Steve Watkins, of Panther City Coffee fame, wrote a story a couple of weeks ago for a blog called The Practical Environmentalist. The story features one of downtown’s newer presences: the Go Green Taxi pedicab service.

Downtown has been getting some press for “greening” their operations lately, with Sundance Square signing Green Mountain Energy as their electric provider and buying an electric car. For a small business guy like me, though, it’s nice to see some of the more grassroots efforts get some recognition, too. Next time you’re taking in the downtown nightlife and don’t feel like walking several blocks to your next destination, try Go Green Taxi.

As you may remember from last year, Sundance Square played host to a series of outdoor movie screenings in the Chisholm Trail parking lot. They set up a giant screen, invited some concessionaires, and slapped a movie on a giant-ass screen for all the world to see.

Well, they’re starting things up again this year on the 12th of June (a Thursday). The first movie will be “Hairspray.” After that, they’ll be showing another family-friendly movie every Thursday until the 10th of July.

Grab your kiddos and head downtown for some free entertainment under the stars! Movies start at dusk.

I found a posting on the BeerAdvocate Forums from a local beer fan stating that he’d heard that the Flying Saucer would be smoke-free inside as of January 1st. No, they don’t sell enough food to classify themselves as a restaurant instead of a bar in the eyes of the ordinance, this is a change that the management has been wanting to make for a while, and now they are. Thinking this was too good to be true, I e-mailed a couple of my friends who are bartenders there, and they confirmed it.

This is a GREAT sign that even though the City Council didn’t have the guts to stand up for public health when they had the chance, a few responsible bar owners/managers are willing to give a crap about their employees’ and customers’ health enough to finally clean up the air in their establishments.