My Alter Ego

I have to fez up to the cruel reality that I may not be as green as I claim to be. In my most recent blog entry I even announced that I was ready to move to Vauban, Germany to become even greener than we are in our South Beach home. It’s true that our only car sits in the parking garage for weeks at a time and is only used when we are entertaining visitors. It is also true that because parking is such a big issue in South Beach I make it a point to bicycle or take the $.025 bus to the grocery store, the bank, post office or just about anywhere that I need to go. It is also true that I don’t own a gas-powered lawnmower, don’t have lawn sprinklers and that I recycle most of what goes into our trash. But when I head back to Emerald Isle, North Carolina, all my green goes out to the deep blue ocean.

It’s not that I mean to be less green, it just happens that being less green is a lot easier. In the other half of my double life, I’m not just a condo-dweller but a seasonal rental house owner. So, it’s not that I have a lot of choices, but even using what I have available I’m not very conscious of minimizing my environmental impact. I rationalize my actions by saying to myself that I don’t have a lot of time or that the distances here are not as convenient for walking or that it’s too cold or too hot or too wet. Regardless, I find a way to acting very much like just about everyone else in the area. For transportation I get to use a 4X4 small pick up truck that my brother-in-law kindly lends me. He doesn’t use the truck as much because it happens to be a gas-guzzler, so I take it and I don’t even blink when filling up at the gas station. I use the truck to travel back and forth the Raleigh-Durham airport and I also to do my errands during the two weeks I’m here. When I’m here, I dispose of and buy all kind of ‘home stuff’ to make the house more comfortable to our summer renters and of course need a truck to move them.

When shopping, I’m not looking for ‘greenness’ as I’m looking for ‘value’. At the store, I want to know what is cheaper and whether it will withstand the onslaught of tenderness from renters and visitors and pay little regard to where the item was made or under what conditions it was made. When we have weekend guests, I go back and forth to the supermarket several times during the weekend and make little effort to maximize the utility of my trips or even to consider whether I could bring the items on a bicycle. It’s just so easy to hop on the truck and drive away that I don’t even take the time to think whether I might be missing something for which I’d have to return in a couple of hours.

And if this is me that I consider myself to be environmentally conscious, at least in my other half of my double life, what could we expect from those that are in complete denial that global warming maybe at least in part aggravated by our use of hydrocarbon fuels or those that feel that the world was created simply for man’s use and enjoyment? As long as it continues to be just so simple and cheap to get on your car and drive to do whatever, it will be continue to be a major challenge to convince at least some in the population to reduce the carbon footprint for the activities that we do daily. With the recent announcement of the new gas-mileage and emission standards made by the Obama administration just yesterday, I’ve been also listening to some talking about the possibility of a “gas tax”. Of course, proposing any sort of gas tax would be equivalent to political suicide, but thinking about it, this will be the only way I will feel forced to think about my driving habits seriously. It happened last year when gas was over $4 a gallon, but now that it’s back down to $2 we, including myself, are back to our old ways.

I yearn to be green. Really, I don’t want to live a double life. But I need some help. Only when it becomes economically feasible, will I truly leave the other half of my double life and live my life fully being a conscientious inhabitant of this wonderful planet. Please help!

We're moving to Vauban, Germany!!! (well, maybe)

I don't want to sound as if I am complaining about where we reside but you must always be on the lookout for that next (better) place out there. Los Angeles, with all it's ethnic diversity, it's world-class public library and it's Metro, make for a great contender. But then when you throw in it's notorious smog and the occasional earth-shaking episodes, L.A looses a bit of it's charm. And of course, the worse being that it being such a car-centric society one would be hard pressed to do anything without the almighty car. Also, where there are cars, there are usually cops. And during the last 10 minutes of our last visit I received an unexpected farewell from an LAPD officer who claimed that I “broke the white line of the right-turning lane” when instead of continuing straight on my lane, I moved to the right lane too closed to the intersection. I have a feeling that the area around the airport must be a great place to catch unfamiliar tourists doing things they shouldn't be doing and I happened to be the unlucky one at that time. And it left a bitter taste in my mouth about L.A which makes me question whether I ever want to return again, let alone the thought of ever living anywhere nearby is unfathomable right now.

Yesterday we arrived back in North Carolina for what has become our regular semi-annual visit to the NC coast. It was back here where I started writing this blog during my days of fishing and lounging by the beach. Now it's just for a few days of cleaning and preparing the house for the (hopefully) busy summer season. Still, it reminds me of the wonderful life we had here bicycling mostly everywhere we needed and doing our daily walks right on the beach. Well, not very different from Miami Beach in that sense although this setting is definitely more isolated and peaceful.

Reading today's New York Times (online) I found an interesting article about Vauban, Germany which sounds like the utopia for bicyclist and those like me that have this love-hate relationship with their cars. Vauban has only one street where cars are allowed and the houses and condos have no driveways or parking garages. Parking is allowed in a building on the outskirts of the town where homeowners can purchase a parking spot for $40,000. With all these restrictions, 70% of the residents don't even own a car and 57% of the residents sold a car before moving to the community. Everything in the community is conveniently located within walking distance and cars are not allowed in the central part of the village. As a result, families feel safer when their children play outside, the environment if cleaner and I bet that if we look at this in 5 years, the residents are going to be healthier by being forced to walk and bike to most of their outings. According to the article, some of these bicycle/walking-friendly communities are being planned in locations throughout Europe and even some in the USA. I can't wait to go on my next California round because the article mentions that the Quarry Village community on the outskirts of Oakland, CA is being designed as a car-free community. Wait for my report about it in an upcoming blog.

In the mean time, I'll have to make the best of the bike lanes in Emerald Isle, NC as well as fighting the traffic with my bike in Miami Beach. As to moving to Vauban, Germany, I'll have to see whether they have a thriving latino social enclave and a good Cuban bakery/coffee shop. And if they do, I'll be looking seriously at the possibility of making Vauban our next seasonal migrating spot. I'm not holding my breath.

Since I mentioned my love-hate relationship with the cars, I have to close with the pictures of some neat cars that were in Ocean Drive (South Beach) last week for the closing of the Gumball 3000, which is a “race” of luxury cars from LA to Miami Beach.   The picture above is of South Beach & Biscayne Bay from the air.

The Mariachi Girls in L.A.

As Cinco de Mayo approaches, we decided to go with our Los Angeles friends Edwin and Alma to a truly Mexican experience to enjoy some Mexican food and music at the El Cielito Lindo restaurant in South El Monte, a suburb of Los Angeles. This was supposed to be just about 16 miles from downtown L.A. but traveling East from downtown on highway 10 at 6PM could mean moving as fast as a pouring honey out of a long skinny jar on a cold day. Thank goodness for the Car Pool lane which made things move a lot faster for the few of us that had two or more passengers in their vehicles. If I lived in L.A. I'd hire a person just to ride along with me so I could use the Car Pool lane all the time, it's definitely a time saver.

The main reason we made the trek to El Monte was to see the Reina De Los Angeles mariachi which is self-described as "the first all-female mariachi ensemble in the USA". This mariachi plays on Wednesdays of every week and the very famous Mariachi Sol de Mexico plays from Thursday to Sunday of every week. We were sitting at our table by 7:15PM and placed our food order shortly thereafter. Edwin ordered the fajitas, Alma ordered the chopped steak, B ordered a fried sea bass, I had the surf and turf house specialty. The show started promptly at 7:30PM and by that time the overhead lights over the tables had been dimmed and the stage lights immediately came on. By the time the food arrived, a few minutes into the show, it was a challenge to see what I was putting in my mouth because it was so dark, but whatever it was, it was rather pleasant and tasty so I didn't complaint.

The show was very entertaining to say the least. The women seemed very relaxed and easily handled the cheering, applause, yelling or whichever other way those in the audience decided to show their appreciation. Some, which must have been drinking Tequila straight from the tap, were very expressive and seemed to be having a great time, and were letting everybody know about it. At some point during the show, the ladies called the names of those new to the audience including where we came from. I have a feeling that Edwin may have had something to do with them knowing our names and where we were from, at least the didn't call me an "unemployed Miamian" so I didn't feel too bad. They also acknowledge those that were celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. At one point the musicians walked down the isles to be very close with the audience.  It made for a very intimate show with the Reina De Los Angeles. I think that all of the musicians at some point put their instruments down and picked up the microphone to lead sing. They alternated in the different songs and sometimes even within the same song they would pass along a mic to interchange the lead singer spot. They all did a great job. Of course one or two of them could really hold the notes for a very long time, which made for a great crowd pleaser, but overall it was difficult to tell which ones were better than the others.

During the introduction the ladies mentioned that they were there just about every week but that next week, for the Cinco de Mayo celebration, they were not going to be here in L.A. They had been invited to perform for President Obama next week so we were lucky to see them just before they were on their way.

As Edwin had predicted, this was a great mariachi show and the food was not bad either. I was very pleased with both. Not only did we enjoy the 7:30 show but waited for the 9:30 and almost waited to the 11PM but some of us had to work the next day so we decided to end it somewhat early. Los Angeles is proving to be quite the fun place.

Here's a clip with just a few seconds of one of their last numbers.