Plastic Bag Ban Celebration, June 30

LA Passed a Plastic Bag Ban...

...and we're celebrating

On Tuesday, June 25, the Los Angeles City Council gave final approval to a Plastic Bag Ban. It applies to those "t-shirt" bags used for groceries. It's a hard-fought victory for the environment, and the Mar Vista community helped make it happen.

Los Angeles joins 76 other California cities and counties that already have plastic bag bans and becomes the biggest city in the country to ban free plastic grocery bags.

How do you remember to bring your reusable bags? What do you do when you forget? Share your ideas at the Green Tent and get a nifty  MVCC reusable bag. 

Do you have excess reusable bags? Please bring them for the Mar Vista Farmers' Market bag-sharing bin.

Wondering how to cope without the free plastic bags? Stop by the Green Tent. We can help.

Just want to celebrate and talk about what's next? Please stop by. We'd love to chat.

UCCE Master Gardeners, June 23

Seeds, Seedlings and Advice

The UC/Cooperative Extension LA County Master Gardeners are back at The Green Tent to answer your questions, sympathize with your failures and encourage further successes -- and to help you with that, they'll let you take a free plant and some free packets of seeds. As always they need six packs to plant more for you each month -- please drop them by if you've just planted up a storm and no longer need them.  A great way to recycle/reuse/reduce!

Here's what they're bringing this month:

A Garden Bean two pack which (if both came up) includes:

1. Yellow Wax Bush Bean, buttery smooth flavor. Use fresh or freeze. Hardy, prolific plants.  Harvest in 55 days!

2.  French Filet Bush Green Bean, truly gourmet beans of delicate flavor and superb quality.  Harvest in 54 says!

Armenian Burpless Cucumber. Gorgeous light green, thin skin, never bitter and more heat tolerant than most cucumbers! Nearly seedless.

Pickle Cucumber. The best cucumber available for pickles. Solid, crisp, interior is perfect for 1 ½ “ to 5” pickles. Of course great for salads too. 

Early Summer Yellow Crookneck Squash. High yielding and easy to grow. Eat fresh in salads or sauté, bake or freeze. Pick at 4” to 6” long. Harvest in 50 days! Harvest often to keeps plants producing.

Waltham Butternut Winter Squash. Hard shelled, stores well. Golden-orange and meaty inside with few seeds. Ideal for baking, boiling, mashing or stuffing.  Harvest in 90 days. If you plan to store this squash into the Fall, cut with 2” of stem. Store in a cool, dry location.

Local Artist James Sullivan, June 16

USING RECYCLED MATERIALS TO CREATE ART & AWARENESS

Kids and adults are invited to make handmade paper at the Green Tent this Sunday. 

It will be wet and messy and fun! A great way to celebrate Fathers Day.

Artist James Sullivan is bringing tubs of homemade pulp, made from old junk mail, wrapping paper, lint, leaves & flower petals, seeds, and other odds and ends. You'll dip small screens into it and press the pulp into wonderful, one-of-a-kind sheets of paper.

The focus is on repurposing and reusing any local items close at hand. You don't need to buy things to be creative & have fun! 

Come early. James needs to leave around 12:30.

James is primarily an abstract painter. He's done a lot of printmaking as well as craft and building projects that recycle/repurpose. Click here to see more examples of his work.

What's Happening June 9

Triple Header at the Green & MVCC Tents

Be sure to stop by the Green Tent and our next-door-neighbor, the Mar Vista Community Council Tent, this Sunday, June 9, at the Mar Vista Farmers' Market. We have THREE guests! Scroll down for details.

Andy Shrader visits the Green Tent to talk about a proposed Plastic Bag Ban. Click here for more information.

LA Metro visits the MVCC Tent with lots information about riding those big red buses around Los Angeles, plus give-aways. Click here for more information.

An EXPO Line rep at the MVCC Tent has all the answers on the EXPO Line extension and how to ride the Metro. Click here for more information.

Andy Shrader, June 9

Banning the Bag in LA

Andy Shrader shares his knowledge about the environmental costs of plastic bags and the proposed City of Los Angeles plastic bag ban at the Green Tent.

Every year, 6 million plastic bags are wasted in Los Angeles. They end up in our land fills or - even worse - floating around our environment.

One ton of plastic bags = 11 barrels of oil. Animals often mistakenly ingest plastic bags, which clog their intestines and result in death by starvation. Fish and birds frequently get entangles in plastic bags, become incapacitated and die.

The Los Angeles CIty Council considers the ban on Wednesday, June 18. Highly-paid plastics industry lobbyists are trying to defeat it. Stop by the Green Ten and learn what you can do to help it pass. Click here for more information. And if you have some surplus reusable bags, please bring them for the MVCC Leave a Bag/Take a Bag exchange.

Skanska-Rados, June 9

EXPO Line

When will the EXPO Line extension to Santa Monica be completed? Where will the stations be? Will there be parking? How do I ride the Metro? Can I use cash? What's a TAP card - and how do I get one? Is there a discounted rate for seniors - and how do I apply?

Get answers to these questions and more when a Skanska-Rados rep visits the Mar Vista Community Council Tent. 

Skanska-Rados Joint Venture (SRJV) is the the design-build contractor for Expo Line Project construction.

LA Metro, June 9

RIding The big red  BUs TO A GREENER L.A.

LA Metro is visiting the Mar Vista Community Council Tent! 

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority operates the nation’s largest fleet of compressed natural gas buses – 2222 vehicles providing safe, clean, reliable, on-time and courteous service. About 1.4 million passengers board Metro buses and trains every day. 

Stop by the MVCC Tent and 

• Get information on Metro transit programs as well as bus and rail schedules

• Find out about Metro's Green Construction and Renewable Energy policies

• Learn what Metro's doing to make it easier to park and ride...plug in and ride...and bike and ride

There'll be lots of give-aways, including Metro to Be Green Canvas Bags, Recycled Pens, Pop Up Buses/Trains and Bike Pocket Guides and Maps.

Total pollutant emissions from bus and rail operations decreased 20 percent – that’s 362 tons -- between 2010 and 2011. Over the last decade, as Metro switched from diesel to CNG buses, air toxic pollutants were reduced by more than 92%. LA County residents taking transit offset about a billion passenger car vehicle miles each year; this translates to saving an estimated 420,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually!

The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials and the American Public Transportation Association recently recognized Metro for its vision and leadership in the areas of sustainability and environment.  Metro's Environmental Institute, developed to better create environmental and sustainability-related awareness, offer energy and resource management training programs, and better manage our hazardous materials and waste, was recognized by the National Training Institute as a model program for other transit agencies across the nation.