When Mike Iversen began his Green Tuesdays series last spring, he hoped to develop guidelines Oak Park could use to become more environmentally friendly and include those guidelines in its village-wide master plan. But work on the master plan has stalled, so this year Iversen is looking to a more “open source” approach: encouraging residents to turn the village green, one block at a time.
“We don’t need permission from any government to do what we think is right,” Iversen said April 3 at an introductory meeting. “When the village is ready to hop on board, they’re welcome to.
The idea is to get people on a block excited about living greener. By working together and finding block-wide efficiencies, “green blocks” would form. Green blocks could then work together to create green neighborhoods, and so on.
Iversen got the idea from residents of the 300 block of South Humphrey Avenue, who asked him to speak to them about what they could do collectively that they couldn’t do on their own.
It makes sense, Iversen said-the block, historically, has been the way people socially and culturally organize.
Weekly Tuesday night meetings will grow the discussion. Last night, the topic was scheduled to be green homes. Geothermal heating and cooling, which uses a gel pumped through underground pipes to tap the Earth’s energy, is expensive for one home to install. Would it be cheaper if an entire block went Dutch on a block-wide system? Could costs be lowered if that kind of system were installed when a block’s street was torn up anyway for water/sewer repairs and resurfacing?
Iversen said he didn’t have the answers but at least wants people to be asking the right questions. Iverson is an adjunct assistant professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
On April 17, the topic will be “green yards” (composting, urban agriculture, stormwater management, native landscaping) and will be held at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St. Following meetings will be used to develop a Green Blocks Initiative program.
Karen Rozmus, Oak Park’s waste reduction coordinator, began the April 4 meeting by highlighting strides the village has made in becoming more environmentally friendly. Recycling has increased: villagers put more than 6,400 tons of recyclables into their blue bins in 2006, saving more than a quarter of a million dollars (recycling rates are 60 percent lower than refuse rates). The village also:
Uses native plants in its decorative plantings;
Will have 48 percent of its fleet using alternative fuel when the new public works facility opens this summer (10 percent of the fleet now use alternative fuel);
Is converting stoplights and emergency vehicle lights to energy-saving LEDs;
Uses environmentally friendly graffiti-remover;
Offers educational opportunities, including worm composting at three public schools;
Has prohibited the use of pesticides and herbicides on village-owned property.
Iversen painted a gloomier picture, though.
He said Oak Park residents have an estimated combined electric bill of $10.9 million a year, producing more than 17,000 pounds of air pollutants, and a gas bill of $1.4 million. Meanwhile, there is enough solar energy, just in Oak Park, to heat every building, he said. “We’re turning our backs on renewable energy.”
Worse, our society doesn’t know where it’s going in terms of energy consumption and has no plan to become self-sustaining, Iversen said.
“We’re driving with our eyes closed,” he said.
CONTACT: dcarter@wjinc.com