Here’s my effort to vote for the environment!

Find out how I’m voting on the 13 state-level propositions and the state-level positions :)

City of Santa Monica

Members of the City Council (3 votes)
* Pam O’Connor
* Kevin McKeown
* Terry O’Day

Members of the Rent Control Board (3 votes)
* Jennifer Kennedy
* Zelia Mollica
* Marilyn Korade-Wilson

Measure U: Amend charter, giving City Manager more authority. Yes.

Measure V: Clean our beaches. Yes.

Measure W: The SO-NOT Good Government Act. NO

Measure Y: Lowest law enforcement priority for adult, personal marijuana use. Yes.

Members of the Board of Trustees for Santa Monica Community College District (4 votes):
* Nancy Greenstein
* Andrew Walzer
* Louise Jaffe
* David B. Finkel

Governing Board Members of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (4 votes)
* Emily Bloomfield
* Kelly McMahon Pye
* Barry A. Snell
* Oscar de la Torre

Measure BB (Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District): Yes

Tags: vote, voting, losangeles, california, santamonica, malibu

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[A series documenting my efforts to eat local! Kick-off post’s here]

Why, oh why must these farmers markets close so damn early? I’d be at those things every week, except that many of them close at the insane hour of 1 pm. ON WEEKENDS! What up with that?

To combat this problem, I thought the best solution would be to just grow my own damn veggies. I have a lil balcony now — I can start a lil balcony garden :)

So with both a high dose of optimism and my eco-good intentions, I signed up for a “Back Yard Farm” event, organized by Slow Food LA.

The event featured James Birch (left) of Flora Bella Farms in Three Rivers, Cali, and promised to help me grow food, safely, in my own back yard.

I mentally substituted “yard” with “balcony.”

But while I found the event inspiring, I have to say that overall, I didn’t get a whole lotta good advice for starting my own lil veggie garden in my balcony.

I mean, the main, basic pieces of advice were: Halt the pesticides (don’t got pesticides on my balcony), compost or till back into soil (what soil?), and look into getting a lab done on your soil composition (again, what soil?).

On the upside, I discovered a yum new restaurant, Il Grano, where this event was hosted.

Apparently, Il Grano’s all about using local produce. In fact, the restaurant cooked local hors d’oeuvres for us, using seasonal fruits and vegetables from James’ farm.

Which makes me think — Maybe I should first focus on patronizing restaurants that go to the farmers market for me….

Update, 3/12/07: Read the whole series, posted both here and on Treehugger.

Tags: ilgrano, local, 100milediet

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How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006, for the City of Santa Monica. Here are my votes for the state-level propositions and for the state-level offices.

My vote on Measure W: No

Why Measure W’s called the Good Government Act is a lil beyond me, since the prop would let politicians take kickbacks more easily.

Santa Monica passed a reform law to curb political kickbacks back in 2000. Sadly, this reform’s been fought against ever since. And now, a prop’s been put on the ballot to try and fool Santa Monica voters into undoing this reform.

Sez Steve Lopez of the LA Times: Prop W would essentially “rip up the 2000 reform law and replace it with a measure that would limit the size of gifts a politician could accept, but allow him to accept a campaign donation or even a job after voting on matters affecting the donor.”

Which is why some people’ve put together a No on Prop W campaign site, with a rather sensational banner: “Santa Monica: For Sale by City Council.”

I’m not into hyperboles, but I don’t like bad propositions. And I plan to vote no on Prop W.

Tags: vote, voting, santamonica, california, measurew

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• Starbucks tries to boost its image by playing up its relationship with Conservation International (mp3) through its podcast, but Conservation International makes it clear that quality coffee requires a long-term contract that guarantees a sustainable price for coffee BEFORE the coffee even becomes yummy, NOT AFTER, which is what Starbucks’ self-made CAFE Practices largely claims to do to “encourage quality coffee.”
• Starbucks workers in Chicago and NYC get significant pay raises! Corporate denies this has anything to do with IWW union activities in those cities.
• LA’s local coffee roasters, covered here. Don’t assume these companies are fair trade and organic if the lack certification, but do make an effort to go local rather than — you know — Starbucks.



• Get hyper-local news. Just type yr zip into outside.in, and find out what’s happening, within blocks.

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How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006, at the state-level. Here’s how I’m voting on the propositions.

My vote for CA Lieutenant Governor: John Garamendi

What does the CA Lieutenant Governor do?: The LG takes over the State Governor’s duties when the Governor’s unable to perform them. The LG also serves as prez of the State Senate, the Regent of the University of California and Trustee of the California State University System, and serves as chair or member of various commissions, including commissions for the environment.
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I’m voting for John, our current Insurance Commissioner. John’s made the environment a big part of his campaign platform, and has the endorsements of both the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters.

The guy seems like a MUCH better choice than the Republican dude, Tom McClintock, who doesn’t seem to be a big fan of the environment. For more deets on Tom’s anti-enviro stance, check out Speak Out California’s post here.

Vote John Garamendi for Lieutenant Governor.

Tags: vote, california, losangeles, johngaramendi, garamendi, lieutenantgovernor

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How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006, at the state-level. Here’s how I’m voting on the propositions.

My vote for CA Controller: John Chiang.

What does the CA Controller do?: The Controller’s basically in charge of CA’s money. She / he’s responsible for making sure our state budget’s spent properly and helps administer state pension funds. The Controller also serves on a number of state boards and commissions.

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This one’s sort of a no-brainer, for those who care ’bout the environment. And yes, the Controller’s enviro-stance is important, cuz Controller gets a seat on the State Lands Commission.

John, a tax lawyer out of Torrance, has got the endorsements of both Sierra Club California and California League of Conservation Voters.

The other major candidate, the Republican Tony Strickland, just doesn’t seem to care ’bout the environment.

Here are my reasons for endorsing John in the primaries. Vote for John Chiang :)

Tags: vote, california, losangeles, primary, johnchiang, controller

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How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006, at the state-level. Here’s how I’m voting on the propositions.

My vote for Governor: Phil Angelides.

What does the CA Governor do?: The Governor’s the head of the Executive branch of CA state govt, in charge of carrying out state laws and picking out the people to take charge of state departments, agencies, boards, commissions and councils. The governor’s also commander-in-chief of CA’s military forces, activating CA’s National Guard if necessary and directing all state agencies in state emergencies.
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Well, you know I’m not gonna vote for our current Hummer-loving governator. I’d like to remind you that the guy owns not 1, but 4 hummers.

Of course, Arnold’s working overtime to portray himself as a green dude. In July, he petitioned the federal government to protect 4.4 million acres of California’s wild forests, assisted the Million Solar Roofs initiative, signed in a landmark legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in Cali 25% by 2020, and got Cali into Northeast’s carbon-trading program.

I find it interesting that all these nice initiatives only started happening like 5 months ago.

Look at Arnold’s record over time, and you’ll see that the guy’s just not serious about the environment. Yes, Arnie sez he’s behind the state’s requirement that autos sold in Cali have lower emissions starting in the 2009 model year. But he vetoed a bill that would make half the cars and trucks sold in California be powered by alternative fuels by 2020 :( Arnie also vetoed a bill that woulda cut pollutants from shipping ports. And he’s appointed many unsavory people to Cali enviro boards.

Phil Angelides, in contrast, is not just a fair-weather-friend of the environment. The guy built up a strong green record as state treasurer, investing heavily in renewable-energy development and making Cali a leader in green investments.

The guy’s not afraid to go out on a limb for important issue. He has, for ex, come out in support of Prop 89, which would help our elections be decided by constituents, not big money.

And please don’t believe Arnold’s spin, trying to peg Angelides as a tax-raiser. Yes, Angelides wants to raise taxes — for the rich, undertaxed dudes.

Angelides, BTW, drives a hybrid. He owns no Hummers. He’s endorsed by the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters, as well as other enviro orgs.

I’m not saying there aren’t things I don’t like about Angelides — cuz there are. I especially don’t like his habit of running sensational negative ads.

But if you’re voting for the environment, and for a Cali that’s happier for the general pop as opposed to just the rich elite, vote for Angelides.

Tags: philangelides, angelides, governor, california, schwarzenegger, arnold, arnoldschwarzenegger

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Here’s my effort to vote for the environment!

For info on how I’m voting on the 13 propositions up for vote this Nov., check out this list.

State

Governor: Phil Angelides

Lieutenant Governor: John Garamendi

Secretary of State: Debra Bowen

Controller: John Chiang

Treasurer: Bill Lockyer

Attorney General: Jerry Brown

Insurance Commissioner: No vote, for now

Member of State Board of Equalization, 4th district: Judy Chu

US Senator: Todd Chretien

US Representative, 30th district: Henry Waxman

Member of the State Assembly, 41st district: Julia Brownley

Tags: vote, voting, losangeles, california, losangeles

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How I’m voting for the environment on Nov. 7, 2006, at the state-level. Here’s how I’m voting on the propositions.

My vote for Secretary of State: Debra Bowen.

What does the Secretary of State do?: The SoS oversees elections as the state’s Chief Elections Officer. She / he oversees the disclosure of campaign and lobbyist financial information, the chartering of corporations, and commissioning of notaries public, along with other misc. duties. (More detailed info here)
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Debra’s the clear choice here — and she has a good chance at winning this election.

Environmentally: She’s got the endorsement of California League of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club California.

She also has the endorsement of LA VoteFIRE, an org trying to get instant runoff elections in LA. David of LA VoteFIRE’s stumping for her.

Debra’s a current State Senator, and she says that as SoS, she’ll establish accurate auditing of all election results and make sure all voting’s certified — esp. the new electronic voting machines. She’s also aganst burdensome voter ID requirements.

Debra’s in dead heat with Bruce McPherson, the incumbent, who sez: “The biggest difference of opinion I have with Debra is that she doesn’t trust the systems, and I do” — as if his trust’s a good thing.

Sez Debra: “The secretary of state believes [electronic voting machines] are fine…. The American public disagrees.” Debra adds that Bruce has “taken the word of the voting machine vendors … rather than what’s good for California citizens.”

Vote for Debra.

Tags: vote, voting, california, secretaryofstate, debrabowen

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I already covered how you can green your pumpkin, but what about the rest of your ghoulish festivities? Some tips to celebrate, green style –

Decorations
Why get lanterns when you can get canturns? These’re soup cans, refashioned into pretty lanterns :) Cost: $10-40.

And for the candles inside those canturns or pumpkins (see below) — Try soy or beeswax candles. In LA, try Earth Accents or Whole Foods. Online, try Country Light Candle Company or the Beeswas Candle Company.

Also, check out the Traditional Papel Picado Mexican party streamers from Global Exchange’s kit :)

Costume
Rent or borrow a costume — or get creative with something that’s already in your closet :) Another option’s to buy something at Goodwill or another thrift shop, wear it for Halloween, then donate the ‘fit back.

Party
For your invites, use email, vintage, or recycled notes, in that order :) As in reduce, reuse, recycle. And as with all parties, use reusable, or at the very least, compostable plates and flatware.

Candy
Buy organic, fair trade candy! Cybele’s put a whole list together for you :) My fave’s Equal Exchange’s organic, fair trade chocolate minis :)

Tags: greenhalloween, halloween, decorate, costume, candle

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