High Tower

My daughter has always been fascinated by the High Tower in Menominee Park, which apparently also has had the function of serving as a water tower.

I thought I'd snag some pics and take the girls by the tower before it falls. I explained to her (she's almost 3) that the tower would be falling like all of her Lego towers inevitably do.

I am sad to see it go, as it is somewhat of a pillar of Menominee Park and it offers the historical feel of Shawshank Redemption in our neighborhood. I also thought that it had the excellent potential to some day serve as a public look-out tower overlooking the park, the community, and the beautiful Lake.

I was not aware that there were plans to destroy the tower, and am confident I wouldn't have been able to do much about it. I, like many in our neighborhood, wish that there would have been a way to preserve the tower, maybe through amazing fundraising work by our historical society chapter or something. The value of the building is well articulated by Terry Laab, which can be found well into the 5/27/08 meeting.

It doesn't seem that the city originally disclosed the architectural and historical value of the building, and once these points came to light, it didn't seem that many in the city or on the council cared much.

Anyway, here's High Tower:

Wheelchair tour of Main Street

I fumbled on these two videos made by a wheelchair bound Oshkosh resident. They show his view along what might normally be a short jaunt down North Main Street in Oshkosh in a wheel chair. The videos are complete with bumpy sidewalks, heavy traffic noise, and narration by the video maker.

These really fascinate me, they are almost hypnotic.



Part 2

Is Oshkosh becoming an "eco-municipality"?

If I told you that Oshkosh is striving to become a “sustainable” community, or even an “eco-municipality”, I bet 8 out of 10 people would think I was either joking, insane, or referring to some subversive environmental cult holding May Pole dances and not the City of Oshkosh at 215 Church Ave.

But alas, it is true. The first shoe dropped last year when Mayor Tower and Acting City Manager Fitzpatrick, with the approval of the Common Council, signed the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. What this did was state that the City of Oshkosh will attempt to reduce its global warming pollution from its current levels to 7% below 1990 levels. In order to do this, Oshkosh has joined ICLEI, an International organization that helps cities establish baseline carbon emission levels and targets for reduction. The city is still at the very beginning stages of this project.

The second shoe dropped with the activation of the Energy and Environment Advisory Board, a City board that had been on the books for years but had not been used. I was appointed to this board along with a variety of other community members. This board was asked to work with city staff to tackle the (above) Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, as well as advise the city on other energy and environment related issues. The E&E Board began meeting in January, and its meetings are now televised on OCAT.

One of the first steps taken by the E&E Board was to start a “Natural Step Study Circle”. Although it may sound like some pagan solstice ritual, the Natural Step is a framework for sustainability that has been used by communities and local governments around the world to help them define “sustainability” and develop practical solutions to help move toward “sustainability”. The Natural Step is being used in dozens of communities across Wisconsin, and hundreds of communities across North America. It has been embraced by both city administrators as well as environmental action groups.

So just what is “sustainability”?

In various places it has been defined as:

“A state or process that can be maintained indefinitely”.

“The ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes and functions, biodiversity, and productivity over time”.

“The use of ecosystems and their resources in a manner that satisfies current needs without compromising the needs or options of future generations”.

In other words: “sustainability” means a system that doesn’t “run out”, but continues to provide for its own continued existence (and the continued existence of us humans as well!)

What, do we have a problem or something?

According to the book “The Natural Step for Communities”, we are in a situation where population and consumption of resources are increasing exponentially, while at the same time available resources (water, land, forests, food, fossil fuels) are deteriorating and decreasing. When consumption and demand exceeds available resources, we have some big problems. Water shortages and food shortages are just two examples, but deeper than both of these is the risk to the global eco-system. Simply put, life on this planet depends on vegetation to both convert solar energy into oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. “The green cells of plants are the only cells in nature that can convert the sun’s energy to these life-sustaining substances (oxygen, sugars, carbohydrates).”

So in a “sustainable” system, consumption of resources does not deplete those resources, and those resources remain at a level that will sustain not only our generation but future generations as well.

The goal of trying to achieve “sustainability”, to restore balance to the Earth’s ecosystem, is two fold: 1. Restore the water quality, soil quality, forests, vegetation and wildlife to levels that our human population needs to survive; and 2. Reduce the consumption of these resources to a level that doesn’t deplete them.

The Natural Step Framework

So given this, some really smart Swedish people set about to “find fundamental principles of indisputable relevance, and thereafter ask the advice of others on how to apply them”. The result was the establishment of four “system conditions for sustainability”. These are meant to provide a framework whereby cities, towns, or regions can systematically develop policies and practices toward sustainability.

These are the four system conditions that they developed, which make up the core framework for “the Natural Step for Communities”:

1. “In the sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth’s crust.”

Mining brings heavy metals “such as cadmium, lead, mercury, minerals such as phosphorus, and fossil fuels” out of the Earth and into our surrounding environment. Excessive burning of fossil fuels emits extreme amounts of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, more than our eco-system can handle. Many of the minerals and metals have very high toxicity levels. Metals and minerals are elements, thus they cannot break down any further. Once extracted from the Earth and introduced into our communities and landfills they will stay there forever.

Note that this doesn’t say “ban mining” or “ban fossil fuels”, but only that in a sustainable society, nature is not subject to “systematically increasing concentrations of” these things. An example of applying this objective to a practice might be to minimize or eliminate the use of phosphorus and petrochemical fertilizers and herbicides and replace them with organic methods of weed and pest control.

2. “In the sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing concentrations of substances produced by society.”

Here the authors are talking about synthetic substances, chemicals and compounds that do not occur in nature. In the U.S. there are over 70,000 chemicals that are in common use. “Many of these chemicals are persistent, meaning they do not break down easily or quickly, and they can spread far from their places of origin. They also frequently find their way into our own bodies. We have no idea what the result is of the interactions of these chemicals in our bodies. Scientific research hasn’t even begun to scratch this surface.

An example of applying this objective in practice might be to reduce or eliminate the use of toxic building materials in building construction.

3. “In the sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing degradation by physical means.”

This is really talking about “classic conservation”, about the preservation of existing green space from forests and fields to preserving soil and water quality. Also, from a “restorative” aspect, restoring soil and water quality from current contamination.

An example of applying this objective in practice might be to limit development on existing “green space” and instead encouraging redevelopment of “blighted” neighborhoods. This is building “from the inside out” instead of abandoning urban centers and replacing them with successive waves of residential subdivisions encircling a city.

4. “In a sustainable society, people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs.”

This might be the most difficult of the four for Americans to recognize as being part of a “sustainable community”. In the U.S. we have a rich tradition of “I’m the best, screw the rest” mentalities. What this is saying, however, is that on top of a right to the pursuit of happiness, people should be given the ability to meet their needs. This means clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, food to eat, and shelter. The “capacity” to meet these needs means jobs or other means to be able to meet these needs. What this is also suggesting, another hard pill for many to swallow, is that these basic human needs (air, water, food, shelter) should take precedence over luxuries.

An example of applying this objective in practice might be affordable housing or locally based food production.

And so…

The Natural Step for Communities and the partnership with ICLEI are just two routes that the City of Oshkosh is taking to work toward a sustainable community. The Energy and Environment Advisory Board wants the city to partner with community groups from around the city to develop a collective effort at improving our city. Sustainability is not about “global warming” or “climate change”, it is about working to ensure that our grandchildren and future generations will have their needs met as we do now. An additional impact will be a cleaner, healthier, and more attractive city.

Hopefully the E&E Board will soon be creating avenues for both individual and group involvement with this community wide effort. A similar effort may be soon taking place at the County level as well.

Comments welcome as always!

[cross posted at The Green Banana/Oshkosh Northwestern]

Osh Streets: Slower, Smaller, Safer

With two young children under the age of 3, I find the cars on my street that cruise by extremely fast to be upsetting, frustrating, and annoying. So, hopefully everyone signs up for this, and we crack down on idiot drivers:

Speed Watch is a program where trained volunteers use a radar gun to document speeding vehicles. Speed Watch activities are between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. The radar logs are then turned to the police department. The registered owners of those vehicles are sent a courtesy letter reminding them to slow down.

The Oshkosh Police Department has run the program with Police Explorers and Oshkosh School District volunteers for the last two years. The department is expanding the program and is looking for citizen volunteers to run radar.

Some of the qualifications are as follows: You must be at least 18 years of age or older and pass a background check, you must attend Speed Watch training; radar will be run in your neighborhood or those areas deemed by the department as areas where speeding occurs and extra enforcement is needed.

Speed Watch training will be held on Monday May 19, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. The session will last 1 to 2 hours depending on class size. Presumably the training will take place at the OPD, 420 Jackson St, Oshkosh.

Make sure that when you sign up to be a Speed Watch volunteer that you sign up with a buddy as it takes 2 to run Speed Watch, one to run radar and one to do the radar log.

How do you become a Speed Watch volunteer? First fill out a Volunteer application which can be found either online at www.oshkoshpd.com or pick one up in the Oshkosh Police Department lobby. Then turn it in to:
Sgt. Steve Sagmeister – Speed Watch Oshkosh Police Department P.O. 1130Oshkosh WI 54903. If have any questions, feel free to contact Sgt. Steve Sagmeister at 236-5742 or email at ssagmeister@ci.oshkosh.wi.us.


So, what else could be done in addition to this program to slow traffic and make our neighborhood streets friendly and safe? Smaller street widths. The expansive residential road systems are not necessary, if the intent is residential driving, bicycling, and general residential movement. The wider roads promote faster and less safe driving, reduction of green space which affects water runoff and pavement heat absorption, and neighborhood distance.

With safety being the most important issue, Community By Design states it well (pic below shows wide-left vs livable-right street):

It has become common practice to implement standards similar to those used for highways to design and build our residential streets. Using highway standards in a residential setting increases driving speed. Faster speeds increase danger by intensifying impact. The harder a person is hit, the more likely it is that he/she will be seriously hurt or killed. In addition, the faster a vehicle is moving, the greater the distance it needs to stop. Therefore, at higher speeds, a driver is less likely to be able to avoid a serious accident.

Streets in residential neighborhoods should be designed with the understanding that pedestrians and bicyclists as well as automobiles use them. Thus, vehicular speeds must be decreased to minimize the likelihood and severity of pedestrian/bicycle and automobile conflict. However, merely posting a residential street with low speed limits does little to insure that vehicles will travel at safe speeds.

When it comes to residential streets, narrower streets are better. Narrow streets slow traffic by increasing drivers’ perception of impediments to motion. If a driver perceives more obstructions, he/she is more likely to drive at slower speeds to avoid potential conflicts. The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) asserts in, A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets: 2001, that residential streets are typically associated with short trips and are commonly used as a means of accessing property, so there is no need for high-speed travel.

Wide residential streets contribute to the number of automobile accidents. Swift & Associates conducted a study entitled, Residential Street Typology and Injury Accident Frequency (March 31, 1998), that looked at over 20,000 accidents in the City of Longmont, Colorado. According to that study: “…The most significant relationship to injury accidents were found to be street width and street curvature. The analysis illustrates that as street width widens, accidents per mile per year increase exponentially, and the safest residential street width is 24 feet (curb face).” Narrower roads decrease the likelihood of automobile related accidents. Furthermore, according to the Swift & Associates study: “…Since municipal code generally mandates a 36 foot wide residential street (planned unit development may be an exception), the results from this study indicate that current street design standards are directly contributing to automobile accidents.”

Not only do excessively wide residential streets contribute to the number of accidents, they also add to the severity of accidents. Wide residential streets encourage speeding and in doing so, increase the potential severity of accidents. According to an article by John Anderson entitled, “Framing the Debate on Streets and Public Safety” (New Urban News, July/August 2000): “…wide streets encourage speeding and increase the risk of traffic accident injuries and fatalities.”

Mary Stalker, John Anderson, and Tom DiGiovanni do a great job of explaining the correlations between road width, traffic speed and the severity of injury in the event of an accident. In their article entitled, “Streets and Fire Trucks: Designing Streets for Emergency Response and Neighborhood Safety” (New Urbanism: Comprehensive Report & Best Practices Guide, 2001), they state the following:

“A 24-26 ft. (curb-to-curb) street with parking both sides is considered ideal for walkable streets because it slows traffic (traffic calming through street geometry). The wider the street, the more likely cars are to speed—and with faster speeds, accidents become more likely, and more deadly (pedestrians hit by vehicle traveling 15 mph have a 96 percent chance of survival; at 40 mph, survival chance drops to 17 percent). Walkers feel most comfortable when vehicle speeds are kept to 10-25 mph, because slower traffic means safer streets!”

I think that exceptions should be made for residential areas which serve as bus lanes, as this can potentially provide a safe, environmentally friendly, and affordable avenue of transportation for community members.

WDC enjoying Public Enemies

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign sent the following email out, which plays on the Public Enemies filming in Oshkosh:

1. The other "Public Enemies" make news
The daily newspaper in Oshkosh has been spilling serious ink on "Public Enemies." There was another story on the subject this morning, but of a distinctly non-Hollywood variety.

An Oshkosh-area legislator who earned a "bystander" ranking in the Democracy Campaign's analysis of roll call votes and bill sponsorships on political reform issues criticized our assessment for not including the votes on the constitutional amendment dealing with the so-called "Frankenstein veto." Our latest Big Money Blog lists three reasons why Frankenstein was not considered.

2. Which enemies will they be filming at the Capitol?
It's official. Makers of the Johnny Depp movie will be filming at the Capitol. Makes sense. If they need extras, there are 54 with offices in the building who fit the bill.

According to WDC:

The roll call votes on an ethics enforcement reform bill (January 2007 Special Session Senate Bill 1) that was enacted into law last year were included in the analysis for both houses. The other three roll call votes in the Senate were on electioneering disclosure (Senate Bill 77), publicly financed state Supreme Court elections (SB 171) and requiring legislators to wait one year after leaving office before becoming a lobbyist (SB 23). In the Assembly, the other roll call votes were on banning campaign fundraising during the state budget process (Assembly Bill 61), publicly financed Supreme Court elections (AB 250) and electioneering disclosure (AB 272).

Sister Lois Aceto at UWO

On May 5, 2008, lifelong social activist Sister Lois Aceto will be at UW Oshkosh to talk about her experiences working with the homeless, the criminal justice system, education, and more.

She will deliver three sessions on May 5. They Shall Rise From Their Ashes 9:30-11:15 AM South Halsey 208 - Sister Aceto spent 27 years working in the prison system, and was the founder of Vision House, a home for men coming out of prison who would be homeless, with little opportunity to start life anew.

What's Restored? 1:00-2:30 PM AC S149 - What have we accomplished with our criminal justice system? As the U.S. incarcerates ever-greater percentages of its population, Sister Aceto addresses this question and considers the concept and practice of restorative justice. She spent 7 years teaching in the Criminal Justice program at Parkside, but her critique of our system comes from actual practice, not the classroom.

I've Never Been The Same 3:30-5:00 PM Swart 217 - The highlight of Sister Aceto's visit is certain to be this session on her 17 years in Bolivia, which are the subject of her recent book "Journeying Toward Justice." She says "to live under constant suspicion, to taste and feel poverty and to witness torture and killings makes an indelible mark on the mind, but more so on the heart." Her experiences include: teaching religion in public schools, forming a group of high school and college students to work on social justice issues, being arrested--twice--by the Bolivian dictatorship of that era for speaking out against the government, starting a school for the blind and learning Braille in the process, starting the first co-ed dorms in La Paz, starting an outpatient clinic in a poor town, and even studying medicine in Madrid to better serve the poor in Bolivia.

Sessions are free and open to all. For more information contact the Sociology Department (920) 424-2030

Sponsors of the event include the Departments of Sociology and Social Work, the Women's Studies and Social Justice Programs, the Women's Advocacy Council, and the College of Letters and Science at UW Oshkosh