news I saw a report on a Black Friday event involving a chartered bus taking people around to many local shops to get their gift shopping done with local merchants.  Morning starts apparently with champagne.)

Facebook “Buy Local” group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=53256081512

Assemblyman David Bobzien is the creator of a new group that I recently joined also, called “Nevada2020″.  This group is devoted to examining how we can “overhaul Nevada’s financial structure” so that we are not vulnerable and at the whim to boom or bust cycles in the economy.  (See http://www.nv2020.com)
 
Facebook’s “Nevada2020″ group:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=37473800756

And, local blogger Zeke is expanding his networking operations via Facebook.  I also recently became a “fan” of ZekeSaysSo. 
 
ZekeSaysSo:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZEKE-SAYS-SO-Blog/51041638488#