As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Urban Studio Brooklyn — a project of the non-profit Habana Works, founded by Brooklyn entrepreneur and Habana Outpost owner Sean Meenan — has been developing the wild, funky, human-powered mobile fishing clinic/wetlab called the Fishmobile!

Guess what?

It’s ready for its maiden voyage!

WHEN:
Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 2pm

WHERE:
Habana Outpost (757 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217)
With procession afterwards to East River Park in the Lower East Side, Manhattan.

The human-powered vehicle/spectacle was built by student participants working alongside seasoned design professionals and will be used to deliver environmental education programs in waterfront parks and informal open spaces.

Check out the rest of the post for more about this funky, green, educational contraption! And don’t forget that Habana Outpost opens at Noon, so you can show up early to get ready for the ride…

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation has had enough of NYC’s lack of motivation to fix the massive problem of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) — the antiquated storm-water system that allows raw sewage to overflow into NYC waterways.

Actually, they are not only sick and tired of the city’s delays in addressing their obligation to fix mechanical structures, foundations, substructures, pumping stations and other infrastructure-related systems; but actually, the city’s delays are a major violation of a 2005 consent order.

The result of the violations? NYC has settled with NYSDEC and has, “agreed to pay a $1 million fine and fund $4 million worth of environmental-benefit projects.” Serves the city right for neglecting this horrendous problem for our waterways.

The good news is that the fine and funding will go towards green roofs and other storm-water infrastructure developments that many — like GBK, Riverkeeper, NRDC, S.W.I.M., Newtown Creek Alliance — have been advocating for some time.

Read on for the rest of the post on this important development………

Remember the Veganomicon girls, Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero from the Post Punk Kitchen?

The awesome Jewish sustainable food blog called The Jew and the Carrot — aka JCarrot! — has included the lovely ladies in their special July 4th post entitled Revolutionary Cookbooks.

Check out the full post below the fold. Not to be missed: my favorite quotation about carrots. Read on……….

Did I mention that I love maps?

Here are two new killer interactive maps:

Habitatmap

By now most of us know about the horrendous 17 million gallon oil spill at Newtown Creek and some about the past industrial history of the creek.

Now, Habitatmap launches an interactive map to map and monitor industry at the heavily polluted waterway and promote the greening of surrounding neighborhoods.

As the largest industrially zoned area in the City, the Newtown Creek neighborhoods host the dirty facilities the rest of the City is dependent upon but would rather not see. However, they also harbor a tremendous history and incredible cultural diversity. I founded Habitatmap in an effort cleanup the former and promote the latter.

Ride The City

Ever wonder how to get from Point A to Point B on your bike in NYC? The brilliant Ride The City interactive map now allows you to do just that.

Just like MapQuest, Google, Microsoft, and other mapping programs, Ride the City finds the shortest distance between two points. But there are two major differences. First, RTC excludes roads that aren’t meant for biking, like the BQE and the Queens Midtown tunnel. Second, RTC tries to locate routes that maximize the use of bike lanes and greenways.

Read on for the full post……………

Update (11:43 AM 7/1/2008): I added some info about the benefits of Panelclaw at the bottom of the post, make sure and check that out.

Maybe just a renewable energy wonk like me would get excited about something like a mounting bracket… But sometimes a relatively minor invention — like the PanelClaw photovoltaic mount — is all it takes to kick off a major movement.

Especially when that “something” fills a crucial niche, such as making Brooklyn’s thousands of flat-roof buildings more compatible with photovoltaic solar arrays.

Check out the full post for more about groSolar, how to get started on your own photovoltaic system, and links to solar initiatives SolarNYC and I Heart PV……