MissionMainStreet by Tom Barwin

Few areas in the United States have the traffic volumes, parking demands, population densities, and pedestrian movements found in the Big Apple. This reality, combined with fleets of taxis, jammed busses, and miles of subways would make New York seem like the last place on earth to integrate bicycle lanes into it’s transportation grid. Yet, they are one of the first to successfully do so and it seems to be working out just fine.

Our annual Thanksgiving week trip to Manhattan and Brooklyn gave Peg and I the chance to inspect a few miles of the 200 miles of new “protected” bike lanes which have been installed in New York over the past four years by the Bloomberg Administration.

The protected bike lanes have been installed on major streets next to the curb, with protective guidance barriers at each intersection, protective spacing between the marked bike lanes, and pushed out parking bays, traffic, and turning lanes. This design protects bikers from being struck by car doors or vehicles themselves.

While we were in New York last week the Times ran an article that said the bike lanes had become controversial. But everyone I talked to including police officers, business owners, and cyclists (including my son who lives in New York) loved them and hope more will be built.  By most accounts  ridership has increased significantly since the protected lanes have been installed. 

A police officer explained serious cycling injuries have dropped and more people seem to be cycling. An 8^th Avenue retailer and life-long New Yorker told me as only a New Yorker could or would “anyone who doesn’t like them is crazy, older people need ways to get around and exercise too. ”   A 30-something woman cyclist stopped at a traffic signal simply said “I just love them” as she sped off on a 35 degree morning.

I am pleased that this November the Village Board has retained two firms to help Oak Park plan the future of 3 key grid links here in Oak Park, which includes looking into the feasibility of better integrating safe bike lanes into our grid, as called for in our 2008 bike plan.

The Lakota Group will continue to work with the Village on future design improvements to South Marion and South Oak Park Avenue in our Central Business District as we pursue the vision of truly becoming a Transit Village.  

Last Monday, Altamanu Inc.,  was selected through a Request for Qualifications and Proposals competition (over 14 competing firms) to help layout the future of Madison Street from Harlem to Austin.

Can Oak Park figure out a way, and have the will, to take our grid to the next level?   Will “safe” bike lanes have a future in Oak Park?   

As we begin the process of planning our future on these important corridors I ask all to keep an open mind and consider participating in the public discourse of these strategic quality of life and community building initiatives. Your ideas are welcomed, examples from around the country are appreciated.  We may not be able to copy NYC but I am hopeful and confidant we can better integrate and tailor “safe” bicycling routes into Oak Park’s transportation network. 

New York City has lots of show and glow and is a great city.   We here in the mid-west are practical.    But what could be more practical than having the option to get around town safely on bikes.  In today’s world, practical seems pretty great too!

THE GREAT BATTERY RACE

In 1960, following his stunning and transformational election, President, John F. Kennedy set an audacious goal for the country. As we all know, the United States did achieve President Kennedy’s goal of landing a human on the moon within ten years. That goal and its achievement not only provided enormous prestige to our country, as we worked through the cold war, but as importantly provided an economic platform and pillar (computers and technology) from which to grow our economy over the past 50 years.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration ~ Chrysler’s Trio of Electric Vehicles

In 2008, just prior to his stunning and transformational election, presidential candidate, Barack H. Obama, set an audacious goal for the country. “For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.”    

President Obama’s audacious new goal may be even tougher to achieve than the goal President Kennedy set for our country, and it may be more important. Achieving energy independence will require a national commitment to renewable energy, a commitment to dramatic new transportation technology, and a breakthrough in battery technology. Setting this new goal, the President has opened the door to joining and winning the great battery race. This race is likely to be won or lost through the facade of the electric vehicle (EV) competition. In fact, they are one and the same, with the US playing catch up on the EV battery race behind Japan, China, and South Korea.  

You may recall it took the Soviet Union’s success with “Sputnik” to awaken the sleeping giant, to get its governmental priorities straight, and the giant US economy to get serious about joining the space race.    

Our new President’s vision commits the United States to trying to win “The Great Battery Race”, which like winning the “space race” will create an economic platform for the winners, and a vital economic pillar critical to maintaining and growing an economy over the next twenty or thirty years.  

At the vanguard of US advanced battery research is nearby Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne/Lemont, Illinois, 22 miles from Oak Park. Argonne is the direct descendent of the University of Chicago Lab where Enrico Fermi conducted vital research in the early days of the Manhattan Project. It sounds like we might be getting serious.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Being from Detroit, Michigan I have seen up close and personal, the unfortunate ramifications to main street, family, and community which has resulted from the massive job and tax base losses associated with losing our manufacturing base. Just yesterday a Michigan Community (Hamtramck) asked the State for permission to file for bankruptcy. It may not be the only government in Michigan or Illinois to do so over the next few years.     

While there is nothing wrong with having a mostly service economy, our economy should be diverse, and we need to rebuild some of our manufacturing base. What better place to start than in energy/battery breakthroughs and transportation. The positive implications to our economy, lifestyle, and planet are enormous.

LOCAL POLICY IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL GOALS

As we have done often and with success, Oak Park again takes on national challenges and goals at the grass roots. While our simple ordinance to provide free parking to electric vehicles that live in or visit Oak Park throughout 2011 and 2012 may be more symbolic than substantive, the spirit behind it is what is important.   

While a new electric vehicle could save $1,000 or more per year (depending on how often they visit our shopping districts or parking garages) the real idea is helping achieve our country’s goals. The more citizens, the more communities, the more governments who get on board, the more likely we will achieve our goals. If we are going to be in the competition, as they say, we might as well be in it to win it, and force ourselves to understand the new infrastructure that will be required. 

Thanks to Oak Parkers for supporting the free EV parking ordinance and the board for voting for it last Monday night! I’m not sure how many electric vehicles we will have come to live or visit Oak Park over the next two years, but we will be tracking it.

Today, we know of six electric vehicles in Oak Park, and estimate there may be a couple of hundred ‘do it yourself’ conversions in the Chicagoland area. The electric “cupcake car” built in Oak Park represents the kind of creativity Americans have fun with in their garages and basements. Come to think of it, isn’t that how Henry Ford, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs got started! 

My next car will be an EV, so scientists and manufacturers let’s get going with the breakthrough!

Drive past the home of environmental pioneers Mary Chris Javlevic and Roy Schuster on the 1100 block of Clinton Avenue and it looks much like the other well-kept homes on the block. Take a closer look – or be lucky enough, as I was, to go inside – and you begin to realize this is no ordinary Oak Park home. Actually, it is no ordinary American home. It’s furnace free, yet designed to keep its occupants comfortable in what can be a pretty brutal Chicago climate.

The house, designed by architect and Oak Parker Tom Bassett-Dilley, speaking to visitors in the photo above, is based on the concept of European passive houses that use materials and design to create a thermal envelope so tight, no furnace is needed. The heat comes from the warmth generated by appliances, electrical devices, body heat, and sunlight.

According to Tom, the house uses nearly three-quarters less energy than a comparable building. When it comes to keeping its occupants warm, which is the biggest energy cost a homeowner must meet, the home uses 85 percent less energy than the average home. And thanks to the super-insulated walls and roof, it is 10 times tighter against air infiltration, a feature those of use who live in older Oak Park homes certainly can appreciate when the winter winds begin to blow.

Mary Chris, who graciously invited members of the Environmental Advisory Commission and several of us from Village Hall for a tour Thursday, described her home as a Thermos. Sealed from top to bottom. With the doors and windows closed, the only opening in the thermal envelop is a relatively small air exchanger in the basement that keeps the air inside fresh, with no drafts, no breezes, and no heat loss. In fact, the exchanger actually captures the heat from the house and recirculates it with the clean, fresh air from outside, a process it can reverse in the summer.

Even inside you wouldn’t readily see anything that would suggest the home’s energy efficiency. The only visual hint of the R-45 insulation is the 12-inch or so depth between the inner wall and the super-insulated windows. The walls actually were prefabricated, then erected on site, a process that I would have liked to have seen.

Such super-insulation means that the only heating source is considered supplemental. It’s a stove that uses wood pellets manufactured from production waste. The stove is so efficient it can’t be used at maximum capacity even on the coldest day without overheating the entire house. In the basement, a new heat-pump water heater, pictured above, captures warmth from the air to help keep the family in hot water.

Among the many interesting aspects of this home is how its owners worked with their architect and builders to balance their desire to be green with the goal of building something that will last. They used green features like non-toxic, no-VOC paint, water saving faucets and toilets, ecological landscape design and locally sourced oak floors. The roof is metal – which can last virtually forever – and the siding is essentially maintenance free cement board that is impervious to just about everything.

Natural light is a key component of the design as well. The windows, primarily on the south side, bring light deep into the home, including from the third floor down a central staircase. The windows are so insulated that they were warm to the touch on the inside, even when the temperature was quite brisk outside.

As we left the house after more than an hour, I couldn’t help but be excited about what a wonderful example of a true house of the future we have right here in Oak Park. But I also was a little troubled by some of what I had learned. So much of what made this house so special was not from the United States. The windows were from the Canada, the condensing clothes dryer that required no outside vent was from Germany, and the heat exchanger was from the Far East. Even the concept of super insulation and passive heating was European.

With all of our talk about wanting to be the world leader in green technology, the United States is still far behind when it comes to designing and producing the products that will make it happen. I remain optimistic, however. The U.S. has always been about individuals blazing a trail through the wilderness that eventually becomes the superhighway for future progress. Perhaps Mary Chris and Roy are leading the way. Now, it up to the rest of us to follow their lead.

If you would like to learn more about their no-furnace house, visit their blog at Four Thick Walls, One House, One Family, No Furnace.