May 2017

Lincoln Corridor Plan, Sustainable Parks

Originally broadcast 05/12/2017
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Kelly Diekmann, Ames Planning & Housing Director, describes the City of Ames' Lincoln Corridor Plan for future development of areas along Lincoln Way, including transportation, housing, land use, urban development, economic development, and infrastructure. The plan responds to a shift in priorities expressed by Ames residents away from being oriented towards car transportation, to "road diets" making way for a more walkable and cycling city with public transportation playing a larger role.

Merry Rankin, Director of Sustainability for ISU and Ames Sustainability Coordinator, and Joshua Thompson, Ames Parks & Recreation Superintendent, describe how park maintenance workers focus on sustainability while caring for Ames parks.

Pat Schlarbaum describes peregrine falcon (now hatching) and their return to Iowa after extinction.

Maggie Westvold Honors Local Poets

Originally broadcast 05/11/2017
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This special program looks towards Memorial Day coming up later this month. Long-time Ames resident and poet Maggie Westvold remembers and honors deceased poets she's known, recalling their lives and influence, reading their poetry, and reading her own poetry about them.

Maggie honors the following poets: Tammalou Maas, Maggie Roetman, Ed Fawkes, Joy Bartley, Dorothy Fyfe, and Mary Nakadate.

Most of these poets, (as well as Maggie herself) were members of Third Stanza, a local poetry group that meets the third Wednesday of every month at 6:00 pm at Ames Public Library. To learn more about Third Stanza contact Maggie Westvold at (515)232-0728

High Cost of Free Parking

High Cost of Free Parking will be shown at Thursday May 11 at 6:00 PM

On Tuesday May 16th at 6:00 PM, the Ames City Council will hold a public discussion on parking at the City Council Chambers. In preparation for this meeting, Nitin Gadia, resident of Ames, and Susan Bradbury, ISU Professor of Community and Regional Planning, will co-host the showing of a video presentation: the High Cost of Free Parking, featuring Donald Shoup, respected national expert on parking.

Robins, Little Wall Solar, Gatherings

Originally broadcast 05/10/2017
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We began this Wednesday's program with a robin song to introduce Jennifer Knox and Tyler Harms, collaborators in the crowd-sourced poetry project Iowa Bird of Mouth. They reported on their live crowd-sourced poetry created by childen's classes. After listening to a few of the outstanding poems submitted for the robin, (the bird for May), we went up to Hamilton county for a celebration quite different from those we previewed last week in Story and Boone counties. Little Wall Lake Park near Jewell held its ribbon cutting as the first county park in Iowa to have a 100 percent offset of its electricity by producing its own power through a solar array. Brian Lammers, Hamilton County Conservation director, described the origins and development of the $300,000 project through partnerships with the Hamilton County Supervisors, Eagle Point Solar, Hamilton County Conservation Board and Alliant Energy. Larry Steffen, vice president of sales for Eagle Point Solar, the Dubuque-based company that financed, designed and built the array, was in our studio to clarify some of the technical details. We closed out the program by previewing the crowded calendar of this week's events in Nevada, capped off with a Mother's Day brunch at Gatherings, an event venue which occupies a large storefront on Main Street. We spoke with Stephanie Badger, Gatherings' General Manager.

Implicit Bias, Parking, Emergencies

Originally broadcast 05/08/2017
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The show began with a story on an Implicit Racial Bias Workshop held recently in Ames. Host Gale Seiler interviewed Jamet Colton, from the Ames Progressive Alliance, the person who spearheaded the idea to have this workshop. We also heard audio from the workshop, which was led by Dr. Stephen Biggs, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at ISU.

Ursula Ruedenberg brought us an interview with Nitin Gadia about an upcoming film and discussion on automobile parking and its consequences in Ames.

Keith Morgan, from the Story County Emergency Management Agency was on the show for his monthly segment. He talked about an emergency simulation recently undertaken by the Emergency Operations Center.

Woodcarvers, Medical Marijuana, The Gender Revolution

Originally broadcast 05/05/2017
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The Mid-Iowa Woodcarvers return for their one-day show at Reiman Gardens May 6th. Guests will have the opportunity to view carving contest entries, watch carving demonstrations and participate in a hands-on lesson in whittling. Ames woodcarver, Art Mann, explains.

Jason Karimi, director of Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana and advocate for the legalization of medical marijuana oil discusses Iowa legislation passed in April authorizing the use of medical marijuana with the goal of providing help for patients with cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder and numerous of other ailments.

Cyndie Blythe, the President of PFLAG in Ames a local advocacy group, will be presenting, in collaboration with National Geographic, a movie that challenges stereotypes about gender roles, called The Gender Revolution. She describes the film and issues facing transsexuals and gay people.

A municipal and road construction update from Susan Gwiasda, public relations officer for the City of Ames, and Mark Gansen, Civil Engineer One.

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Citizens Climate Lobby

Originally broadcast 05/03/2017
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"Permanent land protection is the heart of INHF" said Joe Jayjack, as he gave us a brief overview of the work of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, which has protected more than 1,000 diverse wild places since its founding in 1979 (150,000 acres) and plans to protect an additional 5,000-8,000 acres annually. Switching to politics, Des Moines lawyer Channing Dutton told us about the work of Citizens Climate Lobby (Des Moines), which encourages candidates for office to speak out on the issue of Climate Change. He described the CCL sponsored Climate Solutions Caucus in Congress which is strictly bi-partisan by limiting it's membership to equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats.

Then we turned to May delights in our area. For May Day we spoke with Brian Smith, owner of Everts Flowers, celebrating its 95th Anniversary. Then we went out to the Story County Conservation Center to hear from Erica Place about the Partners Spring Festival. James Gideon came into our studio to tell us about the Boone River Valley Festival, which is being put on by members of the Boone Action Association.

Climate Justice, Line 3, Wildlife Review

Originally broadcast 05/01/2017
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We start the show with highlights from Saturday's People's Climate March and rally in Des Moines. Voices include Heather Pearson, Shelly Buffalo, Ako Abdul-Samad, a Syrian American living in Des Moines, and Ellery McAllister.

Winona LaDuke of White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota tells of her organization's struggle against Enbridge Corporation and their proposed Line 3 pipeline, as part of Pacifica's live coverage of the Washington DC rally.

Local Talk wildlife correspondent Pat Schlarbaum looks back on two major accomplishments of a 32-year career: namely, the return of the bald eagle and the osprey or "fishing hawk" to Iowa, and the role he and partners played. The DNR will host a celebration of the return of the osprey to Iowa on May 20.

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