TNT: Philly Electric Wheels to host opening reception, change transport in city

Afshin Kaighobady outside his new Mount Airy electric-assist bicycle shop on Oct. 8, 2009. Photo: Pam Rogow for Technically Philly

It was a yellow bicycle. That much Afshin Kaighobady remembers clearly.

On cool mornings in 1969, the 10-year-old would ride to the bakery near his home in Tehran to buy his mother fresh bread. Riding on the flat roads of Iran’s sprawling capital city at the foot of the Tochal mountains, Kaighobady can still remember his pride for riding his bike with just one hand, the other clutching a warm piece of naan fresh out of the bakery’s diesel-powered flames.

“The steam would pour off it, and so one bite and then another and soon I’d half finish the bread that was nearly as tall as I was, all the while steering this long, yellow treasure,” he says.

It is there, in Tehran in 1969, that Kaighobady first fell in love with bicycles. It is here, in the far hillier expanses of Mt. Airy in 2009, that Kaighobady, now 50, is hoping to create love for that transport’s next generation.

This Thursday, from 2 to 7 p.m., he’s hosting an opening reception for Philly Electric Wheels, his shop in this northwest Philadelphia neighborhood that he boasts is the first store in Pennsylvania, perhaps even the tri-state area, to exclusively sell and service electric-assist bicycles.

And he’s trying to convince the region that these bikes could be a large part of a greener, more comfortable, more practical way to commute.

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Friday Tech Links: Fourth most innovative, BigBelly trash video and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

DEFINITE READS

• Innovation Philadelphia reports that our fair city was ranked the fourth most innovative U.S. city in a recent large survey by 2think2know. Philly lagged behind Boston, which was ranked No. 1 globally, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. We were 32nd globally.
• Good magazine hits Center City to talk the innovation surrounding the recently installed BigBelly trash cans that are showing up on our busy city streets. There’s a hotly edited video that includes Oscar the Grouch.

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Technically Not Tech: Sustainable learning with Solar States

Kensington-based solar startup Solar States fuses education with a unique business plan. Photos courtesy of Solar States.

The growth generation of the region’s solar-tech work force is going to be trained in Northern Liberties, if solar startup Solar States has anything to do about it.

This Saturday is the first of a four-session training course called “Green by Example” held in the NoLibs Community Center by Solar States. The $350 class, taught by LEED For Homes expert Sam Klein, will give participants the shot at learning the latest in solar technology and weatherization. Guest speakers from top green building companies will join the party, too.

It’s the education arm of a fully-fledged solar business.

See, Solar States Solar States aims to become an independent solar power producer by 2010, and the plan is to do so with the help of Philadelphia high school graduates and others who might want the work but don’t have the training.

Saturday’s beginning of the adult vocation course is another step in that mission of developing this city’s sustainable workforce.

But the company is more than education. Its founders say what they’re developing will help shape the solar energy industry for the better.

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Comcast Roundup: Comcast Center tallest U.S. LEED building and squabbles with Verizon

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

It isn’t the region’s largest employer, nor is it even the biggest or most profitable. It just makes a lot more noise. While we cover some of it and hope to do more, a lot of that noise isn’t worth much more than a sentence or two. But much of it is worth following, and we bet many of you readers would like to, so we’re going to sort everything you need to know.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours (we don’t make promises we can’t keep, except to our illegitimate children).

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Center City, has garnered another distinction — the tallest LEED-certified building in the country.

Read more on the company’s continued battles with Verizon, NFL Network, how Comcast might be defending your right to not pay more for heavy Internet use and more.

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Friday Q&A: Chris Barron of Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems, an infrastructure software company based in Exton and run by four brothers, might  ride the wave of federal stimulus dollars in the region.

With more than 450 employees in southeastern Pennsylvania, including at least 300 in tech fields, Bentley is a major player in the region’s creative economy.

“Bentley has a large number of users throughout Pennsylvania designing, building, and managing infrastructure for water and waste water, roads and bridges, rail and transit, power generation and alternative energy, and green buildings and environmentally sensitive land development,” said Chris Barron, the company’s vice president for corporate marketing. “Some” of their clients will be involved with projects that will benefit from the stimulus spending, though he declined to go into specifics.

Though four brothers are the top dogs, Barron says he’s never confused them — “They are all very unique individuals,” he says — but, after the jump, he does share with us his favorite Bentley clan story and suggests, if they were superheroes, just what superheros they’d be.

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Smart fare cards for SEPTA transit delayed again

SEPTA was going to put out requests for proposals on a smart fare card system — in December 2007. Then, last June, the delays came again.

One more time, Philadelphia.

Plans to accept a proposal for a system are once again being pushed back, due to unclear expectations.

This comes on the heels of a flurry of exciting news for a transit agency, including that SEPTA’s spending of its share of the federal stimulus could create more than 5,000 jobs in the region.

Also, according to the Federal Highway Administration, January’s average driving mileage declined – both nationally and locally – marking the first time in 27 years that such travel dropped in consecutive Januarys.

Some because of a rise in unemployment, but the opportunity to increase transit ridership cannot be ignored.

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Green initiatives remain popular despite lull in oil prices

If you live sustainably in Pennsylvania, you just might get a break on your home owner’s insurance.

The Donegal Insurance Group, based in Marietta east of York, will begin offering policies May 1 that offer a five percent discount on insurance for homes that use solar energy or a geothermal heat pump.

It is part of a growing trend for green initiatives to actually expand, despite relatively low gas prices. The commodity’s price still dictates interest in products like hybrid cars for some, but as oil seems destined to only increase in expense, the movement maintains.

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Sustainability Director Mark Alan Hughes at Go Green Expo: Philly is in an enviable position

The green movement has had a bit of bad luck in recent months. This summer, when gas prices were high and President Obama was campaigning hard on alternative energy sources, the greening of America’s cities was placed in the forefront of American consciousness. Since then, plummeting gas prices as well as an oh-my-freaking-god economic slowdown got many people worrying about other things.

The Go Green Expo occupied only half of the space allotted for it in the Convention Center, and most of the booths were companies offering a more economically friendly take on existing products. There was green patio furniture, green wood, green handbags, green candles and for some unknown reason, an Indian palm reader. SEPTA was a dominant presence, parking one of its hybrid buses in the middle of the convention floor. There was even a section dedicated the the event’s media sponsors which the Inquirer used to promote its online “E-Inq” edition with the slogan “It’s just like the paper. Except without the paper.”

Predictable jabs at newspapers aside, the event was worth a visit for a peek into the local companies that are helping to fuel Philadelphia’s growing green economy. Even in the current economic situation, Philadelphia is poised to take a leap forward in sustainability. At least that was the message from the keynote speaker: the city’s Director of Sustainability, Mark Alan Hughes.

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Knight foundation sending $1.35 million to Philly green tech sector

Grants totaling  $1.35 million that are dedicated to creating jobs in Philadelphia’s burgeoning green tech industry were pledged by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation on Friday, according to the organization’s press release.

“I expect Philadelphia will be the nation’s capital of green jobs,” Mayor Michael Nutter said. “Whether you have a GED or a Ph.D., there is a green job for you.”

The grants include a series of new initiatives, like the proposed John S. and James L. Knight Green Jobs Training Center, which will focus on moving low-skilled workers into higher-paying careers focused on green technology. It is scheduled to open in 2010, to be run by the city’s Energy Coordinating Agency and funded by a $1.1 million grant from the Miami-based foundation. The center is planned to be a 20,000 square-foot hub for the best green tech training providers in the country.

The announcement came on the same day Vice President Joe Biden was in Philadelphia to discuss leveraging growing green economies to offer better paying jobs.

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Biden in Philly to talk green jobs, hospitals buy wind

Vice President Joe Biden is in Philadelphia today, launching an initiative focused on creating green jobs in middle class communities.

He rides through University City in the same week that several prominent Philadelphia hospitals announced they would buy wind-power as part of sustainability efforts.

The hospitals involved in the group purchase are Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Frankford Hospitals, Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Inc., Main Line Health System, and Magee Rehabilitation, according to an Einstein press release.

Biden will be part of the first hearing of the middle-class task force, meeting in the Irvine Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania. Presentations at the invitation-only event will focus on the potential of green jobs to motivate economic recovery and discuss ways to train workers for those jobs.

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