Category: Joliet

Get on Your Bike

A few weeks ago marked the summer solstice, and I venture the following exhortation as we relish (or endure) this season of heat and long days.

We need to get out of our cars and get back on our bikes. Few things you do this summer will be better for your mind, body, and spirit.

Whether you’re a twenty-something or a senior, bikes are low-impact exercise machines that folks of all ages can use safely and pleasurably. My five-foot-tall arthritic Grandma Dorothy, bless her departed soul, rode a three-wheeler well into her seventies. And my spry 71-year-old father just got out his 1950s-era English road bike — the same one he rode through Joliet as a teenager — and started cruising again. Dad, I salute you!

Don’t have a bike? Just get one. Try a garage sale, where bikes abound; or even a neighbor’s garage, where I once scored a dusty vintage Schwinn Varsity ten-speed for fifty bucks. I’ve already put hundreds of miles on this classic and fully expect to be riding it for the next thirty years.

Feeling cheap? In case you haven’t noticed, gasoline is no bargain. For the price of a few fill-ups, you can get a very good bike at a local establishment and soon recoup your investment hand over handlebar. After that, you’re saving money every time you ride.

Old bike need a tune-up beyond oiling the chain and inflating the tires? If you’re not up to doing it yourself, take it to your local repair shop, get the job done right, and feed our hometown economy rather than the multinational oil production/pollution complex. (Yes, I’m liberal, but I’m also patriotic.)

Beyond these undeniably compelling reasons to get on your bike is something intangible but no less important: the experience of riding.

On a bike, life is palpably different. You feel the wind and sun. You breathe fresh air instead of recycled, air conditioned exhaust. Out of necessity, you pay attention to your surroundings. You use your muscles — remember them? — and challenge yourself physically. You glide by queued-up cars and see envious glances from the imprisoned drones therein.

On a bike you discover new ways to travel to your favorite places — back streets and bike paths where car traffic is lighter and life moves more slowly. You say hello to people working in their yards or to kids playing on the sidewalk, and in return get a smile or a friendly wave. In the process you start to see your community in a much different way — and, I would humbly suggest, a much better way.

Dear readers, I therefore beseech thee: get on your bikes! If you do, be sure to check back with me at the autumnal equinox and let me know how your summer went.

The essay, one of my monthly op-ed pieces for the Joliet Herald-News, was originally published as  “See Joliet, Will County by Bicycle” on 23 June 2011.

Sustainability in Joliet

Here in my hometown of Joliet, Illinois, one of this spring’s biggest events is happening this coming Saturday, May 21st, at the Public Library’s Black Road branch by the Rock Run Forest Preserve. It’s the GR2011 Sustainability Festival, a family-friendly celebration of nature, green technology and innovation, recycling, and environmental conservation.

Volunteers at last year's GR2010 Festival in Joliet

Based on the tremendous and somewhat unexpected success of last year’s inaugural festival, GR2011 should be even bigger and better. And with an impressive line-up of live music as well as local food vendors, the Festival is living proof that that promoting environmentalism and having fun aren’t mutually exclusive pursuits.

Even more importantly, in the year since the Will County Forest Preserve, the Joliet Public Library, Joliet Junior College, and the City of Joliet collaborated on 2010’s festival, the Joliet region has continued to take meaningful steps toward becoming a environmentally progressive and more sustainable community. That movement is part of a larger wellspring of environmental activism throughout the Chicago region, from the inner city to the outer suburbs.

Consider just a few representative examples here at home. Tonight at the Black Road Library is a free screening of the film, “Fresh,” which profiles farmers and food entrepreneurs who have developed creative approaches to sustainable agriculture. The movie is the fourth of weekly screenings leading up to the GR2011 Festival, and the film series has been a refreshing addition to the city’s cultural scene.

JJC greenhouse (photo: Steinkamp Photography / Legat Architects)

Two other key players on the local sustainability scene are JJC and USF, both of which are undertaking a variety of environmental initiatives. I visited JJC on their Earth Day celebration last month, and spoke with several students and faculty who are passionate about environmental stewardship, green design, and sustainable agriculture. The college is emerging as a regional leader in campus greening initiatives, and the faculty there are just starting to collaborate on an exciting new sustainability curriculum.

Meanwhile, USF and the recently-lauded grassroots organization Cool Joliet have broken ground on a community garden along busy Plainfield Road on the city’s near-West Side. The newly-constructed raised beds herald the forthcoming transformation of this neglected vacant lot into a productive green space.

Cool Joliet is also working on a similar garden at nearby Farragut school, which reportedly will be one of several school gardens planned in District 86. This bodes well for the 11,000 children in the district, as such gardens not only beautify school grounds, but also serve as multidisciplinary learning laboratories, points of contact with nature, and much-needed sources of fresh produce.

All these efforts show that sustainability is not just a trendy buzzword or an abstract concept. It’s a practical and fundamentally positive approach to environmental stewardship that foregrounds green entrepreneurship and social justice.

Don’t just read about it here, though. Come to the GR2011 Festival in Joliet on May 21st and see for yourself!

A version of this post, “Festival Celebrates What’s Green,” was published as my monthly op-ed column in the Joliet Herald-News on May 19th, 2011 (p14).

Joliet Junior College’s Green Opportunity in Downtown Joliet

            Last week as I walked down Chicago Street in downtown Joliet on my way to work, a giant crane — the jaws of its bucket suspended high in the cold gray winter sky — began the demolition of The White Store.

            Here in America, we’re good at a lot of things. One of them is knocking down buildings we consider to be worn out, old-fashioned, and/or irrelevant. Some of these structures were admittedly unremarkable in their architecture; others, though, were beautiful in design and possessed historical significance. One need only study the sorry history of lost buildings in Chicago to realize this.

            The imminent razing of Joliet’s 102-year-old White Store signals an end to the occasionally controversial debate over its fate, but is also an apt moment to pause and reflect on what kind of building should take its place in Joliet Junior College’s downtown campus redevelopment.

            Fortunately, JJC’s project is not an isolated endeavor, but part of their comprehensive master plan for the institution’s growth and evolution. Another factor is that the building design has not been finalized, to my knowledge.

            Consequently, I offer the following humble suggestions to the project’s leaders, with the caveat that I am neither an architect nor an urban planner — merely an interested citizen.

            (1) Go local. The Chicago region has a long and illustrious architectural history, and is exceedingly rich in design talent and building innovation. The downtown campus redevelopment could be a showcase project for a deserving firm, tie Joliet’s contemporary cityscape into that regional architectural legacy, and in the process feed the northeastern Illinois economy.

            (2) Make it green. With its LEED-certified greenhouse as well as other campus sustainability initiatives, JJC is leaping to the forefront of environmentally progressive colleges and universities. Building a model green structure would further this momentum, and create an environmental destination in downtown Joliet (much like notable green buildings draw visitors and media to other cities).

            (3) Be bold. This building must be special — a visual statement possessing flair and integrity. It should be unique in character and well-fitted to its purpose, yet harmonize with the heterogeneous architectural landscape of downtown. The last thing the world needs is another functional yet blasé box of a building.

            (4) Get lucky. The State’s financial house, unfortunately, is crumbling as fast as The White Store is, leaving JJC’s funding prospects uncertain. A miraculous economic turnaround in Illinois wouldn’t hurt, would it?

This article was published as “JJC’s Plan Should Be Bold, Green” in the Joliet Herald-News on Feb. 3rd, 2011. I write a monthly op-ed piece for the paper on local environmental, culture, and political issues. This is the same newspaper that I delivered as a kid, on foot and on my bike — including the days after the legendary Blizzard of ’79 that hit the Chicago region with a snowfall nearly equal to this week’s storm.