Mindful Metropolis February 2011 : Page 12

Will Chicago’s next mayor take the lead on the environment? by Mark boyer votegreen his winter, a street artist posted a num-ber of satirical campaign signs around Chicago that read: “Forever and Ever. Mayor Richard M. Daley.” For many Chica-goans, that’s exactly how the past 21 years of city government have felt, because there is a sense of inevitability every election cycle that Mayor Daley will stay in office. Forever and ever. But in September, Daley shocked the city by announcing that he wouldn’t pursue a seventh term. Now, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over many aspects of the city—includ-ing the environment. After more than two decades in office, Daley will leave behind a city that is signifi-cantly greener than the one he inherited, but there is still plenty of work to be done. The Chicago River is cleaner, but Asian carp are on the move. Thousands of trees have been planted in the medians of streets across the city, but on the Southwest Side, the Crawford and Fisk generating plants continue to spew thousands of tons of toxins into the air each year. We have the most LEED-certified build-ings in the country, but we still don’t have a citywide recycling program. Millennium Park is perhaps the nation’s best urban park, but in the neighborhoods, residents are clam-oring for green space. Chicago sits at the gateway to the Great Lakes, and the next mayor has a tremendous opportunity to not only improve the local en-vironment, but also to protect the invaluable resource at the end of the river. “Chicago has a somewhat fraught relation-ship with the Great Lakes,” explains Alliance T for the Great Lakes President, Joel Brammei-er. “On the one hand, we have this beautiful resource that is the envy of many cities…at the same time, we have this antiquated sewer system that occasionally backs up sewage into Lake Michigan.” When Chicago’s next mayor takes office on May 16, he or she will inherit a financial mess and the daunting challenge of balanc-ing the budget each year, but that didn’t dis-courage 20 candidates from filing papers for the mayoral race in November. (The field has narrowed considerably since then.) Not all of the remaining contenders have presented a thorough environmental agenda, but pres-sure from local groups has forced them to at least think about the issues. from a ward-by-ward pickup system to a re-gional grid, which he says will save $30 million in the first year alone. He also advocates ex-panding the blue bin recycling program city-wide and possibly selling advertising on both trucks and blue bins. Miguel del Valle Miguel del Valle, the current City Clerk of Chi-cago, doesn’t have much of a green resume, but he’s trying to make up for that. In early January, del Valle stood in front of the Fisk Generating Station with GreenPeace activists, demanding that the coal plant be closed. It was an attention-grabbing stunt from a candidate without much green cred, but he is bringing much-needed attention to an important issue. “This has gone on for too long,” he said in De-cember. “It’s just incredible that we’ve allowed, in this day and age, for people to suffer as a re-sult of bad air quality in the city of Chicago.” Del Valle believes that ramping up energy-efficient retrofits for existing buildings is the most pressing environmental issue facing the city, and he says that it makes financial sense. “Many of the things that we need to do to make our city more environmentally sustain-able and meet climate goals are things that can reduce the cost of living for our households and businesses,” he said. Like most of the other candidates, del Valle pledges to expand the blue bin recycling pro-gram to the entire city, but he hasn’t figured out how to fund it. At a mayoral forum in De-cember, he suggested that privatizing the recy-cling program might be an option, but stressed Gery Chico Of all the candidates, South Side native Gery Chico is most closely linked to the outgoing mayor. Chico served as Daley’s chief of staff from 1992-1995, and in 2007, Daley appointed Chico to lead the Chicago Park District, where he created the Office of Green Initiatives to prioritize environmentally friendly policies. With Chico at the helm, the Park District also expanded recycling to all parks and added three LEED-certified field houses. Chico takes credit for adding several new parks to the city in 2008 and 2009, and for starting the planning process for the redevelopment of Northerly Island and the Bloomingdale Trail park—both of which are still a long way from taking shape. Chico says he’d like to overhaul Chicago’s entire garbage collection system, changing it 12 february 2011

vote Green

This winter, a street artist posted a number of satirical campaign signs around Chicago that read: “Forever and Ever. Mayor Richard M. Daley.” For many Chicagoans, that’s exactly how the past 21 years of city government have felt, because there is a sense of inevitability every election cycle that Mayor Daley will stay in office. Forever and ever. But in September, Daley shocked the city by announcing that he wouldn’t pursue a seventh term. Now, a cloud of uncertainty hangs over many aspects of the city—including the environment. After more than two decades in office, Daley will leave behind a city that is significantly greener than the one he inherited, but there is still plenty of work to be done. The Chicago River is cleaner, but Asian carp are on the move. Thousands of trees have been planted in the medians of streets across the city, but on the Southwest Side, the Crawford and Fisk generating plants continue to spew thousands of tons of toxins into the air each year. We have the most LEED-certified buildings in the country, but we still don’t have a citywide recycling program. Millennium Park is perhaps the nation’s best urban park, but in the neighborhoods, residents are clamoring for green space. Chicago sits at the gateway to the Great Lakes, and the next mayor has a tremendous opportunity to not only improve the local environment, but also to protect the invaluable resource at the end of the river. “Chicago has a somewhat fraught relationship with the Great Lakes,” explains Alliance for the Great Lakes President, Joel Brammeier. “On the one hand, we have this beautiful resource that is the envy of many cities…at the same time, we have this antiquated sewer system that occasionally backs up sewage into Lake Michigan.” When Chicago’s next mayor takes office on May 16, he or she will inherit a financial mess and the daunting challenge of balancing the budget each year, but that didn’t discourage 20 candidates from filing papers for the mayoral race in November. (The field has narrowed considerably since then.) Not all of the remaining contenders have presented a thorough environmental agenda, but pressure from local groups has forced them to at least think about the issues. Gery Chico Of all the candidates, South Side native Gery Chico is most closely linked to the outgoing mayor. Chico served as Daley’s chief of staff from 1992-1995, and in 2007, Daley appointed Chico to lead the Chicago Park District, where he created the Office of Green Initiatives to prioritize environmentally friendly policies. With Chico at the helm, the Park District also expanded recycling to all parks and added three LEED-certified field houses. Chico takes credit for adding several new parks to the city in 2008 and 2009, and for starting the planning process for the redevelopment of Northerly Island and the Bloomingdale Trail park—both of which are still a long way from taking shape. Chico says he’d like to overhaul Chicago’s entire garbage collection system, changing it from a ward-by-ward pickup system to a regional grid, which he says will save $30 million in the first year alone. He also advocates expanding the blue bin recycling program citywide and possibly selling advertising on both trucks and blue bins. Miguel del Valle Miguel del Valle, the current City Clerk of Chicago, doesn’t have much of a green resume, but he’s trying to make up for that. In early January, del Valle stood in front of the Fisk Generating Station with GreenPeace activists, demanding that the coal plant be closed. It was an attention-grabbing stunt from a candidate without much green cred, but he is bringing much-needed attention to an important issue. “This has gone on for too long,” he said in December. “It’s just incredible that we’ve allowed, in this day and age, for people to suffer as a result of bad air quality in the city of Chicago.” Del Valle believes that ramping up energyefficient retrofits for existing buildings is the most pressing environmental issue facing the city, and he says that it makes financial sense. “Many of the things that we need to do to make our city more environmentally sustainable and meet climate goals are things that can reduce the cost of living for our households and businesses,” he said. Like most of the other candidates, del Valle pledges to expand the blue bin recycling program to the entire city, but he hasn’t figured out how to fund it. At a mayoral forum in December, he suggested that privatizing the recycling program might be an option, but stressed that it would have to be much different than the parking meter deal. He later said that he would like to see homeowners pay a monthly fee for recycling service. On his website, del Valle says that enforcement fines should be able to partly fund the program. Rahm Emanuel Editor’s note: At press time, a state appellate court had ruled that Rahm Emanuel should not appear on the mayoral ballot because he does not meet the residency standard. Emanuel is appealing the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. Since throwing his hat in the ring, Rahm Emanuel has been the clear frontrunner in the election. His environmental resume is the envy of most of the other candidates, but he has offered few specifics on his plans for Chicago. As a congressman, Emanuel helped set an important precedent by introducing Great Lakes restoration legislation, such as the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Implementation Act, a bill that was intended to stop sewage contamination, fund toxic waste cleanup and stop invasive species from entering the Great Lakes. “Rahm and [former Michigan Rep.] Vern Ehlers really did blaze a trail in getting Congress ready to support a bipartisan effort for Great Lakes restoration,” says Brammeier. However, the Obama White House, where Emanuel has served as Chief of Staff for the past two years, has had a less-than-sterling environmental record, and some insiders have suggested that Rahm is to blame for the administration’s refusal to tackle climate change. So far, the only part of his environmental platform that Emanuel has outlined is a plan to invest in energy-efficient retrofits for Chicago buildings, which he estimates would triple the number of retrofits in the city over the next year and create more than 400 new jobs. Carol Moseley Braun When State Sen. James Meeks and Rep. Danny Davis bowed out of the race, they left former US Senator Carol Moseley Braun as the African American “consensus candidate.” Is she also the consensus candidate for greenminded voters? That might be a reach, but she is committed to the environment. After serving as US Senator from 1993-1999 and ambassador to New Zealand from 1999- 2001, Braun founded the company Good Food Organics, and she now produces a line of biodynamic herbs, teas and spices called Ambassador Organics. Braun takes credit for helping to pass legislation during her Senate term that requires employers to provide taxfree mass transit benefits to workers, and she says she’d like to see transportation alternatives expand in Chicago. As mayor, Braun would like to open the door to more urban farming in Chicago, and she says she would work to bring local and organic food to underserved communities on the city’s South and West sides. Regarding the threat posed by Asian carp and the possibility of re-reversing the flow of the Chicago River (which Mayor Daley has endorsed), Braun is noncommittal, saying that she would be “open to discussing it.” Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins Community organizer Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins hasn’t outlined a clear environmental agenda, but like Braun she would like to see more greenhouses and community gardens built on vacant lots in Chicago’s many food deserts. Fredrick K. White The mayoral contender with perhaps the most interesting (and dubious) visions for Chicago is Streets and Sanitation worker Fredrick K. White, who wants to open a cityowned bottled water operation in Brighton Park. White also wants to build four onemillion- square-foot indoor farms (including one devoted entirely to Jatropha curcas cactuses), and he wants to invest in machines called “carbon carousels” that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some of the candidates’ ideas might sound a little far-fetched, but the next mayor will have to flash some creativity in order to match the Daley administration’s environmental record. “[Mayor Daley] built a wonderful foundation, but the greatest challenge going forward is going to be convincing people to stick to what is outlined in the Climate Action Plan,” says Bob Moseley, the director of conservation for the Illinois Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Our opportunity to build on Daley’s green legacy will take place in the voting booth on February 22. Mark Boyer is a Chicago-based freelance writer and co-producer of OrganicNation.tv.

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