I had lunch on Grand last week and noticed that they've redone all the sidewalks to incorporate bioswales. A bioswale is a rain garden specifically designed to capture the road runoff from a heavy storm. The rainwater goes into the garden and is filtered by the plants before going into the sewer drains. It's actually kind of clever, because besides keeping the obvious cigarette butts and candy wrappers out of the sewers, it also filters out road oils and salts. All it takes is a cutout in the curb and some native grasses which you usually find around the edge of ponds. I'm going to use this idea in my Green Homes summer workshop.
