Melrose Street Fair

I had this thought when I was walking down Melrose Ave. today and noticed that many stores were closed or are going out of business. I've lived in this area for 5 years and have seen many changes. Mostly good. Melrose used to be a vibrant place that people loved to go to for its shops, restaurants, theater and nightlife. It can still be that, but competition from the Grove, Hollywood, Silverlake and Koreatown has been taking some of the thunder away. My idea was to revive the area by having a street fair! Have it on a Sunday in conjuction with the Fairfax Flea Market, get the city to reroute the buses and close down the street from Genesse to Sierra Bonita. Have rides and get local musicians to play. Now, I've never done any kind of planning for this and wouldn't even know whom to talk to about getting this going. I guess I could talk to some of the businesses and see if they would be open to it. Then I could talk to the city and see how hard it would be and what the costs might entail. I gotta admit, it sounds like a lot of work, but it could also be a lot of fun and a great way to revive the area I live in and enjoy so much. Ok, I'll do it!!!

Dead Christmas Trees - Waste In Wait

It's now January 5th and in my neighborhood there are dozens of dying Christmas trees just sitting on curbs, sidewalks and in gutters. People must think some fanciful truck takes them all away to some tree heaven and there they get to live a second life free from ornaments and tinsel. Well, that may be an exaggeration but the point is, I think people take their trees and the city's responsibility for the old ones for granted. This is my idea.

When you purchase your Christmas tree, the city, state or municipality adds a deposit fee of say $5-10 that is redeemable when you turn your tree back in after the holidays. Same way we treat bottles in California. The city could set up short-run tree recycling depots around heavy use areas so people could drive up and drop-off and get their money back. I believe this would a) Encourage people to turn their tree back in instead of littering them on the streets. b) Provide jobs for people to process the trees at the depots. c) Keep the streets free of dead trees because if someone were lazy enough to put their tree on the curb, most likely it would be collected by someone who would take it in for the deposit return. Now, you are probably thinking, but Josh, won't people just chop down trees in the forest and try to turn those in for money? Well, some might, those nitwits. To combat that, each tree purchased from a legal tree dealer would have a serialized tag with a barcode on it and when dropped off, would be scanned and authorized. Same way triathletes used to wear numbers with the barcodes on the bottom and they'd be scanned when they passed the finish line.

Oh, and here's another good thing to come out of this idea. The trees could then be ground up and used for mulch to help fertilize the schools and parks in the areas where the trees were turned in. Ah, but Josh you say, what about those ugly white flocked trees? They can't be recycled because of their hazardous ingredients. Hush up I say, something has to end up in a landfill.