A view of the city

Fangs removed from neck, part II

Horseshoe Farm will live on as a nature park.  Rodger Koopman gets the props for his ride to the rescue.

For the first episode of the Fang Removal project, see here.

Electric Bonsai

Thousands of street trees across Raleigh will soon be sacrificed for the sake of aerial power lines.

The question that isn't asked:  Why put our electric distribution system up in the air, where it is vulnerable to every ice storm, hurricane, and scurrilous adventurer? 

Here in the sleet belt, at least one massive ice event occurs every couple of years, with the same predictable result -- widespread power outages, lost work time, and inconvenience for thousands.

The problem isn't the trees.  It's the expectation that stringing up an electric grid in the most exposed and provisional manner could result in a reliable power supply.

Prediction:  Within a year after Progress Energy completes its program of chopping down 50,000 street trees, another winter storm will ice the lines, and we'll all be in the dark again, just the same. 

 

Sploosh

Raleigh City Councilor Russ Stephenson takes an accidental plunge in the Neuse River. 

Location, location, location

This insert in a Progress Energy electric bill highlights Bingham Ridge, a new subdivision in Chatham County – the first “green neighborhood” in Progress Energy Carolinas’ system.   The insert says that “all of the homes are energy Star Certified … each home is equipped with solar panels and other innovative technology.”

 

What’s the problem with this neighborhood and energy efficiency?  Here’s a hint from the insert: 

From Chapel Hill, take 15-501 South. Turn Right on Mann's Chapel Rd. Go 2 miles. Turn right on Poythress Rd. Bear left at the Chapel, onto Lamont Norwood Rd. Go 2 miles to Bingham Ridge Drive.

Nice as this place may be, it’s located eight miles from the nearest town.  You remember town -- that's where you get groceries, and go to your job.*

 

Every house in this subdivision will generate at least 9 vehicle trips per day (ITE Manual, 6th edition).  Most of those trips will be at least 8 miles long because this place is that far out in the sticks.         

Transportation accounts for a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.  Residents of Bingham Ridge will be buying into a compulsory driving lifestyle that will far outpace the energy savings from all those high-end fridges and dishwashers.

 

Better approach – build the houses in a walkable neighborhood in a town or city where folks can walk**, bike, or take shorter car trips to their destinations.

 

* Towns also have restaurants, sporting events, banks, FedEx/Kinkos, and stuff like that.

** You remember "walk" ...  

A mess at Perry Creek

WRAL.com reports a 2.25-million-gallon sewage spill into Perry Creek in north Raleigh.

The piece states that "erosion of a stream bank" undermined an underground sewer pipe along Triangle Town Boulevard, between Triangle Town Center and Interstate 540.

What the story did not reveal:  streambank erosion is primarily caused by huge bursts of stormwater runoff.  And those massive surges, in turn, are caused by high impervious surface coverage on developed land (mostly, parking lots). 

Check again on the location of the spill:  between Triangle Town Center and Interstate 540.  No surprises there -- this area must have one of the highest percentages of pavement for parking anywhere in Raleigh. 

So not only is the stream channel getting blasted out by stormwater -- the stormwater also caused the pipe breakage and thus the sewage spill.