the mayor and governer next door

Yesterday a government security officer in a dark suit and sunglasses spent an hour on my front porch.

Peaches & Greens is a produce market run by the CDC, and it's right next to the house I've been living in all summer. It's really nice to have fresh fruit and vegetables right next door at very reasonable prices. A miracle in the city, really.

Peaches & Greens has been part of a pilot program launched by the state government to bring fresh produce to the doorstep of people across the city via produce trucks. They operate like ice cream trucks, driving up and down the streets, except customers can actually enter the truck and hand-pick their own produce. It's beautiful. And it's been incredibly successful. The Peaches truck sells more than the store.

Yesterday the Mayor Bing and Governor Granholm along with a bunch of other city and state officials held a press conference in the Peaches parking lot right beside our house to officially launch the pilot program. You can read about it (and listen to the governor's comments) here and in more detail here.

It was a really awesome experience. The coolest part for me was to get to interact with a lot of my neighbors in a neutral setting. It was great for connecting with people whom I exchange "hellos" with each time I walk by.