Greening the Bend

03/20/2020

When Greening the Bend sought donations from local vendors to help raise money for a green roof in South Bend, Phil Schreiber, of Chicory Cafe of South Bend, gave every year, without hesitation. Thanks to business owners like Phil, Greening the Bend was able to raise enough money to hire Midland Engineering Company and Kil Architecture & Planning to install a beautiful green roof at the Potawatomi Conservatories, a roof that has been thriving and blooming for over 3 years. Now Greening the Bend is asking our followers to help Phil keep this local coffee shop and restaurant open with your support. Please consider buying a couple of gift certificates or a carry-out order today. This writer highly recommends the "Bullet-proof" (keto) coffee, the beignets, and any of the macaroni and cheese dishes. God bless all of you at Chicory and to those of you who love this locally-owned establishment in Downtown South Bend and will commit to helping it stay around for years to come.

As we are forced to close our dining room we are asking for your help for our team. We are going to give 100% of the proceeds of every gift card purchased from now til the end of March back to our employees. Please call us at 574-234-1141. We will mail the gift cards to you.

Our new hours will be 8 am - 8 pm for carryout. We also Deliver thru Dine In (local), Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Door Dash.

02/07/2020

Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, began the Green Belt Movement with the planting of trees to re-forest areas in her native Africa decimated by deforestation. Although she is no longer with us, Ms. Maathai's vision lives on in the Trillion Trees Initiative. Happy to learn the US will be joining this plan; what better way to capture carbon and convert it to life-supporting oxygen, while giving people a sense of purpose in the great outdoors and providing a legacy of good stewardship for generations to come by planting trees. May they plant native trees in tree-lawns, along highways, in medians, and anywhere else they are now missing from the landscape. (Some, astonishingly, deride these efforts, suggesting the organizers want to plant non-native species or to plant where trees historically cannot grow. Why anyone would denigrate an initiative to plant trees is beyond this writer. As the Greek proverb goes: "A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never rest.") May God bless and keep the old and young men and women who support these efforts. http://www.trilliontrees.org/about/who

01/28/2020

Someone commented they see far fewer bicyclists in South Bend than in years past. This writer asked if they remembered an event called "Bike the Bend". "Yes," they said, "that was where the city closed many streets for a day so people could ride their bikes from Mishawaka almost to Michigan. That was getting bigger every year; whatever happened?" "It seems," I explained, "the Bike the Bend organizers had a disagreement with the South Bend Police one year, and refused to pay the police the agreed-upon amount. The Police then said they would no longer police the event unless they were paid in full for the previous year." Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who, as Commander-in-Chief of the South Bend Police force, could have gotten both sides to the table and said, "Look guys, 'Bike the Bend' is great for South Bend, great for families and encourages bicycling which helps reduce carbon emissions." But instead, he stood by and did nothing. Bike the Bend went away and so did all the work to establish South Bend as a Bike-friendly city. Drivers no longer look out for cyclists like they used to so fewer cyclists, including this former cyclist, are out and about. Buttigieg believes he should be President, however, he couldn't get his police and a group of bicyclists to the table to work out their differences. How is he going to get two warring factions like the Palestinians and the Israelis to the table? This headline says the organizers 'blame police' for the loss of "Bike the Bend" but read the full text and realize the buck stops on the 14th floor of the County City Building:

Organizers claim South Bend police union told officers not to help this year

10/02/2019

Artist Kathleen Petitjean is one of the ArtSlam! artists who has created a work of art to support arts programming at the South Bend Museum of Art. Kathleen hopes to unveil her Venus Silvae sculpture during this Friday's streaming event. If you like all things Nature, you may like Kathleen's entry. Stay tuned!

Our 2019 ARTSLAM competition officially kicks off this Friday! We are so grateful for the time and talent our participants have given to this fundraiser. Learn more about how you can help support educational programming at South Bend Museum of Art during our live stream on Friday at 12:00 p.m. 🎨😁

05/14/2019

The project includes energy upgrades to all 11 county buildings and seven highway garages, along with replacing streetlights.

05/14/2019

St Joseph County Commissioners and the County Council show how to "Green the Bend" by saving county taxpayers over $750,000 a year in energy savings while upgrading county facilities. That's being green while saving green. Thank you Jonathan Burke Project Manager, elected county officials and Performance Services for a job well done and for saving real dollars for the good people of St. Joseph County.

The project includes energy upgrades to all 11 county buildings and seven highway garages, along with replacing streetlights.

05/14/2019

St Joseph County Commissioners and the County Council show how to "Green the Bend" by saving county taxpayers over $750,000 a year in energy savings while upgrading county facilities. That's being green while saving green. Thank you Jonathan Burke, Project Manager, elected county officials and Performance Services for a job well done and for saving real dollars for the good people of St. Joseph County.

Taxpayers are getting a break in St. Joseph County. That's because county leaders have cut energy costs by more three-quarters of a million dollars. How? By upgrades to 14 buildings and street lights. The County-City building is one of those buildings. Some of these places were under a constant repa...

08/20/2018

Know of a South Bend gardener whose front yard deserves this "Prettiest Front Yard Garden" award?

I am ready to give this sculpture to any South Bend resident whose front yard garden photo gets the most “Likes” on my Venus Silvae FB page. If you or someone you know has a pretty front yard garden, post a photo here and let your friends know so they can vote for you. I'm going to make the deadline for votes/nominees 8:00 PM on September 4, the day after Labor Day. Good luck!

06/09/2018

What better way to "green" a city than to celebrate those who beautify their homes with a lovely Front Yard Garden. If you or someone you know has an especially lovely Front Yard Garden in South Bend, post a photo of it to Venus Silvae. The Front Yard Garden with the most "likes" wins the award. Of course, as noted in the post, the piece has to survive the next few weeks in the kiln-firing stages. Stay tuned.

While driving around South Bend the other day, I asked my husband, "Shouldn't there be some kind of award for the prettiest Front Yard Garden?" Then it dawned on me that I could create an award for this distinction. This is what I created. If it survives the kiln fires over the next few weeks, I would like to present it to the South Bend Front Yard Garden that gets the most "Likes" on my Venus Silvae page. If you have or know someone who has an especially lovely Front Yard Garden, start thinking about taking a photo of it to post on my Venus Silvae page. I'm thinking the deadline for this award would be around the end of August, but stay posted; this still needs to get fired!

06/02/2017

Congratulations Team GtB and to every sponsor, supporter and donor who helped make this Green Roof happen in South Bend.! Kil Architecture & Planning and Midland Engineering Company were just awarded an Excellence in Construction Award for the green roof project. Kudos to Greg Kil's vision to design the roof deck that would accept a green roof.

05/09/2017

A rooftop garden blooms in the 'Bend.