Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Fort Collins is a “Smarter City” — Boulder isn’t
NRDC just named 22 “Smarter Cities” nationwide. Check out the research methodology on their site. You can also see where Boulder qualified for certain of their criteria.
To assess the efforts to limit municipal demand of energy and provide clean energy, Smarter Cities surveyed city governments about the city’s aggregate kilowatt hour consumption, top three fuel sources, whether it had completed a greenhouse gas inventory, energy conservation programs (including targets for reduced consumption) and processes to measure energy conservation. The Smarter Cities team sought advice from experts both in and outside of NRDC to develop its plan. “It was important to establish a clear and reasonable description of the factor by which the Smarter Cities team would compare cities’ performance—a description that was researchable, meaning there was comprehensive, pertinent and reliable data to collect,” says Brandi Colander, an NRDC attorney with NRDC’s Air and Energy programs and a Smarter Cities project advisor.
via American Cities Get Smart about Energy | Smarter Cities.
FLEX bus: Longmont, Berthoud, Loveland, Ft. Collins get connected
FLEX bus map from RTD
We do like to be useful around here, so we’re glad to see that someone linked to us in trying to solve some commute worries. The case in question involved a Boulder-to-Loveland trip and, as of today, that trip became a one-transfer trip (or maybe two if you’re starting from somewhere difficult in Boulder).
The RTD FLEX bus starts service today. Here’s the FLEX bus schedule (PDF).
A quick picture from the Loveland Reporter-Herald of what a FLEX bus schedule might look like for a commuter (shift the hours back a touch for a “normal” commute):
[Mass-transit advocate Gary] Thomas will depart from the transit center at The Square retail center in Fort Collins at 5 a.m. Monday and arrive at Longmont’s south transit center at Coffman and Eighth streets just after 6 a.m.
There, riders have the option of boarding RTD express buses for Denver or Boulder.
Day festivals in Fort Collins just got a bit closer. And folks who commute along this path are happier now, too, according to a Times-Call story about FLEX bus riders.
“It’s about time,” [Longmont resident Connie] Poole said of the new bus route.
She said she’d been frustrated in the past with the lack of a bus route connecting Longmont to Larimer County.
FLEX northern Colorado bus service launches in June
Coyote Ridge near Fort Collins | flickr user gregor_y
If you were looking to get up to Fort Collins by bus (say, for some beer or rock ‘n’ roll or for the 2010 Tour de Fat on Sept. 4), it looks like you can take the BOLT to Longmont and take the FLEX up to Fort Collins — starting in just a couple of weeks. Read more
Tour de Fat 2010: New Belgium’s bike fest
Tour de Fat 2010 is coming up! | flickr user ret0dd
Need more stuff to look forward to this summer? How about an annual bike, beer and recycling party? The Colorado stops on the 2010 Tour de Fat are mighty far away (Sept. 4 in Fort Collins, Sept. 11 in Denver), but that doesn’t mean you can’t start brainstorming your wacky outfit for it — or start building your crazy bike, if that’s more your speed. Read more
Sustainable brewing in Colorado not done impressing you yet
photo by flickr user Tobyotter
Sláinte! Said it before and I’ll say it again, I think Colorado likes green beer more than Boston does.
Anybody who’s ever been up to Fort Collins to tour a brewery or two knows what pride they take in the reduction of their carbon footprint. For example, New Belgium Brewery has been 100% wind-powered for quite a long time (fun facts: so has Brooklyn Brewery, whose fedora-sporting owner learned to brew beer while he was an AP correspondent in the Middle East).
But two Fort Collins breweries are ramping it up:
Not THAT kind of green beer, you maroon | photo by flickr user eustaquio
Now, New Belgium’s turning on a big ol’ solar array (870 panels, 200 kilowatts, according to the Coloradoan, and that they said back in August would take care of up to 13 percent of their energy needs; $1 million to build, but the Department of Energy paid for about 40 percent). And Odell Brewing Company is installing a big array, too (76.8 kilowatts, 39 percent of their energy needs).
New Belgium is working in partnership with Fort Collins’ FortZED initiative, which is a public/private collaboration to lighten the load on the electrical grid during peak hours.
h/t @ecopolitologist and Earth and Industry
Sustainable Living Fair draws greenies in Fort Collins
In case you couldn’t make it to the Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins this weekend, the Coloradoan has a little slice of the sustainable fair action posted on its site:
3-year-old Maisie Godfrey-Cory puts a doll to bed inside the natural parenting tent during the Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins. | Photo: Dawn Madura / The Coloradoan
About 30 people watched a local food cook-off featuring Sarah Tomsic from Drive-By Diner in Fort Collins and Jason Shaeffer, chef at Chimney Park Restaurant and Bar in Windsor.
Each had to prepare three dishes in 60 minutes using ingredients that came from within 300 miles of Fort Collins.
Both prepared dishes using spicy peppers, fresh fruit, beets and pork.
The Sustainable Living Fair photo gallery buries the needle on the that’s-adorable meter, too.
If you want in on the action, the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Association offers workshops year-round. Some of the current selections include cheesemaking, native plant propagation and grid-tied photovoltaics.
More GREEN-IT-YOURSELF at BigGreenBoulder:
Carpooling at CU gets fancier, less scary
Green burials: Fort Collins steps it up
