I Thank You

I Thank Louis Broadus and Elizabeth Rice of Kemble Park

I Thank Louis Broadus and Elizabeth Rice of Kemble Park whom I met today at the cleanup. Your decades long commitment to this park, named in honor of abolitionist Fanny Kemble, and the work you continue to do to defend it against those who brazenly misuse and trash it,  is truly amazing and inspirational.

I thank the Save Burholme Park Organization

I thank the Save Burholme Park organization and defendants Jean Gavin and Fred Maurer for questioning Fox Chase Cancer Center's seemingly cancerous expansion plants. Now, will I get sued like Jean and Fred just have?

Thanks Bruce Gellerman of NPR's Living on Earth

Thanks for the program on the benefits/hazards of compact fluorescent bulbs. 

GELLERMAN:"In 1857 French Physicist Alexandre Beqcquerel came up with the bright idea of the fluorescent bulb and today they're the hottest thing in lighting or actually the coolest. Unlike incandescent bulbs--which generate a lot of heat and waste energy-- the latest version of fluorescent bulbs those compact, spirally looking ones are highly efficient. There's just one problem with compact fluorescent bulbs: they contain mercury which is toxic and when it winds up in the food chain, can cause damage to our brain, spinal cord, kidneys and liver." Hardware stores need to accept these for recycling, especially the big boxes, and government needs to get involved, especially with commercial establishments.

transcript and audio file here

I thank Awbury Park Greener Uppers for Successful Green Event and

in particular, I thank the indefatigable Chris of Northwest Greens and Carol,David- Fairmount Park Northwest Volunteer and Stewardship Coordinator extraordinaire, Herb and Gay of Awbury Neighbors, Ray and his teens participating in the VisionQuest at risk youth program, Sidney and his jolly gang of Sierra volunteers, Glenn and Rick of Weavers Way for the refreshing gift of  fruit, energy bars, crackers, cider for the volunteers, neighbors Taz and Tammy Here's the listing for the Green Event. Let's do it again and tackle the invasive vines

Movie below shows VisionQuest boys hauling a dead tree limb away

I thank you Streets Committee Chair DiCicco

"My name is Brian Rudnick. Thank you, Chair DiCicco, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Councilman Kenney and members of City Council  who may listening in their chambers, for the privilege of testifying today on something near and dear to me. I am also honored to be in the presence of so many friends and co-recyclers..

I began recycling in the 1980s on Lombard Street in Center City west with a group started by Terry Gillen and haven’t stopped. For the last ten years I have been an active recycler and volunteer in Chestnut Hill at SEPTA’s Wyndmoor train station. I also participate in the Environment Committee of the Weavers Way Cooperative Association which oversees a popular recycling program in Mount Airy. In a few weeks time I will have the privilege of sitting on a small subcommittee to decide which of many worthwhile community organizations should be recipients of the modest amount of grant money, earned from our recycled materials. These organizations will implement projects to make our neighborhood greener and healthier.  I have listened and asked questions at  presentations by RecycleBank, and yes, if you haven’t already guessed, I am an avid supporter of the  Recycling Alliance and the Recycle Now campaign.

In February of last year I wrote to Streets Commissioner Tolson, and copied the letter to  the members of the Streets Committee. I advocated for weekly, curbside, single-stream recycling and expressed some reservations about the RecycleBank model. In another letter this past week and now, in testimony, I wish to express my opinion.

In my  family, we try to buy food items in bulk to cut down on packaging, we gratefully accept hand-me-down clothes, we frequent yard sales and thrift shops and we put kitchen and yard waste in our big Streets Department-supplied compost bin.  When single stream recycling comes to the east side of Germantown Avenue, we will still be putting out a good bit less recycling material than many of our neighbors in Chestnut Hill and consequently will be entitled to LESS REWARDS. We also put out a lot LESS TRASH than many others but our taxes pay for the City to remove all of those re-usable items that others put in the trash- everything from clothes to toys to books to antique telephones to sofas to desks. What incentive is there now for anyone to make the trip to say, the Whosoever Gospel Mission or Greene Street thrift stores or to post their unwanted items online at Philly Freecycle? NONE, unless the City begins, perhaps to offset recycling rewards in an amount proportionate to the amount of waste a household produces.

Recycling is and always has been secondary to reducing and reusing when it comes to improving our environment, which as you know is under local and global threat. And the tears in my eyes after my visit last year to Blue Mountain recycling caused by particulate matter in the air should be reason for us to look into the downsides of not reducing and reusing and the consequences for our sanitation and recycling workers.

I bring with me today a campaign poster which I employed in my successful bid to be president of the John Hampton Moore Elementary School in the Northeast some 40 years ago. My family helped me RE-USE this poster after my brother’s unsuccessful bid to be President of Central High. You see we placed a flap with my name on it over his name.  As a final note and, with the indulgence of Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller I would like to add that I am considering reusing this poster in a campaign for a seat in this Council alongside you.

Thank you for your work, your time and your patience."

Testimony of Brian Rudnick before Philadelphia City Council
Streets Department Hearing on Recycling
February 22, 2007

I thank you, Mr. Willie Ford for...

taking a vacant piece of land in your east Mt. Airy neighborhood and putting it to good use as a garden/small farm  for 13 years and for joining with me in a venture to purchase a part of it and for our small  harvest yesterday  of  purple top white globe turnips which today I vended at W eavers Way. YAY