It seems that if there is one constant to my personal journey, it's that I always seem to know what the right thing to do is, and I often do not do it or do it too late. Thankfully, last week, I was not too late. Thanks in part to the foundation laid by attending the meeting on the golf course, and by a brief appearance at the 19th Ward Democratic Organization event on Thursday, I had an opportunity to sit down with Alderman Matt O'Shea last Friday. It did not hurt that Matt and I grew up together (his brother Mike and I were the same age with Matt a year older), and that we have relatively regularly run into each other over the years.
Matt was very receptive to the Cooperative Community Program that I showed him and we discussed. He quickly asked what three things we could do as a ward, which I thankfully had at my ready:
1. Reduce energy that we use....every dollar we save in energy use is a dollar we can spend in the neighborhood. Resources spent on energy use leave the neighborhood, whereas resources spent on energy efficiency stay.
2. Stormwater. The city now has an ordinance for new development, but we need an approach to create the same value in existing development. This not only improves the lives of our residents by reducing sewer backups, but it drastically improves the lives of people downstream of us.
3. Target 75% recycling rate in solid waste. Matt mentioned another shredder/electronics event he was hosting at SJF on Saturday, and gets the value of getting more things out of the landfill stream and back into our lives.
We discussed the general approach, and my plans to start meetings with schools this month. He said he supports the program, would write a letter of support for any grants, and is okay with me mentioning his support with others.
Good guy. Good day.
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