Can you believe how cold it is getting out there?! The Fairpark Community Council was proud to participate as a partner in the Annual Community Coat Exchange again this fall. The Annual Community Coat Exchange, a project of Blue Sky Institute, has been an ongoing event in Salt Lake City, Utah since 2005. The event is held annually at Pioneer Park from 10am to 1pm the day after Thanksgiving. “Need a coat? Come get one. Have a coat? We know someone who can use it!” the website says.
We wanted to learn more about the individuals that this event helps so we met with Glenn Baily, Executive Director of the Crossroads Urban Center. With over 50 years of service, Crossroads Urban Center is a nonprofit, grassroots organization that assists and organizes Utahans with low incomes, those with disabilities, and people of color to meet basic survival needs and to address essential issues affecting quality of life. Crossroads runs an Emergency Food Pantry and helps over 4,000 families each year. Mr. Bailey is passionate about getting individuals to participate in Community Council events. “We want to continue working with individuals in the neighborhood to discuss real issues of homelessness and affordable housing, and make sure that individuals that haven’t traditionally been involved in Community Council are able to have their voices heard.” Continue reading
Seventeen local, regional and national environmental groups have endorsed a proposal called “Nature in the City”, to create a riparian greenway along the Jordan
Pictured here is the new Fred and Ila Fife Wetlands Preserve, west bank
Jordan River at 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah
River all the way across Salt Lake City. The plan, which has also been endorsed by both the Glendale and Poplar Grove community councils, would designate a series of
“nature parks” along the river corridor, mostly on existing city-owned open space. It would regrade stream banks to reduce erosion, replace non-native plants with native plant communities, add new wetlands, improve water quality and connectivity along the river both for people and wildlife. It would also promote nature
education, urban agriculture, off-street commuter bike trail expansion along, to and from the Jordan River Parkway Trail, and the creation of several nature-themed
community centers to serve as gateways to the river.
This proposal will be presented at the October Fairpark Community Council Meeting.
Pictured here is the new Fred and Ila Fife Wetlands Preserve, west bank Jordan River at 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah
Westview Media has a feature on this proposal here.
National Public Lands Day
Got Garden?
We have just what you need to fill it up!
After months of hard work by volunteers, the Fairpark Community Council’s First Annual Plant Sale is almost here! Almost 4,000 veggies and herb plants are being cared for by dedicated volunteers. The seedlings are growing like wild and will be sure to enhance any garden in our neighborhood with culinary delights.
Read more here (http://fairparkcommunity.org/?p=814) about how to pre-order your plants and pick them up as early as the end of April, and view full catalogs of the availalbe varieties of vegetables and herbs, as well as a full color listing of the vegetable seeds that will be given away at the May 14 event.
How did this all start?
The FCC Board decided to take advantage of the Salt Lake City annual Signature Event Fund application in fall of 2015. The FCC Board decided that a fun event would be a plant sale and education event. The scope of events that happened after that was amazing!
A donation of a structure that looks very much like a bus shelter was timely. Volunteers dismantled the structure over a weekend in late February and the following weekend rebuilt it at All Chay restaurant (1264 W 500 N), the proprietors of which graciously donated space for the project. The next 6 weeks were busy with fine tuning the structure with materials to make it a functioning greenhouse, planting seeds, separating seedlings, watering the plants and generating interest in our community for the project. Tom King, project lead, appeared on KRCL Radio’s Punk Rock Farmer show on April 15 to discuss and promote the project.
The next few weeks will be spent continuing the care of the plants, advertising and promoting the event, taking pre-orders with the culminating plant sale event at Northwest Community Center, Saturday, May 14 at 10am.
As a special incentive to get people to attend the May 14 event, we will be offering free seeds for lettuce, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and more! There will fun be activities for kids of all ages.
View the full color listing of the vegetable seeds that will be given away here.
Left over plants from the May 14 event will be taken to the Get Into the River Festival from 5-7pm, at the Fairpark Amphitheater, 155 North 1000 West.
We are very excited about this community building/enhancing project. We hope residents will become more interested in growing their own food, sharing their stories about gardening, sharing samples of their edibles, and develop sustainable habits that will improve health and lifestyles for years to come.
Garden on dude!
Don’t you love it this time of year? I certainly do. Everything from the buds swelling on the fruit trees, dandelions blooming, willows and others flowering, to the birds getting more active, it sure feels like spring.
I just hope that a late frost doesn’t get some of our fruit trees this year. As you may know if you read these columns, the Fairpark Community Council is hosting it’s First Annual Get your garden STARTED Plant Sale. We are starting dozens of varieties of peppers and tomatoes. Lots of heirlooms as well as several varieties of Basil. In fact, as of March 7th some of the Lettuce Leaf basil is already up from seeds planted 8 days ago.
Working out at the gym has its benefits, but consider something that might bring more enjoyment along with those health benefits: Bike commuting.
A 2013 article in Grist Magazine by Jay Walljasper discusses the health benefits of bike commuting.
“Biking for transportation appears more helpful in losing weight and promoting health than working out at the gym.
This means I can spend less time wearing a grimace as I endure mind-numbing exercise routines at the Y — and more time wearing a smile as I bike to work, shopping, and social events. Just what I always thought.”
Citing a study on commuting by bike vs. car, Walljasper highlights the fact that exercise for transportation my have better health benefits than weekly exercise routines. Continue reading