CURB

Why is Stephen in a tie (& looking rather good, I might add)?

Well...he has taken a great Idea of his & run with it.  It all started with the Natural Building Colloquium and learning about sustainable water management in an urban setting (one of the topics covered).  Then, we have always wished that there were trees planted in the median of a street in our neighborhood.  So when he joined the HOA board, getting trees planted in the street was one of his top priorities.  It turned out that the reason why it hadn't been done was because of irrigation costs.  This immediately spurred the Idea of irrigating the median with a natural method...storm run off.  The plan really starts to take shape when he gets Design, Build, Live (a non-profit sustainable building group he volunteers for) & our close friend who is studying landscape architecture at UT involved.  They are now wanting to implement a "curb cutting" method to existing street medians to enable run off water to irrigate the plantings.  They have also talked about getting a mandate passed for all new roads to be built in a way that run off will be directed into the ground rather than the drains.

Last Tuesday, Steve & three other people met with Councilman Lee Leffingwell to discuss the project and hopefully get his support (hence the tie).  They walked away from the meeting with Councilman Leffingwell assigning his staff to the project!!!

Gayle (Design Build Live founder) put it so well by saying, "There are lots of people in Austin with lots of good ideas.  It is a breath of fresh air to have someone actually take the initiative and make their Idea a reality."

I am so immensely proud of him!