Link to Google Docs Spreadsheet

1. Text “HAITI” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the Red Cross — Our friends at the US State Department, including Katie Stanton (@kateatstate), very quickly put together this number to channel relief contributions directly to first responders who will be on the ground there. I love that our government does things like this. (Update: I am told this only works in the US)
2. Text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti – My good friend Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) created this foundation to permanently improve the lives of the most impoverished in his home country of Haiti. Over the years, the stories I have heard from Wyclef remind me of how hard the living is there. I am humbled by Wyclef’s commitment to the region and the impact Yele Haiti has there every day. Check out more on Yele Haiti.
3. Donate to Partners in Health (click here) — PIH (@pih_org) is already on the ground in Haiti and mobilizing their relief efforts. If you have heard of Paul Farmer, this is the organization he co-founded. Working to provide health care and education to the poorest of Haiti, PIH is the real deal.
4. Donate to Architecture for Humanity (click here) — Cameron Sinclair (@casinclair) and his non-profit Architecture for Humanity (@archforhumanity) can be found at virtually every developing world disaster site on the planet. These guys are a collection of design and housing geniuses who work tirelessly to provide shelter for the most deserving.
5. Donate to charity:water (click here) — If you know me, you know how passionate I am about charity:water (@charitywater) and it’s work to bring clean water to the 1 billion people on the planet who don’t have it. Recently, the organization’s founder, my friend and inspiration Scott Harrison (@scottharrison), traveled to Haiti to commence operations in that country and already thousands of Haitians have clean water to drink. As if the situation wasn’t already bad enough, the need for clean water only intensifies in the aftermath of earthquakes. Every dollar of your support to these guys goes fully and immediately to work in the field. (Update: charity:water wrote a post encouraging you to also help their partners in Haiti.)
6. Learn more about Haiti — So often we send token amounts of charity to far-flung developing world destinations. Yet, rarely do we have a sense of what life is like there. Thus, one of the ways I believe you can also respond to a tragedy like this is to commit to learning about Haiti, it’s culture and wonder, as well as its daunting hardships. To that end, I recommend reading Paul Farmer’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains to get a taste of the hard work underway. Also, be sure to watch Ghosts of Cité Soleil. Produced by Wyclef, and starring him as well, this documentary terrifyingly depicts the heavily armed gang leaders in Haiti’s poorest neighborhoods. Meantime, try following the Twitter accounts of the folks mentioned above. Each of us can learn something from them.

Gotta love living in that red dot…

Streets & Alleyways: South Jordan City is responsible for plowing ALL public streets and alleyways. This includes all condo alleyways and some townhome alleyways.

They also distributed this PDF regarding snow removal.

I live in the red townhomes facing Oquirrh Lake. This is surprising news to me, as it seems the only people who have ever cleared our rear alleyway have been employees of the landscaping company (their name escapes me, but they drive the red vehicles), and even then it is rarely happening. We’ve had to take to clearing our own alleyway far past 4″ of snow accumulation and generally have to wait a long time to have our sidewalks cleared too. Generally when it’s not cleared, it takes about 4-5 days of nice sunshine and 30°+ to melt it back down to cement, and even then the sheets of ice from tire tracks usually remains. I’m not often one to complain, but when I pay $2200 a year in HOA fees that are supposed to cover this sort of thing, I feel I have earned the right to complain.

In a recent posting, Daybreak Daily mentioned that the general lack of snow clearing occurring in Daybreak is a result of an ongoing lawsuit between Kennecott Land and South Jordan. South Jordan has made it official policy to no longer clear streets that are dead ends (or cul-de-sacs), which Daybreak has many of. Luckily our main street and alleyway are not dead ends, but I still wonder where the snow plows are. I believe that our alley is being cleaned by the landscaping company, for which I appreciate it, but I would rather my city tax dollars be used to clear city streets and save my landscaping dollars to get the remainder of the trees planted around Daybreak come springtime among other things.

I understand that the legal process exists for a reason, but while people debate who, when, and where snow removal is someone’s responsibility, a large community who is already displeased with services rendered by the city and by the HOA is left wondering what they’re paying for and what to do. The 58″ of annual snowfall we receive makes for a long winter when we’re paying and no one is clearing.

Getting ready for 2010!