So Steve Bukowski and I found what looked like a remarkably large green patch of overgrowth in the Cleveland Flats while checking out google maps the other day. After 2 rides downtown and 1 failed attempt we finally found it. An abandoned iron bridge was absolutely covered with overgrowth. It was a little island sorrounded by Kingsbury run, a little waterway which is sewer run off. Pretty gross and smelly, but the island smelled great because there was so much plant life! Pretty impressive too considering the ground was mostly gravel, debris and concrete or brick. Just one of many unique spots in the Cuyahoga Valley, and a testament that plants don’t care!

Beatiful island, smelled great, but the water not so much. . .

There were trees growing out of cracks in cement!

A beautiful fall day just off the towpath

The towpath marathon was yesterday, October 11. The runners began at Boston Mills ski resort and ran up and down the towpath trail. It was a perfect day in the 50s and sunny. This shot is at mile 16 of the full marathon trail along the towpath.

Here is our blog to post progress on our work on The Cuyahoga Valley Initiative and Biomimicry. For a first post, I’d like to introduce the foolishness of industrial thinking. Here is an example of sprinklers in the rain. I was walking to school the other day in the rain, and had to hesitate to not be sprayed directly by the sprinkler system at Case.

The sidewalk is wet, not because of the sprinklers, but because of the rain that had been steadily coming down for almost 24 hours. The puddles show the sprinklers. The wet sidewalk is from a day’s worth of rain. Turning on sprinklers in the rain is, to me, the epitome of industrial thinking.

It is cheaper, in our current system, to have a machine programmed to turn the water on (regardless of the weather) than it is to hire a person whose duties would include looking out the window, deciding if the grass needed water or not on that day, and hitting the “on” button if it did. This, of course, includes the very demanding task of that same person (or another) actually touching the earth to see if it’s had enough moisture on said days, and if so, hitting the “off” button.

Very difficult work, I know, but I do believe we can find someone capable of doing, not only of these two jobs, but of managing other tasks throughout the day as well. But, that is not “efficient” in the industrial sense. In the industrial sense, one never calculates the cost of wasted water. The cost of people being out of work is irrelevant (until the unemployed get cranky about it). And no industrial system can measure the cost of people not being allowed to think, or make decisions on their jobs. These issues do not factor into spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel Wizards.

So, the task is, how do we begin to factor these costs in? Do we need to? Is this important? Why? Does it really matter whether we water the lawn in the rain or not?

Here is the place to post work, ask questions and posit ideas. Enjoy.