Sean Travels to Vermont to Declare War on the Environment

WAR! WAR! WAR!

Sean hasn't been getting a lot of press lately on the blog, sorry. It seems that with the winter weather and the effective end of the 2009 growing season Sean's anti-environmental stances have faded into the background at the 2703 Urban Garden. That has all changed!!! He might look all cute and cuddly but when it comes to waging war on the environment Sean isn't to be messed with (as exemplified by his big time law firm website profile picture).

















While the snow fell gently over Richmond Sean was busy packing the heaviest suitcase allowed by the Homeland Security Agency. Fed up with the state of the union Sean has declared war on the environment. Sunday morning Sean got on a plane and headed north to the heart of enemy territory to begin battle. Where did he go?

















Vermont obviously.

Sean isn't back yet but when/if he does return we fully expect him to be carrying the green mountain state's flag ripped up in his teeth.

Stayed tuned for updates from the front lines of the war on the environment

THE MEN OF 2703 TAKE IT ALL OFF

They are naked. Totally naked. Nothing covering them at all...

For the second weekend in a row the sidewalks in front of and around the 2703 Urban Garden are clear of snow.

Take care when walking to or away from the 2703 Urban Garden because once again many of our neighbors are not so diligent executing their snow removal plans.

On Civic Responsibility

As the "anonymous letter" episode demonstrated a few weeks ago, we live in a society and neighborhood where even a selfless and responsible act such as taking advantage of the curbside recycling program can draw the suspicion and ire of one's neighbors. Perhaps it is a demographic divide between the renters and homeowners in our neighborhood--it is a shocking but little known truth that even Sean lacks the financial means to buy a house in our neighborhood. Or maybe it is a generational divide: both of our anonymous letter-writing neighbors, once I tracked them down with Encyclopedia Brown-quality sleuthing, turned out to be old enough to be our parents. Or perhaps it is a political divide--I am 98% certain that one of the formerly anonymous neighbors has a vanity plate on her sports car displaying enthusiastic support of the second President Bush.

Whatever the case, it is clear that an attitude of distrust pervades the sidewalks and back alleys of Hanover Avenue. And just as our urban gardening efforts are an attempt to be the change we seek in the world, we have decided that Civic Responsibility is the new Environmentalism. We have decided that our neighbors should no longer be burdened with sleepless nights and paranoid days--breaking out in colds sweats wondering if their neighbors are up to no good, like leaving recycling on the sidewalk.

So, from here on out, this blog will be dedicated not only to our urban gardening efforts, but also to our attempts to make our neighborhood, and our world, a better place through valiant and courageous displays of CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY.

(this photo says a lot about our sense of civic responsibility)

Civic Responsibility: A Non-Anonymous Note

Greetings 2703 Urban Garden Followers!!!

Today we are blogging about civic responsibility. While past posts have concerned our responsibility when it comes to picking up dog doo, guerrilla gardening, the spread of recycling from it's treehugging roots or recently the placement of recycling on the curb for pickup, today's blog concerns making sure we keep our neighborhood safe.

Those of you may remember a recent note from a concerned neighbor who informed us all that the city sidewalks are the property of the people who live in the houses abutting them, the three attorneys living at 2703 do not concur but that is irrelevant. According to West of the Boulevard the city code in Richmond requires that for ever house in the city:

the path must be cleared on the sidewalk within six (6) hours after the snow
ceases to fall, or by 11:00 a.m. the next day if the snow ends during the night.
The city cautions that if someone is injured, you may be liable

We could look this up on the City of Richmond website (which apparently has been recently redesigned) but this time we are going to just trust WOTB. We will also trust this is law because our neighbor and 2nd District City Councilmember, Charles Samuels, was out shoveling his sidewalk with his wife while we were doing ours.

Not that anyone would be surprised but yesterday the urban farmers of 2703 traded our pitch forks and hoes for shovels and cans of PBR while we cleared off not only the front entrance of 2703 but also the sidewalk from property line to property line, per the city code. (a side note two of us actually dug a stranded woman's car out of a snowbank for her as well, but who's counting)

While neighbors, some of whom recently made accusations about a lack of civic responsibility at 2703, sat inside the warmth and comfort of their houses and apartments possibly performing a one-person acoustic concert, we did as not only the law requires but also what good neighbors do, we shoveled our sidewalks.

Our sidewalks are clean, clear and safe:

Our neighbor's, in contrast, are not:

(Dobsy demonstrates the safety disparity between the sidewalk in front of our house and our neighbor's)

For the second time in as many days, the farmers at the 2703 Urban Garden are extending a great big YOU'RE WELCOME to our friends and neighbors...as always, it was our pleasure.

BREAKING NEWS: URBAN GARDEN REVERSES GLOBAL WARMING

Two correspondents of the 2703 Urban Garden just returned from an epic deep snow trek...and we didn't even have to leave the city limits...much to the chagrin of Sean, we believe that the 2703 Urban Garden has actually reversed global warming and sent us into a spin of global cooling.

Richmond 1-30-10

Two storms in just over a month dumping around a foot of snow each in Richmond will be talked of for years, this might be the new winter of '87. I always have remembered the winter of '87 being epic in Maine. That might be because I was hitting the pinnacle of my abilities both physically and mentally and it just seemed totally extreme or maybe we really did have a monster winter. I could go back and check the actual weather and snow totals but that would only cause a major disappointment if I am not right that '87 was the biggest snow winter ever.

EDITOR'S NOTE: regardless of how much snow fell in '87 it was also the year Michael Jackson released Bad so it was still the best year ever

Back to Richmond '09-'10...Those of us at 2703 just want to give out one big YOU'RE WELCOME for reversing global warming.

No big deal. It was our pleasure.

Look out for the "Civic Responsibility" post coming soon!!!

More Neighborly Letters

There's not a whole lot of gardening activity going on right now, other than our composting efforts. Organic gardening, you may have guessed, isn't our only effort to live a an eco-conscious lifestyle.
I could not have predicted, however, the controversy that would ensue over our attempts to take advantage of what is turning out to be a less-than-meticulous curbside recycling program.

After yesterday's anonymous letter, we though that we would do our best to be good neighbors. After contacting CVWMA to arrange for them to pick up the recyclables that they missed yesterday, we moved our recycling down the sidewalk, to the spot adjacent to our alley, and across the street from another large pile of recycling that they missed. We moved it to the same spot where CVWMA picked up part of our recyclables yesterday--thinking if they would be certain to notice it this time.

As a side note, I should mention that we got an email from our landlord, a real friendly woman who lives across the street, who forwarded us an email from anonymous neighbor #1, who it turns out is our next door neighbor. She seems sweet enough--aside from the whole anonymous letter thing, they're probably just old folks who don't trust us young whippersnappers to keep the street around their house litter-free. I wish they did trust us, but hey, can't have everything.

Anyway, I come home to see that our recycling appears to have been picked up, as well as the other recyclables down the street that were left from yesterday. I think the situation has resolved itself, only to find this note, which Sean graciously stuck on the fridge:





Oh no! Another anonymous neighbor upset about the presence of our recyclables. He astutely notes that the sidewalk in front of 204 Mulberry is not our property. In the "not owned by the tenants of 2703 Hanover" sense, of course, but perhaps one could make an argument that, being a public right of way maintained by the City of Richmond, it might carry some metaphorical civic ownership, since we are all citizens of this great city and should look to all public right of ways with the same sense of responsibility that we owe our own, private property. I digress. My point is that I fear his misunderstanding of property law has led him to believe that he possesses an ownership interest in the public sidewalk in front of his house, which is presumably at 204 Mulberry. While he does have a legal duty to clear the sidewalk of snow or other hazards, that legal duty does not translate into an ownership interest, unless I'm misremembering the property/local government law I've studied over the years.

Unfortunately, he jumped to a number of conclusions that apparantly led him to react with much anger and frustation. Sadly, Central Virginia Waste Management made a trip all the way back over to Mulberry only to miss our admittedly substantial collection of recyclables, which had by that point been relegated to a dumpster somewhere, thanks to our neighbor.

I've crafted a very friendly letter to him, much less snarky than my admittedly over-the-top, asshole-ish reaction to anonymous note #1. I tried knocking on his door, but he didn't answer. I did speak to the woman who lives below him--I wish all of our neighbors were as friendly as her--who warned me that he is a curmudgeon and that she does her best to stay out of his way. Maybe I'll bake him some cookies to go along with my letter. Kill 'em with kindness...

Open Letter to Our Neighbor(s)

Thanks "Neighbor" --I noticed. Councilman Charles Samuels also noticed, most likely, considering his recycling was also not picked up today, across the street from where ours was left. Something tells me that between the message I left with Central Virginia Waste Management Authority and Charles Samuels' attention to the matter, this will be taken care of. Moreover, we're a house full of dudes who all passed the Virgina Bar Exam (to the detriment of our street cred), we blog about organic urban gardening, and we actually bother to recycle. In other words, I'd like to think that we are the sort of responsible twenty-somethings most folks would see as welcome additions to the neighborhood.

I appreciate the time you took to examine the addresses on the boxes left by the curb, type this letter out, cut the paper to the appropriate size, and tape it to our front door. I suppose in the confusion of it all, you forgot to leave your name or address that way I could let you know that I was staying on top of the issue. Were you scared that we would be offended and toilet paper/egg your house? We're reasonable, law-abiding, environmentally-conscious people here. Don't forget that one of us is an assistant commonwealth attorney, who has on more than one occasion threatened to indict other roommates for various perceived infractions of the Virginia Code (admittedly, Sean isn't the best driver in the Commonwealth). In other words, Johnny f-ing Law. Seriously, are you scared of us?

Anyway, since you left neither your name nor address, hopefully you will read this and can sleep soundly tonight knowing that if CVWMA doesn't respond to my request/Councilman Samuels' anticipated attention to the matter within a reasonable period of time, your friendly, responsible neighbors at 2703 Hanover Avenue will take care of the matter so that you won't have to worry about recyclable materials littering the sidewalks and gutters of our fair neighborhood. We're not terrorists--feel free to ring the doorbell sometime and introduce yourself. We won't bite, I promise.

your neighbors,
-Lane, Sean, and Jed