Locals on “Weconomics,” “House Warming,” and Desal.
Share Where
Re: “Weconomics” (Cover, Sept. 18): I read the article “Weconomics” with great interest—I am a big fan of community based gifting and sharing. After reading it, I went to the websites in the article and to my great chagrin, most were of no use whatsoever. Yerdle is in beta and a mobile only app (and a very complicated model), Neighborgoods has been abandoned, Tripping is in beta, Getaround would not recognize 95010 (Capitola) as part of California, etc. Beyond this, the article failed to mention one of the most used and robust on-line gifting sights, Freecycle.org. So much for fact checking.
Cara Finn
Capitola
Cat Johnson responds: The point of the article was to highlight new, tech-enabled sharing platforms. Freecycle is one of the most-used sites, that’s why I chose to spotlight others. Neighborgoods is still going. When I put Capitola into Getaround’s search, two cars came up, with numerous others in the surrounding towns. As I point out in the article, the more people get involved with the sharing economy, the stronger and more widespread it becomes. Don’t give up on these sites yet. They’re the frontrunners in an exciting movement.
Life as a House
Re: “House Warming” (Cover, Aug. 14): Our designer Graham Irwin’s amazing dedication and talent in the science and life-cycle impacts of buildings was our stalwart guide throughout this entire project. With his direction, a nearly century old structure was recreated into an incredibly efficient, climate-responsive building. When future PV is added to the roof that electricity can be used for electric vehicles instead of serving a leaky, inefficient building. The synergy of our designer Graham working together with our builder Taylor allowed us to do all this for a very modest additional cost! That’s the real-world benefit of successful and effective teamwork, what Anne Edminister calls “Integrated Design.” Pat Splitt, Duane Wilson and Terry Norbye also each made invaluable contributions in solar thermal design, solar thermal installation and air-sealing respectively. Yes, it can be done!
Kurt Hurley
Santa Cruz
Wet Mess
After attending the recent Desal Alternative meeting at the Circle Church last Thursday, it became very clear what the real problem of our “water crisis” is.
According to former employees of our Water Department and other experts, we have many abundant and sustainable sources of water. The first half of the “problem” is an antiquated, backward and disorganized mess of conflicting water resource rights and misplaced reference maps that could be resolved by some constructive meetings of the principle municipal, state and federal water rights stake holders. The other half of the “problem” is those in positions of power making really bad choices like funding millions of our tax dollars to write badly flawed, prejudicial “studies” promoting the construction of a Desalination Plant instead of building a pipeline that would carry recycled waste water from the waste treatment plant to golf courses, public parks and recreation areas. Now that we understand what the real problem is, maybe we can work together as a community to clean up this mess and have a sustainable resource for ourselves and future generations.
Drew Lewis
Santa Cruz
