Community Council

Sunday Bike ride declared a success by enthusiastic participant

Sunday’s bike tour of covington parks proved to be a successful expedition into the heart of covington bicycle activism. Chains were lubed, tires were filled with air and several cobwebs were dusted.

“I had a lot of fun…now if we could just get permission to graffiti the sidewalk I’d really feel liberated,” said one rider.

“I didn’t even know there was a park at 15th and Taylor,” commented long-time covington resident Andru Maclean. “And the fact that there are grassy mounds on the park perimeter means I can finally shoot that techno-shamanic ritual scene I’ve been dreaming about.”

A crew of six humans and one dog set out from 17th and Vermont about an hour before dusk on Sunday afternoon and rode out into the blazing late afternoon horizon with eyes focused on the distant park that lay almost eleven presidents to the north. “Honestly, I was a little nervous about the ride because it has been a couple of years since I’ve exercised that muscle that runs from the back of my ankle to the knee, so I was happy when we made it to the park and I was able to get off my bike and walk around for a bit. I don’t think anyone noticed me grimace as we began the steep climb up Taylor street.”

After lounging around the 15th street park for a moment, the crew split up, with several die-hards enduring the stretch down Taylor all the way to the 28th street Atkins park, then on to the Gratitude park, over to the Triangle park, and then finally down Columbia to the landing, with a brief stop for coffee and cigarettes at St. John’s.

“I am really excited about hanging the hearts in the park two Sunday’s from now,” said another jazzed rider. “I forgot how much fun it is to cruise around on bikes. I felt like I was 10 years old again, rollin’ deep with my posse.”

I want to see more posts up.

‘Harvest the Sun Project’;

‘Witness the Fitness’;

How about the ‘Music Hospitality Project’? That sounds cool.

I heard some pretty intense poetry during the first meeting that I’m sure people would like to read. Let your words inspire; be muse to anothers idea.

All these projects sound really cool. I want to know more about them. Where could they take place and is there a time frame set for when they could take place? I know there are some grant writing folks in this community and those projects sure sound solid enough for a grant writing team to back. They all sound community oriented. I’d be happy to continue developing online awareness on these projects if I had something to work with.

Post your ideas and let us know about what you are thinking. Everyone has ideas and is willing to talk in person but sometimes it’s hard to hear the individual when the community talks. Here we have the opportunity to each take the stage and fully express ourselves like I am now. I want to hear from the rest of my community now.

I know people are busy but with this tool you’re in the comfort of your own home or a coffee shop sipping a warm beverage. I also know that gathering and having someone to talk to is where it’s at. If we get our ideas out with this board we can do as Nick H said and ‘walk our talk’ when we get together.

If I know more about what you folks are into and what you’re doing I can talk about these projects when I make new connections. Together we are stronger than any one of us alone.

Not quite a rant - Just my two bits,

– R

Howdy folks,

Users can now author their own posts. How bout that? This new-fangled internet contraption surprises me daily.

I’m still trying to figure out how exactly to upload images, word docs and PDFs.

So when you login, all you have to do is go to the write tab and decide a headline and body and press publish. If you’re already on the blog press site admin on the right side navigation and go to the write tab. Simple.

You’ll see a few more tabs in the admin area. Explore a little and see what’s up there. Within the write tab you’ll notice you’ve got choices you can make while writing. You can change the text to bold, itallic and change the color, size and such. For some reason there is a problem with the visual editor on the Mac computer. It just wants to jumble all your sentences together and loose all formatting. What I do to get around this is develop my posts in my favorite wysiwyg text editor like dreamweaver etc. This way you can format your text anyway you want and copy/paste the code into the code editor on the word press write tab.

I shall see you all at the park for some riding today.

Peach - R:)

this post by Kris Babylon

We ARE doing our first community bike fun ride this Sunday, meeting at the St Pauls soccer field at 3pm, please feel free to join us! If u need a bike or a bike tune up come early and we’ll accomodate, especially if you get to the field EARLY - bike doctor and local barista Nick Pechon will be administering bicycle tune ups from 1 to 3pm.

I just had luch with Candy and she was proud to inform me that the city is recycling. However the parish is not. She is excited about supporting a parish recycling re-initiative at an upcoming parish meeting. Lets get together soon and discuss what a good co-operative recycling model looks like. Kristen and Kris have already collected lots of info to present to our group. Kristen has even prepared a powerpoint. Go Kristen.

OKAY, ONWARD!

*Meeting Notations From the House in Madisonville*

Here we is! Please consider the following meeting notes from last Sunday’s community gathering as an invitation.

Thanks to Rebecca and Mark for opening up their home and presentin’ a delicious spread.

We spoke of several things around the fire:

The recurrent theme was commitment.

If we want to see some things being done, this means some good amount of commitment is necessary to do it.

I personally believe that If we want change, all we have to do is get clear on what we want to change and then do it. The only thing stopping us is us.

"This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off, or to take the tranquilizing drug of baby bites."
-Dr. Martin Luther King Cake

In adition to an experience of feeling the rapture of being alive, I think we are all looking to make a difference in our community, and to express our creativity. Also, I think we are looking to experience the potency of democracy. For example, none of us really want to go around and collect recycling, but we would like to see it as an efficiently functioning wheel of the local government. It should be inherent in fact. SO WHAT WE GONNA DO?

We would like to see the city and the parish working together to foster a holistic community recycling program. The question remains: What cities are successfully implementing these programs? What community models can we present to our local officials?

****

Get your BTU’s people. Join Dr. Wheely for the Bicycle Tune Up sunday at the St Pauls soccer field. Tune yo bike up. Even pimp yo ride. Tune-ups from 1 to 3pm.

Soccer and Group Bicycle Fun: Sunday, January 27th, meet at the St Pauls soccer field for soccer at 1030am and then later for a smooth, uncalculated bike ride through Covington AT 3pm. Paint some hearty lookin wood. Cruise around on your wheels. Be a rock star.

Also, there was Lots of talk about bumper stickers. There was also talk of t-shirts. There was also talk of sewing patches on some clothing at the next meeting. And also making hats. Are we really that creative?

Go Richie!

Yes, great ideas coming out of clarity.

Hey speaking of clarity, our group has been invited to a new buddhist center in folsom! It is called the Tso Pema Drikung Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist Center. A woman named Judy opened the center just one week ago, and she is committed to keeping the center open even if she is the only member! anyhow i spoke with her on the phone and told her about our group and she said she would love the center to host one of our community meetings!!

There is meditation there on thursday evenings from 730 to 830pm.

I’m going if any buddies wanna carpool…

Directions to Judy’s farm are…

* From Covington, Take hwy 25 N
* At first light once in folsom, turn LEFT (this is Hwy 40 W)
* Drive ~ 1 ¼ miles you will see a fork where hwy 40 veers left…you will take the immediate RIGHT ‘fork’ – this is N.Morgan Road (there is a hunter/jumper barn at this fork)
* Then, take an immediate LEFT…this is bluebird lane (a short gravel road with 4 farms)
* I am the 3rd farm on left…there will be a sign on my gate "Stellar J Farm Tso Pema Buddhist group)
* 12360 bluebird lane in folsom

See y’all there!!

Discovering our identity. What, as a group, do we identify with? When we introduce ourselves to other communities how will we present our collective gem? This discussion thread will help us decide on a name, mission statement and direction for this forum. To develop ideas I would suggest checking out other websites involved in what you are interested in. See how they’ve developed their identity online and within their community. Here are a few links to sites I found that identify with sustainability, critical-mass and some of the other topics we’ve mentioned.

• http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/
• http://www.sustainablephiladelphia.com/
• http://www.southampton-sustainability.org/ 
• http://www.critical-mass.org/
  
• http://critical-mass.info/
  
• http://www.harvestthesun.net/
  
• https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/
  
• http://www.sun-harvest.com/app/cda/cda.php?pt=SunHarvestHome

 I thought about this when I googled Music Hospitality Project. Google this for yourself to see. This blog is the second link. It hits home pretty quick. I bet a lot of other keywords on this blog will show up pretty quick too. This project’s public and right in the eye. But that’s what we want right? Let’s just put some time into what we want, I mean really want and how that’s gonna look, taste, feel and be…the whole thing. Then we’ll see what shows up.Take your time and think about that, I will too and we’ll come up with something sweet that resonates with us all. peace ya’ll ~ r 

Sunni Womack

• Point of contact
• Meeting schedules
• Communications

Rob Chalmers

• Humor Relief

Kris Babylon

• Witness the Fitness project
• Group Bicycle Fun!!
• Suggests hands on projects, like creating art and installments and consciousness tools at future council meetings

Kristen Stanley

• Harvest The Sun
• Water Sampling

Mark St. James

• Entertainment “Fungineer”

Richie Drouant

• Bulletin board/ postings
• Digital Media Resources

Nick Hasslock

• Grant Assistance

Rebecca O’Brien

• Recycle Project

Carrie Atwater

• Grant Assistance

Meagan Higdon

• Music Hospitality project
• Point of contact
• Communications

Summary of project:

Council members, friends and family ride as group on trace while promoting critical bicycle mass and group art installations!!

Need:

Everyone needs a bicycle!!!
Mobile Bicycle Sound System(s)
Costumes if u got em
All meet up at St. John’s, feel free to bring accessories to share

Start date:

Sunday, Jan. 27th

Council Members/ Roles:

Everyone!!!

Summary of project:

Greater New Orleans day time swim camps with emphasis on environmental responsibility, non-violent communication, teamwork, whole body health, music, art and FUN

Date of project:

June

Council Members/ Roles:

Kris B./ Facilitator

Summary of project:

Details to be provided by Kristen

Need:

Costs figures
Bumper stickers/ merch
Location
Proposal

Council Members/ Roles:

Kristen/ Producer
Rebecca O./ Co-Producer
Meagan H./ Help with cost figures