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Mayor Tim Davlin has sailed into his second term
without distinguishing himself on any single issue. The mayor campaigned as
a hardworking administrator with a nice big Springfield-rooted family who
cleans up well after tornadoes, and that, coupled with Davlin’s good
looks and winning smile, was enough to win him re-election. It is telling
that when Davlin was asked during the campaign whether there is any issue
he felt so passionate about that he would never change his mind, even if
under public pressure, he couldn’t think of one. We’d like to see Davlin grow in his second term
from someone who wants to be mayor because he’s “having
fun” to someone who wants to be a catalyst for change to a better
Springfield. He needs a unifying theme, a cause, a focus. With such mayors
as Seattle’s Greg Nickels and Chicago’s Richard Daley leading
the way, we urge Springfield’s mayor to become a full-fledged
environmental leader. Mayor, it’s time to get greener. The logical place to start is with Davlin’s own
Springfield Green initiative, which has demonstrated amazing flower power
over the last two years, relying on volunteers to do most of the work and
on the generosity of local businesses for its funding. Although the program
is coordinated by a city staffer, it deserves to be enhanced and supported
with additional money from the city budget, as well as grants. Springfield
is far behind other cities, among them Champaign and Urbana, but it could
catch up. Community-wide planting and beautification projects on public
ground could transform this town.
And Springfield Green should become Springfield Clean
and Green, with the addition of a serious effort to address the
city’s trash problem. The Adopt-a-Street program helps, and big
neighborhood cleanups like the one planned for April 21 can provide a
worthwhile temporary fix. But when thousands of Springfield households
don’t have basic garbage service, anti-litter campaigns blow like
burger wrappers in the wind. The city needs to make it clear that landlords
are responsible for their properties and start enforcing the ordinance that
requires every household to have trash service. If the ordinance proves
unenforceable, Springfield can move to a more comprehensive trash-pickup
system, but so far enforcement hasn’t been tried. We urge the mayor to stop making fun of Ward 3 Ald.
Frank Kunz for proposing a western boundary for Springfield and instead
start taking seriously the environmental consequences of sprawl. Building
at the city’s edge not only steals the world’s richest
farmland, it also stresses city services and increases costs for roads and
sewers. Stronger measures may be needed, but a green mayor will at least
insist that sprawlers pay their fair share for infrastructure and services.
Meanwhile, preserving the city’s core — its downtown and
surrounding neighborhoods — should move from a social responsibility
to an environmental necessity. Springfield started by concentrating jobs,
retail, housing, and transportation near the city square. Now, with strong
leadership, the city can reduce its “carbon footprint” and
reduce greenhouse gases by concentrating development in and near the
central core where it began. The MacArthur corridor — including the
former Kmart property, which would be an excellent location for a low-rise
condo complex in an urban park setting — offers a perfect opportunity
for economic development. Davlin’s deal with the Sierra Club to
incorporate wind energy and tighter emission limits into plans for the new
coal-burning power plant should have been an environmental triumph for the
administration. Instead, the deal turned into what the mayor called a
“black eye” when aldermen objected to the secrecy and coercive
tactics that were employed. Now that the coal plant is under construction,
we urge Davlin to shake it off and become a champion of wind, clean coal
technology, and energy conservation. The Hunter Lake proposal needs
environmental leadership, too. By promoting water conservation and
smart-growth policies, the mayor could postpone or even eliminate the need
for a second lake, preserving land and wildlife in the process. Across the country, hundreds of mayors are putting
their leadership behind the effort to save the planet. They’re taking
actions ranging from signing a Climate Protection Agreement based on the
Kyoto Protocol to converting stoplights from incandescent bulbs to
light-emitting diodes. They’re promoting recycling and making city
buildings more energy efficient while converting police cars, maintenance
trucks, and fire engines to burn alternative fuels. In his second term,
Mayor Davlin will find plenty of ways to become an environmental leader if
he’ll take on the role. He could start bicycling to work, to promote bike
lanes and support efforts to protect existing bike paths and build more.
But the mayor may not be ready for that. When California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger decided to go green for his second term, he didn’t
give up his Hummer; instead, he got one that burns biodiesel. If Davlin
won’t trade in his motorcycle for a bike, maybe he can find a
hydrogen-fueled Harley to get him where he wants to go.
Contact Fletcher Farrar at ffarrar@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2007.
