COMMENT 128625
|
2010-12-18 10:23 AM |
|
Thank you for asking the question: Is anybody watching? I've wondered that myself.
|
| |
COMMENT 128630P
|
2010-12-18 10:36 AM |
|
link Guerilla Gardening Seed Bombs: (1) Classic Clay Seed Ball (2) NYC Green Guerilla Grenade (3) Kabloom "SeedBom" (4) Explosive Eggs (5) Seed Balloon (6) Seed Pills
On the Mesa, the residents are taking it upon themselves to plant fruit trees to help feed hungry people in our community.
I've heard that Milpas supporters are going to get involved in plantings along Milpas. The City of S.B. City Council could establish a commission for volunteers to work on city owned projects as you have discussed that need tending. Where there's a will, there's a way. Thanks for bringing up this topic. It is time for us, all of us, to get involved and keep Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria beautiful.
|
| |
COMMENT 128651
|
2010-12-18 11:37 AM |
|
@630P: I've done my share of guerilla gardening, but I never knew about all these cool methods of dispersal. I would wait for a windy day and go upwind from where I wanted the seeds to be. Pretty hit-or-miss method. Thanks for the great ideas!!
|
| |
COMMENT 128669P
|
2010-12-18 12:32 PM |
|
I am afraid that whenever I see anything connected to Mr. Santos Escobar all I see is b u r e a u c r a t, although that should be in all caps, shouting. He has not shown to my knowledge, at least, a caring and dedication to plant and wild life; and as for his relationship with the plant-concerned residents...! But as for Shoreline Park, there are lots of people who live on Marine Terrace. This park is basically their back yard. Why don't they be recruited to volunteer, exactly as ...630P suggests. (Great website, GG.org!)
|
| |
COMMENT 128673
|
2010-12-18 12:45 PM |
|
Yes it is sad that the city is more interested in retaining overpaid bureaucrats. They are the city employees who you cannot figure out why they receive the salary they receive, .nor figure out what it is that they do. A landscape architect is a sorely needed at p&r. Get rid of some of the "planners" over in Community Development
|
| |
COMMENT 128685
|
2010-12-18 01:24 PM |
|
Billy you're lucky, I keep most of my complaints in and have few that really even care to hear them. It sure can be frustrating. I agree with most of your 'critiques' and recognize you have a way with words. a Humbled Landscraper
|
| |
COMMENT 128691
|
2010-12-18 01:39 PM |
|
But hey, look how beautifully landscaped our bulb-outs are!
|
| |
COMMENT 128697
|
2010-12-18 01:59 PM |
|
The city is using Redevelopment Funds to improve these areas, creating even more work for Santos and the other city gardeners. I've been in contact with the city about the West Beach weeds (soon to be Westfield.) Nancy Rapp was very kind in her email, saying the city has 57 parks and 3.1 miles of beach to maintain. So I give the city the benefit of the doubt. Without spraying Roundup, how much can the city really do? I like organic gardening, but I fear the weeds are going to win.
|
| |
BECKY
|
2010-12-18 02:23 PM |
|
Thank you, Billy. Hear, Hear! I esp. love the comment about moms and little kids at public hearings negatively impacting logic and science. The same can be said about *many* theoretical environmentalists -- those who never actually *work* in the environment, but have strong opinions about it. Round-up on Kikuyu is the only thing that works, or it will overcome everything nearby. Fingers crossed that good design, long term planning, and common sense might return some day soon...
|
| |
BILLY GOODNICK
|
2010-12-18 03:14 PM |
|
About Guerrilla gardening and seed bombs - DON'T DO IT! It sounds all anarchistic and green and Gaia-y, but how do you know how those seeds will behave if they escape. I'm sick to death of watching plants like fountain grass overrun San Marcos Pass and half the coast. The pretty little flower you bomb with today could be tomorrow's time bomb. Please pay attention to what goes in those bombs.
|
| |
COMMENT 128724
|
2010-12-18 03:36 PM |
|
I agree ! Just look at the "flower beds" and the parking strips on the way up Carillo Hill to the Mesa. Mulch and BIG weeds getting worse all the time. Landscaping, my foot ! What a waste. A little round-up would solve the problem, and help all the down-wind recipients of those weed-seeds
|
| |
COMMENT 128729
|
2010-12-18 03:51 PM |
|
Love the City, glad I retired before the downturn and big budget cuts. Grateful you are putting this info out there Billy I hope Jim A is an Edhat reader! Sometimes we have to look at what is really being given up to save $$$. It must make you really sad to see what is happening after all those years of trying to make it right.
|
| |
GREENTOO
|
2010-12-18 04:08 PM |
|
Billy, Thank you for voicing the frustration that many horticulturally concious citizens feel with P&R. Your institutional memory of the decline and its causes is right on. Yes, the weeds are winning. Invasive kikuyu and other pernicious weeds are everywhere. At certain times if the light is dim and you squint your eyes just right areas in some parks, (Alice Keck especially), look alright. When you realize that scorched earth hidden with mulch does not make a garden, not so much. I'm betting that your recent near encounter with a Vespa was inspired by the new "landscape" at Louise Lowry Davis Center.
|
| |
COMMENT 128737P
|
2010-12-18 04:15 PM |
|
Speaking of bulb-outs.....City crews were out covering them with mulch this week. The original plants are gone from many due to traffic not acknowledging their existence.
|
| |
COMMENT 128756P
|
2010-12-18 05:45 PM |
|
Bring back "generic" RoundUp. (It's now generic, and much cheaper than the name brand stuff still being pushed thru manufacturer stocking fees and incentives at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.) Anyone who objects can volunteer to the weed-pulling and poison oak eradication patrol - BYOG (bring your own gloves).
|
| |
COMMENT 128764P
|
2010-12-18 06:13 PM |
|
Much like with any organization, without a brain at the top all the arms/legs/hands/feet go out in all directions without any direction. This area of our local government surely needs a brain at the top, Goodnick or someone else. Home/property owners in town all know "it's not expensive" to hire the grunt work. Let's spend the money on the brain and get this place looking as it should. Volunteers are great, but everyone moving a shovel needs to understand the greater plan outlaid by aforementioned brain. Great article Billy, thank you.
|
| |
COMMENT 128818
|
2010-12-19 09:17 AM |
|
Honestly, I enjoy pulling weeds, it's a little meditative for me. Whenever I'm at a park or waiting for a bus, I pull weeds where I am. I would gladly sign up for monthly weeding parties at our city parks. Our children grew up enjoying these parks and if someone in the city would coordinate a volunteer clean up schedule, I think you'd be surprised at how many people would donate 2 or 3 hours of yardwork. All this in defense of the city's decision NOT TO USE roundup, a terrible herbicide.
Post a schedule here on EdHat, one park a month, see what happens.....
|
| |
COMMENT 128905
|
2010-12-19 12:51 PM |
|
It's always easy to pick on staff and the administrators when we see these kinds of problems. Instead, why don't we ask what our role, as taxpayers, was in getting into this and other similar messes. When it comes to the City's parks, everybody wants more, and cleaner and "greener" and cheaper and more available and on and on, but at what price? Nothing is free, there is no free lunch, there is a cost to everything. And then there's a Recession....now what? Instead of taking pot shots why not offer up solutions :-)
|
| |
COMMENT 128926
|
2010-12-19 02:00 PM |
|
Seems like one good solution on the maintenance end of more attractive installations would be to enlist the voluntary help of some of the able and willing homeless population who could give-back for the services they receive, as well as some of the folks who end-up in county jail and are interested in being outdoors and working on their good behavior early-outs...maybe sweeten the deal by giving food vouchers to the homeless. Have an organized and basically free source of labor that could be overseen through Parks and Recreation, and along with the presence of guards for the inmate workers the community would also gain an on-site partial solution to monitoring any illegal or disruptive behaviors that have been making some of the public areas less attractive family destinations.
|
| |
COMMENT 128974
|
2010-12-19 06:53 PM |
|
I hesitate to employ people or allow volunteers who don't have much experience in landscape. For the inexperienced to be a solution it would require amounts of training. Community service and SWAP workers seldom produce effective trainees. I believe we are looking for a quality "finish" look. So common the "maintenance idea" of what the scape should look like is far different from the "vision of the designers". Weed and weed seed contamination by maintenance that relied on round-up for so many years must learn to adapt until certain herbicides are allowed. Nip it in the bud. Bermuda is worse than Kikuyu.
|
| |
COMMENT 129157
|
2010-12-20 11:22 AM |
|
I see all kinds of workers leaning against their trucks looking at their cell phones and clicking away. Maybe if they really were waiting for someone or something, instead of clicking on their cell phone they could bend over and pull a weed or two. Maybe work a few more minutes instead of getting paid to click the cell. (Not to say that they don't work hard as I know many do but...many don't!) Ban private cell phones from the job. Breaks and emergencies only.
|
| |
