Tag: educational

Debating Holiday Consumerism

  • Santa in a window display. Some families wrestle with the question of how much to give each holiday season. (Photo by Mark Brush)

A lot of people don’t want to get caught up
in the consumerism of the holidays. But often
family and friends expect to get gifts from loved
ones. Julie Grant spent time with one family where gift-giving is a real struggle:

Transcript

A lot of people don’t want to get caught up
in the consumerism of the holidays. But often
family and friends to get gifts from loved ones.
Julie Grant spent time with one family where gift-
giving is a real struggle:


Susan Testa is stuck in the middle between her sister and her husband. They see the
Christmas holidays very differently. Susan and her husband Matt try to teach their two
little girls to live in balance with the natural environment. That means at Christmastime,
Susan says her husband wants to put the brakes on buying gifts:


“I think if it was up to Matt, we would have nothing because it’s just too much
consumerism, too much waste, too much this, too much that. I want to balance that
with, well, let’s not go overboard. Let’s bring some green concepts, which we’re both
very interested in, into the tradition. However, let’s not be scrooges about the whole
thing either.”


But on Christmas Eve, Matt doesn’t have visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.
He’s got visions of wastefulness. He can’t stand to watch the wrapping paper pile up as
the relatives rip open gifts:


Matt: “It doesn’t sit well with me, this frenzy of ripping things open, where no one can
even be appreciated or it’s hard to link the gift to the giver because of the frenzy going
on.”


(Sound of child in background)


Susan: “Well, what do you want to do, say okay, everyone stop. Let’s take a moment to
realize the true meaning of Christmas. And just put your gifts down and open them slowly… what do you think needs to be done?”


Matt: “Less about the things, more about the act of getting together, of sharing and all that.”


Matt says at the very least, instead of mindless toys and gadgets, the family ought to
give smart gifts: educational gifts, savings bonds – or giving the holiday gift money to
charity:


“Oh, he’s such a killjoy. You know, he’s missing the whole point of it.”


That’s Susan’s sister, Pam Nervo.


On Christmas Eve, Susan and Matt take their family over to Pam’s upper middle class
suburban home for a gift-giving session. Unlike Uncle Matt, the nieces love watching all
the wrapping paper pile up on Christmas Eve, and they don’t want educational gifts, and
Aunt Pam doesn’t plan on buying them for Sue and Matt’s girls either:


“I’m not gonna be the aunt that gives the educational toys. Not gonna happen Matt, not
going to happen.”


Pam and Sue are sisters, but their families have different philosophies. While Susan is
concerned about celebrating the love of the season and the earth we live on, Pam thinks
Susan and Matt should worry less about the consumerism of Christmas and spend more
time celebrating the birth of Jesus:


“I think when you don’t have the religious aspect to it, you are stuck with the
commercialism of it. That’s what happens. When you don’t have religion as part of your
life, that’s all this is, it’s a show.”


Julie: “Unless what you see as sort of, I mean, I’m just playing devil’s advocate for Matt a
little bit… unless what you see as your moral center is kind of…”


Pam: “Are you saying, I don’t know. Do you really want
your moral center to be based on the ecology system here. Is that what we’re saying?
That this is your moral center? That’s kind of crazy. I can’t imagine that being your
belief system.”


As we said, Susan is stuck between very different philosophies between her husband
Matt and her sister Pam.


But the holiday with the extended family is just that one day. The important thing for
Matt and Sue is that they teach their children the holiday season is more than just the
holiday shopping season. They turn to their 5-year-old daughter Geanna, smiling, Matt
asks her about her favorite part of Christmas:


Matt: “What’s your favorite part of Christmas?”


Geanna: “Um, getting presents.”


Matt: “Really?”


Geanna: “It’s just fun opening up presents.”


Well, nice try Matt. So, for this year Susan says she’ll be buying gifts she thinks the kids
in her life will enjoy. Environmental or educational qualities are secondary.


For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

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New Funding Aims to Connect Kids With Research

New federal money has been made available to several Sea Grant programs in the region. These programs fund university research in the aquatic sciences. This new funding aims to make scientific research accessible to kids and teachers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

New federal money has been made available to several Sea Grant
programs in the region. These programs fund university research in the
aquatic sciences. This new funding aims to make scientific research
accessible to kids and teachers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Chuck Quirmbach reports:


The National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration have given more than two million dollars to
the university-based Sea Grant programs.


Over the next five years, a Sea Grant run center called, Great Lakes
COSEE, will help researchers tailor their findings for educators and
school kids. Sea Grant official Jim Lubner says there can be many
paybacks.


“It’s important for the health of our ecosystem to have a literate public, a
literate electorate that understands science that has had some experience
with their natural resources.”


Lubner says the Great Lakes Center will also help teach about oceans, as
he says there are common issues like wetlands destruction, and invasive
species.


The new Sea Grant effort will soon have its own website, and there will
be workshops around the Great Lakes. The first will be offered to
teachers this summer.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Greenways to Garner Green for City?

  • Proposals to build greenways in Detroit are raising interest, hopes, and concerns. (Photo by Val Head)

Many cities looking to revitalize their urban centers
have turned to greenways to spur economic development. Greenways are pedestrian or bike paths that typically run between parks, museums, or shopping districts. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports on hopes that greenways will breathe new life into one of America’s most blighted urban landscapes:

Transcript

Many cities looking to reviatlize their urban centers have turned to greenways to spur economic development. Greenways are pedestrian or bike paths that typically run between parks, museums, or shopping districts. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sarah Hulett reports on hopes that greenways will breathe new life into one of America’s most blighted urban landscapes:


This abandoned rail line twenty-five feet below street level might not be many peoples’ first choice for a walk or a bike ride. But Tom Woiwode thinks soon it might be. Woiwode is the director of the GreenWays Initiative for all of Southeast Michigan. When he takes a look down this former Grand Trunk Western Rairoad line in Detroit, he doesn’t see the fast food wrappers, tires, and crashed and rusting shopping carts. He sees trees and grass and benches. And more importantly, he sees people, and places for people to spend their money.


“So maybe a bike repair shop, restaurants, some opportunities for music venues and those sorts of things, so people can ride their bike on down to the riverfront and along the way either stay here for lunch, or along the way stop and rest and enjoy the ambiance, or take their food and go on down to the riverfront where they can enjoy the extraordinary natural resources of the river as well.”


We’re standing near the city’s sprawling open-air produce market. It’s one of the most popular draws for people from inside and outside the city limits. When it’s complete, the greenway will link the market to Detroit’s greatest natural asset: the Detroit River. Greenways are a new redevelopment concept in Detroit. But elsewhere, Woiwode says, they’ve proven a well-tested urban redevelopment tool.


“In fact, back in the late 90’s, the mayors of Pittsburgh and Denver – two municipalities that are roughly similar in size to Detroit – both characterized their greenways programs as the most important economic development programs they had within the city.”


Minneapolis is another city that’s had success with greenways. In fact, backers of the greenway plan in downtown Detroit say they were inspired by a similar project there. Last month, Minneapolis completed the second phase of what will eventually be a five-mile greenway along an abandoned rail line much like the one in Detroit. It’s called the Midtown Greenway. And it’ll eventually link the Chain of Lakes to the Mississippi River thruogh neighborhoods on the city’s south side.


Eric Hart is a Minneapolis Midtown Greenway Coalition board member. He says even the greenway’s most avid supporters joked that people might continue to use it as a dumping ground for abandoned shopping carts like they did when it was just a trench.


“Since then, since it was done in 2000, there’s been a lot of interest in the development community to put high-density residential structures right along the edge of the greenway. And it’s viewed more like a park now.”


Since the first phase was completed in 2000, one affordable housing development and a 72-unit market-rate loft project have been completed. And five more housing developments – mostly condos – are in the planning stages. Hart says people use the greenway for recreation and for commuting by bicycle to their jobs.


Colin Hubbell is a developer in Detroit. He says he’s all for greenways, as long as they’re not competing for dollars with more pressing needs in a city like Detroit: good schools, for example. Or safe neighborhoods. Hubbell says the question needs to be asked: If you build it, will they come?


“I’m not sure. I’m not sure, if, given the perception problem that we have as a city, how many people on bikes are going to go down in an old railroad right away, I’m not sure even if that’s the right thing to do, given the fact that – I mean, we have a street system. And just because there’s a greenway doesn’t mean if somebody’s on Rollerblades or a bicycle that they’re not going to stay on a greenway.”


Hubbell says Detroit already has a lot of streets and not much traffic – leaving plenty of room for bicyclists. Hubbell says it might be cheaper to paint some bike lanes, and put up signs. But he says connecting the city’s cultural and educational institutions, the river, and commercial districts with greenways is a good idea – as long as they’re running through areas where people will use them.


Kelli Kavanaugh says that’s exactly what’s happening with greenway plans in the city. Kavanaugh is with the Greater Corktown Economic Development Corporation in southwest Detroit.


“You can’t just stick a greenway in the middle of a barren, abandoned neighborhood and expect use. But when you put one into a growing neighborhood, a stabilizing neighborhood, it really works as another piece of the quality of life puzzle to kind of support existing residents, but also attract new residents to the area. It’s another amenity.”


Greenway backers say for a city struggling just to maintain its population, Detroit can only benefit from safe, pleasant places to walk and bike. And if other cities are any indication, they say greenways should also help bring another kind of green into Detroit.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sarah Hulett.

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Rats Scurrying to the Suburbs

  • Life in the suburbs is idyllic to some people... (Photo by Bon Searle)

Unusually heavy rains this summer are partly to blame
for rats pouring out of the sewers in droves all over the country, and the nasty vermin are relocating to some of the most pristine
neighborhoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce
Kryszak explains what caused the rat invasion and
what’s being done to evict them:

Transcript

Unusually heavy rains this summer are partly to blame for rats pouring out of the sewers
in droves all over the country. And the nasty vermin are relocating to some of the most
pristine neighborhoods. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Joyce Kryszak explains what
caused the rat invasion and what’s being done to evict them:


Piercing blue autumn skies and billowing white clouds drift across the chimneys of this modest,
but perfectly manicured suburb. There aren’t even many leaves crunching under foot. Town workers
have already come and vacuumed them all away. But there’s a nasty little secret scurrying under
the porches and behind the garden sheds in this Western New York town. County Sanitation Chief
Peter Tripi takes us for a peek.


“Can you see the teeth marks here? That’s actually rat gnaw marks. And there’s the garbage bag.
And that’s what we found when we went to this property.”


Now, you might be thinking that we trudged through derelict grass and scattered debris to find
these rat clues. Nope. This is a gorgeous, manicured yard – with not a blade of grass out of
place. But Tripi says rats aren’t choosy.


“You would never think by looking side to side that there would be a rat problem in this yard.
Doesn’t matter what neighborhood you live in, or how much money you’ve got. There’s no difference.
They just like your food.”


And you’d be surprised where rats can find food. A garbage can left even briefly uncovered, a
neglected bird feeder, uhhh… dog feces… and even a compost pile.


“Absolutely. This is a rat condo. It’s a grass-clipping compost pile that basically housed rats
to go a hundred yard radius all the way around to the different houses.”


Tripi says rats had to get creative with their housing. A summer of extremely heavy rains drove
the out of the sewers and into some previously rat-free neighborhoods. And with the West Nile
virus killing off millions of birds, the rats have less competition for the food they’re finding
above ground. The consequence is a virtual rat infestation all the way from New York and Illinois
to Virginia, Michigan and L.A. In Kenmore, there have been four thousand rat complaints – nearly
double last year.


(Sound of garbage truck)


Of course, none of this is news to the garbage collectors. They see the problem up close and
personal. Twenty-year veteran Louie Tadaro says this past summer is the worst he’s ever seen.


“Across the street there’s an alleyway and there had to be like ten of them in there, And we
started chasing them with garbage cans trying to kill them, but we couldn’t. By the time we
got there they just split.”


The problem is, they don’t split for long. Vector Control Chief Tripi says now that the rats
have relocated from the sewers to upscale accommodations, they kind of like it.


“And what that means is that they want to live with us. They want to be near our garbage and
our bird feeders. The problem with that is that rats carry diseases.”


We all know about stuff like typhus and the bubonic plague. But there are emerging diseases,
such as a pet-killer called Leptospiroris. It’s killing dogs all across the country. Tripi
says they need to get rid of the rats before the disease starts spreading to humans. So, his
team is taking the rats on, one yard at a time.


Tripi and his Vector control team set rat traps, they fill bait boxes with poison, and – when
they have to – they issue citations to residents who don’t heed the town’s new “rat control rules.” Covered garbage cans only. Clear away all brush. Clean up scattered bird seed and dog feces. Slowly, the rules seem to be working.


(sound of Tripi looking into rat trap)


Still Tripi says it’s mostly educational warfare. And he says now – heading into winter – is the
best time to nip the problem. If the rats get cozy, not only will they stay, they will multiply.
Fully nourished, one adult rat can breed up to sixty baby rats a year.


“The adult rat can live on a little bit of food, but he can’t procreate unless he has a lot of
food source. And they can’t live through the winter unless they’re warm and fattened up.”


So now is the time to – quite literally – put a lid on it. Keep those garbage cans covered, unless
you want some uninvited furry guests this winter, and many, many more come spring.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Joyce Kryszak.

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School Choice Complicates Land-Use Choice

  • School districts are building huge, palatial schools far outside suburban cities to attract school choice students. Okemos High School in Michigan is an example, with its turrets and sprawling athletic fields. The school is actually facing a dearth of students in coming years. (Photo by Corbin Sullivan)

Parents want to send their kids to the best schools, but those schools aren’t always in their neighborhood. Lawmakers in most states say school choice is the answer. Giving students a choice is supposed to make all schools better, but an unintended consequence of school choice is bad choices for land use. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:

Transcript

Parents want to send their kids to the best schools, but those schools aren’t always in the neighborhood. Lawmakers in most states say school choice is the answer. Giving students a choice is supposed to make all schools better. But an unintended consequence of school choice is bad choices for land use. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Corbin Sullivan reports:


Ken Brock lives in the heart of Michigan’s capital city, and he works just a mile away. He and his family live in a quaint neighborhood of homes built in the 1920s and 30s, with interesting neighbors and light traffic, but when Brock started looking at the Lansing schools, he didn’t find what he wanted for his then fourth grade daughter, and neither did she.


“We actually took her to the urban school. And it was an eye opening experience for her. She said to my wife at one point during the visit, ‘Mom, these kids don’t know how to behave.'”


After shopping around, Brock and his daughter decided on a suburban school a few miles outside the city. The school is 20 minutes from the Brock’s home, and no bus runs from downtown Lansing to the school. Brock’s daughter is going into ninth grade and she’ll be behind the wheel soon. But for now, Brock and his wife are willing to make the 40-minute round trip drive, sometimes three times a day, to make sure their daughter’s getting what they feel is a better education.


“I don’t think we’re unique that the number one priority in our life is our daughter, and we’re going to do what it takes to make sure she has the best education and the greatest opportunities available to her.”


Forty-one states have school choice laws. They’re supposed to make schools compete for students and the government money that’s tied to them. The idea is that competition will force schools to up the ante on education, and in the end, all the choices will be better, but suburban school districts are trying to lure students in other ways.


“Those communities often respond by building very large, wonderful schools. But they feel pressure to build these schools farther and farther outside the city.”


Mac McClelland is with the Michigan Land Use Institute. The institute is a non-profit that promotes smart growth. He says instead of just spending the school choice dollars only to improve education, suburban school districts are building huge, palace-like schools to attract students. These schools are too big to be built near city centers. Instead they’re popping up in the middle of cornfields. McLelland says that’s bad land use.


“Folks are putting pressure on land use and opening up new areas by these new schools, extending sewer lines, extending roads and opening up new areas to development.”


McLelland says the goal of school choice legislation was better education. But instead they’ve ended up with a lot of giant, shiny new schools, and once they’re built, the communities gravitate toward them, following the new roads and sewers. McLelland says it’s a gamble — spending money on a new school to get more students and therefore more money. The gamble doesn’t always pay off, so McLelland says schools should worry more about spending money on their teachers and classes – and try to save money on the actual building.


“In every situation that we looked at, it was cheaper to remodel than it was to build new. Even though there might be some sacrifices, some other changes that may not be necessarily, might not be ideal for all people in the school system, that it was less expensive, provided more value, and also decreased the additional cost to that community in terms of extending sewer, water and roads out to that particular area.”


McLelland says putting the emphasis solely on education would give urban schools a more level playing field with schools in the suburbs. He says there’s no need to keep expanding out, because there’s still space for more kids in urban schools.


Ken Brock took his daughter out of the city schools, but he says he’ s not adding to the urban sprawl that often follows the new schools. He says if it weren’t for school choice, his family would have moved to the suburbs to support his daughter’s educational needs. He thinks school choice might be keeping families like his in cities.


“What I want to say and be very specific is I think middle and upper class families would be a smaller percentage of the city population if there weren’t educational options available.”


Brock is arguing that school choice might actually slow sprawl because families can live where they want and still send their kids to the school they want. But not everyone can manage the 40-minute commute two and three times a day to take their kids from the city out to the school in the suburbs, so many families end up moving closer and new subdivisions pop up in the fields around the big, new schools.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Corbin Sullivan.

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Capturing Chippewa History

New technology is being used to expose students in the
Great Lakes states to the history and ways of the six Chippewa
tribes of the Lake Superior region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports … the C-D ROM, created with the help from tribal
leaders, has been six years in the making: