Alley Cats

According to the New York Times, Chicago "is the alley capital of America." Eh, we'll take it. Because the story's all about our "green alley" initiative, which if you'll recall snagged an Innovation Award last month.

Green alleys use permeable concrete, which allows water to soak back into the ground, and reflect light. According to the City's Green Alley Handbook (which is so pretty it won an award), "sustainable alley design" tackles four issues: storm water management, heat reduction, material recycling, and energy conservation/glare reduction. Here's a lovely illustration of how permeable paving options can be made of repurposed materials. Shhh...if you listen close, you can hear Al Gore smiling.

The NYT article goes through the typical rehashing of how green we are, but it also points out that our recycling program, oh, bites ass. We're only a green as our fakakta* blue bags, right?

*We're open to the actual, accepted spelling of this Yiddish term meaning crazy/worthless; our Google-foo is not yielding a satisfying consensus. Anybody?