...and had a chance to look around at the downtown area, and see what was new since I'd been there last. This is town completely obsessed by Eco-practices. Which is one of the things I admired most about it in the 20 years I lived there. They have municipal composting, city wide recycling, publicly shared gardens, and food co-ops. They have many many small farms in the area, and a farmers market to rival any I've ever seen. Lots of local healthy organic food is grown right there. From farm to table is a short jaunt. It really gives a new definition to being green. Many of the houses in the downtown area, and outlying areas as well, are solar powered, and have rain water collection systems, and clothes lines in the yards. It's hard to find a home there that doesn't have a tiny garden, indoors or out. You can't drive through it and not realize how many urban ecologists live in this town. Even many of the commercial plants, and businesses are green. It's a beautiful thing to see. But a couple of new things I noticed that I was really pleasantly surprised to see were these...
This was a bike library, in the middle of Old Town Square, that is a FREE bike-borrowing service for residents, students, and visitors. They allow you to borrow a bike for up to a week, for a small donation to offset operating costs. Small price to pay to have such a thing in any city!! Grand idea!
Also, they had these pianos around that people could play in the middle of the square too.
With little signs on them that read...
Literally, it was so great, I sat there for about an hour, watching people singing, dancing, and playing the pianos! Amazing!!
This post is to be cont'd...
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