[Missouri-l] For those in the KC area

[peter altschul]

  Saving Kansas City, One (Green) Step at a Time
  by Barbara Grady 05-27-2009
Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, has been dividing rich 
and poor,
black and white, jobless and employed in this city since the days 
of Jim
Crow when it was a legal line of segregation.  Today the 
neighborhoods east
of Troost Avenue still bear the marks of disenfranchisement: 
abandoned
homes, an unemployment rate thatáéggmentmggness as high as 53 
percent in some census
tracts, and gun violence that takes many young lives.  But soon, 
this area
could be a center of green jobs, retrofitted energy-efficient 
homes, a
green transportation system, and hopeful residents if Congressman 
Emmanuel
Cleaveráéggmentmggness plans for using American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
funding come to full fruition.
  U.S.  Rep.  Cleaver, D-Missouri, has developed an ambitious 
plan for a
"Green Impact Zone" to be established in a 150-block area east of 
Troost
Avenue.  He convinced the Kansas City Council to vote 13 to 0 to 
allocate
millions of dollars of ARRA money and considerable city effort to 
this
part of the city.  And he's rallied dozens of community 
organizations,
residents, and even businesses to work on making it happen.  Now 
Cleaver's
office and the team from the community are submitting 
applications to
numerous Recovery Act programs, supplementing work that's already 
begun to
bring a greener, healthier environment to this area and jobs to 
its
residents.
  At the heart of the plan for the Green Impact Zone is a massive 
home
weatherization project that would put area residents to work 
conducting
energy audits and weatherizing the 2,500 homes in the Zone 
neighborhoods.
  "People would like to have those jobs," said resident Jim 
Moore, pastor of
tiny Olive Street Wesleyan Church, whose congregation of 15 
people
includes only four who currently work.  "One of the biggest needs 
here is
jobs that provide basic needs like clothing, shelter, and 
transportation -
all of that is lacking" continued Moore, who lost his day job as 
a
computer programmer a couple years ago.
  Another key piece of the Green Impact Zone plan is developing a 
green bus
rapid transit system that would use bio-diesel buses and green 
bus
shelters.  A third piece is developing a job training and 
employment
program for ex-parolees in green building, park restoration, and 
transit
work.  The list goes on and on.
  Planning is still in the early stages and many stars must align 
for the
goals of the Green Impact Zone to be realized.  Skeptics exist.  
But
Cleaver and many community activists view the Recovery Act as the 
best
opportunity to come along in decades to turn around long 
neglected
neighborhoods.  Cleaver estimates that $200 million could be 
invested in
the 150-block area if all goes well.
  "With job training, neighborhood stabilization, and 
infrastructure
investments targeted here, "green" is no longer an academic 
concept for
someone else -- it becomes a means to change peoples lives right 
here in
our urban core" Congressman Cleaver said to his constituents in a 
recent
blog post.
  People involved in the Green Impact zone planning as well as 
critics on
the outside say the Zone will have its intended effect only if 
local
neighborhood groups commit to its success.
  "The focus of the Green Impact Zone now is three things: 
weatherization,
housing rehabilitation, and employment.  But there is a whole 
host of other
programs that have to be initiated to make this last or have a 
long-term
affect" said Dean Katerndahl, director of the government 
interventions
forum at the Mid-America Regional Council.  "This is only going 
to work if
the neighborhood groups and community organizations are really 
behind it
and willing to run it" he said.
  Kansas City's Green Impact Zone is just one of many efforts in 
communities
across the country to translate Recovery Act funds into local 
green jobs
and economic renewal.
  Learn more about local efforts to bring home a green recovery 
for all, or
take action: Write a letter to your local newspaper editor.  Tell 
your
local paper, and the people who read it, that local officials 
need to
implement a green recovery for all.
  Barbara Grady is a journalist who has worked for the Oakland 
Tribune and
Reuters News Service.  She currently writes articles and profiles 
from the
green-collar economy for Green For All.  Green For All is a 
national
organization dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans 
through a
clean energy economy.  Learn more at wwwddGreenForAllddorg, or 
read a profile
on Green for All from Sojournersáéininí special May issue on the 
green economy.