My radio is full of flooding talk. Whenever they close the freeway, it's big news. Bellingham missed most of the flooding that hit southwest Washington closing I-5 between Seattle and Portland.
KUOW's Weekday show was talk of rain gardens, roof gardens, catch basins.
Better to reduce pollution and control runoff.
One of the guests discussed innovations at Phinney Neighborhood Center in Seattle. They talked about "buildings that flower."
While I don't have pictures of that, here are some images of another center.
Cedar River Watershed Education Center near Rattlesnake Lake.
Where's Rattlesnake Lake?
It's up a long hill outside of North Bend, WA. The center is run by Seattle Public Utilities. On the edge of a big watershed for Seattle's drinking water.
Why are the drums at the center?
Drums under downspouts to demonstrate water dripping off the roof over a long period of time. Less apt to flood. It was still gradually dripping on the sunny day I was there. Sounded like a "hippie drumming circle." That's what I thought it was.
Good idea, but how much will it add to the cost of construction?
How much land do all these catch basins take? Land is getting expensive.
Seems like a lot of trouble to slow the runoff from buildings. Why not just eliminate the parking lot? Impervious surfaces of pavement are terrible for runoff. Make people use alternative transit. Sure it's a change, but putting in all these roof gardens can be costly as well.
I hear that around 40% of the space in Los Angeles is devoted to pavement for parking and driving.
There is pavement that lets water soak into the ground below, rather than rush off.
There happens to be some of that pavement in my neighborhood. At the Whatcom Educational Credit Union.
Just ran out to take some images. Nice having a digital camera.
They've got the money.
I doubt this would work for heavily used thoroughfares and freeways. It would get beat up under traffic.
For parking lots? OK.
No problem for bicycle parking, of course. That's what I ride.
Speaking of buildings that flower, there used to be ivy on Old Main Administration Building at Western Washington University. They took it off several years back.
Is that "progressive university" going the wrong way?
Ivy caused bricks and mortar to deteriorate. After being there for years, it was removed.
They considered using another kind of vine that is more "building friendly," but I haven't seen it yet. Building has shown the bare brickwork for several years now.
I hear that one million more people are expected to move into Puget Sound area in the next 20 years. If that's the case, we really do have to get better at planning and cut back on car use.
This afternoon radio show was the NPR Presidential Debate from Iowa.
One topic: immigration reform.
Yes there are still lots of people wanting to come to America. One million both foreign and native born moving to Puget Sound.
We can't really stop the tide of people moving from nation to nation, but can't we think about world population growth?
It's a flood of people.
Democrats are better at supporting worldwide family planning than Republicans. I keep saying gay people and environmentalists should hold hands.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Reduce population growth. Can't that become a slogan in the 2008 presidential campaign?
With much of the floodplain around Centralia, WA. under water, people ask, "why do they build in the floodplain?"
Well, where else can they build for the million new people? Building on slope has problems also.
Just eliminate the parking and use public transit. There's room for about a million more.
Last night, Bellingham City Council just passed big rate increases for water. City is buying land the Lake Whatcom Watershed to try and keep more houses from going there.
Many houses are around the lake already.
Water rates going up. Land expensive.
I just hope I can continue to afford to live here. All I need is my little room. I don't even need parking.
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