It’s a super Tuesday!

By John Bennett

July 8, 2008

Some days the sustainability-related events seem to stack up. Today is one of those days.

From 10-11 a.m., Preserving Savannah Neighborhoods is staging a protest at the corner of Abercorn Street and DeRenne Avenue. The purpose? To highlight the Georgia Department of Transportation’s counterproductive decision to go ahead with construction of a right turn lane from northbound Abercorn onto eastbound DeRenne, despite the fact that such a modification may be contrary to the recommended results of $300,000 study of the corridor that’s recently begun. PSN’s position is that no work on the road should be undertaken — no matter how long ago it was originally conceived — until after Project DeRenne is completed. After all, traffic engineering decisions made when gasoline cost $1.75 per gallon may no longer be appropriate when prices are north of $4.

And if $4 a gallon gas has you considering the wisdom of pouring your paycheck into the side of your car, maybe you should be considering that bicycle gathering dust in the corner of your garage. Cog, Savannah’s bicycle co-op, can help you prepare your bike for commuting or grocery getting today from 4-7 p.m. The shop is located at the corner of East Broad and 39th streets.

Later in the evening, the July edition of GreenDrinks Savannah happens at Cha Bella, a little further down East Broad, where it intersects with Broughton Street. GreenDrinks starts at 5:30 and officially ends two hours later, although folks have been known to linger.

GreenDrinkers this month, however, will have reason to put down their beverages and move a couple hundred feet north to Trustees Garden to hear Charles Landry talk on the “Art of City Making.” In an interview with Connect Savannah’s Jim Morekis, Landry said this about the concept of streets vs. roads:

Many American cities build roads, for example, rather than streets, a road going from point A to point B and you don’t care what happens in between. If I say to you, name me a great city, and you think about it — and Savannah in that sense has some of these features — you’ll see that it’s built around great streets.

Read more of the interview here.

While Landry is speaking, the Georgia Sierra Club Coastal Group will host a candidates forum at 7 p.m. at the Frank Murray Community Center on Whitemarsh Island. Invited Chatham County Commission 4th District candidates are Jeremy Scheinbart and Gerald Freedman. For more information, call Steve Willis at 912-341-0718.

Posted in Advocacy, Education, Government, Planning, Transportation