One Civic Act

Today, I took another photography walk as part of a citizen science project tracking the pollinators of Somerville. I saw far fewer pollinators this time around, although some flies were hanging around flowers more than I’d ever noticed before.

In race for the presidential election next year, there have been loud calls for candidates to conduct a climate debate. While it appears that won’t come to pass, at least there’ll be a CNN climate town hall. Why not make that local? Today, I met with two local climate advocates to see whether we could make a climate forum for our city council, which has an election in November. The wheels are in motion.

The City of Somerville is concluding a six-year process of updating its Davis Square Neighborhood Plan. There have been high-level consultants, street-level studies and numerous community consultations along the way. They’ve published a draft report and are looking for public comments, before presenting to the Planning Board next week. Today, I went through the report one more time and sent a long email to the Planning Department, first congratulating them for a comprehensive review, but also adding a few areas of improvement. I don’t expect much of a response.

Today, I joined on a call with Gas Leaks Allies , who are releasing a report in a few weeks that is a comprehensive review of the pervasive problem of gas leaks in our statewide infrastructure. The report will be issued on the one-year anniversary of the tragic gas explosions in Lawrence and Andover , which killed one and crippled those cities for months. There are over 50 recommendations in the report, I was told, mostly to be addressed by the state government.

Today, I spent a couple hours over lunch mentoring a trainee I worked with at the Minneapolis Climate Reality Project training. He lives in Maine, so he feels a bit isolated, but he’s really gung ho to get started, so I supported him as best I was able.

Today, I took a few hours to draft a site structure and copy deck for a simple website for the Climate Reality Project Boston metro chapter. It’s time we had a web presence and I hope to work with the leadership team to get this live in a week or two.

I haven’t made a Kiva loan in awhile and enough loan payments have been made for me to be able to make another loan. Today, I made a loan to Zach , from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who is trying to grow his mushroom farm. I’ve lent to other farmers on Kiva and I love mushrooms, so this loan is right up my alley. Today, I also “filled the boot” — made a donation to the Muscular Dystrophy Association through the Everett Firefighters’ “ FillTheBoot ” campaign.