Only in Pilsen: Dia de los Muertos and Environmental Rights

How many times have you pledged to explore in your home town? How many times have you?

Dia de los Muertos participants

Right. So on Nov 2nd, I found temperate weather and my bicycle pointed towards Pilsen's Dia de los Muertos procession. As you'd imagine, the event didn't disappoint. Mexico, its people (home based or diaspora) and culture have a penchant of turning the mundane into the sublime.

I was also reminded of an issue that looms in this dynamic neighborhood. That is the drive for clean air, and the right to have unfettered access to clean air. Enter the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (P.E.R.R.O). Clean air- and access to it- are precious and precarious. In Pilsen the air quality has generated citations from the EPA.

The issue hasn't gone uncovered by the media- periodically generating local coverage of the Clean Power Ordinance and PERRO's advocacy (along with Chicago Clean Power Coalition) to pressure Midwest Generation to close or significantly reduce emissions from the Fisk and Crawford coal plants. Midwest Generation owns and operates the old coal fired power plants that were sold by ComEd (Exelon). Coal is nasty, and it has severe affects on communities- from its extraction to its burning. Sulfur dioxide is perhaps the best known by product, and it leads to respiratory ailments, acid rain etc. Yet, like me, you probably expect the lights to work in your home, and for it to stay heated during the winter months. Consider me guilty of those expectations.

The Clean Power Ordinance (see above) haltingly working it's way through the local legislative grinder. However, elections/politics/vested interests have a tendency to delay, obfuscate, and/or alter the final law.

Ofreda at Dvork Park Field House

You might say that for the residents of Pilsen, there is no delay. Most of us need to breathe regularly. And we seem to have little trouble funding wars, business tax breaks, TIFF's etc- and fully recognizing each of these as disparate issues, but air pollution is entirely rectifiable.

Ultimately this will be resolved- the right thing will be done once all other options are exhausted. So explore your city. I for one love finding something else when I'm busy looking for something.

Paradise found

I've broken a cardinal rule of blogging by not posting for ages.

In my defense, I've used my time wisely. I've been able to locate paradise. It lives on the Banderas Bay, in Jalisco, Mexico. I had the pleasure of visiting to celebrate the new year, visit with friends, and soak up some topnotch local culture.

What was the best part you ask? Well, I'll say that each element played a crucial role in making this one heck of a holiday. It was the scenery, the friends, the food, the locals etc.

Let's start with the view from our hotel, the Lindo Mar Resort. You'll note that the images they post on the website are what you'll see in my pics. When does that ever happen? But here's what I awoke to each morning:

From January 2010

Yeah, that's right. Those waves lulled us to sleep in the early morning hours. I'll note too that the early morning hours when I was coming in to sleep happened to coincide with the time a number of canadian holiday makers began planting themselves poolside. Enough said though.

Here's something, did you know that this was the very scenery featured in the 1963 film, "Night of the Iguana"? That's right, it lured director, John Huston and inspired a philosophical reckoning. I'm sure you can see why:

From January 2010

I am nearly finished organizing the trips photos. So you can anticipate several additional posts on this holiday, but let this whet your whistle for now.