Share and Voice: Urban Bike Rentals

Earlier today while I was thinking of putting my bike away for the year (It's too chilly for me, I'm a wimp) I remembered this cool program I read about a while ago and thought I'd share with all of you.

Photo Courtesy of http://www.niceridemn.org/explore_by_bike/

In Minneapolis this past June an organization called Nice Ride Minnesota opened 65 bike rental locations throughout the metro area. I think this is such a great idea because it provides people with healthier more eco-friendly (yet easily accessible) transportation options.


This bike rental system requires a subscription ($60/year or $50/year for students) and once you have subscribed you can rent a bike any time day or night. If you return the bike to another bike station within 30 minutes, you incur no additional charge. For trips longer than that (or if you somehow forget to return your bike) additional charges apply.

With a variety of bike rental locations all over the place, this system would be a great cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to get around town (especially for students).

I'm not sure how well this would go over in Duluth (even though I know everyone loves biking uphill) but I just thought I'd share this really cool idea with you all.

Reflection: Weeks 5-8

It’s hard to believe we’re all done with the second portion of this course already! I found these past few weeks to be really interesting and fun. Here’s a summary of the things I learned these past few weeks:

We all had a chance to finish the books we chose for our Read N’ Seed assignments by week 7. I think we all had the opportunity to learn a lot from this experience, not only from reading our own books but by following our group members posts as well. The book I chose, The Organic Food Guide: How to Shop Smarter and Eat Healthier, helped me learn a lot about organic foods (why they’re better for you, how to incorporate it into your diet, how to find good prices, etc). 

We also had the opportunity to learn from several eye-opener activities. First, we all looked up one or more cosmetic products we use frequently and entered it in the environmental working group’s cosmetic safety data base. The website then calculates the relative safety of any of the products you enter (in my case, Aveeno moisturizing lotion) by telling you the toxic ingredients, and what possible health risks may be associated with the contents of the cosmetics. Overall I learned a lot from this activity and I think it encouraged many of us to change the products we use on our body every day. 

The other eye opening activity was related to junking/reusing old products for new purposes. For this assignment, we began by looking up local resources where we could find used clothing, goods and services. I found this aspect of the assignment particularly interesting and practical because many of these resources we can all put to practical use (I plan on checking out a few new thrift stores and shops in the near future). For this assignment we also had the opportunity to access the junkmarketstyle webpage peruse the variety of projects posted there. We then got to choose at least 3 projects that interested or inspired us which I’m sure gave many of us a lot of excellent ideas regarding how we can reuse things we would normally throw away (and it probably helped us get ideas for our junking projects). 

The videos we watched in class were also very interesting and I felt like I learned a great deal from them. We watched the documentary Fresh in week 6, which discussed industrial farming and agricultural practices in the United States. I learned a lot from this film about the harmful aspects of this type of farming and mass industry, and also had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of local, more sustainable farming practices. We also watched the documentary Tapped which discussed the detrimental aspects of the bottled water industry in the United States. This movie basically opened my eyes to the fact that the bottled water idea is actually really way too expensive, toxic, harmful to small communities, unregulated (for the most part, by the FDA), and CRAZY. 

Overall I learned a great deal the past few weeks, from the course material, eye opening activities, and my fellow blogmates. I think these environmental health topics are really exciting and inspiring and I look forward to learning more throughout the rest of the course. 

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part I

Antiquing: Antiquing is a process of seeking out, shopping for, buying, selling, or trading antiques. This can be done at garage sales, estate sales, etc. Antiques themselves are older decorative objects or household items.

Junk: Any old or discarded material such as metal, paper, rags, etc.

Flea Market: A flea market is a place where a collection of used or inexpensive goods can be sold or traded.

Thrift Shop: A retail store that sells used or secondhand products at bargain prices.

Upcycling: A process that attempts to convert older useless or damaged products into higher quality more environmentally friendly products.

Resale shops: A store or shop (consignment shops, resale stores, or thrift shops) that sells gently used clothing or goods.

Part II

The terms listed above describe different ways of shopping that have less of an impact on the environment and on your wallet. By purchasing antiques, junking, or checking out a thrift store, you're helping eliminate waste that could possibly accrue if these products were not re-used. Reusing or upgrading old products is also a great way to shop more cost effectively.

To partake in this sort of shopping, here's a few options:

Antiquing: Father Time Antiques- 395 S Lake Ave #1 Duluth, MN 

(218) 625-2379

Junking: Andy’s Auto Recycling- 1040 State highway 45 Old, Carlton, MN 

(218) 384-3930

Flea Market: Hinckley Flea Market- 701 Fire Monument Road Hinckley, MN

(320) 282-6096

Thrift Shop: Savers- 1740 Mall Dr, Duluth, MN 

(218) 722-1894

Upcycling: Unable to find an upcycling resource for Duluth, MN

Resale Shop: Dannie Duluth- 932 East 4th street, Duluth, MN

(218)724-8507






Of the resources I listed I've only personally been to Savers and Dannie Duluth. Savers is great if you're looking for halloween costumes, for example, or need to dress up for any other occasions. It's also great for finding furniture and other odds and ends. Dannie Duluth is a pretty nice store for finding every day clothes at a great price. I've found lots of great brand name clothes there for fairly cheap and I highly recommend it.






Part III

I thought this was a really cool project I found on the website junkmarketstyle. I always wear hats and I also love gardening, so using old garden trowels to make a hat hanger seemed like an awesome idea to me!

I also really like this picture frame/ window project. I have a lot of photos and finding frames or thinking of clever ways to hang them up is always a challenge for me. I thought this was very creative and I plan to spice up my photos using similar framing techniques. 

Lastly, I thought this was a really cool idea for a coffee table. Having the old buckets built right in seems like a good plan to me. Coffee table + storage is great and I love the bright colors.