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A new funding source for the arts – reaping big rewards and funding many projects.  It’s pot.

Good to know

From the Brochure (my italics):

The Sea Ranch Chapel is a gift of two Sea Ranch residents who wished to offer a nondenominational sanctuary for prayer, meditation, and spiritual renewal.  It was their hope that all who enter will find a measure of peace in the blending of art and purpose amid surroundings of beauty and inspiration.

The chapel is dedicated to the memory of a young man, navy aviator, artist, and zoologist, who believed that art is the intermediary between the physical and the spiritual.

more images here (LMGTFY).

In a study funded by the makers of Nalgene products, the habits of 3,750 individuals living in the top 25 largest U.S. cities were surveyed, finding that San Francisco is America’s least wasteful city.  (Hooray!–Oakland wasn’t surveyed)

The study gauged behavior on waste, sustainability, shopping, transportation and more. The results were weighted to give more credit to behaviors that had immediate and significant impact on the planet (e.g., driving less, recycling or reducing trash) to small habits that are more indicative of a mindset and non-wasteful approach to life (e.g., reusing containers, limiting shower time or saving wrapping paper and ribbons).

The study shows that more and more people are readily embracing small, everyday habits to cut waste, but convenience is still trumping prudence when it comes to significant wasteful behavior including transportation and personal conservation efforts.  (public transportation, composting, using a rain barrel and a clothesline, and avoiding using a car for trips under 2 miles)

I found this sortof amazing:

*60 percent of urban Americans that live in a city with public transportation and own a car, said they never use public transportation

*65 percent of urban Americans are planning to drive for trips that less than two miles from home rather than taking public transportation, biking and/or walking

*We’re still a car culture. 69 percent of those urban Americans surveyed do not plan on taking public transportation

And so you know:#2=NYC, #3=Portland, #25(last place)=Atlanta

From Wednesday night’s vigil and rally at City Hall, San Francisco

Ok- obviously not art related at all, but I’ve looked all over the internet and couldn’t find anything helpful so I thought it might be useful information to put out there.

As some of you know, we are using the car crash as a cue and trying out life without owning a car.  Unfortunately, we are not people who don’t need a car at all and so we have been using City Car Share as well as renting cars about 3 days a month.  We’re also renting a car for 5 weeks to drive to and around Utah.

We also just learned a couple things about renting a car in California:

1. It’s illegal to drive a car without liability insurance

2. Car rental companies here do not include any state-required liability insurance into the base price of their rental cars.  Apparently, California, from what I have read, is the only state where this does not happen.  So, if you live in another state and have been buying liability insurance through your rental company, you should know that what you are buying replaces and adds on to what is already included in your rate.  I would still check with your specific company to find out if this is true, but it seems to be.  We use our credit card for our collision insurance.  Again, you still need to check with your credit card to find out what your terms are because they vary a lot.  We use Amex Blue (which we specifically got for it’s good rental car coverage)

So- 5 weeks of buying insurance at $13 a day is a lot.  What other options are out there, you ask?  Well, there are Named Non-Owner policies.  These policies are for people who drive either rentals or other people’s cars.  It is an insurance plan for the person, not the car.  However, you can only do this for cars that you do not own.

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