Please help us give our feathered friend a name!

We are holding a contest that will run from now until January 1st, 2011 to name our mascot.  This bird has helped us promote our events and has promised us success throughout the year and surely deserves a name for the many more years to come.  You can participate in our contest by emailing your best birdie name to: bid@larkstreet.org, where the top names will be voted upon.  Please help us give our loyal friend the best present of all this holiday season!

More photos of our mascot can be viewed on our website and on our Facebook page.

Pottery Smashing Fun!

Sometimes breaking things is fun but unfortunately most of us are not able to smash stuff just for the heck of it. Typically, when something gets broken it is not on purpose and there is not a happy feeling afterward. But all that can change!

At Winter WonderLARK this year we will be hosting an event with El Loco Mexican Cafe that comes from a Mexican Christmas tradition. Each year at Christmas in Oaxaca, Mexico street vendors sell hot chocolate and a sweet fried dough dessert called "buñuelos." The buñuelos are served on ceramic dishes, which after the treat has been eaten, is thrown behind the head and onto the ground. The yearly ritual is done to bring luck to the person throwing the pottery. It is said that the more pieces that the dish breaks into the more luck the person will have. You can see a video of the Mexican tradition here.

So if you have a hankering to drink some hot chocolate, eat some Mexican fried dough, and smash some pottery come join us on December 11th from 12pm-4pm in the parking lot between El Loco and the Albany Art Room!

Thanks to the Albany Art Room and The Pottery Place in Stuyvesant Plaza for their support of this family-friendly event! 

Big Belly Solar Trash Compactors Installed!

Have you seen the new additions to the Lark Street neighborhood? In November thirteen BigBelly Solar Compactors and Recycling units were installed throughout the area. An Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the United States Department of Energy provided funding for 93 BigBelly Solar litter baskets and 20 recycling units to be installed throughout Albany. Out of these 93 units, 13 BigBelly Solar Compactors and Recycling units were placed in the Lark Street Business Improvement District.

These new additions to the neighborhood are from BigBelly Solar, which markets and sells the world's first trash compactor powered by solar power. In addition to each trash compactor being solar powered, they also have a computer chip installed in them which includes network management software. This allows the compactors to send a message when they are full alerting that a pick up is needed.

The compactors will  promote dramatic cost savings, reduce overflowing, prevent illegal trash littering, decrease the number of collection trips, and cut related fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.  In addition, the technological compactors will lower public health concerns by providing a cleaner environment, leaving the Lark Street area looking great!