Two Wheels One Baby

The combination of our new living situation and a recent article in Dwell article called “At Home in the Zone” about practicing sustainability like you preach inspired me to start blogging again. This post is going to show pictures of our new place along with what sustainability means in our lives.

I am copying Dwell’s article format where they break down a households’ zones and give tips on how people can be more sustainable.
Location has so much to do with sustainability. Whether you can walk or bike to grab your basic necessities affects your carbon footprint dramatically. Additionally, do you WANT to walk or ride your bike in your neighborhood. Walkscore.com gives a good indication of how easy it will be to buy groceries, visit the library or park, go hang out at a coffee shop all by foot. There are 2 faults with this website, though. Fault 1 – The website uses google maps to calculate a walkscore so any business or other registered with google will appear…even if the info is outdated. Fault 2 – there is an emotional factor that is pretty impossible to calculate and that is the general feeling of a neighborhood. For example, our condo in Madison on Willy Street has a walk score of 89 out of 100 and is located in a fantastic community where you want to walk or ride your bike. Our first house here in Boston in Southie had a walk score of 88 and a terrible sense of community. There was trash and dog shit on the sidewalks, lack of trees, shady people walking around, Kyle was jumped by high school age kids and badly beaten up, and our bikes were stolen from right under our noses. Totally different than Willy Street even though the score only differed by 1 point. Lastly, our new place in Cambridge has a walk score of 80 and is pretty par with our place in Madison. The dog park, fresh pond, that I will reference later, is a huge plus!
Last month, Livable Streets Alliance held a Street Talk on Urban Health where Russ Lopez talked about how our built environment shapes ourselves like proximity to necessities like grocery stores effects a person’s health. He brought up the conflict between environmentalists and urbanists. Here I thought they could be the same? Apparently environmentalists don’t like cities because they’re dirty. Russ disagrees with teaching inner city children to respect their environment because, really, what is their environmental impact? They take mass transportation, don’t consume much… This is the only thing that I very much disagreed with Russ on. If children were taught to respect their environment and community, maybe there would be less trash on the streets and sidewalks. After living in Southie and experiencing a community first hand that does not respect the environment nor their community, I wanted to run for the suburbs. I was so sick of city living that I was willing to compromise our car free life. If I, who am a pretty staunch urbanist, want to flee for the burbs, how does a normal person feel about living in the city with communities like this? Inner city communities don’t have to be gentrified to feel great; neighbors just need to respect one another and their living space.
Transportation, part of location, has a direct effect on your lifestyle. We will not live anywhere where a car is a necessity. We have a motorcycle and 5 bikes. To get to work, Kyle takes 1 of 3 buses that regularly run by our place and then he takes a free shuttle from Genzyme corporate headquarters out to the Framingham burbs where he works. When the weather is nice, he commutes via motorcycle. I do all the errands and go to the gym on my bike. We are members of Zipcar for the times when you REALLY need a car like escaping the city for the weekend or a trip to IKEA.
Parks, Cambridge’s Fresh Pond is literally out our back door. We exit the loft, open a fence door to a walk down abandoned railroad tracks (that I think will soon be a bike path), and 200 ft. to fresh pond. The dogs can leave and return from the loft leash-less if we like. Fresh Pond is a large reservoir that is surrounded by a golf course and limestone path with periodic doggie bag / trash stations. There are no fences and the whole park is considered off-leash. There’s even a side pond / dock / wading pool for dogs. Too bad both our dogs are not water loving. The best part is that it’s a shared space between bicyclists, walkers, runners and dog walkers. Everyone is so happy to be there. I’ve run around the pond and it’s a 2 mile loop. Animal Planet was there a couple weeks ago shooting a special so look out for that. I can’t wait to take the stroller and baby to the park and do the walking loop every day.
Memorial Drive along the river, is closed to cars on Sundays and it’s super close by. Here’s a video about it:

Grocery Stores, a large chain store with organics and a pretty big micro/craft beer selection is a 5 minute walk across the parking lot from us. Plus, we’re lucky to live across the Fresh Pond from the largest Whole Foods in Boston. The bike path connects us there.

Inside the Loft
Space and Design, only 750 sq. ft. so we had to sell 3/4 of what we owned before on craigslist and ebay. Now we have no clutter and nothing that we don’t need or use on a regular basis…except for some scrapbooks, memorabilia, comic books, and coin collections. The unit has 16 ft ceilings, bamboo and rough pine floors, clean, white walls, and the outside wall is one large brick/warehouse window.
Furnishings, not only did we have to sell items on craigslist, but we had to replace a few. I found a west elm sofa, crate & barrel chair/ottoman, and west elm media stand all used on craigslist. We needed a few new storage items to help us get organized (container store and IKEA are great for this), plus I wanted a new duvet and rug. We hung all of Kyle’s guitars on the walls as well as my bike. Our other three bikes are kept in a special bike storage shed outside.
Baby is coming, so how is a baby fitting into this small space equation? I have our back storage space by the bathroom equiped with baby personal care. The washer/dryer is also next to the bathroom to make washing the diapers easy. The shelves in our living room are filled with boxes for toys and other accessories. We’re going to find a pack-n-play for the living room to double as a changing station and crib. Otherwise, the baby will sleep next to us in a hanging crib like a Kanoe. Obviously, this is idealistic and things will change, but it’s definitely possible to raise a baby in a small space. Think of how moms in Manhattan, Japan, and even Africa cope with space…I feel pretty lucky.