Last April, we wrote about I-GO member Joe Baldwin’s personal crusade to promote sustainability by turning a CTA flat-bed rail car into a “Mobile Garden.” Far-fetched? Perhaps. But the UIC grad student and multimedia artist has proven that his dogged persistence may pay off.
His proposal was recently greenlighted by the CTA — as reported in Time Out Chicago this week — though Baldwin still faces a long haul, and potentially as many delays as current CTA service, to secure funding and insurance and retool the original design as a greenhouse structure, in order to prevent dislodged debris from causing any problems. Makes sense to us. Only cartoon characters should get thumped on the head with plummeting potted plants.
The other part of the plan — now scheduled for a 2011 launch — was to distribute plants to commuters at various rail stations. Joe told us earlier it would work as a “Bring a Plant to Work Day” sort of deal, but this has apparently changed to CTA workers passing out seed packets aboard the designated Mobile Garden train. Joe has managed to secure the packet donation from a Wisconsin CSA.
What he really needs, though, is seed money. If you’re interested in helping Joe cultivate his dream — sown as a school project and now getting signaled onto a different sort of Green Line — you can pitch in at www.giveforward.org/makeitreal.
