Green Wausau: The Rosenberg Opportunity
The City of Wausau is a small town. Like a small car, the City of Wausau can be a nimble thing, darting through changes, looking forward, wind in its hair. But like a badly maintained small car, the city of Wausau can be an underpowered, unresponsive car without any room for friends or family or even the dog. I think that this is a challenging time, a time with opportunity, and a time where we have the resources to make our City the best small car we can make it.
As the Fourth of July just passed, I am left with the reality that we built this country not with committees or procedures, but literally with shovels and hoes, and our hands got dirty. We came here (and yes, we stole the country from its previous tenants) and created government out of an idea, out of an abstraction. Blood in the streets, brothers killing brothers, and law was the beginning.
Today we have a much different world. Some might say a more stagnant world, one that sits on its laurels and rests in hopes of resting at a later time — a slower, less dynamic, less responsive, less brave world. A world often led by its fear.
We in Wausau have a chance to change some of that. We have a chance, we have the resources, and we have the wherewithal to do it.
Jim Rosenberg is a member of our City Council and a member of the County Board. He has been there since before the Civil War, I think, and was a founding father of this city. Just kidding, but he has, in fact, been a civic leader for a long time. In case anyone was wondering, Jim works at WPS. The electric company. A big electric company. Jim is a leader both in the city and in the big electric company.
Let us think about that for a second shall we? A man in a leadership position in the City is also sitting in a position to know all the players in the energy business. When I wanted to explore solar power, Jim was a tremendous asset, telling me who was reputable and who was not.
How can this apply to our city? HOW DOES IT NOT? Mr. Rosenberg has access and contact with people who are experts in both electricity and alternative energy, just through his daily reading for his job. How can these people help us in Wausau? How can they not?
We have a Commission for a Greener Tomorrow. I have read every agenda and every set of minutes they have put forth. We have a mayor who has a chance to lead us into a sustainable working model for our city. And we have Rosenberg.
We have a chance to exploit the professional knowledge and contacts of this Rosenberg character to the fullest extent. If the City of Wausau is really serious about making a commitment to being green or sustainable, it has someone on its council who can and should be called upon to lead the way.
Sadly though, like a sluggish small car, we are underpowered and under committed. A statement from our Mayor at the beginning, a unanimous vote to name an ad hoc committee. That is it, and it is sad.
New York City has an entire department devoted to Sustainability. New York is like a Sherman Tank compared to a small car. A small car can move faster, change direction quicker, and I hope we do. A green Wausau could contain solar and wind power, more community gardens, hybrid fleet vehicles, and greener building standards. In part two of this series, I’ll describe many specific, tangible ideas that we can invest in and implement.
We live in a challenging time, a time of vast change and significant social upheaval. Small towns, medium cities, all have a chance to lead. To be innovative, to be responsive, to be the best small car we can be.
Jim Rosenberg said:
While I thank you for the confidence, there are a lot of good people who are getting together and strategizing with these things. Kelly Zagrzebski, my co-worker at Wisconsin Public Service, is very much involved. For those interested in learning about the action teams and the Commission for a Greener Tomorrow, go to:
http://www.gogreencentralwisconsin.com/
I’m sure everyone would like to see things happening in this important area more quickly. That is all the more true in view of more recent issues relating to energy, the environment and the economy. Still, it takes time for a new entity to get organized and begin producing results.
In the meantime, there have been some tangible sustainability efforts underway and a growing appreciation of the contributions we can make individually in areas like energy conservation, locally produced food, reducing waste, recycling and others.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Jim,
While I think you appreciate the irony of the title and using you as an example, I think that there is nothing NEW about the city of Wausau.
There is nothing new here. The municipality can act, and should act without the pressing of an outside ad hoc group. These ideas are not new, and not unproven by other larger municipalities.
It is NOT the responsibility of Go Green to make changes. It is the opportunity that our city, and all the small cities around it have to provide leadership, and models and standards for private citizens to employ.
What are the tagnible sustainability efforts undertaken by the city of Wausau?
September 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm #
Jim Carlson said:
Didn’t the city use LED Christmas lights last year? Wow, we ARE green. Isn’t that enough?
September 24th, 2008 at 8:30 pm #
Jim Rosenberg said:
Years ago, I can remember hauling recyclables to a recycling center on Town Line Road that was run by volunteers. Today, we have curbside pickup and you don’t even have to sort the stuff anymore. Would there be mass transit without the City of Wausau operating Metro Ride? Do all communities pick up leaves in the fall and see that they’re returned to the soil? Do all communities provide a yard waste site and prohibit that stuff from going to the landfill with their municipal waste (and if they do, then how come our volume went down when we began checking the addresses of users?) How about appliance dropoffs and hazardous waste disposal?
Over the past few years, we’ve begun to incorporate more bicycle routes in our project planning. We added a farmers market on the 400 block and we assisted with the startup of Downtown Grocery, which strongly incorporates locally produced foods in its product lineup.
It’s not all about government, either. We have the Good News project taking care of computer recycling and aluminum cans are being handled by all sorts of groups to raise money.
The point is that we’ve done a lot of significant things over a number of years that people take for granted, but that’s a far cry from doing nothing. Can we do more? Absolutely — and we should. I kind of like the Compact Fluorescent bulb project that’s coming up (although I don’t have anywhere else to put another one in my own home.)
September 24th, 2008 at 8:57 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
I sat through a video a while back about the mission of the city council, and it brought up a point of transparency.
If someone wanted to find out about the programs that the city has under taken, not that we do not take you at your word, but where would one go to see what the city is doing?
I spent 45 minutes on the city website, and found nothing resembling those programs.
Is it enough to say…we have metro ride, without promoting metro ride? Every year we hear that no one rides the bus, and every time we read in the WDH forum that they should be eliminated. Why is no money put forth to market these programs, like Metro ride? I know of two larger Marketing Companies here in Wausau, the Marks Group, and Kinzie Green. Maybe they would like to be consulted, and have their relationship with the community enhanced by helping the city market mass transit.
What about technology companies like ATT which has a regional technology office here in Wausau, or Digital Dialogue, or any number of web based companies that could help the city make Metro Ride more embraceable, and feature rich for people riding it. Or even someone like Forward Electronic, who I think are the cities oldest electronic communication house.
I can pay for my groceries with a thing that dangles on my keys. Why do I need to carry a bus pass that I have to GO AND GET each month? Why can I not renew it online using paypal or a credit card?
From the first comment, it appears that Go Green is in a position of leadership, that they are setting the tone for the city, and the council is responding. Is that the case?
Why is the city not embracing its role as leaders, and driving the discussion?
September 24th, 2008 at 10:17 pm #
Tom Neal said:
1. Encourage (and reward with tax incentives) retail businesses to stop using plastic bags that inevitably decorate our trees, shrubs, parks, river, streets.
2. Distribute low-cost fabric shopping bags with “Greener Wausau” branding.
3. As Dino suggests, pursue wind and solar power technologies as part of our energy infrastructure, and incent those who pursue these themselves.
4. Set up a program to assist our poor / elderly / handicapped to have their homes better insulated.
5. Promote accelerated removal of blight and development of more green spaces, parks, biking/walking paths.
6. Significantly lower the speed limit within the city limits to encourage more cycling, scooters, walking.
7. Attract and capture new companies that are engaged in developing green / sustainable technologies (give them huge incentives to bring their business here).
8. Only use environmentally friendly street ice treatment methods.
9. Replace brown spaces (abandoned cement and asphalt expanses) with soil / grass spaces or at least buffer strips to help prevent direct runoff of rain / snow-melt into the sewer system … and from there into the river unfiltered.
10. Require commercial builders to incorporate items from #9 above into their plans.
11. Work with local vendors to reduce transportation distances for goods and services.
12. Issue a comprehensive Manifesto, Vision, Plan, Program, Initiative that clearly lays out goals and tactics.
13. Brand the whole enchilada and market it to the world, to attract visionaries and progressives to our area.
September 25th, 2008 at 7:24 am #
Marcus Nelson said:
Tom - Great suggestions. I have one more:
14. Require any city activity to use compost-able Cups - which could also be branded with “Greener Wausau” http://poprl.com/1Bi
September 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
Marcus, great direct suggestion, with solution enclosed in it. Way to raise the game.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pm #
Barry Liss said:
Lou Pech, the UWMC eco-biologist, laid it down for us at a meeting a couple of weeks ago…he had that look in his eye…you know, disturbed my calm I must say…since then I’ve barely driven…
September 25th, 2008 at 7:59 pm #
Dino Corvino said:
http://maps.google.com/vote
October 1st, 2008 at 2:24 pm #