Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
A new film titled “At What Cost" is an obituary for an 89-year-old tree the filmmaker calls Baum Verde, or BV.
It begins with, “BV's life was cut short at the hands of an arborist's chain saw to make room for the Barton Place Condominiums."
The film's creator, Tom Suhler, lives next door to what will be Barton Place Condominiums.
“Slowly I got more and more depressed about it. Towards the end, I just wanted to cut down everything in one day -- so I could get through with it -- it had that kind of impact on me,” said Shuler.
So he decided to share that -- through the obituary.
But on the other side of the fence are the property owners. Developer Rick Engle also owns Austin Java restaurant, which is located on the property next to Barton Springs Road.
He says he’s "proud to say we received unanimous support from the Zilker Neighborhood Association, the Planning Commission and the City Council." He goes on to say that they even got the support of Save Town Lake, which was the first development they ever supported.
“It's important for them to involve the community with these big decisions,” said Jordan English.
But even then, it's hard to please everyone.
“I think it's a thin line to be treaded as far as the conservation of the green, of the environment,” said Adam Roberts, Austin resident.
“I hope the final message is that nothing is inevitable. These are things that happened because people made decisions. The land owner made the decision to get as much money as she could, so that restrained what kind of property could be there,” said Suhler.
