Thinking
- A list of lighting products
- Helpful fact sheets to educate yourself
- Sample municipal codes
- Success stories
- And more …
- Exercises good financial stewardship of the monies entrusted to the City by its residents
- Thinks to the future on how to lay a foundation on which residents can build true community
- Promotes a spirit of unity and collaboration
- Serves as a personal connection residents can reach out to for answers and to know that their voice is heard
Preserving the Beauty of our Night Sky
Earlier this fall, a resident shared with me a resource she found called Dark Sky International – I then ran into it again a month later at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum when I visited with my son for his birthday. Wouldn’t it be cool if our city’s night sky looked like this?
This is Flagstaff, Arizona – The first city certified in the U.S. as a “Dark Sky Community” in 2001. The idea is that with thoughtful lighting both from municipality and residents, we can all look up at night and marvel at the sky. 🙂🔭 (Btw, did anyone catch the aurora borealis earlier this year?)
A big part is just knowing the basics, like: (a) what types of lights are best, and (b) the 5 principles of outdoor lighting, as illustrated below:
And there’s absolutely no need to sacrifice safety – In fact, studies show that properly lighted areas that aren’t ‘over-lit’ are actually safer for pedestrians, homeowners, and businesses. (Ever get blinded by a car’s headlight at night and couldn’t see anything around the perimeter of the lit area? – Same thing can happen around your house or business.)
Dark Sky’s website has a plethora of resources, like:
So hopefully something in here has sparked your interest too, to search for and help preserve our ability to wonder at the sparks of beauty in our night sky! 🌃
“Thank God for this Thanksgiving Day” song
Over the last few years, my family has adopted a new small part into our Thanksgiving traditions of watching Ben Rector’s “The Thanksgiving Song”. He’s an artist we’ve really enjoyed as a family, and he wrote this song during COVID - It expresses so many sentiments from then and now that help set the stage and day for Thanksgiving. We hope you enjoy it too, and all your family’s Thanksgiving traditions as well!
“50 Best Places to Live in US”? #1 Silver Spring, MD
After evaluating 2,000 cities across almost 200 data categories, Fortune Magazine found Silver Spring, Maryland as #1.
Here’s a great 3-minute video synopsis of their findings:
Categories they looked at included: livability, financial health, resources for aging adults, education, and wellness. The winners are communities that are sustainable for their youngest and oldest residents – including many fast-growing suburbs and edge cities that find creative ways to improve people’s well-being
“What people are looking for is that balance of ‘I can afford to live here, so I don’t have to work all the time, but then in my free time, there are actually people to connect with and things to do.”
Of course, I can’t help but notice parallels to our own town here in Laurel, and that makes me smile. The video and accompanying article also gives me thoughts on directions where we as a City can enhance further (i.e., not rest on our ‘Laurels’). 😉
“We know that health isn’t just what’s happening inside your body,” says Rickles. “It’s your social connections, your perceptions of safety, and there’s a lot that goes into what makes a city well.” The index is a “person-centric” metric and considers social determinants of health, such as access to transportation, green spaces, parks, libraries, and community.
When 51-year-old Pazit Aviv walks her dog in her Silver Spring, Md., neighborhood, it takes an extra 30 minutes as she inevitably gets lost in an impromptu chat with a neighbor.
A great vision for what a city can be!
Amazing, surreal, honored
Amazing, surreal, honored. Three of the many emotions I felt tonight in the process of being selected to fill the vacant Ward 1 seat on the City Council.
Thank you to the Council for your confidence. And thank you to the voters and residents for your support in last fall’s election - Although we came up just short at the time, your strong support in the last election cycle (highest among all unseated candidates) was a major factor in tonight’s result. Please accept my heartfelt thanks! :)
During my closing statement, I shared my vision for the role of a Councilmember - One who:
I now take it as my task to live these out on behalf of you and our City. And I want to encourage us all to continue building our friendships, churches, neighborhood organizations, small businesses, hobby clubs, civic organizations, and more — Each one of the small moments shared between people is truly what makes Laurel great!
And happy 4th of July! :)
(Photo credit: City of Laurel)
