MLK's first public Civil Rights Address: (1955) Martin Luther King Jr., “The Montgomery Bus Boycott”

In her book Carry Me Home, Diane McWhorter quotes from Martin Luther King's first address to the Montgomery Improvement Association. The speech is amazing to read because it hits many of the major themes he would repeat for the rest of his career.

(1955) Martin Luther King Jr., “The Montgomery Bus Boycott” | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed: The Montgomery Bus Boycott speech reprinted below is one of the first major addresses of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King spoke to nearly 5,000 people at the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery on December 5, 1955, just four days after Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery city bus.

The New York Times on a milestone of climate change

The New York Times: The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.
Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced      emissions under control are faltering.

Birmingham breaks ground on new bicycle and pedestrian paths, expansion of Civil Rights Heritage Trail (photos, video) | al.com

Birmingham breaks ground on new bicycle and pedestrian paths, expansion of Civil Rights Heritage Trail (photos, video) | al.com: BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez, Birmingham Mayor William Bell and other city and community leaders broke ground Thursday on the first part of a 29-mile corridor of bicycle and pedestrian pathways through the city.

Part of the city's "Roads to Recovery" initiative, the pathways are part of the larger Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail greenway plan developed by the city and the Freshwater Land Trust.

The improvements are covered in large part by a $10 million grant from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program through the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A coalition of community partners provided a $5 million local match for the project. Read More:

Drinking for Clean Water

I know it's asking a lot but have a Cahaba Beer this Saturday, for the sake for the Cahaba. 

Cahaba Brewing Company is raising money for the Cahaba River Society from 12-5 Friday.

It's a great brewery run by friends and neighbors, raising money for a great cause.

Do your part. Raise a glass.

Cahabafest 2013 presented by     Join us as we celebrate the Cahaba River this Saturday! Bring your family, and spend the day with Cahaba River Society, Alabama Outdoors, Birmingham Canoe Club, CahaBones, and Cahaba Brewing Company from 12-5pm for the first annual Cahabafest. Loads of fun activities for adults and kids, and of course...delicious beer. Free to enter, and all proceeds from the sale of beer (and skeeball!) benefit Cahaba River Society. No tickets required for this event. Hope to see you there! Saturday, May 11, 2013 12-5pm Cahaba Brewing Company 2616 3rd Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35233 Parking for the event will be across from the Brewery (3rd Avenue), with entrance to the lot on 27th Street. Look for the signs!

Montevallo's Complete Streets and bike-friendly policies get national play

S

Smart Growth America features Montevallo in its most recent newsletter:

Creating streets that work for everyone in Montevallo, AL | Smart Growth America: Over the last several years the City and the University have worked together on projects to make downtown Montevallo an even better place to live and work. “The very best colleges in the country, most of them have lively, attractive downtowns,” said John Stewart III, president of the University of Montevallo. “We literally want Main Street and the campus to blend into one plan.”

The Great Hatching beneath the sea | al.com

A grass shrimp mother carries its fertilized but unhatched eggs in a translucent pouch beneath its body. This shrimp, from Weeks Bay, carried the eggs for a few days before they hatched into free swimming larvae. In a matter of weeks, the larvae will be as large as their mother. (Ben Raines/braines@AL.com

The Good News: another great piece by Ben Raines.
The Bad News: Ben is leaving the employ of the al.com.
The Good News: he is going to work as the executive director of the Weeks Bay Foundation and may still have the opportunity to do nature writing like this from time to time.

The Great Hatching beneath the sea | al.com: Just as spring is unfolding on land, with flowers bursting open and trees flush with vibrant new growth, so it goes in Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

But in the water, spring isn’t measured in green leaves and flower buds. It is measured in tiny bodies.

From the Anniston Star via the San Francisco Chronicle: Anniston aims to be Alabama's biking haven - SFGate

Nice Piece by Tim Lockette of Anniston Star on Anniston' goal of being a Model City for bicyclists.

The piece ran in The Star, went out over the AP Wire and was picked up in San Fran --

Anniston aims to be Alabama's biking haven - SFGate: ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) — Tom Sauret thinks Anniston has what it takes.

An avid cyclist and director of the Southeastern Off-Road Bicycle Association, Sauret is a big fan of Coldwater Mountain, the nature preserve where bikers can speed along more than a dozen miles of trail dedicated to cycles.

"In two years, I think, they'll be able to host a major race," Sauret said. "That site can accommodate a multi-faceted mountain biking event."

Read more:

Anniston is the trailhead for The Chief Ladiga Trail, a paved rail trail that runs about 100 miles through rural Alabama and Georgia to ending in suburban Atlanta.
It is also home to the Coldwater Mountain  Forever Wild Mountain Biking Trail System which is an amazing and expanding network of trails just outside the city.
Also, more cool plans to extend the Chief Ladiga trail into Anniston proper.

"Is Birmingham Next Moab?" asks All Over The Map (A national blog for mountain bikers)

Is Birmingham Next Moab? 
From All Over The Map (national blog for mountain bikers): "Three times in the last four years, I’ve traveled to Alabama in the spring. Over the course of those trips, I’ve been surprised by the quality of trails here, and how fast the singletrack continues to expand. It’s a riding destination that has few rivals—I’m sure that someday soon it will be as well known among mountain bikers as Whistler or Moab......" Read more at the All over the Map Blog

Hats off to B.U.M.P. for making leading this mountain biking trails movement locally. And there is a lot more to come with future developments in the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System and at Red Mountain Park and Tannehill, the list goes on.

Governing: A Powerful Measure of Urban Health: the Stroller Index

A Powerful Measure of Urban Health: the Stroller Index: From 2000 to 2010, the population of Hoboken, N.J., grew by nearly 30 percent, making it the fastest-growing city in the Northeast. The city had hit its population peak of more than 70,000 in 1910 and then had experienced a nearly unbroken record of decline until bottoming out at about 33,000 in 1990. Today Hoboken has slightly more than 50,000 folks. Median household income is $101,782, almost double that of the nation as a whole. In short, the town is doing very well these days, and I think I know why.
When Governing's Jonathan Walters and David Kidd were in Hoboken to research and shoot photos for an article in the April issue about the mayor's plans to better manage the next superstorm, they noticed baby strollers all over town. David coined the term "stroller index" and said Hoboken seemed to be way up there on that measure.

Bessemer's Westhills Elementary expects success

Bessemer's Westhills Elementary is majority black and majority poor, but it is outperforming state averages at every grade level.
Get a glimpse of what is going on.

April PARCA Perspective on Taxes

Alabama taxes are the inverse of the federal tax system. They fall more heavily on the poor than the rich.

Read about it in this month's PARCA Perspective.

Whan that Aprill ... The annual eternal universal

From Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, April 17:

According to legend, it was on this day in 1397 that Geoffrey Chaucer recited The Canterbury Tales (books by this author) to the court of Richard II. Although there is no evidence that this actually happened, it is easy to imagine the scene, in part because of a famous painting of Chaucer reciting his poetry to the court, painted in the early 15th century. The prologue of Canterbury Tales opens with the famous lines:

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthein sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke

Bike friendly grants available for a limited time

Take Note:

The Bikes Belong Coalition is offering Community Partnership Grants, which are designed to support partnerships between city or county governments, nonprofit organizations, and local businesses that aim to improve the environment for bicycling in the community.

The goal of the Bikes Belong Coalition, sponsored by the American bicycle industry, is to put more people on bicycles more often.  

Grants, ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, are primarily provided for the construction or expansion of bicycle facilities such as bike lanes, trails, and paths as well as advocacy projects that promote bicycling as a safe and accessible mode of transportation.

The application deadline is May 24, 2013. Visit the Coalition’s website to review the application guidelines and download the application form.

http://www.bikesbelong.org/grants/apply-for-a-grant/how-to-apply-for-a-bikes-belong-grant/

Coldwater Mountain Trail Needs Your Vote Today | al.com

Coldwater Mountain Trail Needs Your Vote Today | al.com:  - Bell Bike Helmets is holding a national vote to fund three separate trails at the tune of $100,000. Alabama's own Coldwater Mountain, near Anniston, Alabama is in the running under the "Flow Trail" category. Today is the last day you can cast a vote.

Here is how you can make a difference.

* Visit the Bell Bike Helmet Facebook page.

Birmingham, Ala., embraces its complex history - latimes.com

Photo by Walt Stricklin for the LA Times

Birmingham, Ala., embraces its complex history - latimes.com:
Travel Piece starts with the usual disclaimers but soon we have another convert:

"After a few short days, I found myself becoming a banner carrier for Birmingham: Anyone who cares about U.S. history should plan a trip here."

Read the whole thing.