What to look for when your candidates go green

Recent op-ed in USA Today by Ann Arborite Tom Princen... What to look for when your candidates go green.

Lurid Monorail for AnnArbor-Detroit Commute?

Inhabitat is reporting a story that a Solar + Hydrogen Power Interstate Rail is coming to southeast Michigan. Specifically, this will supposedly be a commuter connector between Ann Arbor and Detroit, and construction is due to begin later this year.

This is the first I have heard about this system, and I expect we'd all be a bit more familiar with it if it had made it thorough all the regulatory and financial hurdles that were necessary to get such an enormous plan into the works.

I just hope that unnatural shade of green the grass is glowing doesn't turn out to be some kind of artifact of the system. I've never seen any vegetation that color of green in Michigan...

Special February Green Drinks

GREEN DRINKS
Thursday, February 21, 2008, 7pm onward
310 S. Ashley St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Join O2 MICHIGAN for a special GREEN DRINKS at a fresh, new venue at 310 S. Ashley St. (Hathaway's Hideaway) just a few doors south of the Fleetwood Diner in downtown Ann Arbor. In this comfortable non-smoking environment come network as usual with others interested in all things green and sustainable design.

On the main floor we will have some Michigan brews available (couple
dollar donation requested). Upstairs Andrew Hoffman, the Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and Associate Director of the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan, will speak and lead a discussion beginning at 8pm regarding climate change likely being the most important business issue of the 21st century.

----> meet up, talk, share ideas, incubate projects, relax, have fun

----> hear about and help us develop our new ideas and events... like our tentative Michigan beer tasting in March in partnership with Slow Food Huron Valley and our local sustainable business fair in April or May.

See you there!

Leopold Bros. to Close in June

As posted on the blog Ann Arbor Is Overrated:
Leopold Bros., the frequent venue for Green Drinks, will be closing and moving its operations to Denver this summer.

Our lease expires in the summer, and shockingly (note heavy sarcasm), our landlords asked for an obscene amount per month in rent, so we’re done. This move has zero to do with the economy, or sales levels, as we are coming off of our strongest year of sales at the pub since we’ve been open. We moved here in 1998, and since that time our rent has tripled, and our new landlords want even more... because, of course, that’s what the market will bear.

According to Todd, the distilling operations will be moving in the spring, and the bar itself will close a few months later.

More discussion and information at Ann Arbor Is Overrated (where Todd Leopold is a regular).