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How Much Space Do YOU Need to Live?

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At some point in the last two weeks I was reading a story on CNN.com which focused on how much space people need to live. Specifically, this story zeroed in on information sent in from what CNN.com calls “iReporters” (people like you and I who act as citizen reporters) and how much space they need to live. From the article:

Kate Meinhardt felt like a clown jammed into a Volkswagen bug when she lived in a 21-square-foot room aboard a circus train.

Bungee cords crisscrossed her walls once a week to prevent an avalanche of items from raining down. A microwave, mini refrigerator, her laptop and baskets of personal items lined the dorm-like room.

Showering, going to the bathroom and even doing laundry became racing contests on the train, Meinhardt said. The 13 people on board shared one shower, two toilets and one washer and dryer.

Wow. Could you imagine living in a 21-square foot room? That’s about 4 feet by 5 feet – something like a prison cell if you ask me.

The trend towards smaller homes continues. I read an article a few months ago that talked about how people are increasingly downsizing their living spaces to save on utility bills, upkeep, and maintenance costs. Some of these people were moving into 80-square foot homes – entire homes that are only 80 square feet! It sounds crazy, but these people are doing it and doing it successfully.

I’m not looking for an 80 square foot home. I’m looking for your average home size with at least two bedrooms and at least two baths. I’d prefer a home with a yard and a finished basement, but those are what I consider to be somewhat luxury items. Of course I could just move to the Poconos and get a gigantic home for a ridiculously low price, but there are no jobs up in the Poconos…

Is there a day coming when we all live in 80 square foot homes? Doubtful, though there is definitely a day coming when we live in more energy efficient homes which are designed to take advantage of the sun’s heat and the shade provided by trees.

Anyway, check out Jersey City Locksmith for the best locksmith service in the Garden State!

What Happened to Large-Scale Recycling?

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Yes, I understand that recycling programs are huge all over the nation. And I would be the first to argue that Americans and some American companies are on the leading edge of recycling, reusing, and repurposing garbage. You can see it all over the place from your local recycling program to upstart companies like TerraCycle. Still, David over at The Good Human writes a good article talking about how recycling is not what it used to be. From the article:

We replace perfectly fine household electronics because ours is not the “new” kind, we buy new cell phones every few months, we only keep cars for a few years (which I have certainly been guilty of!), and we are sold so many single-use items that I don’t even know if anyone knows how to use a washable mop/sponge/diaper anymore. We buy cheap clothing by the bundle and it only lasts a few months before it is either out of style or torn to shreds. Products are bought, used for a short time, and thrown away.

David is right on point. Think about how many times you’ve throw away or gotten rid of a pair of jeans or a t-shirt because it wasn’t considered in style any more. Or how many times have you purchased a new item when you had a similar item at home that worked perfectly fine? Believe it or not, I think that the current economic downturn is helping to lessen this phenomenon. Not many people have the disposable cash any more to go out and purchase another pair of jeans or another can opener or another set of tupperware containers, etc. You get the picture.

The Good Human also talks about how we buy new cell phones and other electronic consumer goods every few years. This is where a good group like TerraCycle comes in and actually recycles this waste into usable products. They’ve created a trash can that is made of broken up consumer electronics. They’ve even mashed together old newspapers to create pencils. Very impressive. A better solution, though, might be to reduce the fickleness of the American consumer so that they aren’t going crazy to buy the latest and greatest cell phones every few years…

One of the small ways that I’ve dramatically reduced my inclination to be the typical American consumer and buy, buy, buy is to look around my “stuff” for items that can still be used. The two examples that pop into my mind are with writing implements and notebook paper. A few years ago I took a small pitcher and began putting my writing implements in it. Every time I found a pen or pencil in a drawer or in a box, I’d throw it in the pitcher. Now the thing is full and I haven’t purchased any new pens or pencils in years. I use my writing implements until they run dry and then I recycle them (if possible – pencil stubs I usually throw in the fire). When I began as an adjunct professor a few years ago, I went through my old college files and found literally reams of notebook paper just sitting there, unused in old notebooks. Instead of letting this paper sit there and rot, I began collecting it and having students use it to write out their essays on their midterm and final exams. Why use up blue books or new paper if there is perfectly good paper just sitting in the closet?

Anyway, just something to consider the next time you’re out at the store and wondering whether or not you want to buy that extra mousepad when you have three old ones at home or another pack of pens when you probably have dozens of loose pens snuck away in different areas of your house.

Unnecessary Complications: Urbanizing Northwest New Jersey

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Today’s Daily Record ran a story entitled, “Builders in Highlands must add affordable units.” The increased production of affordable or workforce housing units in northwest New Jersey (also known as the Highlands) should be a priority – there’s no doubt about it. There are many people like me who are making a decent salary that just cannot afford to live in New Jersey because the asking prices for homes are completely outlandish. God bless my fellow New Jerseyans for wanting top dollar for their homes, but unlike the national housing bubble – the local housing bubble hasn’t totally burst yet in New Jersey.

That said, let me make it clear that the latest COAH rules are infringing on what makes the Highlands one of the most beautiful parts of the state. For those non-New Jersey folks out there, you wouldn’t know that you were still in this state if you were driving around portions of Morris, Sussex, Warren, and Hunterdon counties. We have large forests and some gorgeous wildlife areas that are being preserved by the Highlands Commission. But we also have Governor Money Bags (you non-New Jerseyans may know him as Jon Corzine). This man knows nothing of New Jersey outside of Newark, Trenton, and Camden and – frankly – the way that the masses in Essex, Mercer, and Camden counties constantly vote Democratic, he has no reason to know anything else.

From the article in the Daily Record:

COAH issued a “scarce resource restraint” on all Highlands towns under its control — 72 of the 88 towns in the region, including 24 of Morris County’s 32 municipalities — that appears to stop all construction that does not include affordable units. The order applies even to those towns in the Highlands region’s planning area, where compliance with a regional master plan is voluntary. Still allowed would be any building exempted from the 2004 Highlands law, including a single home on an existing lot.

Stopping construction may not be the best news for those of us looking for a home in that part of the state, but given the economy construction may have stopped anyway. Forcing affordable units into larger developments, though, is not the proper way to move forward. In fact, I talk to many housing developers on a daily basis and restrictions like these almost always lead to an increase in the total number of units being built – though the amount of land to build on is not increased. What does this mean? It means more bodies in less space. It’s unnecessary urbanization. More from the article:

COAH’s action was in response to Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s September executive order that affordable housing not be built at the expense of protecting water resources in the 860,000-acre environmentally sensitive region and that COAH and the New Jersey Highlands Council work together to reconcile their competing mandates.

Highlands Executive Director Eileen Swan said that COAH’s order won’t stop all development. Any subdivision in which 20 percent of the homes will be affordable — for instance, 10 units in a 50-unit development — and those meeting one of the 17 exemptions written into the Highlands law will be permitted. So will development in any town that proves to COAH it has ample water, sewer and land for building.

In other words, if you’ve already figured out how to build affordable units in one of the areas of the nation where real estate is still overvalued, then you can go ahead and build. But the interesting part of this blocked quote is Governor Money Bags’ order that affordable housing come second to protecting our natural resources. With one hand, he’s forcing higher density units and with the other he says to keep water resources at the forefront. Double talk at its best…or worst.

New Jersey should leave the Highlands area alone. There are more than enough brownfields (former industrial sites that are no longer in use) in this state that can be demolished, cleaned, and redeveloped. Let’s work on those areas first and then think about manifest destiny to the Pennsylvania border.

Movie Review: The 11th Hour

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This movie was given to me by a client. He received a few copies of the movie gratis from a friend and thought it a good idea to pass those copies along. Unfortunately, it took me a while to get around to watching this movie and frankly, there is nothing ground-breaking about The 11th Hour.

First of all, this is actually a documentary so calling it a movie is really not correct. And as a documentary I found it more alarmist than anything else. The visuals used to augment the information that the speakers are giving the viewers are skewed to show situations that frighten and alarm. I was sad to see this because instead of showing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when talking about global warming, I think showing more shots of melting mountain tops and glaciers breaking up would be more effective. The bulk of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina came from a bungled local and state government response as well as the levies breaking. But hey – I guess if you’re trying to sell your position you have to use the visuals that work.

Most of the information in the documentary is nothing new. Everyone knows that the human race has had an impact on the planet and that our waste products are negative to the environment. Thankfully, more people have become aware of this fact and are working voraciously to lower their personal imprints on the planet either through recycling more, using sustainable items, and working to conserve their use of resources. That’s all and great. But documentaries like The 11th Hour work against these positive trends by yelling that the sky is falling.

I admire Leonardo DiCaprio, the documentary’s narrator, but he should continue to be in the business of helping out the underprivileged by using his notoriety and money in conjunction with already established organizations. Going out and producing this documentary did not do much to help “turn the tide” in the battle against pollution. In fact, it might have hurt the progressing trend of environmental sustainability in some areas. For example, one commentator refers to the human race as a sickness on the planet earth; he talks about how we are creating a crust or a shell on the actual earth itself and we are poisoning it. Yeah…THAT’s how you rally support.

Another commentator says that the biggest weapon of mass destruction is the huge power amassed by corporations. In other words, corporations are the biggest weapons of mass destruction on the planet. Not only is this intellectually insulting, but the underlying meaning will be lost on most of the public due to the outrage associated with the comment. An unfortunate way to go about the business of changing minds.

It’s not that I didn’t like this documentary, but I thought that it did much less to advance environmentally friendly ideas than Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Plus, the documentary is more of a beginner’s guide to some of these issues than anything else. If you’re into alarmist documentaries or just looking into the whole environmentally sustainable issue, then you may want to look at this documentary if you have some time. If you don’t fall into one of those categories, don’t worry about seeing this one.

Book Review: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

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Published this year (2008), In Defense of Food is a book about eating food which is written by Michael Pollan. In the book, Pollan looks at the eating habits of our cultural ancestors and how what used to be a simple, group act has turned into a gigantic business that tricks people, defines traditional mores, and decreases the health of people overall. The main points that I picked up while reading this books are:

  • Only eat whole foods. The concept may sound weird, but Pollan makes a good point in his book – most of the food that we eat today is some variant of the original product. In other words, we go to the supermarket and buy bread that is created from overly processed wheat grain whereas people used to just go to the local grocery store and buy a loaf of bread. In the search to create more “nutritious” food, we’ve actually created less healthy food products.
  • Nutritionism is a red herring. Pollan does a good job of describing the governmentalization of our food. He talks about how the lobbyists for the food industry managed to get regulations that are heavily in their favor during the 1970’s and 1980’s. For example, there was once a time when if a food producer made an imitation product, they had to label it as an imitation. Through creative lobbying, that restriction was removed and now we buy fruit juice that has less than 2% real juice. Scary.
  • Stay away from high fructose corn syrup! Pollan goes back to this point over and over again in the book. This is one of the worst forms of excess sugar that is found in many of the processed foods that we eat.
  • Eat leaves. No, don’t go outside and feast on your pine tree. Instead, when you make a meal you should be sure to have it consist mostly of leaves. For centuries, the human diet was based on hunted meats and gathered leaves and fruits. It was a leaf-based diet – which also includes the fact that the hunted meats usually grazed on leaves. Today, we eat a diet high in seed-based foods. This hasn’t been good for us as you can see by the increasing levels of poor health in society. Eat leaves!
  • Eat with other people. Pollan talks about how eating used to occur three times per day, but how in today’s diet there is an odd fourth meal that takes place throughout the day – snacking. Without diving too much into the sociological aspect of eating, Pollan reminds the reader that families used to gather around the dinner table and socialize during dinner. This also provided an opportunity for parents to set a proper example for their children in terms of what to eat and how much to eat.
  • Beware of health claims. One of the main messages of the book is that if you’re in a grocery store and you see something that claims to be low-fat or that it has some percentage of needed nutrients, you should run away! Pollan brings up the point that I have believed for quite some time now – that if a product has to publicize whether it’s good or bad for you, then it likely is not a real food (instead it is probably some processed food product) and it likely is not good for you at all (lowering the amount of fat in a product but increasing other unhealthy aspects).

Another thing that I picked up from reading this book was the existence of community supported agriculture (CSA). With CSA, a consumer pays a set dollar amount to buy a “share” in the farm’s produce; their share comes in the form of a weekly or monthly box of produce that are grown at the farm. This is a good idea for a variety of reasons including the freshness of the items, supporting the local economy, and creating a sustainable method of getting food on your plate. Check out the link above to see if you have a CSA in your area.

Overall, I enjoyed reading In Defense of Food and I was intrigued by many of the points that Pollan raises throughout. For those who are interested in healthier eating, I highly suggest getting this book from your local library or spending the $20 to purchase the book. This is the type of work that I hope people would share with their friends after reading it (thanks to my co-worker for lending me her copy).